A Drive Through Romania

An excerpt taken from my journal on a drive through the Romanian countryside.

(During an outing to Horezu, where we stayed with the grandmother of a New Horizon employee, Andreea.)

"It is on drives like this that I really see true Romania. The houses, old wells on the side of the road, people washing clothes in the river, weeds everywhere, haystacks in people's yards, and always horses and stray dogs. Though the apparent poverty in the scenery is ugly, the simplicity of the lives of these Romanians is beautiful. At home our world is so fast paced with cars and cell phones and convenience. Everything is available all the time and we make ourselves available to busyness every waking second. We don't even imagine a world like I see here. People walk their cows along the side of the road, chickens wander through the weeds under grape vines hanging in the yard of an unfinished, authentic Romanian house that will probably never be finished. A yard like that would be seen as an "eye-sore" at home, making the local newpaper as such. And the owner of the house would be seen as lazy, pathetic, and disrespectful of the community. Yards like this make the communities here. And these communities make the Romania I see on this drive. Welcome to Romania; beautiful, isn't it?"