GV Beius 2013

Here's a look at our amazing team that will be building houses in Beius this summer!

Katie Boland is a high school history teacher at Trumbull High School. I have been an avid volunteer with Habitat for Humanity since my high school days when I helped build my first house in Bridgeport, Connecticut with Habitat for Humanity of Coastal Fairfield County. Since then I have led numerous Collegiate Challenge and Global Village trips and I look forward to showing you all why I love Romania. Besides volunteering with Habitat, I also enjoy running (training for my 1st half marathon this spring) and I am an avid history buff (early American history is my favorite time period). I advise two groups at my high school -- my Model UN team is one of the top 100 teams in the country and my We the People team just placed 8th in the nation at the Nationals this past weekend! I'm so proud of all of my students However, I can't wait for the summer and to meet you all in Budapest!

Hello! I am Christina Chiocchi and I'm an 18 year old from Santa Cruz, CA area. I am currently a senior at Los Gatos High School, and plan on going to UC Santa Barbara in the fall with a major of Communications and Technology Management. A few things about me… I love running, biking, reading, music, the beach, cooking, traveling, photography, and movies. I am a fun loving, outgoing person and love meeting new people. I chose the Romania Habitat trip because I wanted to do something memorable and meaningful this summer; instead of going on a "senior trip" I figured this was a much more worthy recipient of my time and money. I look forward to meeting all of you in August!

My name is Judy Drown. I was born and raised in Colorado but have lived all my adult life in Nebraska. I have 2 grown children and 5 grandchildren. I am a mostly retired Registered Nurse. I have been involved in Habitat for Humanity for 20+ years, but have been much more active in the passed 5 years. I enjoy all things about the building process and am willing to do anything that needs to be done except work on roofs due to vertigo. I have been privileged to build in Viet Nam in 2009 and in Haiti in 2012 on Carter Work Projects. There is great satisfaction in being able to assist with building decent housing with new homeowners. I believe we can change the world one step at a time.

Henry Perrin Garsombke (a.k.a. "Perry" or just "Gar") is a retired college professor who builds (and "deconstructs") with Orange County (California) Habitat. He just returned from his first Global Village build in El Salvador, and looks forward to returning to Romania (previous trips were '80, '91 and '92).

Dave & Marie Henry have lived in a rural Massachusetts community for the past 19 yrs. after 25+ yrs. in Anchorage, AK, where we met & married over 44 yrs. ago. Dave is a retired weather forecaster [43 yrs. with NOAA], & I'm a retired RN as of 5 yrs. ago when our second grandchild was born. Dave's main hobby is anything that relates to the computer, whereas I enjoy volunteering with the American Red Cross, Special Olympics, American Cancer Assn., & the American Lung Assn., &, of course Habitat for Humanity International. We both enjoy hiking, biking, camping, gardening, movies, music, & traveling. We have 3 children [2 boys, 1 girl], a grandson & granddaughter, all of whom live on the West Coast [Oregon & Wash.] where we eventually plan to relocate. This will be my 12th Global Village, & Dave has shared 2 of them with me [NZ & India]. Our daughter also did Costa Rica with me a few years ago. This will be our oldest son Mike's first Habitat experience. We're anticipating & looking forward to a wonderful family adventure in Romania as we work with a great team, meet great people, & try to make a difference in the world of one Romanian family by helping them have a decent, affordable home to live in. God bless us all!

Hi, my name is Mike Henry. I'm 42 and work as a software developer in Liberty Lake, Washington. Aside from Canada, I have never visited another nation. I love to travel, however, and I've been looking for a way to volunteer myself to help others, so I'm thinking a Global Village build may offer a fulfilling experience for me. Over the years, my mom has been on several builds herself and has had many good things to say about them, and I'm glad I now have the chance to be a part of one. In fact, both of my parents (Dave and Marie Henry) are accompanying me on this team, so it should be a very special experience for all of us.

