Jacquie's Diary for 5^th May 2008
Hi everyone,
We hope you all have a good May Day Holiday break on Monday, here in Romania the holiday is always taken on May the First, but more about that later.

Monday Our first job was to meet Alistair our interpreter and go and see Nicoletta and the family. We have now sorted everything out, they would like us to ask you all for your support for her and her family. She understands that the idea is that she will 'work' for us, so that she has all the necessary 'black book' paperwork to be able to take the children to the doctor without charge but that we are not expecting her to actually start any type of work for the time being. We felt this was the best way to go - I had better try to explain some of the intricacies of Romanian life to you. If Nicoletta is not employed she and her family are not covered by Health Insurance, which would mean she would have to pay for the children to see the Doctor and the full price for any medication. We estimate £200 a month will support the family, of course we are not expecting that sort of money to come from one place but if you can help with a one off donation or a monthly donation every little helps reach the goal of £200 a month (you will find a monthly direct debit form in the 'adopt a family' link). We have already had some offers of £2 a month for a three-year period, a good start.
From the £200 - £80 will be in her hand wages
- £70 will be local and government taxes
- £20 will be in the form of meat, eggs and milk
- £20 to purchase wood for fuel, enough for just under half a ton.
- £10 Private Pension
Explanation of above
£70 local and government taxes - this is the Employment tax, Health Insurance, Pension and Council tax, we and Nicoletta will have to pay on behalf of the family.
£20 meat, eggs and milk - because the taxes in Romania are so high employers get around this by giving food coupons, which are not taxed.
£20 for wood for heating and cooking, this is cheaper if bought by the load, so during the summer we will buy a lorry load
£10 Private Pension - the State Pension is only just adequate, and we felt that if we were to take on the family we had to make proper provision for Nicoletta, right through her life.
None of this can start until the beginning of June because it is Romanian custom that none of the family leaves the house for a period of mourning. Nicoletta has had to go to the hospital to feed the baby but that would be seen as acceptable. We will continue to supply them with all the necessities until that time, because Nicoletta is home now we are no longer taking cooked meals to the family but taking food for her to cook. Sian and I made a shopping list - flour, eggs, sugar, rice, bread, meat, pate, dried beans, dried crisps, vegetables, fruit, fish, oil, margarine, cheese, potatoes, onions, tin tomatoes, milk and soap powder. Treats for the weekend - 100 gms coffee, 6 teabags, fizz, sweets and crisps. We also thought they could do with a one off delivery of soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Because Nicoletta has no fridge, we take them supplies Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday.
We asked when the baby was coming home - she has been transferred to one of the Homes and cannot come home until something has been done about the window and door, the window doesn't fit properly and the door has a pain of glass missing - this is being sorted out next week, with some of the money we have allocated for the family (we will not need the £70 for the taxes this month so we will use that for the window and door).
We had rain most of the day and because I was unwell on Sunday I spent the afternoon catching up with the diary.

Tuesday now you might have been thinking you don't hear much about Sian and Woody in the mornings well they are usually catching up on some sleep, we have a poorly pig who has been taken away from mum and is living in the 'house' on two hourly feeds; Sian and Woody are doing the through the night feeds. Her name is Bedrock as she is from the Flintstone litter, this morning she went off to the Vet for one of her series of injections. The little chicks went out for some sunshine this morning. Then Lew and Woody worked on the greenhouse again trying to straighten some of the crosspieces. This afternoon rain stopped play again and they went to do the shopping including bottles for the goat kids.

