To market we go..

Arad market..
We went to the big market in Arad on Saturday.  Ran into a couple of folks from the Sunshine School there. They said.."this is the market we go to when we're in this type of crisis".  Very few can afford to shop in stores these days, so they come to the market for the real deals every Saturday and Sunday. Interestingly, the market is located just outside the walls of the prison we visited in the beginning of my trip.

It's an interesting place. Part market, part flea market under the watchful eye of the prison guards just over the fence. You can buy old/used things and lots of stuff that's brand new and even imported in some cases. You can get some really good deals on vegetables as we saw when we bought a HUGE bag of potatos for 2 lei per kilo. So the entire bag cost only 60 lei or 20 USD. That will last about 2 weeks for a family of five in Romania.  Across from the market (across the road that leads into the prison) there is also a big lumber yard with lots of supplies.

abandoned communist farm chicken houses

Communist Farm....Remember the cow RCE purchased through the Christmas giving program for the Rostas family in the village of Vinga? Well, I didn't tell you anything about where the cow was before it got transported to its new family. When we first visited it, it belonged to a family that lived on an old communist farm. Back in the day, when Ceausescu was in power, the government owned many farms. Lots of the people that worked on the farm lived in homes that were built on the farm. The farm facilities themselves have been closed and were abandoned after the revolution in 1989, but the homes remain. They are in very poor condition and the people that live in the homes have few resources. The cow belonged to one of those families. Rumor had it that the city was going to level all the homes and expand the airport a bit more. The cow family heard that, stopped paying their rent and then got into some trouble when the razing of the homes was delayed. They needed some money to help handle their debts, so they put one of their cows up for sale. So they got the money they needed and The Rostas family got the cow!

Riding the RCE transport to Sunshine School..

Ioana and twin sister Andrea

I got to ride the RCE 'transport' van to the office/school one day last week. There's a stop right near the apt I was staying in. The route took us to several different stops around the city as we made our way to the school. Students as well as teachers and other RCE staff are welcome to ride, which makes it much easier for people who don't have cars, want to save gas, to get to work. The day I rode was a special day as Sunshine School student Ioana had her twin sister Andrea with her. Andrea's public school was closed that day, so she spent it with her sister. Ioana was SO excited her sister was with her she hardly contain herself..bouncing up and down in her seat the entire trip.

A few updates..

Stefanie with casts

Stefanie without casts!

- went to see Stefanie, the little girl with spina bifida who had those big casts on when last I visited. She's had the casts removed and is moving her legs around some which is great. Her mom let me see her x-rays and I was able to give her some information on spina bifida from a great book called "Disabled Village Children" by David Werner. Stefanie's mom mentioned to me that the doctors hadn't given her much information on spina bifida so hopefully this will help her. I'll visit Stefanie the next time I'm in Romania. By the way, I have a copy of that book and there is also one at the Sunshine School in Romania if anyone is interested in taking a look.

- Got word that little Toni is home and doing well.  Simona, the wonderful woman who translated for me when I worked with Toni, called her mom and found out that Toni is becoming 'braver' and is now coming to standing on her own. I'm already looking forward to seeing her next time I visit. Hoping she'll be able to run to me (or away from me is actually more likely) by then. Will keep you posted.


Romanian word of the day:

Transport= transport (with a Romanian accent)

Stay tuned-- a couple more blog postings to come on Monday April 4th and Tuesday April 5th..