Romania: back at home

My son is confirmed for an operation in a few days.

I feel nervous. He excited.

Right now he's asleep with his bestest and faithful pal.

Sleep well son x



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Romania

Romania: soup and bread variation

Instead of soup and roll for lunch I had soup in a roll.

Amazing.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Romania

Romania: morning

Here's my view right now. The wind is gentle. The air crisp. It's a beautiful morning.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Romania

Romania: 59 years

She's lived in this "village" for 59 years. Has 12 children and many grandchildren.

When asked what she needs she said a washing machine would be nice for all the clothes of her children and children's children.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: The Hunting Lodge

I'm on Mount Sinaia right now.

Just come back from a hunting lodge restaurant. The walls were covered in hunting memorabilia and trophies.

I counted 8 bears.

The waiter was telling me about how these bears dated back to the Ceausescu era.

There was even bear on the menu.

Romania: ticklish

All I was trying was to get my photo taken with her. And she kept tickling me. Every time. Seriously... Every time.

Man she rocked.

Quite amazing this hospice. We've just seen some performances by the schools here. The local tv were here and I even got interviewed by the reporter.

We were suppose to be interviewing a girl about life here and ended up speaking to the medical director and whilst trying to get a photo with her she kept tickling me. Seriously. She didn't stop :)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: "He lives alone"

Hearing words through a translator often says things as they are.

We stop as we are venturing to a school in a village made up of Roma and Romanians. Or as we were told people of the land (or peasants) and the people.

We stop because a man strolls out towards us. His face full of history.

The translator states he found this home 4 years ago and has lived here all this time.

He ends by stating "and he lives alone"




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: train station

I'm on a train now in the beautiful hills of Transylvania. Tis stunning.

Here's my view:




We're heading up the hill to a place called Mt Sinaia.

As we ascend I recall the last train station I was at. Just under 48 hours ago. I wasn't catching a train. I wasn't even thinking of train travel. I was there as this was a place where the homeless are.

People throwing cigarettes on the floor and people rushing to enjoy the remainder of it. A solitary man standing with his possessions in a small case.

One man approaches. He has 2 daughters and a son. His two daughters are in London and he's given his apartment to his son. His home: the streets.

We're here because we've been taken out by the night mobile team from the Romanian NGO, Samusocial. Their mission to reach out to the 5500 homeless of Bucharest.

Our team are good and hot off the mark. The social worker straight in there talking and assessing, the driver getting out sleeping bags and hot soups, the doctor writing notes furiously. They not only do their job but they act honourably and listen to each person.

Recently I approached a homeless/workless person in my hometown she was concerned with her washing and not having little money for it. We escorted her around and through doing so listened and at the end whilst not changing anything was able to say thank you for speaking to me.

We leave and each night mobile team makes a point to say goodbye in person.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: fatherless

Being up since 4am sucks.

So tired. All I'd like to do is crash.

We're being shown our guest room. Three beds. Three men. Little time before the next appointment. No time for rest now.

There's a knock at the door.

We open and its our host the founder of the Educational Centre for the Hospice dropping in, between his numerous appointments with seemingly all the time in the world to say "welcome" and "hello".

A quiet man. But boy does he have presence. You meet such people from time to time and spend time afterwards with gratitude for such moments.

Amongst the chat a boy walks by. He's our neighbour. A 26 year old. Our host kindly introduces him and then the lad goes on. We are told he has cystic fibrosis and to excuse his coughing. I was going to preempt him by asking forgiveness in advance for any snoring that emanated from a room with 3 men each with proven track. We are then told a little more about the boy.

His father died when he was young. Mother remarried. The father-in-law murdered her. He was imprisoned. The grandparents tried to care and he was taken into the wing of this place. Our host talks like a loving father of this boy.

In a land of the "fatherless", Romania still remembered for those scenes of the orphanages, we find small pockets of un-doing that perception.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: Hope

We've all walked passed that person on the side of the road. Been approached by a poorly dressed person with their hand out pressed towards us. Seen the begging placards.

The Homeless, the workless evokes different feelings. Confusion, compassion, frustration...anger and much more.

