Welcome to Mondays

Everything goes forward

Corner of the living room.  We don't
have a clock in the house, but if we
did we would probably put it here
and we would probably remembered
to put it an hour forward

I have decided to move the blog posts forward to Monday.  The clocks have gone forward, so logically so must the blog.

I think there is a way of subscribing to the blog so that you know when a new one comes out.  Otherwise, just assume it is Monday evening.

Check out previous Romania blogs on http://www.vfmh.org.uk/ where you can also read more about the charity including how to donate money etc.

Club Activities

I love the pictures this female patient
does.  When she first came down she
was always quite agitated and grabbed
and 'stole' anything she could find. She
now always greets us with a hug and
loves to do artwork.  She is so fluid,
quick and colour perfect.

It is very frustrating, but understandable, that I can't post pictures of activities in the club that make it possible to identify patients. However, I have just figured out how to crop pictures, so have included a load in this blog to give some small indication of the sort of things we get up to.

There is an amount of 'paranoia' regarding the absconding risk of patients. - I use the 'p' word deliberately as almost everyone seems to have a diagnosis of 'paranoid schitzophrenia'.  We are always being told how important it is to sign patients in and out of the wards and to ensure they don't 'escape' etc.  This morning, before the first session, there was a polite knock at the door and one of the male patients from the closed ward walked in, sat at one of the tables and politely asked for a cup of coffee and a cigarette (in Romanian).  We walked him back up to the ward where staff did not seem at all concerned an simply said, "Oh, he just went for a little walk".  This patient is quite new and was very agitated when he first came down to the VfMH clubroom.  He always wanted to go almost immediately.  It is really nice that when he dicided to 'abscond' he came straight to the club and treated it like a friendly cafe.  Unfortunately he only gets one hour per week at a scheduled time.

Remmy

A game of Remmy
see if you can work out who is
winning

No idea how you spell that word, and I can't be bothered to look it up.  You probably knwo a card game called 'rhummy' (not even sure if I've spelt that correctly) or '4 of one and 3 of another'.   Remmy is similar but with 14 pieces, rather than 7 cards.  The pieces are about domino sized.  It gets played a lot in the club. It is a great assessment tool and also good fun. The idea is to collect groups of three of more (you need at least one four) sets of either the same number with different colours, or a sequence of numbers of the same colour.  To make a move you either pick up the piece the previous player has left (face up) or a 'mystery' piece off the pile.  You then put a piece down for the next player etc.  Great for helping with social skills of turn taking. Also a good combination of luck and strategy to keep people with a wide variety of ability interested.  At first we only used it when patients expressed an interest. We now try and give everybody at last one or two goes - some people never pick it up, but even those games can be great fun.

Pictures

Jenga - also an excellent turn
taking game which can be great
for honing motor skills
That's Corina in the back with
a football doing some 1-2-1
work.

Table Tennis Doubles.  This is a
real action shot as I have managed
to actually hit the ball.  We have some
truly excellent players and one or two
who enjoy the game enormously in
their own delightful way

Pre-Valentines day
decorations going up
The clubroom never looks
dull!

Lots of mess - lots of glue and
glitter.  Some of the female patients
don't like getting messy at first -
but soon get into it.

You saw the finished products in an
earlier blog.  Here is some of the
process

Fantastic concentration

Anyway - that is enough for now.  You will see that most of the shots are of table work.  The weather is improving and we have made a few excursions outside with patients.

More next week.

Monday Remember!

Paul

Primavara - Spring

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is - (drunk, see previous blog)

Pre-fix.  This has been leaking gently
for a while.

Post-fix.  The remnants of Duct (Duck)
tape are my pathetic attempt at a
temporary solution which didn't work

Sorry its a day late this week.  Technical issues.  It got very cold again and the central heating stopped working.  A pipe had had just about enough and decided to finally give up.  In fact, we believe it has been leaking for quite some time - the boiler pressure often drops too low and the system cuts off.It is easy to repressurise.  This is a nusiance, but it lasts a few days, so no real hassle.  On Friday it was lasting about 5 minutes before cutting out.  Kiki noticed a hissing noise in her bedroom.  Thinking it might be an unhibernating family of snakes, I bravely let her investigate.  It was a very old pipe joint hidden behind a bed that was now leaking with a vengence.  I turned the water off and we had a very cold weekend.  Plumber came today (Monday) and fixed it. A couple of seals had failed.  And do you know what he had the cheek to charge us...?  Absolutely nothing, "its just a small job" - wouldn't make it as a plumber in the UK. 

Club stuff

Really nice day in the club today.  For some reason the balance of groups and patients is just right on a Monday and it is always a rewarding (and dare I say enjoyable day).  I am writing this after just getting in.  Last group was a women's group where the participants always tend to seperate a bit and do their own thing.  This is mostly getting makeup and nails done.  Today we decided to push the socialisation thing a bit and set up a game of Remy (I'll write more about Remy next week - it is an excellent game for all levels of ability) right in the middle of all the make up stuff.  The women really enjoyed the game and it was lovely to see them making real social contact with each other.  We ran the day a bit late to fit in an extra game.

