The Days' Diary Oradea, Romania
6 December 2009
Enjoy family and friends, taking time to celebrate with uncensored joy. At the same time, be ready to help those who have little reason to celebrate.
Roger Charles Day

You'd better watch out
Today St Nicholas comes to town in Romania, with a present for good children and a stick to beat the naughty ones. To cover all options most children decorate a stick at school and are given a token present at home. It is also Referendum Day when Romania decides whether or not to oust the president. A cynic said the vote is about which of the two men is less corrupt.

Best day
Last weekend we ran a series of workshops in Bucuresti as part of a national psychotherapy conference. It was pleasantly warm weather and the fountains were amazingly still on the day before 1 December - Romania Day. At the end of the conference one man in tears told the 100 conference delegates that attending our workshop had helped him with his emotional difficulties and had made it the best day of his life!

One room
Another workshop was on working with survivors of child abuse. A participant referred to a report recently released saying that 70 per cent of Romanian children has been abused by seeing their parents having sex. The reality is that many Romanian families outside the cities still have large families (as many as 17 children) and because of poverty live in one room. We believe that most parents are discrete and that the children we have worked with have not been traumatised as a result of what in the West would be seen as abuse.

Grandma abuse
Child abuse is still poorly understood by professionals. Some think that throwing a happy little child in the air and catching him or her, or sending a child to school in September with a hat on, are forms of abuse. We explain the United Nations categories of sexual, emotional and physical abuse as well as neglect. But these don't seem to cover 'grandma abuse' - quack medical interventions designed for maximum convenience to the parent.

Dairy Christmas
Back in Oradea our young friend with disabilities had a wonderful experience visiting the dairy cows and feeding the calves at a large farm run by a children's charity near our house. He couldn't stop squealing with delight and hugging and hissing everyone in sight. For him Christmas had come early as he spent time with his favourite animals. We hope you too will have the time of your lives this Christmas and a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year.

Roger & Christine