Wednesday was a bright sunny morning; the sheep and goats went straight out onto the field this morning. Little Bedrock ate half a stewed apple this morning - my theory, try anything - if she eats it at least she has eaten. It was a really beautiful day the temperature rose to a very nice 28C and the little chicks were moved into the outside little chick house with its' own heating unit. They enjoyed the relative freedom of being able to run around the larger pen. The goat kids were taken inside away from mum this morning, she knew where they were and didn't worry. Bottle-feeding started at two o'clock in the afternoon, they only took 50mls - now we can milk Cariad again. The pigs were cleaned out, a major job after all the rain we have had. We decided Nicoletta could have one of the cockerels we want to cull, so Woody caught him and put him in the back of the pick-up ready to take down. About three o'clock Woody said he could see a storm and he thought it was heading our way - we could hear the thunder and see the lightening. We rushed around getting everything in; goats, sheep, dogs, cats, chicks and washing - the pigs can get in when they want. That done Lew and Woody took the cockerel to the family, one of the boys climbed into the back of the pick-up and caught him, they are going to keep him for tomorrow. Time for coffee and wait for the storm to hit … while I was having coffee I made a timetable for the summer running including bottle-feeding the kids. Their first feed of the day is six o'clock, so I need to be up at five-thirty. Everything works around their feeds now, the next feed is ten o'clock and I need to have everyone fed, watered, out and my breakfast eaten by then. The next feed is two o'clock and I need to have cleaned out the pigs, collected the weeds, had lunch and washed up by then. Before the six o'clock feed we need to have fed again, then before the ten o'clock feed we need to have shut everyone in, had dinner and washed up. That's the plan. The thunder and lightening went round us and we didn't get any rain. We forgot to go to the feed merchants for feed.

Thursday 1^st May - Romanian Holiday - Picnic Day. The day didn't start as planned and I was running late! Cariad was very full of milk and not easy milk out. We ran out of pig food; we had forgotten it was May the first - Lew tried the feed merchants but they were closed. Lew said the roads around the forest were chaos, people were parking everywhere and anywhere, it is the official opening of the forests for picnics. If you are found in the forests during the winter you are fined because you must be there stealing trees for firewood. We had to collect extra weeds for the pigs they were going to be on short rations this evening. Bedrock is eating better today and enjoyed a walk in the sunshine. I still wasn't feeling too good and fell asleep on the bed - I woke with a start about three o'clock - the rain was hammering on the caravan roof, the thunder and lightening were rolling around. Everyone was racing around getting animals and birds inside. The storm will have sent everyone scurrying from the forest. The ducks think it is great more puddles in which to play. As I was feeding the goats this evening I heard cheeping noises. I have two broody hens in the loft, I went to investigate … the chicks have started hatching; they need to be moved to a safer position. The chickens were taken off the nest and the chicks and eggs were moved to a safer nest site, the chickens were put back with their eggs and shut in for the night. The kids have been named, the black one is Cuddles and the brown one is Duddles. Cuddles was seen eating food this evening and Duddles was seen eating hay.

Friday was warm and sunny with some cloud. The broody chickens were moved to a nest with an outside run, they could then stretch their wings and go back to the right nest spot. I put the washing out hoping it would dry. The pigs enjoyed a hosepipe shower late morning when the temperature rose to 28C again. Lew went off to get the feed just before lunch then started work on the greenhouse again. A storm started coming in about three again. Woody managed to get the feed and dogs in before it hit. I managed to finish weeding a section of path I had started, we need to keep a certain weed under control because it forms a large number of prickles, which stick to everything. Lew was working on the greenhouse. Sian raced round turning off computers and pulling television aerials. The little chicks raced for their house. This time the storm didn't pass us and we had about two hours of rain, thunder and lightening; but no damage.

Saturday and it was a dreary, dull, damp start to the day. The chicks had survived the weather well. This afternoon I went to Medgidia to stock up the family and us for the weekend. The rain in Medgidia was heavier than in the village and the roads were like rivers. When I arrived home our 'road' was a nightmare, slippery even with 4x4. Lew and Woody were taking bets on which fence I was going to hit, ours or our neighbours … I didn't hit either. Woody fed this evening and Sian did the last kid feed.

Sunday a cloudy start to the day but the sun came out by lunchtime. Granddad came up he wants another ten eggs for a broody chicken tomorrow. I sorted the clothes given to us by Laura some for Nicoletta, some for the Benny family and some for the Rusu family. Lew made another drain channel to try and clear some of the standing water.

What's been happening in the village this week? Well not so much the village this week but the area around us. The area has been hit by flooding again, on Saturday we were on a yellow alert for flooding. Houses have been hit, fields are under water, villages are without electric and footbridges have been destroyed.
The village has been quiet it has been too wet to move about much.

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