Happy Easter

Festive Times

A pretty full bag of goodies.
The children round here must
hate me.

Although Easter is pretty much at the end of April this year, it still seemed to whizz up on us pretty quickly.  Kiki and myself have bought a load of small chocolate Easter treats so that we can give one to each of the patients as they come to the club this week.  I think we have done the number calculations fairly accurately.  Problem was...In Romania it seems to be a tradition for children to come knocking at doors and asking for small Easter treats.  Had we known this we would have stocked up.  I dared not give away any of the patients' treats in case we were short.  Unfortnately the bag of goodies was on full view when a group of children knocked.  "I'm sorry, I don't have any treats for you".  "What about those?", they all said pointing.  My Romanian ran out as I tried to explain I couldn't let them have them.  In the end they just decided that I was an idiot and asked, "where is the lady?" - obviously thinking that she had left the chocs for them and that I was too much of an idiot to figure it out. - - Anyway, could the next lot of volunteers stock up for Haloween just in case the same lot come back for trick or treat.

Club Preparations

Our universal tree.  Good
for any season.

We redecorated the 'Christmas Tree' which was recently our Valentine/Matsisor tree covered with hearts.  It is now Easter themed with cardboard eggs decorated by patients along with a few (blown) chicken eggs covered in glitter and looking very Faberge.  We did start to do some wool chicks, but they look a bit freaky (see the headless one with no eyes in the picture).

It took weeks to get this far.
This particular individual
threw himself at the project
right from the word go.

I also started a small project a few weeks ago to make some 'giant' eggs.  These started as balloons covered in papier mache.  I decided at one point to plant them all in a pot - like an egg in an egg cup.  This didn't look quite right (see the one at the top of the tree).  We now have them hanging all over the club room.  One came crashing down today when a taller patient knocked straight into it - both patient and egg doing well.

Underwear

The women patients were getting quite excited on Good Friday (or Big Friday as it is literaly translated from Romanian).  It seems that they at last have underwear.  I don't know if this is the first time ever, or whether it is a temporary Easter thing.  However, they are justly delighted.  There are also a lot of new pajamas (that's not how you spell it, is it?) on show and also other new looking clothing which seem to be gifts from Easter visits.

Easter Visits

A giant egg hanging in
the club.

We have a lovely chap (around 60?) who comes to the club pretty much every day.  He unlocks the door for us and will help tidy up and do other small jobs.  He is completely deaf and has poor eysight.  Communication is by (his own brand of) hand and leg signals.  He is as solid as a rock and we love him to bits.  He is an open patient which means that he is not locked in a ward, but is not allowed to leave the hospital grounds.  Apparently he has been at the hospital forever and when they used to keep pigs he looked after him.  I have been told that he slept in with the pigs.  Popular lore says that he could carry a grown pig in his outstretched arms.  We believed that he had no relatives or family.

Another highly
decorated Easter egg

Today he was in the club when an auxiliary staff member knocked on the door and asked for him, saying he had a visitor.  I was told it was his brother.  He and his brother wandered off arm in arm and obviously spent some time in the hospital grounds together.  He came back a few hours later with a bag of goodies (food, ciggaretes, etc).  He was very red eyed with tears running down his cheeks.  He got plenty of hugs from Kiki and myself (and maybe a tear or two too).  He really wanted to share his joy and sorrow at having seen, and having to say goodbye to, his brother and showed us each of the small gifts in turn as if they were the most precious things in the world - which of course they were.  This was my highlight of Easter.

Reflections

This last three months have been quite a steep curve.  A lot of people ask me about the conditions on the wards and general questions about how patients are treated at the hospital.  I would suggest doing a simple bit of research.  Have a read of the article by Bulgarian journalist Yana Buhrer Tavanier on her website and have a look at the short video on that site which is a collection of black and white photos and some accompanying words.  Just type her name into Google along with 'dumping ground' - You'll find it.  Some of the conditions you will see are worse than those in the hospital here, some are better.  All are unaceptable in any modern European country.  All are unaceptable anywhere.

