and what a busy week it's been here...This week has had many highlights, (what week hasn't been eventful here?). But I'd like to focus on events at the hospital and the visit of my friend Mark, who I've known for many years since our time working at the Opera House in Manchester!
So as the more astute of you will realise from the weekly email count.... week 24 is very close to the end of the 6 month placement, and the issue of ending our relationships is very prominent in our minds. And whilst I feel I have made some 'friends for life' here, there are those relationships with the patients that must be ended and cannot continue after the placement ends. However, having forged some very good working relationships with staff and patients, we have inevitably formed emotional attachments to certain patients, as they have to us... to highlight some of the difficulties that have arisen as a result of this, I will share with you an experience I had this week. During a fairly regular group session with some female patients, I was talking to one particular female patient, who asked for paper and pen to write something... so I obliged and she began to ask for my name and address in England. I had to try and explain (in my best Romanian) that I could not give these details as is the rules of the charity I work for... the women continued to ask for just my name and area that I lived in, saying if she ever got out of the hospital, and made it to England she wanted to be able to find me.... she then began to write a few sentences on some paper before the session ended, and insisted I read the letter... my Dutch colleague was able to translate that this women had basically wanted me to marry her, preferably before I leave, or in summer, and this would allow her to leave the hospital. Now, of course, some of the patients do have a mental health problem, but not all... and I now begin to understand how some patients express a belief that past volunteers who will 'come back to marry them', because I believe that some of the patients see us as an opportunity to escape these horrible conditions. Patients have talked about offering money and houses to previous volunteers as enticements to marry, and of course after spending months with people, and with the very open and friendly nature of the patients, it becomes very difficult to maintain that 'professional' boundary when patients are wanting to have a non-professional relationship... I think this may be the start of this process, as the idea of us leaving, is becoming a serious reality for many of the patients. I just that saying goodbye will be a mainly positive experience. Only the next few weeks will tell....
Now on to more social endeavours! My friend Mark, who as I have said, I knew from working at the Manchester Opera House for many years came for a crazy 2/3 day visit. He arrived Thursday Morning in Cluj, and left Saturday afternoon... we crammed in a drive from Cuj to Tarnavnei (2 hours), with a stop at some amazing salt mines in a place called TURDA... honestly that was the name of the town... the mines were deep into the surrounding hills and the main chamber must have been almost 200feet high, with an Indiana Jones wooden walk way around the top... and like an Indiana Jones film, there was a small, but long twisting tunnel before reaching an echo chamber... and then the very dodgy wooden staircase.. its great to see, but it would never be opened to the public in England, without serious fencing for health and safety reasons.... but despite the truly brilliant sights it offered, (and free salt from the walls!), the most distinguishing sight was in the small cave like chamber at the very end of the original tunnel... and on entering the chamber I joked with Mark that there appeared to be a table tennis (ping-pong) table in the cave space... only when I rounded the corner did I actually see two people playing table tennis in this small cavern... I have to admit that these images did not match... seeing a small cavern in a salt mine 200feet underground, with two middle age people playing table tennis.. I began to think that this was the secret training location of the Romanian national table tennis team! I then remembered that i have never seen any Romanian National table tennis players, and figured that they probably got lost down in the mines whilst training... I wonder?????The rest of the time with mark, was spent in Tugers Mures (Thursday night) eating and drinking, then Friday afternoon in the snowy hills around Tarnaveni, before finishing off with a huge meat platter and drinks at Crama… All this before hitting the now infamous INFINITY disco, where we were treated to such musical greats as Abba 'man after midnight' and 'red red wine' mixed in with European and some UK dance tunes.... Credit must go to Mark for driving over here, especially coming straight off the plane... he passed with flying colours!!!
Last night was a quiet night, after visiting my neighbours, I watched the final part of Lord of the Rings, and tonight we are going to be treated to the beginning of the African Cup of Nations (football championships)... I love TV here!! I also watched the Rodger Federrer tennis game yesterday, he won 10-8 in the fifth set... what a game!!! Ok, I rambling now so I'll sign off!
Regards from Romania
Dan
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