As I have mentioned in previous posts, I had the opportunity along with the city of East Lansing to host the Mayor of Cluj, Emil Boc when he came to visit MSU in 2005. Since I was hoping to meet the Mayor on this trip, I offered to East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis and State [...]
Pictured: The Cluj Botanical Garden.
One of the people I was able to reconnect with was Emilia Botezan, the director of international relationships for Cluj. During our first week, she invited Patrick and I to have dinner with her and her husband, Olly, at their favorite restaurant. Emilia and Olly had come to East Lansing in [...]
We had two days of rest and relaxation over one of the weekends during our Habitat Humanity build. It was obvious that our weekend was put together at the last minute. Our American team leaders were still trying to put it together a few days before we left. They were well intentioned but they tried [...]
The Build Site
Our primary task on the build site was to put in the foundation for a four-plex apartment style building. It would be the final building on the site that contained three other Habitat apartment style units. This building along with a few others were being prepared for a corporate blitz build. A Romanian [...]
The Cluj-Napoco affiliate of Habitat for Humanity was formed in 1999. In under a decade, they have developed a strong and effective program. They have a two-prong approach on helping people move into or stay in affordable housing. The first was the traditional building of new houses and apartments. The second program was renovations to existing housing. The renovation program [...]
Dear Gentle Readers,
As you know, I have started to blog about my Habitat experience in Romania. Due to a combination of a stomach virus and lack of wi-fi access, blogging hasn’t been my number one priority. I received an e-mail from my friend Vickie Ott who worked on my Habitat build in Costa Rica. Her [...]
We had decided to join this Habitat For Humanity build because of the location. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw there was a build opportunity in Cluj-Nopoca, Romania. When I was Mayor and a councilmember, we had a number of opportunities to host delegations from Cluj in East Lansing. It was a perfect combination [...]
Many of you know that I was hoping to be selected to attend the Jimmy Carter Work Project with Habitat For Humanity in New Orleans during the second week of May. Patrick and I both put our applications in via the web. We had contemplated contacting a few of my contacts with Habitat For Humanity [...]
