Barlad, Romania

Barlad is in the eastern part of the country and is the city where Jo and Chuck have spent most of their time with the kids. The children's hospital is in the village of Tutova, but Barlad is the closest city; except for the market, there isn't much of interest. The hospital is very small; a men's ward and a woman's ward, and then about 25 chronically ill babies who are often malnourished. They perhaps go to a different hospital for treatment, otherwise, they stay in Tutova, and in 75% of the cases will be placed in foster care. It is here that Global Volunteers comes, thanks to Jo and Chuck who encouraged the director and head doctor, Dr. Delia, to convince GV to become involved to help take care of and play with the babies. Before the children were in iron cribs with little stimulation, but now groups of volunteers come 17 times a year to play with the babies. One woman has been there 4 times already this year and will return again. Another man has been there 10 times over the years. They seem to love it there, and when you see the beautiful children, one can understand why. Maria with big brown gypsy eyes has a heart problem. Alexandra has a bone disease. A happy smiling boy with Downs Syndrome was throwing an object again and again and having a great time, and there was another sweet one with beautiful curls with a heart condition.

The new cribs are painted bright colors and the rooms are colorful and cheery. The children have toys to play with and the volunteers certainly provide amusement for the babies, and the babies for them. Dr. Delia is extremely competent and has fought for equipment, new clean facilities, a new modern kitchen and many more improvements. Global Volunteers has also contributed substantially. Dr. Delia is an elegant woman who obviously knows how to fight for what she wants, and who usually gets her way. The hospital which has a big garden and many out buildings is 100 years old; Dr. Delia has been there 18 years. What a wonderful place to see knowing that Jo and Chuck have given so much of themselves to the people and the place. We stayed with the country manager of GV, Mihaela, who is also a high school teacher - the family has a small apartment, but we were shown warm hospitality and as usual ate fantastic food.

Another interesting and emotionally moving experience was going to a village about an hour away and visiting Maria and Nico who are both physically handicapped and have given up two of their three children for adoption to a woman in MN. The children were placed in an orphanage when they were babies and unfortunately the adoption process took over a year, and the children suffered as a result. We delivered school pictures, food and money from the mom in MN. A fifteen year old son still lives with them and obviously has to do a lot of work on the small farm. They seem to be doing, OK, however, and have a new refrigerator and washing machine. Grandma also lives with them and was doing the cooking on an outdoor stove using firewood. The bight blue house is made of wood. There are grapes in the yard and probably the usual corn and other vegetables in the garden. There are farm animals running around, chickens, geese, a pig in a pen, a calf with squirting diarrhea and a milk cow. They get around in a cart pulled by a horse. The family speaks no English, of course, and the children in MN speak no Romanian. They hope to visit Romania in 3-4 years, however. Jo and I were greeted with hand kissing by Nico and Chuck received a big hug and a kiss on each cheek. They listened to reports about their children and seemed anxious to hear all, but what a cultural difference. We were quite impressed that the family receives $600 a month in disability benefits from the government.

Driving here is wild because drivers are crazy going fast and passing recklessly. There are alive and dead dogs on the roads, wagons filled with firewood, corn stalks, corn, potatoes, cabbage, or hay pulled by oxen or horses. At night there are no reflectors on the carts. Herds of sheep and goats might cross the road at any time. The highways often have huge holes and ruts if it is not a major improved road. We saw crashed cars and a smashed motor scooter with a dead driver at one intersection. We almost ran into a drunken cyclist weaving along the road. Huge trucks slow down the traffic. Only when we were with Mr. BMW did we speed along and pass everyone.

On to Bucharest by train.