Weekly update 39/21

Despite the absence of the motorcyclists, the work of the foundation has not stopped. A lot of
work has been done, especially with all kinds of pick-up jobs, the storage is again quite full. That is why we will be loading two trucks on Wednesday 6 October. The truck that comes back with our motorcycles goes to Botosani and the second to Breaza.

Our motorcycle trip went well, we had a great time together. The home base was the important distribution point for us in Breaza. Csaba and Imola do a very good job there with their childcare, assistance to the elderly in the village and the distribution of the relief goods between other local organizations, etc., etc. At times it seems like the social service itself, in case of a problem asking Csaba and Imola for help often works better than the "real" social service of the municipality of Breaza itself.

The corona restrictions are not really bothersome for those who are vaccinated. However, just when we went back to the Netherlands, the virus broke out again in Romania. The vaccination rate is low, code red seems to be on the way with more than 10,000 new cases per day. Traveling with a large group is difficult and not everyone will feel comfortable under these circumstances.

To get an impression of how our journey went, I made a photo album with an explanatory text.

Here is the link to this album

The people at our distribution points in Romania continue to work and send messages and photos. I may be missing a few, I'll try to make an overview.

Reghina from Ticau had Jan Valk visit, Jan makes the return journey just like the outward journey by motorbike and visits a number of acquaintances on the way home. In the early years, schoolmaster Sava was an important contact, he lives in Sălsig, which is close to Ticau. Jan is impressed by the poverty and the work Reghina does. With a son of Reghina and schoolmaster Sava, he looked around and got a good impression of what Reghina does. A lot of houses and roofs have already been repaired, Jan said. However, there are also a lot of them that need to be refurbished given the bad condition in which they are. It is difficult to imagine how the families there, often with numerous children, survive.

Here the link to photos of Jan

Reghina can drive with temporary number plates, the car runs very well and she has all the papers to apply for a definitive Romanian number plate. She can now take much more at a time, so this Opel combo is very handy. She has written us a thank you letter and Gerrit van der Starre from St. Emeth pays attention to it in his latest newsletter.

Here the link to pictures of Reghina.

At Cristi in Botosani they will start on the roof of the new part of the children's home next Monday. He is making a lot of progress this year.

Here is the link to photos.

Toth Attila from Reghin/Peris does a lot of good work and also has projects that should generate money to pay for things. The sea buckthorn berries are an example of this, these berries are super healthy. Much better than drinks made from grapes or barley.

Here is the link to photos.

Henk Muller also sent pictures of what is happening in and around Deaj, just like a kind of outing in the vicinity. The seed potatoes we sent have done very well, yielding a rich harvest. Henk himself has a nasty injury to his shoulder, he is being treated for it. While distributing relief supplies, he slipped and fell on this already injured shoulder.

Here is the link to photos.

In the report on the motorcycle ride I wrote about our visit to Roxana and Marius Dancovici from St. Paternoster in Ploiești.

Here is the link to their website.

We have now decided to make the Christmas packages in-house again. We will take up the organization of this in the short term. We have Romanian trucks deliver the packages.