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.

October 15th and it is snowing

It is a joy to hear from friends in the Isle of Man and UK when we are in Romania, and often a real boost to us. The same works when we are back on the island. Not a day goes past without some contact from Romania. This past week a number of friends have been able to visit Cosmin in hospital in Iasi and let us know how he is getting on. We also have messages from the community at Cobila and our friends in Dorohoi.

Our friend Pastor Liviu had also been to visit families we know and report back that they are all struggling to buy food and firewood, some families we know have had electricity supplies cut off because they cannot afford the bills.

Last week I said the temperatures were dropping in Romania and the first snow had fallen on the mountains. This morning I heard that it is snowing in our area and in Dorohoi tonight it is forecast to be -1C. I know many folks on the island are trying to economise and like us not turn on the central heating yet. In Romania the winters are longer and much colder, and many families we know struggle to afford fuel. It is hard enough for the families in the well-insulated Hands of Hope houses, but even harder for people who are still living in old mud brick houses or some of the recently built social houses which have no insulation. Last year in April when we drove back across the Romanian mountains the snow was still thick and in Dorohoi the first signs of spring were only just beginning to show.


Last year we were able to help some of the poorest families with loads of fire wood which cost £20-£30 for a months supply.

Cosmin October 2011

Yesterday a Romanian Friend was able to visit Cosmin and his mother in hospital in Iasi. He took Cosmin some fruit, food and gifts. we heard later in the day how this had been a real boost for them and that Cosmin loved the robot toy. Please continue to pray for Cosmin and his family as he undergoes the chemotherapy. This morning his mother will be donating blood, so that Cosmin can have the much needed transfusion before his next chemo session.

Cosmin with his mother and Francisc

Grandparents and.............

We are thoroughly enjoying having time at home with the family and getting to know our first grandson James who is now 2 weeks old. He is changing every day and developing a lovely character.

I was so pleased to be able to attend the Mosaic Women’s conference organised by Living Hope community Church www.livinghope.im . It was a superb time of teaching and fellowship and a good time to catch up with friends. 2012 conference is already fixed in my diary 9-10^th November.

We were able to have a stand at the conference showing the work of Hands of Hope and had some positive conversations. On Sunday Chris and I were leading the young people’s activity time. We were focusing on the work of Hands of Hope and around 60 (7-12 year old) children attended. They had some very interesting questions.

Last Friday we had a stand at the Charity Challenge event, a time for the year 12 students from the Isle of Man schools to come and see the work of local charities oversees and choose a charity to research and represent in this year’s challenge. We heard today that a group has chosen us and are looking forward working with them as they prepare their presentation.

We are in daily contact with contacts in Romania, it may only be a brief chat on Face Book or an email but it is great to keep in touch and know how people are getting on. The temperature in Dorohoi is already dropping and is on the whole colder than the island, first snowfalls were reported on the mountain roads at the weekend.

We have regular updates on the little boy Cosmin who lives in one of the Hands of Hope built homes at Cobila. He is making the 3 hour journey with his mother to Iasi for chemotherapy once a month. When he got there this week his red blood cell count was low, so tomorrow his mother will donate blood so that he can have a blood transfusion before he has the chemotherapy.

Over the next few weeks we are booked to speak at school assemblies and church groups; it is always a joy to talk about the work in Romania so please get in touch if you would like to see us before we go back.

Back on the Isle of Man

Packed & Ready to go

Some people go away and come home to a house which was just the same as they left it, (well as long as they did not leave teenage children minding the place!) Maybe a neighbour comes in to water the plants, even feed the cats but basically the house is the same. We are often blessed to come home to our house with more in it than when we left. I remember once when we came back to our house in Andreas, one of the first things I did was to go to the outhouse to put a load of washing in the machine. The only problem was the washing machine was completely buried under about 20 large black bin bags. This time it was our dining room table, bags of clothes, craft materials, toys & toiletries. They are now all sorted and will either go back to Romania with us in November or on the next shipment.