Although it has become very cold again over the last few days, it was really bright and sunny during the week. We took a few patients out for walks in the hospital grounds. Really nice. We are thinking of doing some regular picnic lunches with patients once the weather becomes a bit more reliable.

Shortness

Very short this week.  House is slowly warming up and there is a warm shower calling for me. More next week I promise.  A few photos to end.

route into town.  Spot the horse and
cart coming down the street - there
were loads gathering just around the
corner. Not sure why.

I think I mentioned the deep fried cheese
donuts previously.  This is an even
better version (you didn't think that was
possible did you).  Cheese with a
cabbage filling - pure bliss

You've seen the Wednesday market
on a Sunday with no people.  This is
it on a Saturday with a few people.
Next week, the full Wednesday
experience

Police cars are white and discrete,
police stations are bright orange
well this one is anyway.

Sometimes the curve of the kerb just fits your butt exactly.
A very content Romanian dog today.

Pe Saptamuna

Paul

The sun has got his hat on!

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

This was yesterday when it wasn't
quite so hot.  Nevertheless, look
no coat!

Next week I really will try and do bits of the blog during the week rather than sit down late on Sunday and write the whole lot.  It would be a very different blog if I wrote it on Wednesday - Ward round day - which is quite stressful.  Today, however, has been a fantastic day.  The weather is absolutely lovely - 22 degrees Celcius, sunny, no wind. 

No caption could describe
how wonderful this drink is

Kiki and I started off the day with a run out into the countryside - and then completely ruined the effect by going into town and drinking two of the most calorific, but wonderful, drinks in the entire world.  Its a sort of hot chocolate drink, but with white chocolate and a huge lashing of cream. 

I then fully intended to spend the rest of Sunday getting my head down and doing some serious Romanian language study.  Unfortunately, due to the wonderful weather - which is totally beyond my control - I sat in the front garden with a glass of wine and caught some rays.

Just to put this sunbathing weather into context.  Last Sunday I went out for a run; it was freezing and snowing heavily.

Club activities

Martisor (Martzishore)

Paul, Kiki, Womens' day March 8th.
Health and happiness for many
years from the patients (my very
rough translation)

I mentioned last week that we were making Mărțișor during the sessions (red and white twisted string on a broach).  We continued this as March 8th was Women's day.  This is celebrated in Romania differently to the UK.  It is not so much about emancipation and women's rights, but more a time when men buy women flowers and are generally nice to them.  Traditionally,women wear them for the first 12 days of March,or until the first blossoms form.  Unfortunately, we are not allowed to give the female patients any fastenings, or safety pins, in case they damage themselves.  Therefore we had to stich the Martisor onto their clothes; clothes are changed once a week and the Martisor are therefore lost with the old clothes. Despite this, the women have really enjoyed making and drawing things for their March celebrations.

Team work - next week we start on
an escape tunnel.
If only...

Also had some lovely sessions with the men this week.  It is frustrating, but understandable, that I can't post pictures of patients. I have managed to crop a photo of some of the men doing some serious construction work, leaving just the hands on show.  One of the male patients is blind.  I started making a 'lego' construction with him. He really got into this and several of the other men followed suit.  This is a very mixed ability group and it was lovely to see them all totally absorbed in the activity. 


Volunteering

Yet another Tarnaveni sign

I had planned to write a bit about being a volunteer with VfMH.  I've never done a blog before, and don't really follow any (although I did look at previous volunteers blogs).  I am mainly blogging to force myself to have some sort of a record of the experience - I would never keep up a diary.  It is also a really easy way of getting info out to friends and relatives without having the hassle of writing individual emails etc - Oh come on, you knew that, don't get all huffy on me.  However, there is a link to the blog from the VfMH website http://www.vfmh.org.uk/ which means that prospective volunteers might be reading this to get a view on whether it would be the right thing for them to do.  You are welcome by the way.

Kiki and I have been here for over 2 months now.  We love the country (especially today with the sun shining).  We absolutely love the patients - If there were annual awards for nicest and most caring people in the world, then a number of the patients in the hospital would definately win them.  We really enjoy the work - both of us enjoy going in on a Monday morning. It is fantastically rewarding work - you get a lot back from the patients and can see real progress.  Of course there is a horrible side to it.  The ward conditions are truly beyond comprehension. It gets more and more difficult each time we do a ward round - it will never get easier.  However, the positive aspects far outweigh the negative ones.  KIki and I will both be here for 6 months.  Only another 4 months to go - time is flying.

Other stuff

Big news in Tarnaveni. There is a new roundabout.  For those who know Tarnaveni it is opposite Plus Supermarket.  No warnings, or road changed signs.  Very quiet day on the roads today,I wonder what next week will bring.  Luckily it is very close to the hospital.

It may just look like red and white
bricks, but it is actually a
completely new road system

Full sized model of the Eifel Tower
in Turga Mures - unfortunately
closed when we visited

Comissioned by the Score brothers?

A Romanian pigeon - threatened
to beat me up if I didn't post a
picture on the blog.  So here it is.
Note that it has two legs rather than
the customary one of its close
London relative

Turga Mures - forget the building. Just look at that
blue sky...

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Pe Curand

Paul

Party Time

Summary

Well what a week this has been! Friday night was the staff party which went down with a bang (or three!) - Kiki now covered in bruises from falling off the highest high heels ever; check photo later.  Lots of things going on in the club... Unfortunately, I am tired and didn't take many photos, so this will be the shortest blog ever.  Sorry.

Me on a Romanian train.
I like Romanian trains

Party

Tres Braz hotel - the venue
top of picture on edge of trees

The hospital staff party happened on Friday.  It was lovely to be invited, and it was really good fun. Everybody paid 53 Lei (RON) which is about 11 UK Pounds.  For that we had a really decent three course meal.  Pints (Litres) of coffee.  Loads of beer, wine and soft drinks - starting off with some fizz and then an aperatif.  Pretty good value.   About 130 staff, so not all the hospital.  The directors attended (and stayed until the end) which was decent of them.

Serious High Heel
prep work

Kiki, myself and Corina sat at the 'Women's Psychiatric' table.  Typically (and I am getting used to this now in my profession) there were only two men on the table including myself.  Kiki and myself were getting a bit worked up leading up to the party - it has been talked about for the last four Friday meetings.

Kiki bought some High Heels in Turga Mures and diligently aclimatised herself to them by wearing them all the time in the house for the week before - including when doing housework etc.  I also made a huge effort by ironing a shirt.

Party started at 16:00 and went on until midnight (bit early so a few of us dissapeared to the town night club for a few hours afterwards).  Very different feel to a UK works do.  The three courses were served with a good hour or so in between.  Absolutely everyone dances.  Huge range of music from traditional Romanian folk through Rock 'n' Roll and almost every other genre you could think of - very keen on Latin.

Only dancing picture Kiki
would allow me to use
Not good of me is it!

There are loads of dances that have specific steps or involve group participation.  There is no option of sitting one out - you simply get dragged onto the dance floor (actually every bit of floor space was used).  I got shoved into a line by one of the female staff trying to teach me the moves.  I managed to tread on the toe (quite hard) of one of the women's ward nurses 3 times when I kept turning the wrong way.  She probably won't be talking to me on Monday.  SHe probably won't be walking on Monday.

Everbody having a good time

It was the first chance we had to really talk to some of the staff.  We tend to focus totally on the patients when on the ward round and when we are picking patients up or dropping them off, there isn't really time as we want to try and give the patients as much club time as possible.  We are always inviting staff to the club to join in sessions. - This happens a bit, but not much.  One of the male ward staff asked me if he could practice his English with me (his English is actually very good); I agreed on condition that he comes down to the club after his shift.  Hopefully, we will start to get a few more staff coming down.

Asylums

Used to be a standard textbook

I am not going to cover it here, but we do occasionally have run ins with staff and management when we feedback what we see as very inadequate practice (and boy am I making an understatement there) with the way staff deal with patients.  I need to think more about this before I really understand what is going on and why.  I have been re-reading Goffman to try and get some perspective on this aspect of things on the wards.

Back in 1980 when I was studying pychology at university it was considered that the mental health institutions written about in Goffman's 'Asylums' (published in 1961) were way behind us - this was simply not the way we treated people any more.  No way back in 1980 did I ever think I would walk into wards which were as Goffman described (and worse) over thirty years later.

Women

Why have the party now?  Well we are coming up to International Women's Day (March 8th) which is celebrated as a Spring festival in Romania.  Men give women a special love token which is based around an intertwining of red and white thread. This is combined with another token and worn as a broach.  We have been making these all week with the women (and men) in the club and sewing them onto the female patients clothes (not allowed pins or safety pins.  We have added a heart (that we made for Valentine's day, mistakingly thinking this was the big festival), and the results look lovely.  - At this point there should be a photo of one of these, but I forgot to take one.  As I want to get the blog out on Sunday, I will try and edit a picture in late in the week, so do check back, it will be worth it.

And finally

I will finish off with a few photos.

A new church being built
in a very traditional way
with wooden scaffolding
picture could have been
taken 100 years ago (not
with a digital camera
obviously)

There are thousands of these
paving stones all branded 'PMT'
I have thought of at least 12
different jokes about this and can't
use any of them - so make up your own.

I am slowly making up a few different
running routes.  This one is a short
half mile out, over the bridge and then back. 

It is very pretty round here
loads of lovely countryside

It is very ugly around here
loads of old run down factories

Anyway that's enough nonsense for this week.  Sorry, I'm really tired.  Party was great - but it is a long time since I have been to a 10 hour full on party.  It really does take two days to recover.

Pe Curand

Paul