MONDAY MAY 25^th

Not a very busy day but good! We began by sleeping much later than expected and then having a proper shower with hot water (!) in the pensioners home. It had been our plan to have a lazy morning, see Flori off to her dialysis and then potter until Alex came at 1 o’clock (he had an appointment in the morning); we knew we needed a couple of hours business meeting with Alex about various things as well as arranging the programme for our time here.

But Alex arrived in the morning so as we went to have our breakfast at approaching 9 o’clock there was Alex waiting for us! He had changed his appointment. So we had breakfast with Alex (well for Alex it must have been brunch!) and saw Flori off. A small ambulance came to collect her around 10 am to take her to the Oradea hospital – it also collects a couple of other dialysis patients from Cefa. She is gone all day, returning at about 6pm and this is 3 days a week.

The discussions with Alex went well and we covered much of the ground we needed to, including getting the beginning of a list of needs (which I will insert at the bottom of this diary entry), also hearing of the recent death of several of our pensioners, learning of the funeral procedure in Romania and we have finalised our programme more or less:

Tuesday – morning and early afternoon with Flori – go to Oradea with her, see a friend of hers who produces hand-made craft items we might purchase to sell in Jersey, then go to a tourist attraction at Baile Felix for lunch. We need to be back at Cefa for 5 pm to spend a couple of hours with Alex doing pensioner and high school reports for sponsors.

Wednesday – we will spend with Nelu and Cristina of FI.

Thursday – we will be with Alex going to visit projects at Saceini and Voivez, also visit Gurau family and purchase a commercial or semi-commercial washing machine for the pensioners home ( – the present one flooded over the floor while we were talking with Alex this morning!!).

Friday – this can be a tying up loose ends day for Phil and me, visiting people we have not yet seen, going back to Geo’s, etc. At 7 pm we will have a pensioners’ meeting for the food parcel distribution at the little church.

Saturday – the official opening of the pensioners home at 9.30 am followed by a bazaar at 12 noon and a quiet family meal in the evening.

Sunday – we will attend church with Alex and everyone at Cefa in the morning, have lunch then we must say Goodbye and head for the border.

This afternoon we went to see Kathy Langston and here Phil and I amazed ourselves at how we managed to navigate to Kathy’s with just the map and the street name! Kathy was amazed too and had her mobile ready for our SOS phone call to say we were lost!

We had a great time with Kathy and the girls Codi and Andrea. Kathy was very pleased at how the younger one related to us so well, while the older one did her school homework as sometimes she can find it hard to relate to unfamiliar adults and usually just goes into her shell and plays alone! Their adoption is finally finalised and the girls are starting to realise they cannot be taken away from Kathy.

After a good meal and 2 hours play in the nearby park (well the girls played while Kathy, Phil and I talked and gave the occasional push on the swings!) we said Good bye and came back home.

On our return we found Flori is not feeling too good after her dialysis – headache, sore throat, been vomiting and has a very sore arm and swollen hand; this is apparently quite normal after dialysis. She cheered up when we told her what we have planned for tomorrow and said she hoped to feel better.

We are now back in the hostel (which will shortly be the house of the site supervisor) and we will head for bed very shortly. We are both saddened and concerned to see Flori suffering like that.

List of needs identified so far:

· Trailer for tractor – Phil thinks he can source one, but will check on his return, so if George and the other loaders read this they know it will be a fascinating and challenging load this time!!

· Implements to go behind a tractor – plough, scarifier, sprayer

· Bikes – including those in need of repair

· Hand tools – flat hoes, etc.

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