During his precious 16 days in the United States, most of it in Omaha, a young visitor from Romania is hoping to absorb as much Americana as he can.
So Nicolae-Daniel Naste’s to-do list includes going to a Husker game, visiting the Henry Doorly Zoo and ordering a steak.
But I’d like to think that the most American thing this 21-year-old engineering student will do is to give of himself.
Nicolae-Daniel, who goes by “Dani,” spent two days last week working side by side with Americans his age, helping build houses on a stretch of North 37th Street.
As Dani held a long two-by-four wood brace, Tylilla from North Carolina, Gilbert from the Bronx, Jerry from California, Alyse from Michigan and others raised the 45-foot-long north wall of a Habitat for Humanity house. The organization is building three houses on the street and rehabbing another.
Tylilla, Gilbert, Jerry and Alyse are with America’s domestic Peace Corps, called AmeriCorps. They volunteer for nearly a year to communities that need help. What they get in return is not unlike the experience Dani will have in Omaha: soaking up a different place and different people and being transformed because of it.
Dani was hammering and holding, sweeping and
Article source: http://www.omaha.com/article/20130929/NEWS/130928680/1707 If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com