If anyone is having a clear out or wants to donate some items the following are particularly useful. Shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, felt tips, coloured pencils, craft materials, jigsaw puzzles (under 300 pieces) children’s clothes, socks, tights and shoes. Many of these items are more expensive to buy in Romania and are unaffordable by the people we help.

Of course funds are always needed too and you can see on our web site www.handsofhope.org.im ways to donate by cheque or our PayPal account.

Family allowance is less than £9 per month per child. For some of the families we help, this is their only income!


Mirela, Vasille and 4 of their 5 children

2011 House Build

£15000 builds a home for a family

£500 pays for a year’s college/university fees.

£500 sinks a new well, fits a hand pump and concrete surround

Cosmin February 2011

£216 pays for part of one course of chemotherapy treatment for a Cosmin. Cosmin had a malignant tumour removed from his back in July and is now having chemotherapy. But the hospital has not got the budget available to purchase all the medications required.

£20 pays of a food parcel. Mămăligă which is made from cornmeal (polenta) is a staple food and for poorer families can often be the only food eaten. A food parcel helps to give a wider variety and more nutrition to the family’s diet and the parcel also contains cleaning products.

£10 pays to refill a gas bottle.

£4 pays for one child’s school bus fares for a week

25p buys an 800g loaf of bread.

Family allowance is less than £9 per month per child. For some of the families we help, this is their only income!

Hands of Hope

“Hands of Hope” is the name of the Manx charity that we are trustees of, but what does that actually mean?

Chris & I are the regular volunteer “Hands” in Romania but we are joined during each year by other folks who visit us and volunteer to use their hands here. There are also many people in the Isle of Man & UK who may never visit us personally but who are willing hands giving support by praying for us and the work, donating funds, clothes, medicines and building materials, helping to construct building panels, collecting and packing clothes including our friends and fellow trustees James and Selina Vickers. We are also blessed to be helped by others here in Romania,  people who work for other charities, friends from our church here and also the families who we help who then help us to help others in need.

The main focus of our work where our hands do most work in the village area of Cobila in the Sendricini Commune just outside Dorohoi in Botosani County. Here we help support 7 families on a regular basis. We and they alike work together as friends indeed as family and we aim to encourage a sense of community.

Speranţă

Part of this sense of community comes from the sharing of land and resources including the produce from a cow and three goats. Earlier in the year many of the community worked the fields by hand to ensure what we hope will be the best crop of maize to date. The cow and goats regularly give enough milk to supplement the diet of all the families.

The cost of the seed and ploughing etc. is supported by the charity; some of the animals have been generously donated by supporters in the Isle of Man. The goat Brianna was donated the Elvin family last year. The cow was donated to one of our families last year by a charity based a few miles away from us (Matthews House). In exchange for grazing on charity land some of her milk is donated to other families. The cow was named by her new owner and he decided to call her Speranţă (Hope), as he said she was a symbol of the Cobila community and the hope that people had when they were given a new home and a new start in life J

See  www.handsofhope.org.im for more information and details

The 3 Goats Brianna,Sophia and Valentina with some of the children from the Cobila community

Blog update at last

Is it a roundabout or traffic island?

This has been on my "to do" list for far too long. Since June Dorohoi has changed! The road outside our apartment is finished, we now have a block paved dual carriageway instead of the dust filled potholes with a few patches of road in between. "Is it an improvement?", On the plus side, we do have far less dust floating up into our 4th floor windows, it's smoother to drive up. Negatives,few people stick to the 50km an hour speed limit, which makes using any of the 10 pedestrian crossings in the 0.6km between our block and the supermarket interesting,and will it survive the snow and cold winters, only time will tell.

Yes the grey car is going up the wrong side of the road

From our apartment windows we had a birds eye view of the work as it progressed with many near accidents as drivers were confused by the lane changes.


Work continues for Hands of Hope, houses built and renovated, families supported, aid distributed, new well dug, crops sown and tendered, hay cut and gathered in the latest newsletter is on the web site www.handsofhope.org.im

Thank you to everyone who supports the work and Please get in touch if you are able to help with fund raising or want further information, contact details are on the website www.handsofhope.org.im

Violins & lap tops donated, new well sunk and hay gathered in

Violins - At the end of April a family here in Romania asked if there was any chance of me getting a violin so that their daughters could start lessons. I put out a request to all our contacts on the Isle of Man and had a fantastic response which ended up with not one but 5 violins! They have been given to families who had no hope of affording to buy their own and we have had the privilege of seeing the joy on the faces as we delivered them.

Laptops - Thanks to the generosity of companies on the island we have been able donate a number of 2nd hand laptops to children and to the centre for children with special needs. Lap tops are particularly useful as they take up less space in small houses and also cope well with the variable power supply.

Well - After many weeks of waiting and a change in contractor a team of men and their equipment eventually turned up late one evening and sunk the well. They worked through the night, sleeping for just a couple of hours in the hay barn, eventually hitting an impenetrable layer of lignite type material at 7m deep. It was certainly an interesting process to witness especially as they worked by lamp light in the early hours. The well coincides with a spring or underground stream and fills with 3000 litres of water within 3 hours.

Over the next few weeks we shall cap and cover the well and fit the hand pump.

 Hay - The same evening as the well was being dug we were busy helping to get the hay in. The pajero & trailer acted as horse and cart to gather the hay and move it to the barn. We reckon we have 60 cubic metres of hay in and more to collect from other fields which were cut last week.

Land - We have had more rain this week, and thankfully no hail (crops in some areas of the country have been wrecked by storms this week). The ladies from the families spent some time in the field weeding around the potatoes and corn.

 It is now time to be vigilant looking for Colorado beetles which attack the potatoes with enthusiasm here.

Houses - Work continues on the house with internal insulation going into the ceiling panels tomorrow. We are still waiting for authorisations to come back which will enable us to progress the new electric supply.

Thanks to all who have helped support the work here in Romania either by, donations, prayer or just contacting us with an encouraging word.

Ziua Copilului &......Children's Day &........

Hi friends or anyone who reads this blog, and if you do read this and find it interesting please let me know, get in touch if you want more info or have word of encouragement for us.Well what have we been doing over the past couple of weeks, since the building team left?

June 1st is a National Day for children in Romania (Ziua Copilului) and in the afternoon we spent a few hours with the children at Cobila. It was 28C that afternoon and the special treat of an icecream was very welcome, we had also made up a gift bag for each child containing, a new toy and T-shirt, crisps, biscuits and other treats.

Work on the house has continued, though at slightly slower pace as work on the land took priority. In the new build house the soba (traditional wood burning stove which is used to cook on and heat house) has been built. External rendering, electrics, fencing, internal plastering and painting still to be completed.

Prayers were answered and we have had a couple of days of good rain, which was very welcome as having had to water trees and crops, the well at the back of the land at Cobila was getting very low. Last week the ladies from the families all worked together and spent nearly 2 days weeding the field, in perfect timing it rained the next day and the corn and other crops are looking much better and we pray for a good crops for the families here. We bought certified seed this year which we hope will give higher yield and better quality corn.
In the garden we have already enjoyed spring onions and radishes and salad. Tomatoes, aubergines, castroveti, peppers, spinach, beans, peas, onions, potatoes, courgettes, pumpkins all well on the way.

The New Well, we eventually sourced a hand pump which should be delivered on Monday and will be fitted to the new well. We have been waiting a few weeks to get this well dug and have now asked another company. They came promptly to deliver some of the tubes, but will have to wait for land to dry little before the heavy machine can be brought on site to dig the well.

The school year ends soon & then a 3 month vacation! BUT before that end of year excursions and parties which each parent has to pay for or the children cannot attend (as i am sure you can understand many parents here can barely afford food). Another compulsory expense at the moment are final exams for older students.

The financial crisis is hitting hard here, with those lucky enough to have a salary having wages cut, social allowances are also reduced and food and utility prices are escalating.
Thank you for all prayers and support which enable work here to proceed.

New house and new arrivals

Ok folks apologies if you been eagerly awaiting blog updates, this one has been promised to many for past week or so. but somehow time and creative writing have been in short supply. Chris and I had a busy first half of the month preparing for this years house build and last Saturday we drove down to Bacau to meet the 4 folks who arrived by plane. David & James arrived early on Sunday morning. We have had a fantastic week with the team from the Isle of Man here. They have been working hard, starting on site at 7am and finishing 7pm. In 4 days the house is up, roof on and insulation being fitted. We have also visited families, sorted and delivered aid, purchased food and delivered food parcels, had a BBQ and childrens fun afternoon for the families in HoH homes and friends. Pictures to follow soon.

Speranţă

Amazing to think we have been back for 8 days. As we travelled we drove through snow and temperatures of minus 2, for the first few days it was wet and muddy but today it feels like spring and a lot warmer. It has been great to have Jackie with us and to share our work here . I have caught up with paperwork and Jackie has helped to sort boxes and bags. we have distributed aid to families and other charities who we work in conjunction with.

As well as catching up with the families living in the Hands of Hope homes we have visited around 25 other families with food parcels some who live in a village near the Ukraine border. The village is about 10 miles away over rough roads on the way back the Pajero rescued 2 vans. First a white box van stuck in the mud then a tip up truck which had landed in a ditch!

Highlight of last week was to attend the baptism of one of the ladies who lives house built by Hands of Hope a few years ago.

Last Friday we went to our friend Liviu's church and heard the renowned speaker Alejandro Rodriguez from YWAM Argentina. A message to encourage and empower the young people in the church, He spoke in Spanish and was translated into Romanian and we understood most/some of it!

On Saturday we had 18 children in the cottage and spent a lovely 3 hours doing craft activities and playing games. Hope the weather will continue to improve so we can get the bikes and outside games out this weekend.

On Monday Jackie and I spent time at the Star of Hope Centre in Dorohoi and it was wonderful to see how much progress some of the children have made in the past 8 weeks.

The warmer and drier weather has enabled outside work to commence and the men at Cobila have been helping to improve the site by laying drainage tubes. We hope it will soon be warm enough to get planting in the garden and on the fields.

Funds were donated to buy another goat to supply milk for the families in the homes at Cobila. now all we have to do is source the goat, went to the market this morning and to another farm this afternoon but not found the right one yet. Hope to contact someone else tomorrow so watch this space. The cow at Cobila is threatened with the BBQ if she takes much longer to become prgnant! She was named "Speranta" or in English Hope, by the guy who looks after her and she has given lots of lovely milk but needs to be in calf again so this can continue.

please get in touch if you want more info about work in Romania and let us know what you think of the blog. ruth@handsofhope.org.im

3 people, 3 days, 3000kg, 3000km

Jackie, Chris & Ruth, left the Isle of Man on the Friday evening ferry and arrived in Dorohoi 3 days later. 3000km (1864miles) driven carrying a 3000kg load of aid and building supplies. Having travelled for over 27 hours we stopped for our first night in Nurnburg. Day 2 we crossed the rest of Germany, Austria and Hungary arriving at the hotel on the border around midnight. our final day was the drive across Romania. This final leg is only 361km (225 miles) and we would expect it to take us 8-9 hours of almost solid driving. On Monday it took us 10 hours as we encounted heavy snow across the mountains. we arrived about 6.30pm and spent a couple of hours unloading the car and catching up with the families at Cobila. A lovely welcome from them all. It was cold this morning around 0C, apparantly it was snowing here at the weekend, now we only have heavy rain which means mud mud and more mud. Today we have been busy showing Jackie around Dorohoi, meeting families and more unpacking & sorting clothes ready for distribution.