Michelle Jaconette: I am a 22-year-old student at the University of California, San Diego and will be graduating in June with a B.A. in Literature/Writing. I am an avid traveler, photographer and writer as well as a blogging enthusiast and sometimes-chef. I will be pursuing a career in education as a future middle school English teacher and will be applying to graduate school in the fall. I first learned about Habitat for Humanity when I was in the 6th grade and I have wanted to participate ever since. The opportunity to go on this trip has come at a pivotal moment in my life where so much is changing and I hope that this experience will serve as a reminder to step outside of my own needs and ground myself in the reality of the world. I chose Romania because I have never been to Eastern Europe before and I'm excited to experience a place that is unfamiliar to me. This will be my first Habitat trip and I can't wait!

Allen Manning: Hello to everyone!!! I am a military retiree who currently resides in a small Indiana town situated on the banks of the Ohio River in between Louisville, KY and Cincinnati OH. After retiring, I decided to forgo the daily work grind and volunteer in my community in several ways. I drive veterans to medical appointments to the Louisville VA Hospital (about 50 miles away) at least once week; help in a local food pantry a couple times a month; serve as a Court Appointed Special Advocate/Guardian ad Litem for neglected and abused children and I enjoy restoring lost and forgotten cemeteries and rediscovering lost lives. I help other's discover their genealogical roots and relish sleuthing and the frustration that comes with it as my late night hobby. Other time fillers include serving on the board of a couple of non-profits and holding elected officer positions in a couple of veterans organizations. I have had the great fortune of travelling to all fifty states and over thirty countries and always look forward to new experiences, new epicurean delights and meeting wonderful people. My most recent international foray was a Global Village trip to Trinidad in 2012. I'm looking forward to traveling to Romania and doing good things for others and getting to know each of you. As for special home building talents, I rate at the bottom of the scale, but am always willing to learn, get dirty and have lots of fun. In Trinidad, I dug a mean septic tank hole...with the help of many others!

Bonnie Mumm: I retired from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 2011 after 26 years as the Administrative Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance. Loved being involved with all the different administrative areas of University life. Now I enjoy traveling, gourd crafts, sewing and visiting kids and grandkids. After my husband became involved with HFHI, I started working with the group and have been a board member and secretary and am currently still the hospitality chairman, planning dedications and coordinating hostesses for and stocking our food shack for Saturday builds. We love to travel and learn about our world and its people, so I am excited to experience my first international build with HFHI.

Ken Mumm: I am a retired educator of 41 years. I taught English to 8th graders to seniors for 10 years. Then, I became an assistant principal at a junior high school which we converted to a middle school. I became an early adolescent advocate. I was an assistant principal for 23 years. I then taught at our local university in the Teacher Education department for 8 years. I've been an active Habitat volunteer in our hometown, Kearney, NE for 12 years. I was a board member for six years, president for two. Our affiliate has built 64 homes in 21 years. In 2009, 12 Kearney volunteers joined the Jimmy & Roslynn Carter build in the Mekong Delta. We were assigned Vietnam and truly felt the passion involved in helping really poor people build a HOME, that by our standards, wasn't much of a home. That changed my world view and I want to expand that view by helping in Beius.

Kay Payne: I grew up on a sandhills cattle ranch and became a high school French teacher. After obtaining my graduate degree, I directed a Small Business Development Center for 13 years and then a market research center for 10 years, both at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. I'm now retired and enjoy playing in a hand bell choir, volunteering in a grade school's reading program, having entertaining discussions at book club, taking pottery and yoga classes, doing crossword puzzles, and working at our local Habitat for Humanity. My husband, Rodger Payne, and I have traveled to several Car-a-vanner builds, a couple of international builds and have led mission trips through our local church. We have a daughter and a grandson who live in Boston. We'll be grandparents again in early September.

Rodger Payne: I am a retired science teacher (32 1/2 yrs.), a native of Nebraska and a Kiwanian (2 years). My wife and I have been involved with Habitat in Kearney since 1992 and we have worked in two foreign countries and at care-a-van builds in several states.

