Smiling is infectious,

You catch it like the flu.

When someone smiled at me today,

I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner,

When he smiled I realized,

I'd passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile,

then I realized its worth.

A single smile just like mine,

could travel the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin,

don't leave it undetected.

Let's start an epidemic quick,

and get the world infected!

Anonymous

To live in monastery and to work with youngsters. Do you think it is impossible? No!!! This story happened with me and my friend from Ukraine. We are volunteers and we are working in Sadu. Before moving to Sadu the Major suggested us to live at monastery, if we could not find another place to live.

Well, then we found another  place to live. Now we live at a place of very nice Romanian lady. So for the first time we went to Lainici monastery not as a inhabitatnts of the monastery, we went there as a tourists. Outside the center of Sadu you will find Lainici monastery. Located in between mountains and the river, it looks like the most peaceful place on earth.

We already live in Sadu almost 3 months. So far, we have been working at the local high school.  Sadu is a city with many opportunities, you just have to look for them. As mentioned above, there is a river running beside the area. During summertime, Romania is a very warm country, so why not making a swimming place for young people? This was actually an idea from one of our students. The next months we will be working with this plan, the place has to be cleaned up, some trees have to be moved and sand added. It will not be easy, but where is the fun if everything always goes your way? You need some problems to work on, in order to realize the impact you have at your community. And remember: everything is possible, but nothing is easy.

 Marianne Lande (Norway)

My name is Ady and I am from Romania, district Gorj, village Bustuchin. I am a student in the 11th class in high school. I am 17 years old and in the following I would like to tell you my opinion about the people of my area and about Romanians in general.

Romania is a nice country. There are a lot of beautiful places and good factories, but this country isn’t organized well and I want to write about some problems.

In Romania the streets are very crowded, but there are not enough places for parking, the streets are broken, this is one trouble. The other issue is the burocracy and this is a big trouble for  the people. The minimum salary is 150 euro. This is not enough to live good, so a lot of people decided to go abroad ane to work there. I have a lot of friends in France, Spain and Italy. They are working there. In Romania there are 3 categories of peoples: poor, modest and rich people. I know some poor families in my zone and this people don’t  even have electricity, they live with animals in the houses. I am lucky. My father works in a petrol factory and gets medium salary (450-500 euro). We have a house, a car. My mother doesn’t work, because somebody must stay at home. But the rich people in Romania live very luxury. They have  companies, expensive houses and cars. I repeat houses and cars.

For the future I would like to see a new factory in my area, new people who would like to come and to live in Bustuchin. Bustuchin is a very nice place and  all the time I get very upset when I know that someone wants to sell the house. I think it’s a pity for this very beautiful zone: Bustuchin.

 Ady (Romania, Bustuchin)