luni, 13 iunie 2016

Our volunteer action "Turning green the Calnau valley"

We are making the Calnau Valley green



Our team and our participating volunteers (most of them highschool or second grade students) have turned the day of 26th March 2016 into a "green day"!

We have planted 1200 acacia trees on the banks of the Calnau stream, in the area of the Vadu Soresti and Zarnesti villages from the Zarnesti commune, Buzau county.

We are waiting for more images from the volunteers and we will then update this with more details. :-)

Best wishes,
The "Leisure&Chinese" Team












The first Chinese Camp and the first thermal isolation in villagers' homes

We are thermally isolating homes 

and saving the forest!

More thermal isolation, less fire wood used :-)


Here is the latest result of our 2015 Chinese Summer Camp: we have thermally isolated the home of the first family which hosted our students! :-)

The students who were housed at Alexandru family's home have donated money in our association's account and our NGO has started the thermal isolation of the house - changing the windows and the veranda door to ones with thermal isolation! Those who will be housed at Alexandru family's home in the summer of 2016 will be able to help continue the thermal isolation of the house, with using less fire wood, increasing the level of comfort. :-)

We thank our students for the donations, the hosting families which took part in organizing the camp and we thank the thermal isolation company with which we work: S.C. ELVIMAR GLASS S.R.L. BUZAU

Next, we will install thermal isolation in the home of the second family of Vadu Soresti which hosted students. We will keep you posted. :-)

The windows and veranda door of the Alexandru family house - before and after the thermal isolation:

Before - flowers would freeze in their pots...

  
After:

Before - rain water would sip into the house...



After




We gladly await you to join our Chinese Summer Camp 2016!

The "Leisure&Chinese" association







 

 

 


miercuri, 9 martie 2016

The "Gogu lu' Moacă" Museum

The "Gogu lu' Moacă" Museum

- open space museum, with stone sculptures :-)

 


       Going up from the Roman Castrum, towards the „Cloșca cu puii de aur” treasure, we found an open space museum, set up in the home of uncle Gogu, stone sculptor,  author of the wonders we find on the side of the road, along his fence and in his household, in the entire courtyard. 
       Uncle Gogu, who will be 73 this September, is waiting for us not only with sculpted objects, 
        but also with water from his own fountain ( ), clear, fresh and cool water, and also with Romanian plum brandy, homemade, kept in original stone recipients. 

.
       The statues do not look one like the other, even the ones who represent people, or the ones who represent animals or birds; each one has its own personality. The way they are positioned has meaning, each one tells us a story.  
       Thus, the gate of the museum is protected by a Mongolian soldier, 
    

then we enter "The World of Silence", represented by the Father of the Stone, 
() and in "The Rediscovered World", in the Dacian and even the Egyptian one: we arrive in the Valley of the Kings where we are met by a pharaoh and his wife. And of course there are also the discoverers of the „Cloșca cu puii de aur” treasure: Stan Avram and his son-in-law, Ion Lemnaru, then a few Romanian music and film idols, such as: Draga Olteanu-Matei or, with an emperor crown on his head, as it is written on the statue - „Neculai Guță”. Even political and historical personalities salute us from uncle Gogu's museum:  Mihai Viteazu and Ceaușescu, both riding a horse, then king Mihai, etc.
Animals and birds also have their place in this museum, they all tell a story: it is not without reason that the fox has her muzzle pointed towards the chicks, or that the mama bear has a bear cub  hanging on to her. And perhaps even Ion Creanga (greatest Romanian story teller) 's place is not chosen randomly, as he is found near the fox and bear, to which he gave voice in his story "The Bear fooled by the Fox".
He builds crosses also, and very tall statues: a statue of 3.5m, made by uncle Gogu, can be found in Valenii de Munte, (Prahova county).
Near the grain mill, 75 years old, but representing a type of mill used in the Neolithic, there sits a...Chinese man. A Chinese man similar to the terracotta soldiers from the mausoleum in Xi'an (ancient China capital city, where they found the terracotta army of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huangdi).  Therefore we find here representatives from all around the globe and we walk through time, in the past, through the history of many countries.  :-) Besides, everything fits into one small country household! 
After seeing and hearing all this, nothing should surprise us anymore regarding this museum: we can also find wooden statues. Yes, uncle Gogu also sculpts wood and he tells us how he boils and treats the wood to prevent cracking.  

Now, don't believe that that was all that was interesting: without having been taught by someone, uncle Gogu knows how to play the accordion, the drum and also to sing, all at the same time! And he is the one who invented and crafted the drum he plays at. And lastly, for the 'set' to be full, he offers his visitors a short musical performance in place of "Goodbye and please come again anytime!". :-)

joi, 30 iulie 2015

Our second action of picking trash in Zarnesti commune, Buzau county

Picking trash in Zarnesti village,

Buzau county

Together with 4 adults from Vadu Soresti, plus a reporter, and 2 children from Vadu Soresti and two from Luncasi village - Zarnesti commune, we set forward on 25th July 2015 and accomplished the following: we collected and sorted trash from the village and also from uninhabited areas around it, totaling 36kg PETs and 4kg aluminum cans, and from selling these we obtained 27 RON, money which will go into our NGO's account.

We thank our volunteers and the mayor's office in Zarnesti! :-)

Below you can see images from our action, and you can also click on the link in order to watch the audio interview recorded by Radio Prodiaspora :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy4eHLZbjpA

Happy listening!

The "Leisure & Chinese" Team





Bags collected together with the tourists from our Chinese summer camp 







 







 






Before / After:
( What didn't disappear from here..., it could not be pulled from the ground )

 











 








The discovery of the century: a bucket of washable paint inside the forest. Conclusion: our ancestors painted trees on the inside... :