Senioriadă v6.0 @ Roșia Montană
Aaaannd … we’re here! Beautiful landscape of Roșia Montană? Check. Scarfs around our necks? Check. Good driving / arrival music? Double check! Guitar, headlight, raincoats? Check, check and check. We set up camp, clear the land, raise the tents and of course, most importantly, eat! The last sun rays give us a subtle hint that we should also start the camp fire, and so we begin our wonderful journey into the lands of “North America”.
Wierd people with painted faces, grim looks and compelling traditional wears start to appear out of nowhere, taking us by surprise. We are presented with the great honor of meeting The Chieftain of the Tribe, and he invites us to present to him and his wife(s?) a representation of culture from our places of origin. We decide to enchant him with the great composure of Frații Grime, Locomotiva, and as a final touch, the Doar Marea song, by the great contemporan, Aurel Tămaș.
The campfire songs entertain us and the weight of the night takes us to the lands of Sleeping Beauty.
Good morning, rise and shine, we got work to do. Real, hard work. We join the community in the hope that we can lend them a helping hand, and by doing so learn their ways of life, daily activities and maybe a little bit of history. The Botar family welcomes us and we get to do a little bit of land digging.
4 by 7, meaning around 28 square meters of dug out soil. Quite a good number for about one and a half hours of labor. The knowledge does not wait to appear, and it does in the form of history books and photo albums that present the beautiful and quite hard life of Roșia people. Payment is made for our work in the form of ceapă (green onions), slană (salo) and lapte proaspăt (fresh milk).
We get to meet the kids from the Local Scout Center of Roșia Montană and spend some time with them telling stories, sharing experiences and overall, having a good time.
A debate workshop takes place and we assume various roles that take us back a couple of years, around 2013, in a fictional Roșia Montană that has new problems. Great personalities accompany us, like the President of Romania, The Prime-Minister, The Roșia Montană Mayor, along side different influential persons, like lawyers, TV reporters and church representatives, RMGC directors and NGO members, students and local citizens.
By the end of our argumentative discussion, Tică joins us and tells us his recent life story and how he decided to move permanently to Roșia. We lend him our ears and listen with great interest.
The Polish scouts arrive and we get the pleasure of meeting them and learning a few things about each and everyone of them.
Evening. Six o’clock. Rain starts. Meeting in a circle. Talk, then eat. 8 o’clock. Proceed to hike start point. Rain persists. 8:30. Fog joins rain. Hike. Roșia Montană Meteorological Station. 10:30. Tăul Mare lake. 12:00. Muntari village. Frogs. Lots of frogs. At around one o’clock, rain decides to stop. Oh, rejoice. 1:47 … aaand CLOCK! We are back. Back again. Guess who’s back? ‘Leii’ patrol is back! The stove is burning hot and we get a chance to dry ourselves. The heat tends to our needs, and we are soon dozing, so we split to the tents. Good, long, highly anticipated night sleep.
Day three, Sunday morning. We are invited to the Sunday service at the Unitarian Church, then cook and help around with various activities. The Polish scouts invite us to an afternoon workshop series and we participate with great joy. Evening sets and they put our feet to great use. Polish and Romanian DANCES!
Last activity of the day (during the night) is the highly anticipated Rovers got Talent in Hollywood. Great representations rejoice the hearts of the jury; The Chieftain, Eustache aka Nelu’ Mineru’ and Angelina Jolie; and by the end we are awarded precious pieces of gold for our hard work (Africana chocolate with peanuts). Sing sang song into the night.
Day 4. Evaluation, badges, Roșia Montană Gallery Museum, pack, pack pack, eat, dry the tens, eat, play a bit Frisbee, eat, get into the cars. Drive home. Gather all friends in downtown, tell them the story of Senioriadă VI.
The end.