First Impressions

Here we go; the first test.  Can I post a real blog from România complete with photos?

Statistics

In the last week; I have traveled 1,500 miles, met approximately 70 new people, stayed in 2/3 houses, been told, "I love you" (in English) twice, been beaten at chess 3 times and table tennis twice, painted nails, given someone a shave, laughed at least 50 times and nearly cried once.

The journey

Journey was reasonably smooth.  One of the previous volunteers had generously donated a wheelchair for use in the club.  It was boxed up, quite heavy and quite large.  Wizz Air were very generous in allowing us to book it in as luggage at no cost.  My arms were getting decidedly tired lugging the wheelchair and my case - although this got easier when I met up with my other two travellers (Kiki and Victoria) and we could share the load.  We decided not to take it out of the box in case there was some assembly required and we might be left in the middle of Cluj with a load of bits and no spanner. - Just as we got near the house. the cardboard at the bottom finaly disintergrated and the wheels poked through making it very easy to wheel along - doh!

The house - accommodation



The house - getting warmer by the
day thankfully



The street - snow melted away nicely



The volunteer house is a decent size.  Basic, but totally adequate.  Unfortunately the outside pipes had frozen meaning that there was no heating and no water at all.  In fact the house was markedly colder inside than it was outside.  I decided to boil a kettle of water and after pouring out the water was a bit worried that something was rattling inside it.  I tipped out a massive block of ice.  Corina works part time for VfMH and is the only paid employee of the charity.  She is Romanian and speaks excellent English.  Corina met us at the house and very generously took us all to her flat along with bedding and matresses taken from the house.  Next few days were spend trying out different combinations of rooms based mainly on who snored the loadest and who was disturbed least by the snoring.  We then moved to a friend of a friend of a previous volunteer who simply gave us rooms in her house.  Amazing generosity.  Straight after work on Friday the plumber seems to have fixed the water and heating, so hopefully we move in next week...we shall see...

We

From Left to Right - Paul (me), Kiki (not me)
Note Christmas decorations are still up in România

There are two volunteers starting off this January, both of us doing 6 month placements.  I have promised Kiki (the other volunteer) that I will let her check out anything I write about her before I post the blog.  This is a shame as she seems to have a natural ability to create 'interesting' situations around her (see below).  - I will see what I can get away with writing as the weeks go on.  I think we both wondered how we would get on - two total strangers who are very different in lots of ways.   However, we are both already passionate about the work the charity does in the club and I think that easily overides everything else.

People

We met with the head nurses of the varous patient wards on the first day and then visited the wards to meet with the patients.  By the way, I don't particularly like the term 'patient' (or service user, or client etc) but will use it here to reinforce the fact that this is a large psychiatric department in a hospital.  The ward visits were quite difficult to cope with on both an emotional and professional level as they are just so very different from anything we experience in the UK.  Very large wards with lots of beds tightly packed together.  About half the people in bed, the other half milling around.  It is actually very difficult to know how to describe the ward situation.  I don't want to write anything that is simply lurid and shocking; I think it would be disrespectful to the patients to describe their life as in any way being a lesser one.  Also, I don't really want to describe the lovely warm smiles and embraces from people I am just begining to start to get to know as individuals; although true, this would not give a true reflection of the harsh reality of their situation.  I suggest a good read through the charity website which will give a much better idea of the conditions and what we are trying to achieve to bring some happiness and worth into peoples lives:
Volunteers for Mental Health
I will try and cover some more details on day to day activities in the club room on later bloggs.  Patient confidentiality means that I will have to be quite restricted on details with no photos of patients.  Suffice to say for now that the club sessions have been a joy and that the patients are a delight.

The town



Sometimes with a 'hatted' I as the second letter
old spelling



Not an unusual sight

Not sure, but I think the cat in the little roof cave thing
might have kittens - the two big cats were having a
very loud argument way up on the roof

So many churches in town - most of them quite spectacular



The chickens on the left were actually in the red train
on their way to market, but decided it would be
quicker to walk





Thanks



Corina and Victoria



A real big thank you to Corina and Victoria.  Corina is supposed to work three days a week, but has been a constant help over the last 7 days - including Saturday and Sunday.  She has done loads of translating, let us use her flat and generally gone above and beyond the call of duty.  Corina will be working 5 days a week over the next fortnight to help Kiki and myself settle in.  She has a fabulous relationship with both staff and patients at the hospital and is really helping to accelerate progress in all areas.  Victoria is a director of the charity and and did the training for Kiki and me.  She came over as placement leader to show us the ropes and ensure we could get off to a flying start.  She used her annual leave to come over and had a shocking cold throughout.  Victoria is flying out today (Sunday) and both Kiki and myself will feel a big gap when she has gone.

Assortments

Little known fact - Women don't eat biscuits in România.

The mixer section at a local store



 Things in Romanian shops are displayed strictly by category, for example 'mixers' - you will see a food mixer next to a cement mixer - very logical.



When a doctor asks you to 'loosen your scarf', it actually means 'take off your trousers'.  Well actually it doesn't, but this is how Kiki interpreted it when she went to check out a small blemish on her neck.  Apparantly the poor doctor was horrified and valiently tried to stop her.  - We were really worried when we went to the local disco and avoided the coat check in case Kiki was asked, "can I take you coat and scarf miss" - goodness only knows what she would have done...





Well that's is probably much too much for this week.  Loads of other stuff that could have been included.

Paul