Habitat for Humanity in Romania
In 1996, Romania became Habitat for Humanity’s 50th country worldwide. Since then, Habitat Romania has overseen seven affiliates in Beius, Cluj, Craiova, Comanesti, Cumpana, Pitesti and Radauti. In 2011, another affiliate will open in Ploiesti, which is only 60 km away from the capital and will have a significant strategic importance for the development of Habitat projects in Romania. The affiliates are spread across the three historic provinces of the country, with the national office in Bucharest.

The housing need in Romania
According to the national statistics, 35 percent of the housing stock in Romania is in a state of complete neglect and needs urgent repairs. Progress toward a stable market economy has been slow and difficult after years of the oppressive rule of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Real wages for working Romanian families have dropped by about 40 percent, putting additional pressure on the strained social system. The unemployed, farmers and housewives are the social categories most affected by severe poverty. Two-thirds of Romania’s poor live in rural areas.

In the cities, many dwellers live in cramped apartments in condominium complexes. Much of Romania’s housing stock is lowquality and deteriorating because of a lack of maintenance. A family of eight is more likely to live in a two-room flat than in a house. More than 10,000 blocks of flats were constructed before 1980 and now need serious renovation to their infrastructure, heating systems and roofs. More than half of rural communities have no access to piped water.

Since 2005, Romania has faced its worst floods in the past 100 years. The summers of 2008 and 2010 brought new floods in the country, leaving thousands of people in temporary shelters.

How Habitat addresses the need
Habitat Romania acts as a catalyst for improving housing conditions and offering support, expertise and experience to various groups and parties. The organization has taken leadership on tackling repairs, renovations and rehabilitation of old communist-era block apartments and disaster response projects.

Here are some examples of Habitat projects in Romania:

• Construction and rehabilitation of homes and apartments blocks

Habitat for Humanity Romania builds and renovates homes in partnership with low-income families throughout the country. This can range from one-house builds to blitzes of 10 or more houses in just one week. Rehabilitation work is aimed at improving living conditions for families in the communist-era apartment blocks.

• Energy-efficient housing

Habitat Romania helps families all over the country to save on energy cost by thermo insulating houses and doing minor repairs that will minimize the heat loss. In addition to this, 160 families in Moinesti , Comanesti and Darmanesti area will receive trainings covering practical tips for more energy efficient households.

• Affordable housing for vulnerable groups

Habitat for Humanity Romania is actively working to provide simple and decent shelter for vulnerable groups such as the Roma, the mentally disabled and former orphans raised in state-run institutions. These groups are marginalized in society and have no access to funds to improve their housing situations.

• Disaster response program

Thousands of families are left without houses following natural disasters: floods, earthquakes, landslides and wildfires. Over the years, Habitat Romania has helped more than 750 families in all the areas of the country affected by floods. Wherever possible, Habitat Romania has rehabilitated homes destroyed by water, but often has had to rebuild them entirely. This is by far their biggest program, carried out in partnership with government and local governments.

Meet a Habitat family
Daniela Moldovan (40) is a widow that lives with her two daughters:Anamaria (17) and Dana (15) in a semi-derelict house situated right next to a railway station. Their house consists of one room that serves both as a kitchen and a bedroom and a space converted into a lumber room. There is no bathroom or toilet in the house. There are cracks in the walls, and the roof is deteriorated. Due to location of the house Daniela is constantly worried about the safety of her two daughters. They have been living in these conditions for 13 years. Habitat Romania is helping the family build a new house on the land that Daniela inherited from her late husband. Daniela says: “I still can’t believe that we are going to have a new home, with at least one room, a bathroom and a kitchen. I’m so happy to have found and work with Habitat.”

(Special thanks to Habitat for Humanity for all their information on this page - this was taken from http://www.habitat.org/where-we-build/romania)

In 5 months, we will be heading to the town of Beius to start our week volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

We've had several folks join our team in February. Here's our current list:

Ken and Bonnie Mumm are joining us from Nebraska and they have recruited a few friends to join them. Judy, Rodger, and Kay round out the crew from Nebraska. Miranda Liska, a two-time volunteer in Beius, just informed me that she is ready to come back for another build! I'm excited to have her as my unofficial co-leader. She'll be a tremendous help to all the folks new to Habitat and/or Budapest/Beius.

