Diary 3
Friday December 9th 2011
This has
been another really good (though exhausting) day. I was in touch by text
messages with Marta and the team from Beaulieu as they travelled down by minibus
from Budapest with Victor (what did we ever do without mobile phones?). I left Cefa and drove to Oradea and to the Vineyard Centre
(kindergarten, church and centre from which they run their Project Simon
pensioner assistance programme) started by Ken and Florence – I am staying here
for the next few days.
Right on
time the minibus with Marta and the team arrived. They are all really thankful
for how well things have gone travel wise. We then went to Tasad
a village where we usually go to distribute shoeboxes. The team from Beaulieu,
especially the students, soon got into the swing of distributing the shoeboxes
in the 2 village schools. The first we went to was the new school at the far
end of the village – mainly gypsy or Roma children – some had received boxes
before, some had not. The students were amazed and commented on the gratitude
of the children “I have never seen anyone so grateful for anything” Rachel
said. One teacher commented that the children did not seem to know what to do
with a box they were given (probably these have not had boxes before). Another
of the teachers commented on how as she tried to help a little boy open his
box, he just seemed over whelmed and shut the lid firmly, kissed his box and
held it tightly.
We left
boxes for the absent children after checking with the teachers that they are
regular attenders at the school, we also gave boxes to each of the teachers as
they probably have very few resources.
We then went
back to Alex’s house for lunch, cooked by his mother-in-law served by Rody his wife. It was deliberately traditional, samala (may not be spelt right but those who have been to
Romania will know the cabbage rolls filled with minced pork and rice cooked in
sauce … delicious) and pancakes (potato and cabbage) and fruit. As she offered
us tea and coffee Rody made me laugh as she quickly
explained that the tea she offered was not “English tea” but fruit tea – at
which point several changed to coffee!
Next on the
programme was changing money to buy food parcels – this proved a long drawn out
procedure! I was then dropped off at Ken and Florence’s where I spent the
evening playing Mexican train(!) with Ken and Florence and some English or
English speaking friends. But Marta and the team went on to the supermarket to
buy food to make into food parcels.