Romania Trip - May 2006


Bucharest is a city of huge contrasts. It boasts a world class
international airport, an underground system, trams, trolley buses,
conventional buses and an excellent taxi service. It has huge areas of
parkland and excellent restaurants. It offers the visitor fine architecture and a wide range of cultural pursuits. In other words it
is like any other capital city in Europe. But look again and you see another side. Crumbling soviet style apartment blocks, pot-holed
streets, tumble-down properties housing large impoverished
families and horse and carts transporting people, goods and animals.
It is in this other world that you will find the Lawside Romania Project

A year on from our first visit we found ourselves back in Bucharest. It
is hard not to see the appeal of the place and we now fully understand why Sister Aloysius calls it "her beloved Bucharest". Walking back in to the Budimex Hospital, little had changed, except perhaps the
green mats impregnated with disinfectant a precaution against
avian flu! It was the same lift operator we saw last year but she was
complaining about the new wood panelling in her lift - she preferred
the old walls!

In room 710, the charity's base, toys, covers and other supplies covered the beds. In the corner lurked the most essential piece of equipment in the room, the kettle! A nice cup of Lipton's tea and we were ready to begin our 5 day whistle stop visit.
We visited a number of new projects and visited ones that we had seen the previous year. As you might expect, some of the visits were harrowing, particularly a family of haemophiliacs who live on the edge of the city, but others gave us an overwhelming sense of hope. We dropped in on the Porohonskis family. When we visited last year the roof was in a desperate state and the floors were bare earth. In the space of a year, the house has been re-roofed, new floors have been laid and a new bathroom and toilet had been fitted. Our...

...parish had raised funds to install new windows and roof and the children took great pride in showing us around their home.

On our previous trip we visited the home of Rose Marie. It was a cold wet day and as we left she said that she would love us to come back when she had flowers in her garden. When we arrived this time, the flowers were in bloom and the sun was shining. What struck us immediately was how well she looked. Before the charity found her she was surviving on bread and tea. It is amazing what a difference the daily meals on wheels service makes. As we left, she picked us some roses to take away, a gift from a lady who has so little!

Each day, Sister Aloysius, Sister Maria and Traian make such a difference to so many lives. No one can fail to be impressed, moved and humbled by being with them. But they are also keen to show off Bucharest, a city with much to offer. By all means come to see the work of the project and help where you can. But also take a little time to look at the city itself and see what it has to offer the visitor - you
won't regret it.
As we left for the airport to return home Traian said "now when you come back next year, we must visit the mountains". Clearly we have been hooked!

Linda and Ian Moyes Pitlochry