aventura in muntii

Am avut un timp foarte distractiv ci Amy si Mihai in muntii. Programme noastra original nu a intamplat pentru inundatii si drumuri inchis spre monastirii in est dar ma bucor pentru ca muntii in sud a fost mai minunat. Prima, am mers la Straja, un sat sus in muntii. Noi am intalnit ci Justin (un prieten lui Mihai, care are o cabina acolo) si el ne-a dat trei locuri sa dorm si o plimbare greau dar frumoasa si multi mancare. Sambata a fost ziua de nastere (31!) si noi am facut chili, mici, si cartofi si am avut un petrecere la fel a fost 1999! Amy a luat marshmellows 'n fixins pentru s'mores (yum). A fost un banchet pentru regele! Apoi, am mers la Cartea de Arges sa vizitem doi monastirii frumosi. In final, am mers la mai sus in Muntii Fagaraselor. Wow! Foarte fromosi... Okay, for my english-speaking contingent I will switch here. Sorry, I get a little caught up in limba de casa aici (I do apologize to my romanian contingent for the grammatical mishaps). We went to Balea Lac in the Fagaras Mountains and it was just lovely. Of course, ill-equpped simpletons that we are, we didn't bring winter clothes to protect us from the snow and 1.5 degree tempratures (that is celcius, it was about 35 degrees fahrenheit). C'mon, it is mid-July! Who'd have thought? We ditched the tent there and shacked up in a cabin (aka ski-lift building) until the fog cleared. The next morning was glorious! While my cohorts were still sleeping, I took a trek through the surrounding hills and found a steady rock to make some coffee. The clouds were passing all around me (not above me) and the air was so crisp and clean. Before our taxi de sus a ajuns, I had a nice solo hike up the mountain while Amy and Mihai ate sunflower seeds and enjoyed their own mountain scenery down below. What an invigorating trek! I never stood on top of a mountain with just me and the world below... magnificent. After we returned to flat terrain, we hung out in Sibiu and drank beer while we waited for our midnight train back to our little Cluj. In drum la gara, we happened upon a poetry reading (asa si asa) and through that discovered an upcoming anthropology festival in Sibiu. Bonus! Amy and I will return in the coming days for more info...

summer and fools in all their glory


















Cabina in spate is not where we stayed... (but we ate there. Best mici on a mountain!)













Cloudy with a chance of meatballs...













Chrissy's spot.ro

life is a bowl of cherries (viata e o farfurie de cirese)!

Yesterday I tried my hand at fresh cherry pie. I mean fresh, even picked the cherries right from the trees. After work on Wednesday, Vera and I took a walk with Marie, a girl from the church organization. We went to visit a cherry farm, in the hills, on the way to visit Marie's garden. The family who owned the cherry farm (orchard?) gave us free reign and told us to pick what we wanted, as much as our hearts desired and bellies could hold! We climbed to the tops of the trees and got so dirty. We picked five kilos among the three of us and ate enough to be sweet 'til Thanksgiving. Of course, the next line of action was to make a cherry pie for my girlfriends on Saturday. I improvised a recipe (as I always do) from a few I saw on the internet. Here it is:

Filling:
Fresh cherries (enough to fill a pie pan), pit them
sprinkle some sugar, enough to cover but not saturate (they are sweet enough)
Half that amount of flour
Stir it and let it sit at room temp while you make the pie crust.

Pie crust:
1 egg
mix with about 2 cups of flour
3 TBLS water, 1 of vinegar
smoosh it all together until it is silky and malleable in your hands.
cut it in two and roll it out about as thick as a hardback book cover
press one piece into a pie pan (ungreased)
dump in the cherries
cut the second piece in strips and weave them over the top
bake at 350 for thirty minutes or so until the crust is golden and the juice is just bubbling over the crust. Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you're done. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Valea Fânaţelor

Wednesday we went to Valea Fânaţelor for two interviews. Vera had a blast teaching the children how to throw wet sponges at one another without getting into trouble... a fun game. I just watched... I had my own fun taking pictures of the donkeys (they make such funny noises!). href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7894/2591/1600/DSCN1789.jpg"> href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7894/2591/1600/DSCN1799.0.jpg">
This community is about ten kilometers outside of the city, in the beautiful hills... pretty far from even any stores. What a refreshing break!
href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7894/2591/1600/DSCN1816.0.jpg">

Intorcam pe rampa din nou

Vera and I made a return appearance at the ramp on Tuesday, this time to go to work. Not our usual ethnographic work. This was hard labor. We intended to go with Braita to pick through the garbage for recyclables but she was unable to work. Vera and I went to Luci's instead to bag sorted bottles. Okay, so let me explain how this whole process works. We learned so much! There is no formal recycling program in Romania and so many people who live on or near the ramp (the dump) make an informal business of scavenging and recycling plasic, glass, and iron. The first step is to dig through the garbage and pick out recyclable materials (mostly plasic bottles) and collect them in huge canvas/plastic bags that can hold about 60-70 kilos. Then the bags are taken off the side and dumped on the ground. From there, the bottles are sorted into piles, according to color. Then the bottles are rebagged and compacted (by jumping on them in the bag) so as many as possible fit. There is a private company in Cluj who buys the bottles (for about 50 or 60 new lei a bag- $15 or so). They cube the bottles and sell them to a larger company who processes the plastic and the cycle starts all over again.

It was a dirty task. It is no wonder so many people there have health problems. They deal with all sorts of parasites and bacteria and don't have ready access to washroom facilities. The bugs are large and well, they live in the garbage. I squashed a big greenish one with pichers that was crawling up my leg. I tucked my pants in my boots a little too late. There is no end to the infections and injuries that will occur from this line of work.

>Despite the fact that it was probably the dirtiest job Vera or I have ever done, it was easy enough to just to suck it up, plow right in, and get dirty. No prima donnas here. I mean, the people who do it every day... it is their life, their livelihood. We wanted to do what they do.

In all, it was an interesting experience to learn the finer details of the lives of those who live and work there, see first-hand the health challenges these people are up against (coupled with their lack of access to medical services), and just to get a good dose of reality and remind me that we are all human and none of us are above desperation to survive and eat. It is a good reminder, for me, of how often luxury becomes ordinary and taken for granted.