By Virginia Mckelvey
From my apartment windows I can look down through the rain on the main street of town. I am in Romania in Eastern Europe in the small town of Sebes which has a population of around 30,000 people. The town was settled by the Germans in the thirteenth centry and was at that time known as Muhlback. Sebes lies in the western part of the country in the area known as Transylvania. It is located in a valley on the Mures River and is intersected by the Sebes River. The main street, a narrow paved two lane road, is actually a highway which leads into the rest of Eastern Europe. It goes right down through the city with shops and homes on either side. There is no highway going around the city as in most places in America. The traffic going through town is almost constant, night and day, with many cars and large trucks from all over Europe. Off and on mixed in with the fast-moving traffic there is the slow movement of creaking horse-drawn wagons, usually filthy and often filled with entire families. The people in these horse-drawn wagons are from nearby villages or from the Roma or Gypsy communities you find in all of the cities of Romania and Eastern Europe. They cannot afford an automobile and this is the way they do their shopping. It is not unusual also to see cattle or sheep being driven along the edge of a road in the smaller towns.
Life in Romania is in sharp contrast to life in America and other countries in Western Europe. In many areas of the country living conditions are at least fifty years behind that of the modern world. Poverty is rampant as jobs are scarce and wages are low. Within the country itself, there are also many contrasts. The houses of the more affluent are always built of stone with fences around them. The houses being built there today are large with two or even three floors but the houses built in older times are much smaller. By comparison, however, the majority of the people live much more simply in apartment houses known as blocs-of-flats. These are large gray five or six story cement buildings built by the Communists in the 1960s and 1970s containing many apartments which are rented or owned by families or single persons. In the larger cities, there are rows and rows of these buildings. They are usually run-down on the outside but are often quite nice inside the individual apartments. Each one has a balcony and from the outside they give the appearance of a large animal cage with separate doors coming out on the balcony. The other door, of course, leads to a hall inside. I have lived in two of these apartments at different times each belonging to someone else. I was able to make each into a cozy and safe home for myself. Life is peaceful in Romania. The people are very friendly and warm. They visit each other often as in the old way. They have old traditions and customs which they faithfully keep. In good weather the main street of town is crowded with people shopping and visiting with others. During the years I have visited and lived in Romania I have seen many changes but many of the old ways still endure. Gradually things are improving but also getting more expensive although the wage scale is not keeping up with conditions. The country as of January 2007 now belongs to the European Union which is a great advantage.
I have very good friends in Romania and spend part of each year with them. I like their old-fashioned ways and how they live as it reminds me of my childhood in America. Their life style is much simpler than ours. Crime is almost nonexistent in the smaller cities and villages of the country. Children still respect their parents and have a totally different attitude than do children in this country. Unfortunately I am sure all of these things will gradually change as the years go by. That will be a shame as it is a lovely little country.
Virginia McKelvey, PhD.
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