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Thursday,
February 2, 2006 - Banca,
Romania
Hi
all...
It's
midweek during our second week and we have been a surge of activity.
After the weekend in the north at the painted monasteries and
in Iasi, the major university town, we returned to Banca. It's
gotten warmer here, thank goodness. Now our rooms are too hot.
They can't control the heat. Nothing is well built here. The
Gianni Motel where we are staying opened in April. Between bad
design, corruption, people skimping on materials that initially
look good but don't hold up, and an incredible inability to
maintain things, things are already deteriorating. The EU loaned
the owner funds to build this 24 hour "NON-STOP" restaurant
and motel. We are a bit far from the clinic -- 15 miles and
in the middle of nowhere. Showers leak, it's too hot or cold,
etc. But it is much better than the horrid communist-era Hotel
Moldova where I stayed the first time. The staff is good to
us and the women who do our laundry even iron our socks and
underwear. I had to put a stop to that to avoid creating inappropriate
expectations.
Florin is 2 ½ years old. He looks like the
Big Executive here with his toe sticking out of his sleeper!
Quite the character. He points out what all the other kids are
doing that isn't right and monitors what is going on. He has
had three surgeries for club feet and Sue Voudren arranged to
have special shoes and orthotics made to help him walk better!
We call him our "Gypsy King"!
Over
the weekend we stopped at the Metro store. This is Romania's
Costco equivalent, butwith much smaller sized packages. Ironic
since with 33 kids we could use super size in everything. Generous
friends and family of most team members sent cash along to buy
what was needed. Armed with a hand-written list written in Romanian
by the staff, we formed teams and roamed through the store with
large carts. We bought $800 worth of cleaning supplies, kids'
supplies like Pampers, cleaning and laundry supplies, food for
the kids, and tools for the maintenance staff (including a circular
saw and jig saw). They have almost nothing to work with and
Bob is roaming the halls looking for things to repair or do
that will help the kids and staff. He is wearing a white lab
coat donated by our dentist and is now called Dr. Bob by all.
With the multi-head screwdriver he received from our nephew,
Matt, for Christmas, it's quite a medical sight. In any event,
we dropped all these items off at the clinic and headed back
to get those babies in our arms. We couldn't fit everything
in the van and will be going back next weekend when we go to
Bucharest.
Bob sits with Liliana and Florin and setting
up for lunch: chopped up pieces of liver, peaches, oatmeal,
etc. The kids are learning to feed themselves and are getting
quite accomplished! It's a real mess when feeding time is over,
however!
So...
back to the kids. We returned on Monday with both the kids and
our team in high anxiety to be together. There are a total of
four people on duty each day for 33 kids on the weekend. They
get little activity after the over-stimulation we provided on
Friday. So there is withdrawal. Mondays are the hardest because
they are needy and this time the kids were getting vaccinated.
That made a bunch of us "cranky". Guess it went around. The
afternoon went much better. Tuesday was much calmer... but we
had a lot of excitement.
You
should know as a context for my next "story" that it is incredible
how quickly volunteers bond with the kids. It's very intense
and you start to care deeply about each. Phil Grannan, one of
our team members, spent the weekend saying "I miss my babies"
til his wife, Nancy, said "Cool it, Phil". Well Phil decided
that we have to make a deeper difference with some of the children.
There are a bunch of kids with two major types of eye problems:
congenital crossed eyes that is muscular in nature and subject
to surgical repair before age five, and Nystagmus, an eye disorder
where both eyes operate independently of each other so the child
cannot focus. No known treatment. Sometimes they grow out of
it. Other times it's a lifetime disability.
So...
after much logistical effort we had two trips organized to an
ophthalmologist in Barlad, about ten miles away. We had a total
of 7 kids to transport and the doctor was gracious to fit all
in. There had to be an adult for each child, of course, and
since there are no operable seatbelts in the van, the adults
would be the safety net. Originally we were going to transport
folks in two trips over two days in the ambulance that had been
donated to the clinic. We knew there were issues when we saw
six men pushing the ambulance out of the garage. It was donated
by the British St. John's ambulance corps two years ago... it's
used so little that the battery was dead.... so the van we travel
around in as volunteers was the "going" transportation and the
small clinic truck with a half back seat the "return" (without
the volunteers). Our terrific team leader, Mihaela, went along
for "management and translation". We also gathered up money
from our team to pay for the examinations. $10 for each child
at a private clinic since it would take "years" to get them
into the "free" state hospital.
Marian, twin of Viorel, has severely crossed
eyes that can be repaired surgically. We are working on parental
permission and logistics through the dedicated efforts of Phil
Grannan who pushed this idea to the team and Dr. Delia and staff.
Fingers crossed.
Some
of the kids couldn't sit still long enough for the exam. Others
were great. The doctor could do a "visual check" for those who
couldn't sit still. Some are so young that they need to go back
in six months. The good news is that three of the children,
Marian, Sorin and Abel, have the muscular condition that is
treatable by surgery. We were organizing the money and getting
excited when we learned the bad news: parental permission is
necessary to do elective surgery when kids are in this hospital.
Also, the state will not pay for surgery or treatment of various
sorts when the children have no identity... more on that below.
The other incredible thing is that the state hospital anesthesiologist
now works only at a private clinic -- and even if we get permission,
it will be an additional $200 per child. As Phil says, "Capitalism
springs up all over". We say "no problem". Turns out that money
is the least of the issues as we find out that Romanian hospitals
require the mother of a child to stay with them in the hospital.
Surrogates are not allowed unless the mother has given up all
rights - but none of the kids are in that situation.
So...
next steps are as follows.
- We
learn about Romanian law and strategize with Mihaela, our
team leader, and Dr. Delia, the clinic director. She cannot
sign for the absent or missing parents unless other agencies
like child protection and the health department will co-sign
with her, but we must first try to locate the parents. It's
not clear exactly who is responsible for the parental search
of the above groups, but we will work on that. Whether this
is a priority for the agencies is yet another unanswered question.
- The
three eligible children have no parents who visit. One came
from a village where Dr. Delia knows the community physician.
The others we will have to work on.
- How
to get the parents to stay at the hospital if we find them:
Of course we can incent with payment for transportation and
lodging and meals, but nothing more. Dr. Delia said we cannot
offer money as an incentive or it will turn into a vicious
cycle of demands.
- More
questions will surface we are sure, including how we manage
to get the money set aside for this over time since the surgeries
would happen over time (if at all, given the above). Global
Volunteers has specific policies about money for projects
and not leaving it with their local staff here in the country.
We surely want to do things as our host organization requires.
They have learned what happens when these rules are not followed
and it's not always good. So we have that to learn about too.
More on this later.
Abel is "goofing" here. His eyes can be fixed
too and we have his parents' permission as well. He was Phil
and Kathy's special boy (although all the kids are special!).
Nothing
is easy here. A country in transition from years of brutal dictatorship
and communisms is rife with limited services... people trying
to survive... people making up for lost time combined with the
hopes of joining the European Union in two years.
Now...
a brief comment on "lack of identity" and then I will close.
Many people in Romania have no identity papers. This is particularly
true of the Roma or Gypsy population. If a mother has no identity,
neither does her child. EU teams are working on establishing
a process to get a birth certificate (and identify) for each
child born, but it's not in place now. Without an identity you
cannot get hospital services, education, etc. This changes when
the children are placed in legal foster care since the foster
parents have an identity and can manage all things. But while
the children are in the hospital, this is not possible (hence
not being able to sign for surgery, get non-emergency treatment,
etc.). The mother of one of the children is working to get an
identity. She had been using her sister's for years and once
found out, she was "placed in limbo".
On
the good news front, Florin, another child who is here and who
has had three surgeries for club feet will be going to the medical
center at Iasi today accompanied by Sue Voudren. He has no identity
papers and his mom is working on them. Without papers he can't
get the required orthopedic shoes to help him walk during the
time of healing. Our team is paying for them and he will be
fitted today. Then when his mother gets his papers the state
will pay for new shoes as he grows out of them. Hurrah! Today
Constantine, an autistic child with behavior problems, will
go to Iasi accompanied by our team member, Barbara Marcus, who
will be paying for his treatment. She loves him deeply. He will
see a neuropsychiastrist for a work up. His mother is in jail
and has no rights, and there is no known father. That bad news
is good news in terms of treatment.
Sometimes you just have to be held tight!
Phil and Andrea are trying to relax. Guess who is winning!
More
later. Glo
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