Final
Thoughts and reflections on trip December 2010
Without
doubt a “good” and memorable trip. The aid has been safely delivered, shoe
boxes and food parcels distributed and SO MUCH MORE.
To
begin with Casa Mabel and Mustard Seed Romania:
It
was disappointing to see Flori for only a couple of
hours before she had to leave for surgery in Bucharest – our plans had been to
spend the weekend with her as well as Tuesday after we arrived. But we are SO
PLEASED we have seen her for a short time. By the sound of it all has gone
well, her only criticism of the hospital there was that it is cold but she was
well treated which is amazing as she is a gypsy. To hear her talk of being
alone “just God and me” was moving and brought tears to our eyes, but when on
Sunday she spoke so joyfully and positively of her dream or vision of angels
and her friends that was awesome – and by awesome I mean inspiring awe and
wonder.
Casa
Mabel has such a good feel. The dynamics of ten elderly ladies living together
and the young women living next door but very much “en famille”
really works. The young ones help the older more frail ones so tenderly and
well. For the older ones it gives the chance to give love and share their
wealth of experience. One older woman has very much taken one of the younger
ones under her wing emotionally, calling her “my daughter” and this young woman
has blossomed and matured; the bond between them is mutually beneficial. Phil
and I have acquired another Romanian daughter I think as one put her arms round
me and hugged me long and hard saying “I am your daughter” adding with a little
catch in her
voice “please”. Of course I hugged her back and agreed. And throughout our time
there she kept checking with me that “I am your daughter”? I was especially sad
for her when we said Goodbye. Being needed and loved is so important.
It
was great to hear Bob’s positive comments on progress since his last trip to
Romania. His co-driver Neil endeared himself to all by sitting holding the old
ladies hands as they talked in Romanian. All were sad when the drivers left.
The
Christmas shoebox distribution to the children and pensioners went well. What
most encouraged me was the comment of the Mayor’s secretary as I took the
Jersey calendar for him. She said that she knew all about Mustard Seed Jersey
(or Mootard Seeed ) not only from the Mayor but her mother is a teacher in
the school and she had told her of the children’s joy when the shoeboxes were
distributed. That sort of feed back – along with the
obvious joy on the faces - makes it all so very worth while.
And
the distribution of shoeboxes and food parcels to pensioners as always that was
excellent. I was thoroughly kissed and hugged and blessed – but the gratitude
was very real and obviously so.
It
is challenging to see the long hours worked by people here – one of the young
women gets up at 4 am to catch a bus to the factory she works at, not getting
back home again till 4 pm and sometimes she has to work extra hours when no factory
bus is provided.
To
hear that state employees have effectively had their salaries reduced by 50% is
shocking – the 25% cut in June and the enforced one day a week unpaid leave
make a huge impact on the pay packets of the employees, but their work load
remains the same.
We
would say that the state of the roads in Romania in some cases has improved
with some of the poorest roads near the border being greatly improved and the
layout altered. But the lack of maintenance and resulting state of many of the roads
with atrocious potholes is alarming. We understand cars are sometimes damaged
through pot-holes on one particular main road. After one trip along this road
we decided to avoid possible damage to our car so after that we went the long
way round.
With
FI I was well pleased to see the success of the distribution that we witnessed
– as always it is SO REWARDING to see the goods we have sent being given to
those in genuine need. Certainly for next winter we need to try to source many
more blankets for them – I would estimate 800 – 1000 blankets would be placed
very easily, as they are so well positioned in the centre of town where there
are so very many impoverished families and pensioners living nearby. My one
regret is that we did not receive very much food money this year so we cannot
help as much with food as I would like us to.
But
what will remain with me most was the visit to the disabled very elderly
pensioner and her joy on seeing me again and on seeing the contents of her
shoebox. I am sure she is right that she is reaching the end of her life but
she had no fear of death. I feel we are so privileged to be able to help make
the lives of her and many others that bit easier. I trust and pray we will be
able to continue while the need remains.