Compelling needs

Whenever we are getting ready to leave Romania for the Isle of Man it seems we experience a situation which reminds us why we are here and compels us to come back. Today less than a week before we leave Dorohoi we had a great time with the families at Cobila, and we were running just one last one errand at the end of the day; it started earlier this morning when we had been contacted by a grandmother we know, pleading for help for her and her family.

She lives in a small 2 room house with one if her sons, his wife and 2 children and a daughter in law and her son. At the time we were already out delivering aid and said we would try and call to see her after lunch.

As we drove down the lane to her house we saw the grandmother walking through the thick snow carrying a crust of bread and a jug of something. It looked like she was taking food to an animal. But when we asked here where she was going she told us she was taking food to the old house which we had stopped alongside.

It is a house we have driven past a number of times. We had given food before to the old man who lived there until he died a few years ago. We thought that now it was uninhabited. It turned out that her 37 year old daughter and husband lived there. The man who had died was her father.

It is an old house built of mud bricks, half of the house is falling down, the ramshackle wooden door led into a porch and then through another broken door into the room the couple were using to live in. With a temperature of -15C it seemed colder inside than out, the ad hoc soba was not lit and you could see day light through the holes in the walls. The lady was huddled under a damp quilt and was shaking with cold. We had fire-briquettes in the car so brought then in and also left some food which she ate immediately. As we were leaving the man happened to come back and he lit the fire. We  went back later with bedding and some hot food.

It was cold enough in there today, nothing short of a miracle that they have survived the past few days when the temperature has been down to -30C overnight.

We spoke to other NGO’s in the town to see if they were receiving help from anyone else but as far as we can tell they have not had any help and they have nothing, no jobs and no income.
We will go back in next couple of days with some more aid and see what we can do to help them access regular support.

Brrrrr its cold here

We had a busy day with various meeting to attend in the morning, then a drive (an hour) to Suceava to visit the Christian book shop for some Bibles which various people had requested.

It was so cold, the condensation on the inside of the windows was freezing, even in the car with heater going full blast. We knew a number of families who we visit in a village outside Dorohoi were struggling to keep their homes warm in such extreme temperatures. So we decided to collect some fuel bricks and food and visit them. It was about 5pm by the time we got there and the temperature had already dropped to -21C.

Delivering food and fuel

Chris and I were so glad to get back to our apartment and so thankful to be able to warm up in a centrally heated home. I cooked a Thai curry and we were soon feeling snug. Later in the evening when we went to do the washing up we realised that the boiler was not firing up. Thankfully we have an oil filled radiator so were able to keep our room warm overnight. When we got up the morning the aluminium windows in both our bedroom and lounge had think layers of ice on the inside and the temperature for outside was still showing -25C. We have found out that if we brush the ice and snow off the flue of the gas boiler on regular basis we can keep the heating running!

-25C outside this morning and this is the inside of our lounge window

January Update

We enjoyed our Christmas with family and friends on the island and in the UK and have had a busy time since we returned to Romania.

Our first week back was rather fraught as Chris’s laptop died! He managed to transfer to his old desk top and could continue some of his work on that (& our son David, & Chris worked to try and retrieve data from the laptop). A day later the desk top also failed! Visions of extended time with Chris without a computer were daunting and he is unable to use mine as I do not have his specific design software. Thankfully we were able to purchase new hard drives for both computers in a tiny shop here in Dorohoi (2 were in stock and the other was here by the next morning!). With help from David, Chris’s computers were back up and running and Chris is now catching up with all his work.

It has snowed and temperature has dropped here in Dorohoi in the past week. Yesterday the minimum overnight was -21C and it now at almost midday it is still only -16C. It is forecast to stay sub-zero for the next month. It is hard enough for us living on our apartment with central heating. (We turn the heating off overnight and when we are not in and chunks of ice form on the aluminium windows in our lounge. We know it is even harder for families who cannot afford firewood or gas and who live in the old mud brick houses or apartments.

Chilly day at the Hands of Hope homes at Cobila

The inside of our lounge windows

Many families here can barely afford basic food and firewood. Extras such as medications, medical consultations, shoes, clothes, school essentials etc become unaffordable luxuries. We still see people searching in waste skips for food and people walking through the snowy streets in lightweight and leaky shoes or slippers.

