My seven days with Networks

I promised I would share more about the last seven days in Romania and some of my trip back to America. There are very few pictures of my last six days in Romania - partly because I was wanting to live in denial about leaving. Although the main reason is that the work I was doing was in some very poor communities and working with people. I have a rule to not post pictures of people unless I have permission. And, Networks, the non profit with whom I was volunteering, doesn't allow photos of the people they work with as they they don't want it to become "poverty tourism". What this means is I will have to tell some of my stories without pictures.

Checheci (pronounced Kehkech): is an inner city ghetto in Arad, not too far from where I was staying. This is an interesting ghetto and one that is changing. As the city of Arad grows, development is encroaching into this ghetto and requiring the residents to move. Many aren't legal residents and as they land they are squatting on is purchased and developed they must find a new home. For those who are "legal" their land is sometimes taken away from them and resold to the rich developers. In this ghetto, Networks has developed relationships with many of the families and over the years has responded to the needs of the community through starting a year round preschool and after school homework club. Many of the kids are caught in a cycle of poverty as they cannot get an education. Many are unregistered and therefore cannot go to the public schools. Those who can go to the public school are behind from the very first day as they can't hold pencils and don't know the basics that many preschoolers know.

As the public school was not in session, I watched the preschool kids learning to make lines and zeros and then helped with the afternoon bible club. The teachers did a great job with these kids who attention span is about 3 minutes. Every now and then she would say "hands up" and all hands would go up. Then she would engage in a short game of "simon says" which captured their attention again. When they got restless, the kids propensity for fights and arguments would rise considerable. Talk about needing to find effective crowd control methods.

I also sat in while Networks distributed some oil and washing powder (laundry detergent). The rules of this distribution were that the parents received the staples if their kids had attended school the prerequisite amount of times. This helps to keep the kids in school and also encourages the relationship building that is so important to Networks.

After all this, I went with one of the long term Networks staff members to visit a couple of families that needed to talk with her. One was a prostitute who has just had a baby. She has had several other babies that she has not kept and her oldest son does live with her. He is known for being quite out of control most of the time. I think he is about 12 or so. For some reason the mother wants to keep the new baby and yet she can't afford to keep him. She is in a very difficult place. While the mother and staff member talked, I entertained the out of control lad through arm wrestling, asking him questions (such that I could form) and discussing the art of Kung Fu. As I looked at the few week old newborn, I couldn't help but think of my niece and the fact that she has everything she needs, and this little fellow may not make it.

Obviously there is so much more I can tell about this experience, I am just trying to give you a flavor of what I experienced.

Siria (pronounced Shihria) - the main office is located in this village and aside from helping out around the office, I also went into the village to work in one small community. This community is predominantly comprised of three gypsy families. It feels much more like a community in that the gypsies are very community oriented and families help each other out and live with each other in various houses - mixing themselves up some. You can't every really tell who is a brother or sister to someone because they move in and out of each others houses so easily. It is also much more violent. Networks gave a short orientation to the team of 10 American teenagers who were there to do an afternoon kids club (in addition to other things). The orientation included: don't be shocked if we have to yell, don't be shocked if there are random fights that break out, don't be shocked if the kids come without clothes, don't be shocked if there is lots of shoving, pushing and general chaos. All good advice which helped the team not panic when there was chaos galore. One of the projects was making a tambourine out of paper plates and beans. Lots of chaos, shoving, yelling, and yet lots of happy kids.

During the debrief afterwards, Networks staff asked if any of the kids peed on the legs of the visiting team. No kid had so the afternoon was considered a success. Apparently, if some of the kids are bored or don't like what is going on, they will simply pee on an adults leg. Since they sometimes don't wear clothes, it makes anticipating that act much more difficult. Now I understand why so many of Networks staff where quick dry pants!

Taut (pronounced Tautz) - this is a camp that is open from April through the end of September. It is open for groups as well as individuals just passing through the area. Many of the older kids they work with in Siria attend the camp at least one week. I helped clean the cabins after one of the camps. I got to hang out with several young handsome men from England and Sweden (they are part of Networks) who wanted to serve me as much as I served them by cleaning cabins by myself. It was a "tough" weekend to hang out with three incredibly interesting, handsome and funny young men.

Taut from the air - no I didn't take this picture

Well, that is probably all I can share in a short amount of space other than I was incredible blessed to have met so many wonderful people in Romania - many were a part of Networks, although many were not. I was able to share a last meal with two Romanian families who I appreciate greatly - and not just because it is fabulous food. They have been good friends who helped make Romania so great.

Now, it is just figuring out what comes next.