Home for the Holidays

I made it home to Pennsylvania last night, after a full day of traveling from Cluj to Bucharest to Paris to D.C. to Western PA.  I'm sure I'll be posting soon, but for the next couple of weeks, I'm excited to just be home.  Thanks for reading!

Third in a Series of Four: Endless, Numbered Days

If you've been following my blog, you know that I've been working on a series of four paintings, which I've entitled the "Endless, Numbered Days."  Here's a link to my second painting (with a link to the first one included in that post): http://leftside-rightside.blogspot.com/2010/11/second-in-series-of-four-endless.html.

For today, here's a glimpse of the third painting in the series (the nautical scene on the painting stand- I'll post a close-up of it eventually), plus a feel for the inside of Maya's studio (I've posted about Maya before, as well as the outside of her studio.)  That's me, with my instructor Maya and some of her work in the background.  (Photo credits: Jennie Durant)
 

Maramures Trip Itinerary & Highlights

This trip was Round 2 of European Adventures with Jennie (an American friend who's currently living in Italy.)  Here's the link about our first adventure together, when I went to visit her in Italy back in October: http://leftside-rightside.blogspot.com/2010/10/ristorante-il-caminetto-cooking-class.html.  We were thrilled to have another opportunity to see some new sights together, and Jennie even came to Transylvania with a trip in mind: to see some of the places (and eat some of the food!) featured in Anthony Bourdain's TV Show, No Reservations.  I haven't seen the "Romania Episode," but I understand that he didn't have a very good overall experience, though some of this was his own fault (i.e. he didn't hire a local guide.)  Whatever the cause, he didn't end up giving Romania the respect that it deserves.  At the very least, though, he inspired a trip for us, and we were so glad we went; Maramures far exceeded our expectations!  Here are some of the highlights of our trip:     

• Picking up the Rental Car from Andrei at Pan Travel in Cluj:  The reason this task made the highlight list is that in addition to providing me with helpful maps, Andrei gave a full five-minute briefing on how to navigate around horses and bicycles.  "Allow the maximum distance when passing because horses, although used to cars, can be unpredictable.  Allow the maximum distance when passing bicycles, because if the biker has been drinking, he could also be unpredictable."  

• Entering Maramures on a holiday (Dec. 6th- St. Nicholas Day): As we worked our way from Cluj to Botiza, the roads gradually became narrower and narrower until we suddenly realized that we were sharing a small two-lane paved road with more horse-carts than cars.  Almost every horse-cart had a live pig or sheep in it, and several had large packages or barrels.  We later found out that two Mondays per month, there is a market where locals can purchase live animals.  Because it was a holiday, the streets were packed with people walking or clustered together on the road, having a conversation. 

• Meeting our guide, George Iurca (botizavr@sintec.ro), in Botiza: Hiring a local guide was by far the best investment we could have made, and from what I've read, heard, and experienced, George is the best of the best of Maramures guides.  Fluent in four languages including English and coming from a family who has lived in the area for generation after generation, George knows the Maramures Valley like the back of his hand.  He and his wife run a small, clean and comfortable guesthouse, where we stayed. 

• Oldest Wooden Church in Maramures- Ieud:  Maramures is famous for its wooden churches- old and new, big and small, Orthodox or Greek-Catholic, constructed in a very traditional style, in all wood from the shingles to the floorboards.  Set off the road and surrounded by tall pine trees, this wooden church survived fires set by invaders that destroyed many of the churches throughout the valley.  Now a UNESCO Heritage Site, this church features beautifully painted murals.

• Demonstration of making clothing out of hemp fiber and a tour through a Maramures homestead:  A chance to see the ingenuity of the people of Maramures, who have developed ways to feed, clothe, house, and subsist solely on materials that they grow themselves using traditional farming practices and lots of good old-fashioned manure (seriously- manure is King here.) I saw more piles of cow, horse, and pig manure and horse-carts transporting manure in these two days than I've seen in my entire life.  The Valley has refused the use of artificial pesticides or fertilizers, and you really can tell, from the water quality in the stream, to the clean, fresh air, to the taste of the fruits, vegetables, and even the meat that we sampled there.  While on the topic of farming, the other thing that you see in all of the fields is hay bales, tall and thick, standing vertically since they're wrapped around a wooden pole, resting on sticks rather than directly on the ground, with a little wooden roof on top to keep some of the water out of the inner core of the hay.  If constructed properly, these hay bales can provide nutritious feed for the animals for up to two years.   

