The past couple of days I have visited opposite ends of the earth. On Wednesday I visited the poor village of Fiscut, Romania and on Thursday I traveled to the sophisticated city of Szeged, Hungary.
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| Poor family's kitchen in Fiscut |
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| a home in Fiscut |
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| Donia (right) and relatives of Emma of RCE's Darius House |
'Pastor Peter', as he is known, has been longing for RCE to get involved in caring for the poor families in the village of Fiscut (fis-coot) for quite a while now. Ovi and Doina do a wonderful job of using the resources they have available to them in caring for over 250 families in Arad County. New requests come to them constantly and each time one does, a full assessment of need takes place. Doina asked me if I wanted to travel with her to visit some of the families Pastor Peter had brought to her attention. It was a difficult assignment because everyone in Fiscut is poor, there are few jobs and many are just getting by. Some of the homes we saw were barely habitable. But at the same time, we saw glimmers of hope.
We visited four families. The kitchen pictured here belonged to the first family- husband/wife and 2 kids. The second family is pictured above. Doina recognized the family name and we soon discovered that Emma who is currently living in RCE's Darius House, is related to this family. This family has seven children.
The third family we visited belonged to the daughter of the woman who adopted 'Florian' from Darius House. Their young son had been badly burned and is still recovering. Doina is seen here giving him toothpaste and toothbrushes for the family as we headed off to visit family number four. At each stop Doina had 'food packages' to deliver. They consisted of essentials such as noodles, cooking oil, sugar and butter.
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| Pastor Peter (left) and fourth family visited |
The fourth family we visited seemed a bit more self-sustaining. They had lots of animals (and children!), but the father seemed industrious and was already working on adding to their house. One of their younger kids had just returned from surgery in the city, so it was good to be able to check in on him. He is doing well. While we were there, the youngest girl and her brother (pictured in big picture above) smiled at me and disappeared behind the house..a minute or so later, she popped her head around the corner and waved me to where she was... she took me to see their gigantic pig and new born piglets, sheep, goats, and little lambs. There was even a small newborn puppy to visit with.
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| Darius and grandpa |
On the way out of Fiscut, we visited the village's most famous resident..Darius himself! Darius is the orphan child for whom RCE's Darius House was named. The story is a long one, but what you need to know is that Darius is now 'home' and living with his grandfather and aunt after years spent in state orphanages in Romania. Yes, he is a special needs child and yes the village he lives in is poor. But he loves his family, is well taken care of and he enjoys the village animals and visits from RCE teams. RCE continues to support Darius and his family thru many different means.
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| Szeged, Hungary |
On Thursday I got a deeper glimpse into the Romanian medical system by going to Hungary. We left for Szeged (seh-ged), Hungary at 2:30PM on Thursday and didn't return to Arad till 10:30PM. I was accompanying RCE's Carmen and Angy, and their husbands Mimi and Adi. It was a long trip, about 2 hours driving each way, that was made longer by my US passport. At the Hungarian border crossing, my Romanian friends presented their 'identity cards' and I tossed my passport into the pile. The identity cards were quickly returned, but my passport walked off with a boarder patrolman, who passed it off to two other officers for inspection before it was finally returned to me twenty minutes later. Thankfully things went a little more quickly on the way back into Romania...
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| Clinic in Szeged |
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| Carmen and Angy waiting for the doctor |
Szeged is a beautiful city with well kept gardens, historic buildings and large plazas. We had a few minutes to walk around once we found the doctor's office. The orthopedic doctor Carmen and Angy were scheduled to see, had seen other Romanian colleagues who had been pleased with his care. An extra bonus was that he spoke good English--or so we thought.
Angy, Carmen and myself spent 30 minutes with the MD. He examined them both. His thick Hungarian accent made his English sometimes difficult to understand, and he spoke in very technical terms. But both Carmen and Angy were impressed that he said anything to them at all. The Romanian tradition is that medical professionals (esp physicians) often opt to say nothing during an examination. I was happy I was there, as the doctor was open to me asking questions and I was able to explain to both Angy and Carmen what he was saying in layman's terms. Bottom line is that Carmen needs an MRI so a definitive diagnosis can be obtained for her knee and Angy needs major knee surgery, as we suspected. But now they both have much more information than they did before their evaluations, and are better prepared to make educated decisions about future care.
Wading through the Romanian medical system can be incredibly frustrating, but I'm thankful that Arad is close enough to Hungary to provide people here an option for second opinions and care of a different quality. Both Carmen and Angy were at the point where they needed it.
Romanian word of the day:
Office=
cabinet (cabi-net)
The third family we visited belonged to the daughter of the woman who adopted 'Florian' from Darius House. Their young son had been badly burned and is still recovering. Doina is seen here giving him toothpaste and toothbrushes for the family as we headed off to visit family number four. At each stop Doina had 'food packages' to deliver. They consisted of essentials such as noodles, cooking oil, sugar and butter.
The fourth family we visited seemed a bit more self-sustaining. They had lots of animals (and children!), but the father seemed industrious and was already working on adding to their house. One of their younger kids had just returned from surgery in the city, so it was good to be able to check in on him. He is doing well. While we were there, the youngest girl and her brother (pictured in big picture above) smiled at me and disappeared behind the house..a minute or so later, she popped her head around the corner and waved me to where she was... she took me to see their gigantic pig and new born piglets, sheep, goats, and little lambs. There was even a small newborn puppy to visit with. 
On the way out of Fiscut, we visited the village's most famous resident..Darius himself! Darius is the orphan child for whom RCE's Darius House was named. The story is a long one, but what you need to know is that Darius is now 'home' and living with his grandfather and aunt after years spent in state orphanages in Romania. Yes, he is a special needs child and yes the village he lives in is poor. But he loves his family, is well taken care of and he enjoys the village animals and visits from RCE teams. RCE continues to support Darius and his family thru many different means.
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