Here we are, November, thebeginning of winter. Winter I said? Not really, in fact.

In Braşov the temperatures are still quite warm for theseason and the winter cannot be felt right now. That’s why we continue to workoutside with Floroaiă Mică School, as soon as possible.

Now we also started to explore Braşov area, which is really a good thing because we can see thecountryside surrounding Braşov, sometimes really poor.

I went to Dumbrăviţă by bike with Coen. For meit was tiring like hell (25km to go, the same to come back) because I am notuse to bike so long. Arrived in the village we met the mayor, who wasn’tspeaking English… So we went to the school where we met the English teacher. Itwas nice, she told us that Dumbrăviţă’s lake wasn’t used at all, that’sinteresting for the future if we want to organize some events near a lake! Thenwe discussed with a woman from the village who told us that Gypsies were livingin the village and Hungarian were living somewhere 2 km from the center. Moregenerally, the village looked quite rich with the big pink church in the middleand a nice football field. Curious thing: There are no hostels there, even ifthis is one of the only lake in the region! After a quick look to the gypsyvillage we rode back to Braşov, as soon as possible in order to be in time forthe Romanian lesson. We took the shitty way: the high-speed road. At the end,we arrived just 30 minutes late.

After Dumbrăviţă, we explored Holbav. I joinedMaria and we had a lot of fun, exploring nature instead of really talking withpeople. Indeed, up the hills in Holbav, the landscape is amazing. I finish theexploration with my shoes full of mud (more lucky than Maria, “muded” until theknees!) making acrobatics in the main square of the village with 30 bigchildren eyes starring at me!

Now is the time to write shortlymy weekend, a lot of “weird fun”. My friend Maria and me decided to go untilGlodeni, a gypsy village near Târgu Mureş, where you can sleep for 50 lei (Tzigania tours). We hitchhiked (itworked really well) until Dumbrăovără, a small Hungarian village. Then, wewalked for 3 km and we reached the gypsy part of Glodeni. People came to us andbring us to the house where we were supposed to sleep. Because it was the firstof November, we saw the traditional candles rite. We eat in the house, and wemet Noam and Yula, two Israeli people who were as us, tourists in the village.We had a party with the gypsies, dancing like hell on Manele music… Funny atthe beginning! At the beginning, yep! The next day we moved around 11 – 12o’clock in the morning; Maria came back to Braşov with our new friends (notgypsies, Israeli) and I chose to pursue until Baia Mare. I met some EVS guysthere, we had a great party and I was really glad to meet them again.

After that, I came back to Braşov.We started to work in Holbav, in two schools. Holbav-sat (from “satul”= villagein Romanian) which gather mainly children from the village & Holbav-deal(“deal” = hill in Romanian) which gathers children from the isolated houses upto the hills. It’s good to have new plans for other places! I made team withCoen and Milda, Kathrin & Michal will work together there.

At the sametime, we decided (agreeing with the teachers) to work alone in Floroaiă Mică.Each people took his own class. I took the 4th one, Coen the 3rd,Michal the 2nd Milda the first one and Kathy the pre-school. It’s nice;we started a “Lună de Toleranţă” (Tolerance’s month) until the end of 2013!Children in the gypsy school are really nice and cooperate A LOT. We are allgood in our class, even if sometimes they are only 4 instead of 20!

In Holbav, both schools, I startedto play theatre with the kids and they were really good! It was so nice to seethem becoming lions in 1 second! The bad thing during this week is that I gotsick. I decided to take the weekend to refresh myself, sleep and re-energize mymind. I stayed in Braşov and it was a good choice. I finished an electronicsong that I started 2 months ago for my friend Germain. The one who came herein October. I am truly glad to have done this! It came after some hours infront of the computer but it’s not for nothing I guess.

The next week, we continue the month oftolerance in Floroaiă Mică, always a pleasure to work there. In Holbav wecontinued the theatre exercises and started to use board games! It’s quite hardto explain in Romanian so it was quite messy. This week, I feel really better in theproject. It seems clearer and I like the way of working, we are always busy…maybetoo much sometimes and we feel a bit that we are doing everything…

In order to calm down and have fun this weekend,I went to Cluj with Milda, Kathy and Coen to meet other EVS volunteers. We hada great party, playing music and so on! It was really a pleasure to see themagain!

After this weekend, we canfeel that winter is coming… The first snow appears in Braşov. Like usual, weworked in Floroaiă Mică, where the children of my class were not all there. Ithink the snow was a part of the reason why they didn’t come. In Holbav weworked only with the school in the village. It was good; we played some rhythmsand sang together! The others made some board games. For Holbav –Deal, we onlyobserved the “choir” organized for the 1st of December celebration.It was quite a chaos and I tried to make them be more calm, not fighting eachother during the class but it didn’t work at all… This school is reallydifficult…

At the same time, we’re preparing acommunication plan in order to find local volunteers. It’s a huge work, becausewe don’t know the high schools in Braşov, we have to make the promotionalmaterials and so on… But we have some ideas like some cultural evenings,Christmas traditions evening and we already took a picture of my gypsy face fora flyer. Coming soon!

Pfiouu, hope you were notbored.

Enjoy the picture to link to those words !

Keep moving!

Simon the Hatman.