• Barsana Monastery:  This monastery was built almost entirely by the residents of the small town in which it's located.  Donations of time, money, and physical labor have produced several buildings where nuns reside year-round, a wooden church, a front gate, a museum, and a guesthouse for people who choose to make a pilgrimage to this site. 

• Dinner and Breakfast at the Guesthouse: Fantastic, home-cooked Romanian food by our guide George's wife.  Everything was organic, local, sustainable, traditional, DELICIOUS.  We stuffed ourselves Monday night, slept/digested, and were ready for a fabulous breakfast early the next day.

• Traditional Woodcarver: In addition to many wooden gates displayed throughout the nearby villages, this father-son team (the son is an Orthodox priest) is in the process of hand-carving the decorative paneling that will be installed in a Romanian Orthodox church currently being constructed in Roebling, New Jersey.   

• Tallest Wooden Church in Maramures- Sapanta: Another UNESCO Heritage Site, this newly-built wooden church has a 75 meter steeple.

• Merry Cemetery:  It was raining when we reached the cemetery, but we still left feeling more upbeat than sad, thanks to the cheerful colors and humorous epitaphs on the headstone-crosses.  It's all the work of one man and his apprentice, started in 1935.  Here's the Wikipedia link for a description of what makes this place different from your average cemetery:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merry_Cemetery.

• Farmers' Market- This was my request.  It was interesting to see a lot of Ukrainian products for sale (which makes sense, considering that Sapanta is on the Romanian-Ukraine border.)  I was happy to go away from the market with a couple of interesting purchases to sample: smoked pork fat, fresh sour cream, and dried fruit.  

• Sighet Prison- (separate detailed post below) 

• Small-scale Waterworks Industry: Corn Mill, Felting Wool, Distillery, Washing Machine:  Although the original equipment was sold to the Astra Museum of Romanian Ethnography, located outside of Sibiu, this practical water-powered family-run industry was both impressive and ingenious. 

(Photo credits for all of the pictures in this post: Jennie Durant)

Sighet Prison- Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance

One of the most memorable stops that we made during our trip to Northern Transylvania was the Sighet Prison, located only one mile from the Ukraine border.  The Sighet Prison, originally built in 1897, became part of the network of prisons used during the 1950's-1980's to incarcerate dignitaries and intellectuals deemed to be in opposition of the Communist regime.  Many of the political prisoners were Greek- and Roman- Catholic priests, former democratic party leaders, historians, artists, and academics, and were frequently males over the age of sixty.  The prison has been transformed into a fascinating and thorough museum, with each cell block featuring one aspect of Communism, Imprisonment, and/or the Resistance.

Exterior of the Sighet Prison; Shutters covered the cell windows to prevent prisoners from seeing anything outside other than the sky.

For additional information, here are some links:

http://www.memorialsighet.ro/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=93&lang=en (The official website of the museum, including a description in the "virtual visit section" of each of the cell block exhibits.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sighet_prison (An overview of the prison and list of some of the political prisoners incarcerated in the Sighet Prison.)

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g608955-d622822-r71790078-Memorial_of_the_Victims_of_Communism_and_of_the_Resistance-Sighetu_Marmatiei.html#REVIEWS (Reviews of the prison museum and logistics on how to get there.)

Perhaps the most fascinating exhibit in my opinion was a cell focusing on "Poetry in Prison."  Here's an excerpt from the website on the topic:

"Born without pencil and paper, transmitted from cell to cell through the Morse alphabet, this poetry was equally a mental gymnastics exercise, one of spiritual unloading, of human solidarity, of spiritual raising, of ascesis [self-discipline] through the acceptance of anonymity. The authors of some of the poems are still not known, for others famous authors have been found, but we preferred to mix them without names, as in the moment of their birth lacking vanity, when those who memorized them were as important and necessary as those who composed them." 

     

Stay Tuned: Maramures Trip

I just returned from a fantastic trip to the Maramures Valley, located in Northern Transylvania on the Romania-Ukraine border.  Maramures is a Romanian county that has maintained its rich traditions and culture from centuries ago; a trip there feels like stepping into a living history museum.  It's a land of wooden churches, small-scale agriculture, scenic landscape, and more horse-carts than cars.  Many of the people there still felt their own wool, make their own shoes, distill their own alcohol, butcher their own pigs, live in the homes of their great-great-grandparents, and cook dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation.  We stayed in a rural guesthouse in the tiny village of Botiza and toured a stretch of villages between there and Sapanta, home of the Merry Cemetery.  Stay tuned for much more to come about this eco-tourism gem!   

