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| Blaj |
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| Some green scenery Between Tarnaveni and Blaj |
We went off to Blaj, small town an hour away by train, this weekend. Partly to see something new, but I must admit, I just wanted to go on a Romanian train. Very impressive. On time, comfortable and cheap. The snow had gone (came back today) and it was nice to see some green scenery.
The first thing that struck us about Blaj was the number of stray dogs. There are plenty of dogs around where we are living. There are a lot of houses with dogs as pets (guards?) and a constant background of barking. There are also quite a few strays wandering about on the outskirts. Blaj town is full of them. Many looked really wretched in the damp rain.
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| Banksy was here? |
Guitar
I managed to find a cheap classical guitar in Turga Mures last week. I am not the worlds best player and the only way I could stop Kiki (co-worker) from wrapping it round my head is to say that I would leave it for the club at the end of the placement. Now she daren't damage it.
Shopping
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| The world of wireless communication |
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| Not so wireless |
Romania is being propelled into Westernised consumerism at a rapid pace. Long gone is the old communist joke of a woman going into a shop and asking for some meat. "I'm sorry", came the reply, "this is the shop with no bread. The shop next door is the one with no meat."
Having said that, I did go into a cafe the other day to be told that they didn't have any coffee as if this was the most natural thing in the world.
Hospital update
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| View of the psychiatric wing from the train. The club is in the middle right at the bottom under the man's closed ward balcony. |
I haven't said too much about the wards. It is still difficult. Three very large closed wards (80+ people each). Two women's wards and one men's. Officially they don't refer to them as 'locked' wards. However, earlier this week there was a bit of a panic outside one of the women's wards when we went up to pick up a group for the club. The door was locked from the inside and staff outside were not sure if there was a member of staff inside. - Not locked? Mmm, really. All ended well.
The men's ward and one of the women's wards have 'incontinence sections'. In the woman's section this is a small side ward and it is locked. The door is very solid, but has a few gaps in the upper half where the glass panes have been taken out. It is quite distressing trying to talk to someone we know well in the club who can just about see over the solid bit of the door and is reaching out her hand for a bit of human contact. There is still a long way to go.
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| A toilet in Blaj |
Letters
I mentioned before that I can't put in any photos of individuals, but that we take loads of pictures. We didn't manage to get to the photoshop last week in time to give one of the women the two photos that we had taken of her. She was understandably a bit upset. There are no mirrors on the wards and a lot of the females like to have a photograph of themselves (particularly after a bit of a beauty session). We got the picture to her this week. She carefully wrote a letter home - writing it out twice to make sure it was absolutely perfect with no mistakes, and then put both photos in with the letter. It is not possible for patients to write letters on the wards. Quite a few like to spend their time during club sessions writing letters.
By the way, the lady I mentioned in last week's posting is considerably improved this week. We ran an extra session at the end of the day on Friday and had her and a couple of other patients (who we felt needed a bit of extra one-to-one) down to the club. She spent most of her time cuddling a teddy bear - bruises on her face were almost totally gone.
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| Brand new sign outside the hospital - it lights up at night |
There are many things that are different in Romania. However, by far the most difficult thing to come to terms with is the fact that Audi drivers in Romania are actually nice people and careful drivers. It is a scientifically proven fact that all Audi drivers in the UK are complete tw*ts (insert a Cameron letter or another of your choice). One actually stopped and let me cross the road today. There is a lot of (very) bad driving in Romania - but not by people in Audis. I am not sure I will ever get used to this.
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| One month in Transylvania and the first 'dracula' sighting. Its probably the 60 inch Plasma screen he's after |
I was going to write a bit about the challenge of getting to grips with the Romanian language this week, but I have blathered on long enough and the internet connection is particulary slow, so I will leave that for another time.
I think I'll just throw in a couple of extra pictures and leave it at that. By the way, you can click on the pictures to get a full size version. Isn't technology wonderful.
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| The outskirts of Tarnaveni is covered with the remnants of disused factories |
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| Micu-Klein's Greek Orthodox cathedral in Blaj 1738. I'm sure you know he founded the first public school in Romania |
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| No idea what this is - I just liked the colour scheme |
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| The big car we traveled to Blaj in. Almost looks like I'm taking the photo from the middle of the train tracks doesn't it? |
I nearly forgot to include a link to the charity. If you are interested, check out the Volunteer Experiences page, there are a couple of blogs from previous volunteers as well as a number of personal recolections of the work in the club at the hospital.
www.vfmh.org.uk
Pe Curand
Paul
