Perspective

My favorite part of the trip so far has been the hay festival. We woke up Thursday morning and after breakfast and a quick trip to the market, were told to grab a rake tool or a pitchfork. It was so interesting to see these hand-carved wooden pitchforks. I know in America we are used to seeing hay rolled up in the fields, but that is all done by machine. In Romania, they spend hours every day to bail their hay by hand. I gained so much respect for them as a people because of their work ethic.

The Romanian way of life is so strikingly beautiful to me. I wish America was less urbanized and spoiled so we would be more appreciative of our surroundings and what we do have.
We turned the hay bailing chore into a competition (who could rake their pile the fastest). But I kept thinking about how it isn’t a game to them, it is a way of life.

After bailing the hay, we went to the village school. It was so depressing to see these children beg and try to trick us into giving them what we had in our Give a Gallon bags. We played games and sang in the field behind the school in the beginning. Entertaining them was fun because they caught on pretty quickly. It was just hard to give our gifts at the end because it just didn’t feel like enough. As Sammantha said Saturday night, there is a difference between being broke and being poor.

~ Kathleen Harrington

July 23rd, in Pictures: