Jacquie's Diary Entry for 17th December 2006
Hi everyone,
First thing, news about next week's diary, Sunday is also Christmas Eve, this is the traditional time in Romania for Father Christmas to arrive; so we will be busy distributing the toys, jumpers and hats we have kept from the aid that arrived in November and the oranges and sweets that we will buy with some of the money you have donated to us. I do not think I will have the time or the energy to write to you as usual, also I think you will be too busy Christmas Day to read about what we have been doing. So ... next week's diary will be written Boxing Day and will be on line sometime on the 27th December. Mr Webmaster, Sir, says that is ok with him. I don't give him much time off do I? So because this will be the last diary before Christmas …

Happy Christmas to You All
From All at Growing Care in Romania and England

But on with this week's Diary ...
Monday and as I had missed the maize man yesterday it was a trip into Constanta for feed. I went into town and commercialised Christmas hit me. In the village Christmas preparations are a family thing, a great deal of preparation behind closed doors, but the village shops don't go in for decorations and we have no street decorations. If you pass the school on a Tuesday or Thursday in December you will here them singing Christmas songs - Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, We wish you a merry Christmas, etc. because the English teacher uses them to teach English. I had some female queries on a new internet connection Lew is considering and I headed for the stand they had in Tomis Mall, I guessed it would have a female representative and I could ask the stupid questions - me being the computer idiot that I am. This new system needs a new phone with an aerial sticking out of it and the computer connects to the telephone and uses that aerial for connecting to the web. You can pick the telephone up and carry it anywhere, it's sort of like a big mobile phone. That sorted I headed to McDs for a coffee, I decided on a hamburger as well, I had left without stopping for breakfast, a silly thing to do. I sat down at a window table, a bit chilly for sitting outside now, I like to people watch while I'm eating. As I was staring out of the window I noticed one of the girls that lives in the tunnel at the train station, she saw me and waved, I waved back. She rubbed her tummy, a sign she was hungry, I waved for her to come in but she wouldn't. I went and bought her a hamburger and a coke and placed it on the table by me and waved her to come in. One of the staff came over and told me she couldn't come inside. She looked clean and tidy, and I told him very politely that she was my friend and she would be eating with me. I turned and beckoned her in again, she looked at the McD man and shock her head. I turned and looked at him, he said again she couldn't come in, I said again, slightly louder that she was my friend and she would eat with me. He said again she couldn't come in; I said a little louder (I think most of McDs heard me) that she was my friend and she would eat with me. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away and my friend came in. We sat, ate and talked a little, the kids know if they talk in single words, not whole sentences, I can understand. While we were talking I noticed the people a couple of tables away from us, they were looking at us smiling, not in the least concerned with having my young friend eating near them. Anyone who knows me well, will be shocked, I am normally not so forceful. My friend saw one of the McDs offers - a furby - and asked if she could have one, I said she could have one at Christmas. So I will have to find her Christmas Eve and buy her a Happy Meal. A promise I know I can keep. I said goodbye to my young friend, (I can't quite get her name right), and she went back to her begging and I went off to get my maize. I popped in to see Madi at the petrol garage and arranged to meet her tomorrow for visiting our families.

Tuesday and the first job of the day was to get to the feed mill. I walked up to the animal house to get the oats. Lew went out to open the car - it wasn't there - the car was gone. It had been stolen during the night - yes, with five Security Crew, the car had been stolen and they hadn't barked once. One of the Board of Directors said that the Security Crew needed a reprimand and that there would be no Bonios for Christmas. But back to the serious business; we needed to contact the police but couldn't do it ourselves. I went down to Anisoara, she was at Verorica's; they discussed the problem and decided we should contact Tica. We walked down to the services (the garage workshop), Tica wasn't there but Metica was, he contacted Tica and the police for us. I walked back to the caravan to let Lew know the police were on their way. Without the car there was no way I was going to be able to visit the families today, so I walked down to see Madi. I went into school on my way to say there would be no kids club this week, I just couldn't see how I was going to cope. I was out of feed; in the boot of the car was the maize I had bought yesterday, that was gone, and I couldn't go and buy feed. The van has been off the road for a couple of months, the English insurance papers are in England (not the sort of thing you send through the post). While I was out the police had arrived, they had stopped at Basarabi school to collect the English teacher. The car had been found in the next village on from Basarbi. I knew the state Tica's car had been found in last year - just the shell. Oh dear, and all this work to be done. The police took Lew to the car, one of the policemen is a relation of Franny, the mechanic who works on the car, so he had an interest in the car. Lew rang to say he was going to try driving the car home. He arrived home about ten minutes later, the car was running fine. Everything from the boot was gone and the bits of shopping I had left in the car because they weren't needed last night. But, it was working, that was the main thing. Lew went to the mill to buy feed, stopping in at school to say, kids club was back on. I rang Madi and arranged to meet her tomorrow. When Lew got back we stopped to have coffee, with everything organised, we felt exhausted. The theft had knocked us for six. We felt drained. I could not get motivated for the rest of the day, we gave up, fed and called it a day. I think here I should tell you about Romanian car insurance; there are two types, standard which is the one we have and expensive. Standard - is only for accidents, when you have an accident you exchange papers with the other driver, each insurance pays for the others repair and you have to buy a new insurance. That's it! No people insurance, no theft insurance. The other insurance, the expensive one, we don't know too much about, but we do know it is called 'comprehensive' and you pay two-thirds of the value of the car for the insurance each year. Exactly!

Wednesday afternoon and it is off to one of my families. There is mum, dad and six children, we met them a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately Georgel, the eldest, was at school, but the others were at home. Oina and Cristina were asleep on the bed. I started with Elena and as before took each item out of the bag giving it to her to give her ownership, her face was a picture as we looked at the patterns on the T-shirts. I try to give each child a set of clothes, a whole new outfit, with a couple of extra coordinating tops; with all the lovely clothes that came to me from the Isle of Wight Rotary it has been hard and easy at the same time. Claudia, you may remember didn't want to be measured, was next and I really needed to see if I had guessed right. She didn't want to know me, I took the things out one by one and placed them on a small table for her. Then I found a pink t-shirt with flowers and a butterfly embroidered on it, I showed it to her and she was interested and came to take a look. She picked up the bundle of clothes and walked off with them. Maria, one of the nineteen month old twins, was next but I hadn't judged them right and although the clothes were twelve to twenty-four months, most were too big. I will have to go back with smaller sizes. Oina and Cristina had woken up so it was their turn next, everyone fitted with clothes we started on shoes which are a nightmare, but we did get everyone fitted. I had brought some clothes for mum, but the size twelve trousers I had with me were too big, she is a size ten, not a size of which I have a great deal. I took some pictures for you; the bed the children are sitting on dominates the room, the window faces south so the room gets the sun. In the backgrounds you can see the wall coverings that they use to keep the heat in and the Romanian fire.

Thursday and it was a usual day.

Friday and I had arranged to meet Heather to take some things into Lacramoira, but I must go back a bit here. You may remember a couple of weeks ago I told you about Lacramoira's move from the streets into an apartment (you saw some pictures); Heather, Alex and us had helped her with the deposit. Last week they were told they had to move out. The landlord shouldn't have rented out the apartment, it was his mother-in-laws. She was coming home and they had to move out; and he wasn't going to give them any of their deposit back. Nothing we could do. They began looking for somewhere else and a couple of days ago they moved into the one room they had found. I hadn't seen the apartment (it was lounge, kitchen and bathroom), just the pictures, but I realised that this room was nothing like the apartment. Just one room with a bed-settee, nothing on the floor, no heating, no kitchen, no bathroom just an outside toilet. She has the camp cooker we gave them in the corner and they bought an old fire from the scrap merchant but, it uses a whole bottle of gas in two days and to me looks lethal. We had taken bedding, towels, curtains and a couple of those travel type blankets, they are often used to go on the floor here in Romania and I thought Lacramoira could do the same. Lacramoira wondered whether we had any kind of cupboard in which to keep their clothes; a set of two drawers had arrived with the aid so they will be delivered next week. I was just going to take some pictures when the landlord arrived and we left. Heather was going on to see another family that they had just come across and wondered if I wanted to go with them, I did. This family had to move out of their apartment a couple of weeks ago, not sure why, they had moved into the old place used by Lacramoira. It was some kind of office used by the railway, but was no longer in use, there is an outside walkway, the glass is gone, and a room with two windows, one window is just a hole in the wall. There is no water, electric or sanitation. The room contains a bed-settee and a couple of cupboards. There is mum and five children, it is obvious that they have been struggling for a good few months. The oldest child is nine, she is very thin; then there are two boys eight and five; then a girl of two and a girl nine months old. Alistair explains I have some clothes and would she like some for the children. She says that she really needs them for the baby. I measure the children; the nine year old has the body size of a three to four year old. How can anyone turn a family like this out onto the streets. I said I would be back and we left. From there I went to Metro to pick up the replacement things for Kids Club. As you walk in the Christmas decorations are in front of you, as I walked round the store I saw the other Christmas things. I kept thinking of the family I had just left and of how little they had; how I kept from crying I don't know. I will go back to them before Christmas and we will make their Christmas as good as we can. It was back to finish organising Kids Club. As I drove to the Community Centre I passed the kids on their way. I arrived half an hour before the start time and there were already about twenty kids waiting to go in. We had a great evening but it was hard work, sixty kids and again no interpreter. One of the dads tried to help with the games, his English wasn't good but with the help of hand signals he understood what the kids had to do and explained it to them. They do not understand the logic of team games and swap teams. Teams that start even, twenty each, end up with tens and thirties. I have decided I need team bands and Captain identities for next week. All good fun as Sian would say.

Saturday and this weekend is not one to be walking round the village if you are not of a strong constitution. This weekend the pigs will be killed for Christmas. I spent the morning sorting clothes for families and the afternoon cleaning out the pigs.

Sunday and it was off to the market for maize and hay. The market was heaving and many pigs were being sold for Christmas. The slaughter of pigs along the roadside at this time of year is commonplace and I saw at least six just bought pigs slaughtered on the waste land beside the road. We had notification of an unexpected donation today, that will boost the funds available to help Lacramoira and our new family. Plans are already being formed to make this a good Christmas for all the families with whom we work. Some of the things that arrived in the aid we wondered what we were going to do with them, but God's plan was already in place and everything is being put to good use.

What's been happening in the village this week? The pigs have been readied for Christmas, the cookies are being prepared and the homemade wine is being shared out in families. The children are getting excited about the party.

Well I think that's all the news from Siminoc this week ...
So I'll say cheerio for now ...