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