December 1st- Romanian National Day

Dec. 1st was Romanian National Day, and I got to experience a great and memorable event (albeit a tiny bit Communist feeling- no offense to Romanians, since I'm sure our U.S. 4th of July celebrating and flag waving would feel very nationalistic to a foreigner): a crisp, cold Dec. night, crowds in the Piata Avram Iancu between the Opera House and the Orthodox Cathedral, streets blocked off for a military parade (marching band, followed by soldiers and police who came marching through, carrying lit torches, marching in sync, and singing a military song), music broadcast over loud-speakers, Romanian flags waiving, then a big show of fireworks.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, but some friends (and friends of friends posted) great pics here:  http://www.adevarul.ro/locale/cluj-napoca/galerie_foto_1_decembrie_2010_cluj_napoca_5_382211795.html

This shot was also fantastic, taken from further away (photo credits: Alex Marchis):

Overall, a fun and memorable Romanian evening!  What an honor to get to celebrate this important day of Romanian Unification with great Romanian friends.

World AIDS Day

If my time in Africa has taught me only one thing, it's this: AIDS has not gone away.

This distinct moment of realizing stays with me always, in my mind:
In Kigali, Rwanda in Spring 2007, I showed up for basketball practice with my girls' team on the outside court in the center of town.  It was evident right away that we weren't practicing that day; the entire court, the grassy areas around the court, and the parking lot next to the court were packed with people, almost all women, mostly with a baby or two in tow, standing shoulder to shoulder, patiently waiting.  A 14-passenger taxi van would show up, a group of people piled in, and the van left.  There was a continuous stream of taxi vans, but it was obviously going to take a long time for all of these women to get wherever they were trying to go.

As I was standing there watching the crowd, irritated that I'd shown up for practice and it was clearly not going to happen, my teammate, who was standing beside me, put her arm around my shoulder and asked, "Do you know why all of these people are here?"
Me: "No, why?"
"They've tested positive for HIV.  The government wants to bring them all together to discuss possible treatment options."

Just like that.  Matter-of-fact.  They've tested positive for HIV.  Hundreds, if not thousands, of women and children right in front of my eyes, and they've all tested positive for HIV.  

There's a difference between knowing and knowing.  This was the first time that the true enormity of the disease, the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, truly hit me.

According to estimates by sites such as the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2155rank.html), Rwanda is up there among the 25 countries with the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world.  If you continue to look at the stats, Africa's unfortunate position in the HIV and AIDS epidemic is clear; the 19 countries worldwide with the highest prevalence of reported infections are all African nations.  Namibia, where I lived throughout 2009, is ranked number 5 in AIDS prevalence; it's estimated that 15% of adults age 15-49 are living with the disease.

But the country with unfathomable numbers that will definitely send a chill down your spine is South Africa.  Estimates show that close to 6 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.  To give you an idea, that's one in five people countrywide, though that's not the truest statistic.  In reality, the society is still hugely segregated, and the majority of individuals who are living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa are poor and black and live in the townships, slums designed by the ruling white from the 1950's-1980's, located outside of the city, where crime, poverty, and disease still run rampant, more than twenty years post-apartheid.

It was there, in the townships of Port Elizabeth, that a second distinct moment of realizing the true severity of the epidemic hit me.  Rob's best friend Jim moved to Port Elizabeth in 2008.  For two years now, he's been going to places where very few other whites go, caring for people that would have otherwise been forgotten, tutoring kids whose teachers don't bother to show up for class, lending money, providing a shoulder to cry on, and just being there for those who really, truly need it most.  He's started a non-profit for Community Development: http://www.masinyusane.org/.  It's not an HIV/AIDS organization per se, but with 25%-50% HIV/AIDS prevalence in the townships in which he works, HIV/AIDS testing, education, counseling, and awareness is very much a part of any day's work.

When I went to visit Jim in Port Elizabeth in April 2009, we spent a good amount of time in the townships.  Each day, on our way to the neighborhood where he's most active, we passed a massive, expansive cemetery, covering an entire hillside.  Most days, we were listening to music, or he was arranging his next meeting on his cell phone as he drove.  Finally, there was a day we passed the cemetery and the car was quiet.  Jim, who's one of the most upbeat and positive people I've ever met, spoke up, "This cemetery wasn't here when I arrived two years ago.  HIV/AIDS, man..." and his voice trailed off.