Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Let me introduce you.............................................

When my boss Alisdair rang me and asked me to lead the forthcoming May Supporters' Tour to Romania, I was thrilled to once again be going to see our children, staff and projects over there and to be able to introduce sponsors to their sponsor child and the staff who care for them.  It also got me thinking about some of the people I have met over the years through the charity. So, let me introduce you to some of them..................

In the town of Cernavoda where our first hospice St Laurence's was built, the townsfolk gave CID a plot in the local cemetery for us to bury our deceased children (of which there were a large number in the early days) so imagine my surprise when, on our very first Supporters' Tour, one of the ladies on the trip startled everyone by running with gay abandon, arms outstretched, down through the children's graves exclaiming that "it was the best part of the tour!"

On another tour one of the supporters was a very elderly lady, well in her eighties, very plainly and soberly dressed, straight hair, in fact a very 'ordinary' lady (no disrespect to the lady in question, just trying to let you imagine her!).  Well!! Imagine my surprise when some weeks after the tour a large brown envelope arrived for me and on opening the envelope I found some exquisite bookmarks and paintings done by the same lady using encaustic wax.  She had sent me them to sell to raise funds for our children.  I was totally blown away, not only by her work, but by the fact that this quiet unassuming lady could produce something so beautiful and full of colour and imagination!  Definitely a case of "you shouldn't judge a book by its cover!"

On another tour, our CEO Alisdair found himself sat between two ladies on the minibus who spent the entire two hour journey trying to 'outdo' each other!  The two ladies in question were actually childhood friends and one of the ladies was a much loved long term supporter of the charity.  This is how some of the conversation went....................."During the war, we could only have one sausage between me and my brothers" - "What? You had SAUSAGES?  We didn't have any at all!"  "On a Sunday, I had to wear my best coat and shoes to church" - "You had a BEST coat and shoes? I was lucky if I had a coat and shoes of any kind".  "It was raining on my wedding day, do you remember?" - "Oh the sun was shining on mine". .........................and so it went on, and on, and on!!  Poor Alisdair closed his eyes at one point to pretend he was asleep but oh no, the ladies weren't having that - they elbowed him "awake" to take part in the conversation. Fortunately I was sat in the seat in front of them; I hope they didn't see my shoulders shaking with trying to suppress my laughter!

We have had all kinds of people, from all walks of life, accompany us on our Supporters' Tours but they all, no matter how 'quirky' they are, share one thing in common; a love of our children and, after a trip to meet the children and staff and view our projects, they all end up inspired to do more to help us and start and plan their next visit.

Then of course there are the children.......................Florin who, the minute you sit down anywhere near him, brings his book and proceeds to tell you all about it (in Romanian of course so there is a lot of gesturing); Rafi who is a human whirlwind and 'eats for England' (or should that be Romania?!) - he is a real imp, a lovable rogue who, the last time I visited, started wearing his glasses (complete with eye patch!) on top of his head just because that is where my reading glasses were on me!  Then when he had had enough of chasing round, climbed on my knee, carefully folded up his glasses, put them into his shirt pocket and cuddled into me calling me 'Mama'! Maria, Nicoleta and Darius, always smiling, little Andrei so severely disabled with hydrocephalus, yet he also has a big beaming smile when he is spoken to..........................there are so many like them and they all have one thing in common; they all respond to the love they receive from their carers.

In a future post I will introduce you to some of our staff and friends in Romania.

Jane x



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