Thursday December 10^th 2009

We have finally arrived in Romania!

Both the Mustard Seed Jersey lorry and Phil and I in the car had difficulties and arrived later than planned. For the lorry a blow-out on one of the tyres on the tractor unit and then being stopped driving on Tuesday as it was a bank holiday in Austria (not to mention being fined over 200 euros) this all meant they were nearly 24 hours later than planned.

Phil and I were delayed because my father was ill and rushed to hospital on Saturday morning just as we were supposed to be leaving to go to the harbour to get the boat for St Malo. Once we knew he was all right we decided to travel on Sunday evening. Our delays were not over as we were trialling a new route avoiding the toll roads in France. We found a route which would be fine for the lorry to use but it does take a couple of hours longer and is probably harder to drive. We deliberately chose to travel at the speed the truck goes to start with, but after a 2 hour long traffic jam on the Paris ring road we decided we must speed up! We had a further 2 hour traffic jam on the Budapest ring road and ended up arriving at Casa Mabel at about 11 pm Romanian time.

But that was yesterday and today is a new day and it has been a good day. The day began by waving the drivers off – which was a bit disappointing as it would have been nicer if they could have stayed longer but not possible. They tipped the load yesterday afternoon – that I am told is the correct wording for unloading a trailer. After that they distributed shoeboxes to the homework club children in both Cefa and Berechiu villages, then gave out the boxes to the pensioners on our Adopt a Granny pensioner support programme. I am glad they had some distribution but sad it was no more.

This morning we went to the Mustard Seed kindergarten at Cefa. With homework clubs and kindergarten Mustard Seed is assisting 100 children a day – some of the children would not otherwise attend school or receive education without our input and encouragement.

We then went to Tasad to distribute to a kindergarten in the village where Rody grew up – many of the children at the schools there are very very poor and the teachers assured us that the shoeboxes we gave out would undoubtedly be the only Christmas gift each child received.

The evening was SPECIAL. We had a meal at Casa Mabel then gave out shoeboxes to all the helpers and the sponsored girls who live there and also the pensioners at Casa Mabel. It was great but most of all I noticed the love – real spontaneous love, it has a really good feel to it. As Phil commented in the 6 months since it opened it has given love and security to a number of people.

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