Two young Americans chase their Romanian dream

An American couple sells everything, including their Christmas decorations, and moves to Romania. They set up a human trafficking prevention NGO and want to stay here for as long as Romania will want them. Ryan Crozier has a big picture of a tree right in front of his desk. It’s not a photo he has taken, nothing special; just something bought from Ikea. But he likes trees, and it is something to look at. He moved to this office in May last year, together with his team from Eliberare, the NGO and social business Ryan founded in Romania. Maybe the tree picture provided Ryan some comfort. He wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to come to this area, some kilometers away from the center of Bucharest. But the house, located near a disused railway track, somewhere between Militari and Drumul Taberei neighborhoods, soon proved a good idea for Eliberare. The first floor provides enough space for the team that works directly for the NGO, but also for the designers, who fuel the business that helps fund the nonprofit activity. Ryan has his own office: with the tree picture, a small candle on the table, a board with a picture of him and his wife Andrea. There’s also a paper with a message written by a kid in Romanian, “Ryan, te iubesc mult mult mult mult” (Ryan, I love you very very very much). As for the ground floor, they just started organizing the place. They brought a table tennis board, set up a cafe-looking corner. They want to go beyond the NGO’s initial scope. Eliberare is mainly focused on preventing human trafficking, but Ryan and Andrea understood that the best prevention is to intervene in the community and help vulnerable groups. So they will use the ground floor to organize various activities for the kids and teenagers in the area. Ryan, who is 30, has a child-like glance and looks happy in his office. His blue eyes shine when he speaks about Romania and his life here. You can’t feel any trace of regret for the USA, the place where he was born, grew up, went to college, got married. His mom and friends are still there, but he doesn’t have any plan to go back. Nor does Andrea, his wife, who is also from the United States. Unlike many expatriates, who see their staying in Romania as transitional, they know they will stay here for many, many years. Ryan is a great storyteller. While it rains heavily, I take sips of hot coffee and listen to Ryan’s story like I’d watch a movie. Everything begins with a long plane ride Long time ago, on a Sunday afternoon, on the way to lunch, Ryan was in the back seat of the car. His dad asked him: ‘Hey, do you have any interest in going on this trip to Romania?’ “My first question was - how long is the plane ride? I was 12.” They came with a group from their church, stayed for ten days and worked with street kids. It changed Ryan’s dad. He was working in law enforcement and doing social work, but in that trip to Romania he saw an opportunity to help and do good. Ryan was just a kid, so the emotional impact on him was different. But he does remember the hundreds of homeless kids near the Gara de Nord railway station. The whole family kept coming back in the next years. Ryan’s father even thought about moving here for good, but his wife wasn’t at peace with the idea. 15 years later, Ryan did move to Romania. It wasn’t only his dad’s dream that he made come true. It had become his own dream in the meantime. I meet Ryan and Andrea right after the Easter weekend. They are delighted about how empty Bucharest gets during a holiday. They found themselves asking ‘where is everybody?’, as they were driving through Bucharest; the city where they have lived for three years, founded the NGO and gave birth to a baby boy. Ryan was talking about Romania a lot when they met in college, says Andrea. “The equivalent of guys, at least in the States, for whom everything is about sports. For Ryan, it was Romania.” As they started dating and things got more serious, Andrea realized that Ryan was very convinced about moving to Romania. She needed to make sure that it was the same for her. “If I’m just ‘sure, whatever sounds fine to you’, after a while it may get frustrating.” Andrea was used to changing places and starting anew. While growing up, she moved to different cities, as her dad got a new job. It wasn’t always easy, but she enjoyed meeting new people. Eventually, she was also hooked on the Romanian dream.