Doing good is the main driver for Rotaract. As an international club we wanted to organize an international project and the first location to do so was Romania.
After a thorough organization (getting in contact with the school and seeing what they needed, searching for donations in order to be able to acquire the needed materials or getting donations directly in the form of goods), eight members of the Frankfurt/Main-International club departed towards Romania. The journey started in Bucharest and, after a half-day trip through the Dobrogea region by car, we reached Murighiol. Here we had to load everything in a boat as Crisan, the place where the project took place, can only be reached in this manner.
After a boat trip full of thrills, a big scare, lots of rain and a thunderstorm on the night’s sky, we managed to reach our accommodation. We planned to visit the school the next day, but because of the rain we postponed the visit for 24 hours.
The school had 10 children enrolled in kindergarten, 13 elementary school children and 15 secondary school children. The classes were carried together for different grades because of the reduced numbers. The teachers were very dedicated and made sure that everyone got the attention they needed. We prepared backpacks filled with books, sweets and other materials for each of them and we had several donations for the school. We spend some time with the children and learnt about their everyday activities, we managed to break the ice and get past the languag
e barrier. The older children started the trend and then the younger ones also joined the discussion. They were in the middle of an ethics class before we arrived, discussing the values a ‘good person’ should have and it was a very nice lesson to re-learn the concepts through the eyes of the innocent.
We took advantage of the good weather and took several trips around the area, visiting the delta, the Letea forest, the old port of Sulina and we also went out on the Black Sea. Our visit to Romania ended with a two-days stay at the Black Sea, enjoying the beach, visiting Constanta and meeting new friends from the Rotaract and Interact Constanta.
All in all it was a humbling experience, giving a helping hand, discovering new places, meeting new people and spending time with the club members. We are looking forward to the 2017 edition.
