The Days' Diary Oradea, Romania 23 July 2009

Make friends with a lonely or withdrawn person. Speak about that person's good points. Committed friendships can make a difference and last a lifetime.
Roger Charles Day

Fishy tale
On one of the hottest days of the year, with temperatures reaching 104 F (40 C), we went fishing with our special friend with disabilities. We caught 17 fish (16 dace and 1 perch), most of them finger sized. Our friend loved his adventure, learning to pick up the fish without too much fear and even handling the maggots before they died of heat exposure. We spent the afternoon recovering from near heat exhaustion ourselves!

Special treat
It was great to escape the heat of Oradea for the beautiful, cooler mountains, with five days of therapeutic activities at two children's camps. In total there were 81 children aged 5 to 16 from families in extreme poverty. For these children it was a special treat to have a week away from spending each day working in the fields to gather enough food in order to survive the long winter. Mortality rates can be high in their villages. We were shocked when 40 per cent of one group admitted to seeing or hearing about a child who had died.

Full tummies, empty plates
We were humbled by the gratitude the children expressed for everything. The Romanian meals, lovingly home-cooked, were the highlight. For instance, the cooks worked well into the night wrapping tiny parcels of meat and rice with cooked cabbage leaves. The resulting sarmale - considered to be Romania's national dish - were warmly received by all the children. There were almost no leftovers and at some meals the younger children would pull up their tee-shirts and rub their tummies, proud of the rare feeling of being full.

Encouragement
For a few days high-fives, a hand on the shoulder or a thumbs-up became a way of life for us as we spent time with the children, many of whom have low confidence and poor self-esteem. Activities such as blowing bubbles, learning to throw and catch a frisbee, and a tug-of-war had the therapeutic purpose of building children's confidence and showing they are special. So too did the children closing their eyes to follow a rope obstacle course through the forest.

Uniqueness
As part of our handing over our work to Romanian nationals, at the second camp two psychologists led the therapeutic activities, with us as helpers. It was thrilling to see activities that we had taught them being used with Romanian adaptations. We loved the trust walk through obstacles, with children in different poses (some very athletic) being the obstacles. When one group made Uniqueness Cards a 12-year-old boy was able proudly to write about his unique ability to create rustic chairs and tables from forest timber.

Roger & Christine