Cosmin came home from hospital for the weekend. He is now midway through his radiotherapy treatment. Next week he is due to have a scan to assess possible secondary cancer in his abdomen. At the moment he is feeling well and we lit the fire (& switched on electric heaters) in our old cottage resource room so that the children could come and play. The 19 children had a lovely time doing craft activities puzzles, games and playing with the toys, it was wonderful to see Cosmin able to relax and enjoy time with his friends.

People often ask what our days consist of here in Dorohoi, all I can say is no 2 days are the same and we often have to change plans in an instant as a need arises. A number of people we know have been in hospital recently and we have visited taking food, clothes and toiletries.

Hospital visit to Maria and her daughter

At the moment as well as spending time with families, helping at the the Star of Hope Centre, distributing aid we are also applying for planning permissions and  progressing paperwork for the charity.

Chris and I will be back on the island soon and if you would like us to come and talk to you about our lives here in Romania please get in touch. If you would like to keep up to date please like our Hands of Hope page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/handsofhopeiom and also the on-going praying for Cosmin page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/232619346800702/

December update

After a busy few weeks we are on our way back to the Isle of Man for Christmas with our family.

Last week we helped Simona, Marcel and their 3 children move into their new home. This home had been partly built using funds from the local authorities, but as it was unfinished they faced another winter in the old house (the one barely habitable room was the smokiest I have ever been into). We were so happy to be able to help by fitting a soba for them to cook on and heat 2 rooms in the new house also finish roof, ceilings, flooring and fit a new watertight front door. Marcel had worked enthusiastically alongside our workers and both he and Simona were so grateful for the help.

Simona Marcel and children move in to their new home

Carl Hunt and Ellie Davis were with us for 4 days and worked hard to help with all the shoe box deliveries to the schools and families. Ellie works for “Samaritans Purse “in Humberside and had had an exhausting 7 week campaign preparing boxes. The previous week Carl had helped with loading the lorry. They had heard that these boxes were destined for Botosani Romania and were thrilled when I was able to put them in contact with the distributer in Botosani and for us to visit the warehouse that was storing them. While Carl was with us we also met the Chief of Botosani Firefighters and Carl will be visiting again next year with more equipment.

going home from school with their boxes

Yesterday (Sunday) was our last full day. Church at Varfu in the morning (accompanied by one of the Cobila families). We then went to Botosani where we had been invited to have lunch with one of the families we help. It was a delicious meal of soup, sarmale and homemade biscuits.  We then went to visit a family delivering our last shoeboxes and also a computer for her 3 children. We got home about 7.30pm having been out for 10 hours. We had only been in for a few minutes when there was a knock at the door. It was late for anyone to be calling and we were not expecting anyone. It was carol singers, the families from the Hands of Hope homes at Cobila had come to give us a fantastic Christmas send off.

Carol singers-25 of the folk from Hands of Hope homes at Cobila

Now we are on the train (a 7 hour journey to Bucharest). It has been very dry here for the past 6 months and on a grey day the view is very monochrome. We travel through vast expanses of bare fields, passing occasional villages and old communist era buildings (many abandoned and in disrepair), the clumps of bare trees and the sporadic brightness of a green painted house, children walking home from school or a horse and cart ambling along a track.

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do

If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

The lyrics of the poem "Christmas is coming" associate the Christmas feast with geese which are eaten in traditional English Christmas feasts. The meaning that is conveyed to a child in "Christmas is coming" is that the festive period is where each should give to charity, according to their means... even if all they could give was their blessing (If you haven't got a penny...)

Vasy and Ruth and  shoe boxes

Thank you to everyone who has supported the charity over the past year. You may never come to Romania, but believe me you are helping to make a huge difference to the lives of many people.


Today we collected nearly 600 shoe boxes, which have come through the HCI assocation which is based here in Dorohoi. They are now stored in one of the containers ready for sorting and delivering.We will deliver around 300 boxes into 4 of the local schools and Kindergardens and with each visit will give a Christmas message and if time allows make balloon models for the children. We always receive a warm welcome and often are invited to stay and watch the children sing or recite poems.The other boxes will be taken to poor families which we visit in the area, I am also in the process of making up bags of clothes and shoes for these families. Its getting colder here and despite all my layers I can only cope with an hour or 2 of working in the container, such a change from the summer when it was too hot to work in the container for more than half and hour or so!
We are looking forward to our friend Carl Hunt and 2 friends coming next week. They will be staying with us for 5 days to help with the distribution of Christmas shoe boxes and family food parcels.

