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/