The Village And Its People

The village is situated in the Carpathian mountains about 25km from the city of Brasov.  It is about 3.5 hours travel from Bucharest.

As you will now be aware, Mina-1-Mai is a poor village, supporting a kindergarten, school and the psychiatric hospital.  Yet despite the conditions, the beauty of the scenery, and the general cheery outlook shown by most of the villages make it a wonderful place to spend time helping people who really appreciate it.

Approach to the village is via tarmac roads from either Codlea or Vulcan, but once in the village these turn to pot holed stone tracks.

        

The village itself has few facilities.  There are two small shops, a bar, three churches, and a playing field.

                  

Most of the properties are very basic and run down, although in recent years efforts have been made with assistance from their equivalent of a  'local council' to build some new properties in the village.

                 

The village provides many images of tranquility and outstanding natural views.  It may be poor financially, but it is rich in character and beauty.

                 

           

We have also spent time working on the school in the village of Vulcan, about 4 kilometres from Mina.

         

And finally the village would not exist without the villagers themselves.  The following images show some of the characters.