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Summer Renovations News:
Oct 13, 2006
Bucuresti Noi:
Adi, our superwoman, worked very hard all summer and finally realized our dream to replace our old fence with a higher metal fence that would prevent neighborhood kids from climbing into the yard and vandalizing the school. She also repainted the exterior a lovely sky blue, repaired windows, repainted the classrooms, added tiling in the bath and kitchen and did lots of cleaning and general maintence. Razvan and Cornel - two of our boys from the Domnesti children's home - came and painted a lovely mural of a castle on the courtyard wall, and made a new sign for the school.
Before the schools opened - all of the teachers gathered in the Bucuresti Noi school for a 3 day seminar on Neo-humanist education. Two of the teachers, Devakii and Larisa that had attended the "Neo-Humanist Education Global Summit" in Sweden this summer shared their experiences with the others, and we also had seminars on self-development, communication, persona dolls, theater, and more.
Mihai Bravu
In June, when the schools closed - we discovered that our budget was just barely enough for some minimal repainting....then, just in time came the news that we would be receiving a generous donation from the Swedish Infant Massage Association, and from Mandakini in Parma. In addition, we received proceeds from the Ananda Cafe in Germany.
So, in August, we thought to put some new parquet laminate flooring in. In the winter, we had already bought some flooring - so we thought to buy more and redo all of the classrooms. However, we discovered that we could not put it directly onto the subflooring, but only onto level concrete. So we found out we would have to rip up the old wooden flooring. A little more work than we expected, but let's go ahead, we thought. But when we began ripping it up - to our surprise (or at least mine, not being familiar with Romanian construction techniques) - we discovered that under the wood floors was....only EARTH!!!!
Suddenly we found ourselves in over our heads with only two weeks until the school opened, and having to dig out 10 cm of earth in 50 sq meters of classrooms, and then pour concrete, and finally install the laminate flooring. Yikes! Luckily - a team of wonderful teenagers from both of our children's homes generously volunteered their time and helped us to realize our goal. They were so cheerful, patient and helpful - really we couldn't have done it without them. Actually everyone pitched in together - also our driver NaTache, cook Doamna Mariana, cleaner Doamna Ioana, and all of our teachers - Madhavii (and her very supportive husband Liviu), Devakii, Larisa and Mery.
A beautiful moment occured when we had finally successfully spread the new wet concrete, it was getting dark and late, and everyone was washing up to go home. Suddenly we realized that Kalyanii, Madhavii's two year old daughter was nowhere to be seen. Kalyanii - where are you? "Here!!!" she called out joyfully....but from inside the classroom full of wet concrete!!! Sure enough there were little footprints all over as she gleefully smiled up at us full of muck... Luckily the man we had hired to spread the concrete had a cheerful sense of humor and quickly repaired the damage..
In the end we were able to open on time - thank you again to all those that helped!!
Donations:
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