The Days' Diary Oradea, Romania

17 November 2008
The person of integrity builds a secure house. Spoken half-truths erect only flimsy cardboard walls. A life of integrity builds solid walls that withstand the fiercest storms of life.
Roger Charles Day

Panoramic view
Imagine waking up each morning and seeing a panoramic view of the People's Palace, one of the world's largest buildings, right outside your hotel window. That was our experience during a four-day training visit to Bucuresti, Romania's capital. Such is the hunger for training that the organisers put us in an expensive hotel and paid all our flights and taxi bills. (We have suggested that they provide less expensive accommodation for our next visit.)

Crystal galore
The people's palace, now home to the Parliament, has 1100 rooms and was built from a million cubic metres of marble, 3500 tonnes of crystal (including 480 chandeliers), 700,000 tonnes of steel and bronze, and 900,000 square metres of wood. Sadly, to build it Ceausescu demolished much of Bucuresti's historic district, including 30,000 houses and 28 religious buildings.

Keen psychiatrists
A group of over 30 people attended each day of our training. The majority of them were child psychiatrists. It takes 11 years to qualify, and many of these fairly young psychiatrists have absolutely no experience of using therapy or play with the children they help. They enthusiastically took part in the fun activities, writing notes in between bouts of play. They were eager to put into practice many of the skills and ideas we taught them during the four days.

Alternative treatment
The thriving city of Bucuresti is rushing into the 21st century, with huge factories, warehouses and office blocks being build just about everywhere. Unfortunately, outdated attitudes towards children with emotional problems still remain. The young generation of psychiatrists are desperate to explore play therapy as an addition or even an alternative to the sedatives and antipsychotics often traditionally used here with very small disturbed children.

Supporting others
In addition to training and mentoring we continue to support children and adults whose problems are immense. Our behind-the-scenes therapeutic and voluntary work is at times upsetting and leaves us with a feeling of helplessness. Here, the problems are immense and there is little professional back-up. We realise that pioneering often means that the buck stops with us.

Roger & Christine