Caramidari

Caramidari in acrylic

Sezer (I think)

The painting above is from a photo I took last Fall from the Hope Center in a Calarasi neighborhood called Caramidari.

Random Trivia: Caramidari is a word which means brick.

Caramidari is the poorest neighborhood in the city of Calarasi and there are a lot of problems there both physical and spiritual. The Hope Center is a building that was built by Outstretched Hands of Romania and it's used as a ministry base for humanitarian aid, bringing the good news of Jesus to the people, and teaching academics to the children there who tend not to stay in school.

The photos I've included are a few of the kids who come to the Hope Center for activities in the Summer or school work in the Fall, Winter and Spring. I've labeled the one's whose names I remember.

Most of the people in this neighborhood are Roma or Turkish and they are usually referred to by everyone, including themselves, as Gypsies.

 We've heard the phrase "poverty mindset" and it is quite prominent in this area. The poverty mindset is a term we use to refer to the "giving up" that many poor people seem to do. They give up trying to better themselves, keeping themselves and their belongings clean and in order and it just wastes away because they don't feel that they have hope to get out of their predicament.

I know many kids from this area and one of my last posts was about Iasar, Sunita and Nusa, three kids from Caramidari who were baptized. There is also a teen named Elvis who is from Caramidari and has been saved.

God is working in Caramidari and will continue to do so. You can pray for the people there and God will work through your prayers. They're very beautiful and life in Caramidari is very rough and difficult.

Roza