I was just in the "home" of a lady who has two kids (ages 6 and 2). She, we were told, does not have psychiatric problems by the Psychiatric doctor who is part of the night mobile team that survey the streets for the homeless. Their job: interact, identify and react to them. There are approximately 5500 "known" homeless in Bucharest. The team we're in consists of 4 people.

This is our first stop and we're greeted by a man who cheerfully escort us into this place. It's through behind curtains across derelict land into a shabby old hut like building. We pass the religious icons with a dim light above into a room.

The immediate impression was the child proof wooden plank to stop the toddler I presume getting out. The man invites us in.

We barely fit in. And huddle around the mattress with a tv blaring out some children's programme. Above the bed a window and next to it a solitary picture of the 6 year old daughter in her students outfit proudly adorning their wall.

The night team are cuddling the kids and the doctor making notes. She on they other hand has not stopped talking, showing off her kids colouring in book and talking us through every achievement proudly. She's mesmerising with her intensity of description. Her daughter just quietly plays around us and son goes wonderfully excited as only 2 year olds do.

The lady was "born on the streets". She lived on them. Married on them. Lost their first child on them and now raises her family on them. Her husband lost his house in a fire and due to not having insurance lived on the streets where he met his wife to be. They, we are informed, "just want to raise a family."

She continues turning each page gleefully of this exercise book. The husband quietly towering in the corner whilst she continues her excited monologue.

As we leave we say a flurry of goodbyes.

Our team leader says it is we who learn our lessons in life from people like this. Oh and her name is "Hope".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: homeless

Some photos from our time with the night mobile team who reach out to the homeless of Bucharest.

A family living in a squat



Distributing sleeping bags to a lady who sleeps in an old car with her two children.



Here's her home.



Stopping by the side of the street to speak to those who lie by the sides.



Our escorts say "its us who learn from them these lessons in life."

Location:Intrarea Bobeică,Bucharest,Romania

Romania: touchdown

Arrived and picked up by a group determined to support people as they face death through palliative care.

We drove through Bucharest and he shares how his life was changed when his only son was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The hospice helped him meet global specialist and transferred the boy and parents to the hospice just miles from where I live in the UK.

He works to help build a centre of such excellence here in Bucharest.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Romania: 5am

Sitting in the car waiting for a colleague. He's taking his time. It's 5 am.

Been awhile since we last met.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Saint James' Park,Tunbridge Wells,United Kingdom

Mussels, chocolates in Brussels

A good, but tiring, day at Aid Ex.




Followed by some Moule n Frittes with the team.


Jo even had a kid dance with her outside a chocolate shop!















- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Lambermontlaan,Schaarbeek,Belgium

AidEx 2012

I'm in Brussels for an Aid event.

Here's the view opposite our event hall.





It's strangely warm here for a late October evening.

Great guest house too and we've been well fed... Just in bed now with that Pre event feelings late at night.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Lambermontlaan,Schaarbeek,Belgium

The Malevolence

They built The Malevolence (Joshie's b'day pressie).

Very tricky but they worked well together.

Good job troops.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cambrian Road,Tunbridge Wells,United Kingdom

Saturday 11th November Sevenoaks Chronicle article

About 40 years ago the local newspaper welcomed the Solanky family.

My father yesterday showed me the paper.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gate Farm Road,,United Kingdom

Today is a significant day. 40 years ago...

My brother was 6 months old when he boarded a plane at Entebbe airport. My father said "little Rajan was so thirsty that he begged the stewardess for some water for his throat."

That was 40 years ago when my father, mother, little Rajan, my grandfather and grand mother her sister and 2 aunties boarded a plane leaving their lives behind.

Today, "little" Rajan, forty years on, wrote:

Today is a significant day. 40 years ago my family arrived on a cold windswept tarmac at Stansted airport, after being expelled from Uganda, with little more than the clothes on their backs. They survived and thrived in the face of social, economic and political unrest, I've been inspired by you my whole life.

The boys after swimming

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cambrian Rd,Tunbridge Wells,United Kingdom

Some photos from Joshie's Birthday

The eve before:



In the morning:



The hamster cage:




Party time








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone