Inventory
We were greeted by a comfortable start on Monday morning, a full breakfast followed by an orientation session at the hotel before transfer to the site at 9.30am. Alex Sbircea, our HFH Volunteer Coordinator, gave us an overview of what Habitat For Humanity do in Romania and what to expect on site.
So we arrived on site, I think everyone a bit nervous as to what to expect.
There are two blocks on site, each made up of four units. The first block is near to completion, the women of the local volunteer families are already working - finishing painting, cleaning windows and generally tidying up the site.
The second is slightly less finished. In fact just the one storey built so far.
First things first, we locate the break area, a nice shady spot for coffee, tea and lunch. Alex gives us all our hard hats, gloves and masks.
The best part of the morning was the enormous hugs we got from the families, a very warm welcome to make us feel properly appreciated.
Forecasting
We quickly deduced (from the double trailer truck and mountains of lumber) that we wouldn't be plastering today. Collective sigh of relief, well from me anyway. An uncle who has run a successful plastering business for many years is waiting for my report - I have escaped that line of questioning.
It wasn't long before we noticed the large piles of planks all around as well as one of the truck trailers needing to be unloaded. Shifting it would be our first job of the project.
Not a complex task I grant you, but international conventions make manoeuvring pieces of lumber across a narrow site interesting. Romanians and Americans walking on the right, the British on the left. Some clashes were inevitable.
We were broken down into teams to complete different tasks, I remained as a wood-shifter, Larry jumped at the task of manning the chop-saw. To be honest, each time I passed it really looked like he was just standing around.
On the first day, after starting work at 10.30 after our orientation, I certainly felt a bit of a fraud. This was summed up nicely for me though.
"We're only pretending to be builders" - Simon Hinchliffe
We continued shifting lumber until lunch, an amazing feast supplied by the HFH Team. See more about our adventures with food in the Customer Care post.
Resource Planning
After stuffing ourselves silly we were then divided up again; half the team to work up on the first storey (not me .... those pesky heights and no walls or stairs) and the other half to start treating (painting) the lumber.
I'm not sure how, by Larry even managed to turn treating wood into a competitive sport !!
An afternoon shifting, painting and stacking 4m rafters then passed quite happily at ground level. Lots of chatting, and in my case splattering, went on in the sunshine. I'm very glad the wood treatment was transparent - I got so much on myself I don't think I'll age for years !!!