Which came first, the chicken of the
egg.  Apparently now proved to be
the egg. I  guessed this.

Romania is lovely.  The people are fantastic.  The countryside is spectacular.  The institutions are a cruel, but very real, anomaly.  I mentioned Goffman's famous book in a previous blog.  Everything in it is here; role dispossession, will breaking, property dispossession, loss of visual identity, situational withdrawl, etc etc.  Goffman describes this as 'mortification of the self'; as a life wasted.  Goffman's comments on staff are also pretty much up to speed - I won't give examples here.  We tend to have very good relationships with patients.  Staff notice this.  One member of staff made a comment the other day without the slightest hint of self-irony - in fact it was said in a very accusatorial way, "I know why the patients respect you in the club. Its because you're nice to them!" - words fail me.


The absolute highlight of the last 3 months has been working directly with the patients.  Every single one is a treasure.  We have had some minor and slightly bigger breakthroughs and progress with a number of patients.  Going into work is a pleasure.  The difficuly will always be seeing people you care about stuck (for the rest of their lives probably) in a situation that defies understanding.

Sonstiges

Bad photo, but definately grey.

Kiki celebrated her 26th birthday last week.  This event was followed almost immediately by her first grey hair.  She was mortified, but has allowed me to post a photo on my blog for posterity.

It has been very hot for the last week or so.  The front of the house is a real suntrap.  We immediately treated ourselfs to a couple of sun loungers. Wonderful!

We got up at 05:00 to get the earliest
buss to the Turga Mures mall in
order to pick up these two lovely
loungers at an amazingly cheap price.

Food is still a problem (in that it is too good), but I have kept up the running regime and actually manages to lose 5 kg.  Apparantly all volunteers lose weight - a main reason for coming out?

A Dacia - Romania's national car.
This one is in unusually good
condition.  Some run all day
without breaking down more than
3 or 4 times.  Outstanding!

Anyway, that's enough for this week.









Pe Curand

Paul

Half Way

Right in the Middle

The last couple of weeks have been flavoured by holiday talk.  Back to work this week.  It was lovely to see the patients again, but I did need a break.  It is now just over 3 months through this 6 month placement with VfHM.  By the way, I keep forgetting to link to the charity site.  Here it is - http://www.vfmh.org.uk/.  Next week will be a bit of a reflection on the experience so far.  This week, mainly plus some pretty photographs from my holiday.

Oh, by the way, now I have got my dear little Samsung Netbook back from the menders the formatting will probably go all wrong again - which it has!!



A Service Centre in Turga
Mures.  If only they did
Samsung products!!



Talking of my Samsung N130.  There is a big sticker on the front proclaiming all the benefits it brings.  One of these is an 'International Warranty'.  Well, zero out of ten for Samsung themselves who could not have been more useless than a Lyons Tea franchise based entirely on the chocolate teapot principle.  Eleven out of ten to Curry's in the UK who responded smartly to my email and managed to fix it (manufacturing fault) under UK warranty in double quick time so that my sister could bring it out to me.  Samsung claim that there are no Samsung service centres in Romania and that I would have to wait until the placement ended.  In the meantime they are happily selling Samsung Netbooks in a PC store in Turga Mures, all the information screens at the airport are Samsung, as are those at the Mall.

Rant over.

Volunteering

I have to say that when I told people about this placement some 4 months before I started, everyone was very supportive and many said that they would love to do something like this.  It is proving to be quite difficult to get the necessary number of volunteers applying at the moment - I guess this is the understandable knock-on effect from the current round of cuts and job uncertainty in the UK etc.

Can I ask a favour - both of people I know and those I don't - who read this blog.  Can you think of anyone you know who works in a relevant profession who you thik might be interested.  This might be someone who wants to take a short career break, or even someone recently retired.  Email them a link to the charity's website (above), or even a link to this blog.  They might really thank you for it - I am very glad that I came out here.