I have a few more interviews this week and can't wait to add more folks to our growing team!

Here's a picture from my 2011 team to get you all excited for Romania. It's a picture of me and Miranda shoveling lots of dirt for cement. Who doesn't love getting a little sweaty and dirty while mixing cement for a concrete foundation?

Cement!!!

See you all in five months!
Katie

A little bit about Beiuş, Romania thanks to Wikipedia.

Beiuş is a city in Bihor County, Romania near the Apuseni Mountains. The river Crişul Negru flows through Beiuş.
According to the 2002 Census, Beiuş has a population of 10,996 inhabitants.

The ethnic structure of the population is:
Romanian 89.56%
Hungarian 8.45%
Others 0.46 %

History
Beiuş's earliest mention in recorded history was in the year 1263, where it was mentioned as being burned down during a Mongol invasion in 1241. During the time of the Habsburg Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire, between the late 18th and very early 20th centuries, Beiuş constituted one of the most important learning centers of the Romanian language in Transylvania. This occurred during a period when Romanians had little or no political rights and their representation was very poor.

Here is a picture of the town from above:

The View

Today, Beiuş is a peaceful place, combining few ethnicities and three times as many religions as in previous times. The city contains superb architectural edifices, including a few old churches and the "Samuil Vulcan" highschool, built in 1828, which obtained the "National College" designation in 1998. The city is a key point in reaching the Apuseni Mountains and their rich mines, or mountain resorts like Stâna de Vale or Arieşeni through smaller but picturesque communities and villages like Budureasa or Vascǎu. The nearby mountains are hosts to some of the most dense and spectacular limestone cave systems in the world. These caves contain remains of the extinct cave bear (Ursus speleus) and prehistoric humans, huge colonies of bats, subterranean lakes, striking calcareous formations and giant earthworms that live in the guano-flooded cave floor.

Beiuş has its own city museum which houses over 3,000 pieces. The museum exhibits reflect its natural history, military history and art, but most famous are its folkloric artifacts: peasant tools, pottery, garments and folk art gathered from the entire central and southern county of Bihor. The underground tunnels in the city are also famous, as they are believed to link together and act as escape routes used during the Medieval Age. Their construction began during the rule of Hungarian king Bela IV. The nearby landscape includes: agricultural hills with crops ranging from corn, wheat and potato to fruit orchards like apple, pears, plums and strawberries. A long stretch of wildlife depleted forest that is rich in flora begins in the north-east of the city. Industry is represented mainly through production of furniture and fashion destined for European markets. The nearby distillery and beverage factory of Sudrigiu also employs a large part of the city's labour force.

Available or popular sports in or around Beiuş are: fresh water fishing (trout, catfish, carp, barbel chub dace and at least a dozen other edible species), speleology (spelunking), soccer (Sunday soccer is a local ritual for all ages), skiing, snowboarding, sledding, tennis, hiking, camping, backpacking and rock climbing. Hunting for species like: wild boar, roe deer, rabbit, pheasant, dove, partridge or ducks (mainly mallards) is also popular.

A beautiful old orthodox church about ten minutes outside of town:

Orthodox Church

If you are interested in joining my team on this adventure, feel free to email me at gooberkn@mac.com. No experience necessary! All you need is a willingness to help and a love for traveling!

Beius, Romania
August 2 – 12, 2013

Katie is looking for adventurous people to join her on an eleven-day build in the beautiful town of Beius, Romania. Katie has been leading teams to Beius for the past decade. This will be Katie’s 11th team to Beius, Romania! The team will be comprised of fourteen to sixteen energetic people who enjoy traveling and making a difference in someone’s life. After landing in Budapest, Hungary, the members will enjoy the beautiful mountain region of Romania while working in the small villages outside of the town of Beius. Together with the caring and friendly people of Beius, the teammates will help build homes with our hearts and muscles. It will be a unique experience as we help the incredibly friendly people of Beius, Romania improve their lives one family at a time.

