August 1992
Pete Evans
Orphans in Romania
Responsible for setting up the computer systems for the Banks resident offices all over Eastern Europe I travel extensively and get the occasional weekend in interesting places. I try to keep a record of these experiences, of which this is an extract. This time I ended up in Bucharest, I didn't intend on staying for the weekend as I initially found Bucharest to be quite depressing. But I bumped into Valerie in the local office on Friday and she told me a little about the orphanage and the kids. Valerie has been working at the orphanage for some time, helping the nuns in the day to day work and in tracking down paperwork to enable children to be adopted. I decided to change my original plan, which was to fly to my next stop in Budapest and spend the weekend there. I arranged to fly early Monday morning instead.
I got up early, had breakfast and caught a cab the 7km out to the orphanage, arriving at 10 am. Valerie bounced out and met me grinning from ear to ear.
I wasn't sure what to expect at the orphanage. It is run by Catholic nuns and today was a special day marking the end of their week long annual retreat. The children, aged 2 to 14 yrs were on their best behaviour and dressed in their finest clothes for the occasion. The orphanage is basically a quite a large two story house with a garden some 75-100 feet square. I guess there are 20 or so children. Facilities are limited and very functional. Part of the garden has been recently concreted over to house a basic paddling pool, swing set and play area. The rest of the garden is dirt; part of which houses a few animals in a sort of mini zoo for the kids. There is a goat, a calf, two dogs, a few chickens and a recently donated baby deer.
I did not see the whole of the building inside but the downstairs seems to be split into dormitories and a kitchen area. Upstairs are the nuns quarters, a schoolroom/ chapel and several other rooms. Everything is very primitive and almost clean; they seem to have all they need in the way of very basic food and clothing. There are about ten nuns and ten volunteers; soon many of the volunteers will be heading back to their respective countries for the start of the university term.
Today there was a special mass which I attended. I am not a religious person myself, but finding it fascinating to get an glimpse into another way of life, I enjoyed the mass very much. It was very crowded in the small room; only a few of the children were present. I sat cross legged, along with several volunteers, under the altar in the front corner of the room, next to the priest. Facing the congregation I had an excellent vantage point from which to study the group before me.
The children seemed physically healthy enough but most show obvious signs of emotional and behavioural problems. Their chances of integrating back into society seem slim. Now that they are reasonably well fed and healthy, what they really need is emotional help to heal the mental trauma caused by being completely without love, or even human contact, for a lot of their lives. These kids came from places where they were left lying in their own mess, in worse conditions than the worst zoo you can imagine. Sitting in the church I watched the kind faces of the sisters and the odd behaviour of the children. Some have spasmodic twitches and others watch my face closely and get very excited if I seem to be looking their way. They cry out for attention but don't know how to react when they get it. One little girl, very small but aged thirteen, pinches me hard and I jump. Valerie explains that this is how the little girl expresses affection. She is crippled, her legs badly deformed; she staggers around and holds my hands, wanting to be swung around. Her mother broke both her legs so she could beg for money in the street. Unsplinted, they healed like a broken tree. These kids were treated like animals and it will take more than just food and love to make them behave like the humans they had been denied the right to be.
This orphanage is better off than most in Romania and the conditions I describe are a huge improvement on those of a year ago. Since the sisters took over these children only one child has died and this appears to have been an allergic reaction to a sedative. Some of the children appear to have survived their ordeal emotionally unscathed, some of them are so cute!
An Italian couple have just adopted a family of four children all at once. A daunting prospect. The legalities of adoption of these kids is a problem. Original birth certificates must be found, due to the circumstances this in itself is a daunting task.
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