Sighisoara

It should have a diacritic under the second 's' which makes it sound like a 'sh'.  Also, don't pronounce or use the 'h' at all - its there for emergencies only.

Sighisoara is a lovely place Link to the lovely place and well worth several visits.

Cobbled streets, painted buildings
and odd little towers everywhere

The medieval part is up
the hill surrounded by a
fortified wall

Our unofficial guide.  He either led
or followed us all around the town
eventually having a sleep where we
decided to stop fo coffee.



The clock tower.  Worth a
visit.  Some quite steep and
creaky stairs, but we got to
the top. Wonderful



Covered steps up to the cathedral
at the very top.  We were struggling
when this chap just ran all the way up.



The lovely Lutheran (?)
Cathedral at the top.
Remember this is a Saxon
town.  Almost all the graves
bear German names.  Sadly
most Saxons have now left.

Short video this week.  We had a really peaceful walk around the cathedral and graveyard.  When we started to walk back down towards the covered steps the 'children' from the school next door started to come out. All of a sudden the peace was broken by music blasting out.  We naturally assumed that some of the students had turned their ghetto blaster up full...wrong.



Love it.

The rest

It is the law for cats in Romania
to wear collars that match the
colour of their eyes.  Not sure why.

Pe Curand

Paul

Driving Lessons

The age of the car

Christine (sister) and Lucy (daughter) still over - so this is a bit of a holiday blog.

I am really streching my limits with the technology this week.  If all has gone acording to plan you should be able to view a five minute video of highlights from a one hour drive on the 170D road.  (I have just uploaded and tested it.  I have lost the 'widescreen' and the definition is poor if you try fullscreen). We had driven to Aiud for the day - including a trip into the mountains.  The map showed a nice, but small road through some villiages on the way there and a similar, but different, road on the way back (the 170D).  Moral of the story is to not believe everything you see on a map in Romania.

Overtaking

This had only been parked up for a
few years when someone pinched
the wheels - just like my old home
town of Slough

The smaller roads are fine.  Some are actually as good if not better than anything you could find in the UK.  Added to which the scenery is absolutely breathtaking.  Ranging from rolling hills (like the cotswolds but bigger), Mountains and Valleys (Like Wales), Mountains (Like France) etc etc.
The bigger roads are a different kettle of fish.  Much busier with lorries (and the occasional horse and cart).  Drivers overtake whenever and wherever.  We saw lots of near misses - lots.  Cars would even overtake a car that was already overtaking another one.


Speeding

Click on this to make it bigger.  You
will see a stork sitting in its nest at the
top of the pole to the right of the road.
You see lots of these in the villages.
It is encouraged and believed to be
lucky.  For younger readers; Storks
are where babies come from.

In the last few minutes before dropping the car back off at the airport I got done for speeding.  I was literaly looking for the petrol station next to Turga Mures airport when I got flagged down.  I honestly believed that I was in a 70 kph zone and was told I was doing 71 kph.  I thought that was a bit rich to be done for 1 kph over the limit.  However the policeman explained that it was a 50 kph area - so tough!  The fine was 134 RON (that's New Leu - Lay).  At first I said I would pay at Tarnaveni police station but then changed my mind. I gave the officer 2 x 100 RON notes.  He went back to his car to do the paperwork and sort out my change.  Just then the other officer got out to try and flag down a speeding van - it didn't stop.  Both policemen jumped in their car, did a hurried three point turn and then pulled up next to me.  'Quick', they said, 'follow us'.  They then sped off.  This country is brilliant.  Where else would you get done for speeding and then invited to throw caution to the wind and join in a police chase?  I am ashamed to say that my fellow passengers were not so keen.  They insisted I pull into the petrol station and then drive further to find the policecar.  I had just paid for the petrol and gone back to the my car when the police car scrunched in behind me.  I have no idea what the petrol station attendent though when an officer jumped out, seemingly for no reason, and handed 'the Englishman' a fistful of paper money and then drove off. - Maybe he sees this happening every day.