Unloading the soba bricks

All the regular work of the charity is happening as well as the Christmas preparations. We are helping a family to finish their home, the man labouring as we help to provide some of the materials. as Chris was away last week I had to hitch up the trailer and take the bricks for the soba to the site, somewhat nervewracking experience. i was very pleased to get them all on site intact and did not meet any other traffic on the rough and narrow lane which leads to the house. I dont think I will ever master the art of reversing a trailer! This week the soba has been finished and next week Chris will be supervising the insulation of the roof and finishing of the gable ends.
Mihae a 14 year old boy in a village near the Ukraine border needed to go to hospital to have a growth removed from his scalp, we helped with transport to the hospital 30 miles away. He had to stay in hospital for 3 days and our friend Cornelia visited with food. Today we went with his mother and took him home and will help with transport back to the hospital for his check up next week. 30 miles may not seem far to those of us with a car, but it would cost £12 return for mother and son to travel to Botosani.

Cobila Children's activity day

Cosmin is enjoying being home with his family and friends. It was lovely that he was well enough to join the childrens activity day which we arranged at Cobila. He is looking a lot better and will be returning to Iasi for his next set of chemotherapy next week.

Tomorrow we will be moving a new family into the vacant house on our Hands of Hope site at Cobila. The family (mother, father and 2 little boys), have been living on the old army barracks on the Ukraine border for the past 18 months, since their home was washed away in the floods of June 2010. They have been living in a tiny room, just big enough for a double bed, table and soba. There was less than 2 square metres of free space on the floor, the soba is very smokey and the high ceiling and single glazing made it hard to keep warm. We are looking forward to welcoming them to the Cobila community and pray they will settle well and soon make friends with the other 6 families there.

Well-travelled hedgehog “Garmin”

Having clocked up almost as many miles between the Isle of Man and Dorohoi as Ruth and Chris, I decided it was my turn to write the “blog”. Garmin is my name and I first went to Romania in 2003. I was named after the “garmin” satnav which they used me to cover when they left the van.

They were supposed to give me to away in Romania but having been squashed and dropped in mud and snow I ended up back on the island and became a travelling companion for future road trips. I reckon by now I have done 17 return journeys with Ruth and Chris, going with them each time except the summer of 2009 when they FORGOT me! And as you can see on the photo I now have an angel to keep me company.

We got back to Dorohoi this morning and spent a few hours unloading the Pajero. As trips go this one was fairly uneventful, the usual 2 boat trip and 2000 miles of driving.

 St Mary Magdalen Parish Church Geddington

At least this time I had a good view, I thought we were full as we left the island, but I was even more squashed after we had collected other items on the way. Paper, crayons, baby clothes from Kathryn, Stew and Noah, T-shirts from Pat, children’s clothes from Nic, Gary, Eoghan & Liam, lovely knitted blankets from the fellowship group at Geddington Parish church and shoes, clothes, chocolates and toiletries from our friends at the Anker Hotel.

 

 

It was a bit of a shock when a stone hit the windscreen in Germany, leaving a crack which will need repairing at a later date. Also I was rather surprised to see flashing lights on the floor on the driver’s side of the car, but Ruth was sure it was due to Chris’s fast cornering up and down the mountains.

It is already turning cold here and there was only a dusting of snow over the Romanian mountains and so far it has only been as cold as -3C but I am pretty sure it was even colder in the car overnight.

Ruth says please continue to pray for Cosmin who is now in intensive care at Iasi hospital, following his oesophageal haemorrhage on Sunday. He has been visited each day by friends who live in Iasi and today our friend Helen went to see him (3 hours each way by bus). She was able to take medication which he needed urgently and which the hospital was unable to provide.

see link to a pray for Cosmin page set up by one of our Romanian friends Miki.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=232619346800702

Packing

It has been wondeful to be back on the island for a few weeks. We have thoroughly enjoyed having time with our family and spent lots of time getting to know our adorable grandson James. We have also given a number of talks about our lives in Romania and collected many items which we will be taking back with us or which have been packed and are ready to be sent out later.

Our Pajero has been serviced, cleaned and has new set of mud and snow tyres. It is now just about full, though I do still have a pile of bags which I hope to squeeze in.

The forecast for our drive across europe is looking good, though minus 7C is forecast for our first week back in Romania.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, contributions, support and encouragement.

Please continue to pray for Cosmin, he and his mother came home from hospital in Iasi yesterday (though it was a long journey as the train broke down so the normal 3 hour trip took 6 hours. He is very happy to be home and is in good spirits. He will return for his final chemotherapy session in a few weeks.