Back in UK

We left Dorohoi on Sunday morning, the temperature was minus 25C. but despite that the roads were all clear and we had a good run across Romania getting to the Hungarian Austrian border in 14 hours. The weather warmed up as we travelled west and by the time we were in Belgium the fields alongside the motorways were green rather than white with snow. Looking forward to a few days with family before we go back to the Isle of Man on Saturday. Hoping that all our friends in Romania are keeping warm and safe we heard that the temperature in Dorohoi dropped to minus 30 on Sunday night. Hard enough to cope with if you are living in a warm and dry home with plenty of food to keep you going, but many folks we know are living in one room shacks, with low stocks of firewood, food cupboards bare and have to go outside to get use the earth closet toilet & get water from wells!

Ready to go

Its been a busy few days and a lot colder, about minus 12 now with minus 26 forecast for tomorrow. we have been out and about delivering food parcels and firewood.saying good bye to familes and friends, The Pajero is a star car and copes with all. though the condensation on the inside of the windows has been freezing as we have been driving even with air con on.

Aiming for an early start in the morning and all being well will make the Hungarian/Austrian border.

Food Parcels

Babies born with low birth weight or in very poor familes often are not thriving at home. the babies can then spend time in the baby hospital to build them up. Each year Hands of Hope supports families for up to a year after they have gone home with a monthly parcel of food and cleaning products. The parcels are not just giving extra nutrition to the very poor, but are also an opportunity to offer counselling & advice on health and parenting concerns. Some families come to collect the parcels but for others in outlying villages this is just not possible especially in the winter. Yesterday Chris and I went with 2 of the social workers to deliver parcels to 5 families. We covered 103miles and as you can see from the photos we had a lot of snow. The Pajero was brilliant and got us much closer to the homes than the car the girls normally have to use for deliveries. Each family was just living in one room and in very harsh conditions.

Snow & Frozen veg

It is chilly out this am, -9C and snowing. The local roadsweepers were out and about, but facing an uphill struggle. Chris cleared our apartment steps of about 3 inches of snow this morning but when we came back it was just as bad. Earlier this morning, Chris went down to the market to get some veg so I could make a casserole but the market was almost bare. He came back with a few hard frozen carrots, parsnips and onions. It is interesting to chop frozen onions! Casserole cooked and we took it to one of the families we help, a mum with 7 children, the youngest was born by caesarian in November 1.2kg. He is home now but very tiny and mum works hard looking after children etc. I was glad we remembered to get some water from the well while we were out. We use if for hot drinks and cooking with in the apartment as the tap water here is not good.

We are aiming to drive back to the UK at the end of the week, and the forecast is.. snow and...
:-)

Saturday Night
Clear. Low: -27 °C . Wind light.

Sunday
Clear. High: -14 °C . Wind light.

Sunday Night
Clear. Low: -25 °C . Wind light. Windchill: -31 °C .

Friday 15th January

Today we went out to visit a family in a village about 45 minutes drive away from Dorohoi. In December an electrical fault started a fire and their house was destroyed-all except the mud brick walls. Neighbours helped to put water on the blazing house, it took the fire engine from Dorohoi an hour to get to the fire. The man is working hard to try and rebuild the house and borrowed money to start repairs. His first job was a new roof which will protect the walls from further damage. His wife and 3 children have had to move to relatives in Botosani city,while he repairs the house. Their 6 year old girl was badly burnt by a previous fire when she was a baby and had to have her right hand and forearm amputed, she also has many scars on her face and body. Their baby was born over Christmas and as they are now living out of the village where they are registered the mother is having difficulty accessing a Dr who is willing to give the baby its vaccinations etc. We are liasing with other charities to help this family get the medical care they need and repair the home so they can all be back together. On our way back we passed an elderly lady that we know walking through the snow, aided by her daughter, to get a bus to go to the post office for her pension. She had a stroke a few years ago and walks with difficulty, they were very pleased to see us and we were able to give them a lift.

We then spent a few hours visiting the families at Cobila, running children to school, fetching gas bottle refills, giving people lifts into town and generally just being there. Chris is now at his desk working on a stabilty book and having brought the accounts up to date I am going to tackle the ironing.

10 days and counting

It always seems that on every visit time creeps up on us and all of a sudden it is 10 days until we head back to the Isle of Man. we have a list of things to do before we leave and trying to plan here is not always easy!. today we went to the town hall in the village to complete some paperwork. we were there for around 2 hours and will have to go back again as the procedure has changed and we need to get other papers prepared before we can finish the paperwork which we thought would have taken only a few minutes!
This evening we had our Romanian home group here, it was good to have time & fellowship together and we watched an inspiring DVD about the work of Jackie Pullinger. I think her work and achievements put our day of minor frustrations in perspective.

back in Dorohoi

It was great to have a couple of days off and we are now back in Dorohoi. This evening there were 10 of us for dinner (our Romanian Home group & others), we had a great time & are all getting ready to be back at work on Monday.
Annette, great to see you listed as follower to this Blog:), Marcia, David & Ian too.
Is anyone else following, if so I would be interested to know

La Multi Ani

La Multi Ani- the greeting to say Happy New Year in Romanian.
We are enjoying a couple of days off, staying with our friends Ian & Sue at Volovat near Radauti.