About Romania
Romania is located in southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea and is situated between Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. Romania has an estimated population of 22.3 million.

Its landscape is broken by the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvanian Alps. The climate is cold and cloudy in winter, with frequent snow and fog and sunny in Summer, with frequent showers and thunderstorms.

Romanian is the main ethnic group (nearly 90 percent), but there are also sizable Hungarian (6.6 percent) and Roma (2.5 percent) populations. Romanian is the country’s official language. The dominant religion is Eastern Orthodox (87 percent, including all sub-denominations). Minority religions include Protestant (7.5 percent) and Roman Catholic (4.7 percent).

About Habitat for Humanity Romania
Romania became the 50th Habitat for Humanity country after being invited to help in Beius. Six other communities, including Cluj-Napoca (Cluj), Pitesti, Radauti, Comanesti, Cumpana and Craiova have since taken up the challenge of ending poverty housing as part of Habitat. Now, more than 1,200 families in Romania, who previously lived in miserable conditions, have a safe and healthy home.

About Beius
Beius, where this GV team will be building, is a small town of 12,000 inhabitants located in the northwest of Romania’s Bihor county, near the Romanian-Hungarian border. The town is located in a beautiful valley with many villages surrounded by mountains. Beius has a rural feel, and one should not be surprised to see a wagon with horses crossing through the town.

Founded in 1996, HFH Beius became the first Habitat affiliate in Romania and has since provided 100 families in the Beius community with safe, decent, affordable shelter. Partner families pay back the home mortgage over 20 years at no interest and invest 1,000 hours of sweat-equity labor on other Habitat homes.

For more information about Habitat for Humanity Romania, visit http://www.habitat.ro/.

Types of construction for volunteers
Depending on the stage of construction, teams will work on a variety of tasks, including new construction of single and duplex wood-frame houses and home renovations and repairs. No construction experience is required for GV participants.

Standard itinerary
Day 1, Friday: Depart for Romania.
Day 2, Saturday: Arrive in Budapest, Hungary; overnight in hotel; team dinner.
Day 3, Sunday: Travel to host program; welcome and orientation with Habitat host program staff member; dinner.
Days 4–7, Monday–Thursday (workdays): Breakfast served before traveling to work site; work from 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. with lunch on site; free time after work to clean up; dinner in local restaurants; time for team activities; walking tour of host city; cultural activities during a few of the evenings; farewell dinner on Day 9.
Days 8–9, Friday–Saturday (workdays): Breakfast served before traveling to work site; work from 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. with lunch on site; free time after work to clean up; dinner in local restaurants; time for team activities; walking tour of host city; farewell dinner on Day 9.
Day 10, Sunday: Travel to Budapest, Hungary; free time; final team dinner.
Day 11, Monday: Departure day.

Note: Trip includes special events throughout the week, such as market tours, museum visits, etc.

Accommodations
Teams traveling to Beius, Romania, should expect to stay in a modest guesthouse with double- or triple-occupancy rooms and shared bathrooms. Meals are usually taken at local restaurants or prepared by the team. The first and last nights, the team will stay in double-occupancy rooms with a private bath at a hotel in Budapest, Hungary.

Trip cost
$1,740+ airfare

Team leader
Katie Boland has volunteered with Habitat for the last fifteen years either as an extended volunteer in Americus, GA, a volunteer at her local affiliate, and a team leader for the Global Village and Collegiate Challenge departments. Katie has led a global village team to Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and ten teams to Beius, Romania. Currently, Katie is a Social Studies teacher at Trumbull High School in Trumbull, Connecticut where she gets her students involved with Habitat too. Katie is enthusiastic to show you why she keeps returning to Beius, Romania every summer!

Any Questions? Contact Katie at:
Team Email: gooberkn@mac.com
Katie’s cell: 203-820-4894
Webpage: http://kboland.travellerspoint.com