Day 8- Thursday, June 22, 10:30 p.m Radauti, Romania

Today was a split day, with the morning dedicated to work on the site and the afternoon for a respite of touring northern Transylvania. After meeting for breakfast and walking to the worksite, teams were split on painting tasks, floor insulation tasks, and laminate flooring installation tasks. I volunteered to install insulation on the floor, where we laid 1 inch of foam underneath the laminate flooring, using a mastic-type adhesive to attach.

We toook a break, late morning, for a "light" snack of Romanian pancakes, which are similar to crepes and filled with jam or chocolate.................yum, yum. The workday ended at that point, with team members cleaning up back at the hotel, where we left for an afternoon of touring. After a long week of work and lots of sore muscles, it felt good to take a break.

Our first stop was in the Orthodox monestary in Rasca, which was about 1 hour south of Raudauti. This was a very unique cultural visit for all of the team members. At the monestary, we were treate to a wonderful, several course meal, prepared by the monks and nuns who reside there. It was a completely vegitarian meal, due to the fact that we are in an Orthodox lenten period, currently. All of the food was grown at the monestary, and the wine and spirits were prepared there. One of the monks, of the 20 who reside there, is English-speaking, and was able to answer all of the questions we had on the Orthodox faith, as well as explain the details of the various frescoes and artwork in the church. Several services are held each day, with the main one starting at 10 p.m. and continuing to 3:00 a.m. The monks sleep from 3:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. each day.

The monestary, which was built in 1542, had the exterior fresco work completed in 1550. In 1830, all of the frescoes were painted over in oil-based paint. The church is currently undergoing restoration to recover the hidden frescoes. This process will take about three years to complete.

After one other monestary visit, the team closed the day with a prayer, dinner and a team meeting. We are looking ahead to working on the homes again tomorrow.

Don