Motorcycling

A wooden builing up in the mountains
past Aiud.  Very picturesque

I had planned to buy a motorcycle out here, but funds do not permit this.  I do intend to get a maountain bike and explore some of the countryside - a poor substitite.  Just to let any motorcyclists reading this that Romania - certainly the bits I have seen - has probably the best motorcycling roads I have seen.  A tall trailie tourer would be perfect to cover the fabulous sweeping twists and the ludicrous potholed ex-tarmac.  The off road 'roads' (a la 170D) would suit this type of bike too.  I am definately coming back at some point on a bike to do a proper tour.

Holiday stuff

I have millions of photographs from the varous places we visited.  I will try and drop a few in each week rather than use them all up now.  So here is just a small selection.

A typical backstreet in Sigisoara (I've
spelt that wrong).  The most perfect
medieval town in Euorope.  It is
absolutely drop-dead georgeous

Tarnaveni market on a Wednesday
morning.  I meant to go to the Gypsy
Market, but that is just down the road.
Whoops!

Biertan - a small Saxon villiage.
Absolutely charming.  Even got
to speak some German.



Inside the fortified walls at
Biertan. - Oh that's my
daughter Lucy in the
picture


Back to Work

As I am witing this on a Monday, I went back to work at the hospital today.  It's a shame to say goodbye to family, but lovely to see the patients again.  I can't believe that I am now over half way through this 6 month placement.

Pe Curand

Paul

Holiday Time

Late as ever

I really am slipping.  First I change the blog to a Monday from Sunday, then I miss Monday altogether and post on a Tuesday. My excuse is that I am taking a holiday this week and have my daughter (Lucy) and sister (Christine) here visiting.  We went to Bran Castle yesterday (Monday) which is near Brasov.  I completely underestimated the time it would take to get there and back and blah...blah...blah...excuse excuse...

We thought this was the first bear
sighting of the year.  Bears come
out of hibernation about now.  We
saw one in the garden, but it turned
out to be the next door neighbour's
dog.

We usually do our washes on
a quick 30 min cycle that is pretty
much cold water.  For some reason
I changed the setting and discovered
a way of making children's clothes out
of old adult ones.  What a money saver

Driving

We have a hire car for the week.  I am too traumatised to describe driving in Romania , but will cover it at a later stage.  The potholes are fine.  It is great fun dodging them.  Even the big towns are OK.  If you have done London you can do Brasov.  Its the normal good condition single cariageways where people overtake whenever and wherever.  I had to brake several times to ovoid getting a car stuck on my bonnet coming towards me.  I had about 7 hours of it yesterday.  Oh and the Sat Nav broke down immediately.  But road signage is good.

Bran Castle

This is one of Dracula's castles.  Vlad the Impala lived here.  Known as Vlad the lad to his friends - although he didn't actually have any friends.  He invented the toffee apple when he was a mere teenager by the simple act of shoving a pointed stick into an apple and covering it in toffee.  Things would have been fine if he had stuck to apples - and it is very easy to stick to a toffee apple.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson.  The castle is absolutely wonderful and well worth a visit.

Castle Bran

A hidden stairwell.  I only saw
what it looked like after taking
the photo, lit by the flash.
Almost totally dark. I love
Health and Safety in Romania

Now that is what I call a fireplace.
You can sit right in it.

Very homely

The courtyard

Lots of sky if you look up

Lucy on a balcony - which
runs all around the top

The balcony - running all around the top

A mountain - yesterday

Real men weren't afraid
to wear dresses in those days

Anyway

I need to shoot off and do some holiday things.  If you click on the pictures they appear bigger - something to do with technology.  Talking of which, Romania cinema is way in advance of that in the UK.  We have only just introduced 3D.  They are two generations in advance of that here.

Leaves 3D for dust

Pe Curand

Paul