Friday 10 July 1998

Oh my God! I am here - I’ve finally got to Romania. Yesterday was exhausting. I enjoyed the first part - the airport and flying out. I got chatting to a couple of girls from Oxford University who were going to teach English in Bucharest. The place was full of brash Americans wearing identical ‘Romania Chapel Project ‘98’ T-shirts. For once I didn’t feel too sick although the flight was bumpy and people were throwing up. It wasn’t too hot in Bucharest just like a British summer afternoon. We all had to fill in forms to enter the country and queue for ages to show our passports and visas. I struggled to change some dollars into lei and went to collect my baggage which thankfully arrived.

At the exit, a crowd of taxi drivers pounced on me trying to help me. I eventually got into one with my suitcase on the rood. In my best Romanian I asked to go to the train station which he surprisingly understood. He then tried to persuade me to let him take me all the way to Bacau - a 4 hour train journey!

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself by this time as things were going much to plan. We sped through the dusty Bucharest streets with the bonnet of the car lifting up as we gained speed. At the station the driver took out my suitcase and gave it to two very ‘helpful’ men who rushed off with it. I quickly paid the driver who charged an exorbitant fee and chased after them towards the station. I tried to persuade them to let me do this myself, but they would not listen. Eventually I gave up, although I knew I would have to pay dearly, I didn’t know the words for what I wanted to say in Romanian and I couldn’t see how I was going to get onto the train without their help. They were very useful in fact - helping me to get the right ticket, platform and carriage. They got my suitcase onto the train in the luggage racks - there was nobody else around who could have helped me. I had to pay them despite my haggling and I wondered whether I had been ripped off - it wasn’t that much money though.

At the station I began to see a bit of Romanian life. Traditional peasant men and women walked over the tracks carrying huge bundles of wood, fabric or boxes. Gypsy children with bare dusty feet and scraps of clothes played around the trains and railway lines.

Incongruously pristine sailors and soldiers walked on the platforms in uniforms.

I was sitting in a little compartment like old fashioned trains with 5 other Romanians. Eventually the train started up and moved off. The journey lasted 4 hours during which time I read and slept occasionally looking out of the window to see fields of nodding sunflowers, farms and peasant houses. We passed fields where boys sat watching a few cows in grazed circles. Children sat in the dusty tracks surrounded by goats and geese. Now and then a double-decker train would rush past.

Once as I was reading a little gypsy girl of about 7 with wide eyes and dark skin came into our compartment. She help a scrap of card with words written in Romanian. I didn’t know what to do. The other passengers brushed her away and tried to ignore her. She tried to look like she was crying and held out her hands - still silent but pleading. I smiled but shrugged my shoulders - I didn’t want to start opening up my bag even if it was just for chocolate and I had to take my cue from the other passengers. She looked at the man opposite me and knelt down to kiss his feet. He brushed her aside so she kissed my feet too, looked up at us then left. She made me feel so lucky and well off but also very much invaded and pressurised.

Later a woman with about 5 young children came begging from us. This time all the passengers reached into their purses and gave her some money. I didn’t understand whey this was acceptable but I offered some chocolate which she gave to a little boy who must have been less than 2 years old.

We were constantly pestered by men trying to sell us things like beer, pens and food and by women and children begging.

It was impossible to read the signs with the names of the stations we stopped at. So instead I had to keep track of time. At the stations an occasional cow wandered across the tracks.

One of my fellow passengers helped me with my bag when we finally reached Bacau in the dark at 10pm.

The next problem was to find some change and ‘phone the sisters. Not knowing the words made things difficult, but eventually a taxi driver found me some and helped me with the ‘phone number. 5 or 6 taxi drivers followed me all the time offering their services and arguing amongst themselves. So I found it very hard to hear the quiet sister when I eventually got through. I arranged to get to them by taxi which I did although we got lost and couldn’t understand each other.

We arrived at the gates of the orphanage where 2 girls waved to me and opened the way in. I followed them around the back talking in what little Romanian I knew. There I was greeted by 2 nuns in their blue and white saris. They welcomed me and introduced me to Gerry Patreascu. who would take me to live with his mother. They were all really lovely to me. I had a bite to eat in the room next to the chapel where there was also a loo and shower.

I talked to the sisters a little bit but was very tired and found it hard to understand their English. They told me that I would not see them the next day but would be shown around by the unwed mothers.

I then left the home in Gerry’s car, just catching glimpses of the children as they stuck their heads out of their bedroom windows to see me.

Gerry was lovely. His English was excellent. He had visited Milton Keynes before and so we chatted about concrete cows and the like as we made our way down the bumpy track to his mother’s house. At Doamna Patreascu’s house I also met Gerry’s sister. They showed me my little room and though very apologetic about it I was just delighted to see a bed at last. They were all so friendly but acutely embarrassed about their poor situation. ‘ There is no drainage... or water system... or toilets...’ Gerry apologised ‘but it is all we have. It is how we live and we get used to it’

With no water I just changed and attempted to clean my teeth before getting into bed exhausted and feeling very much in a strange place. Eventually I slept.