Hey Y'all. . . Today, Sunday, July 20, was a milestone. Finally, I was taken to meet the cave kids I've been telling about in the Virtual Romania newsletters to you. First though, I must digress. I was going to an all girl's orphanage, preteen up to 17 or 18, in Nasaud with Craig and Victoria Goodwin a week ago. A young man named Ole was taking us out to meet the director of this State run orphanage where the staff is Orthodox and the home is run with Christian principles. It truly is a fabulous home for the 120 girls living there! Victoria was asking the director about how they handle discipline, etc., and the program the director told us about is great! They break the girls into groups of 10 that they call "families." In these families, one girl is in charge of finding out how the others are doing in school, one is in charge of finding out if there are personal problems, etc. When there is a discipline problem, the girl is brought before them, so not only is there the embarrassment of being singled out in front of all the girls, but then some sort of discipline is handed out like no TV for a period of time, or free time is taken away for a while, and so forth.

The director truly loves these girls. She's been there for four years and her dedication shines all over her! During the summer months, the girls are so well thought of, that families from nearby villages will take them into their homes to help with their own children and provide the girls with a true family feeling. We saw some of the girls who were staying thru the summer,and they appeared well adjusted, joking with each other, hugging one another, squealing as only teenage girls can squeal with one another! We were shown several of their rooms. There are 10 girls to a room, but each has their own dulap (bureau) for clothes, as well as crocheted "granny-square" spreads on their beds giving a 10-bed room the feeling of warmth. And of course there were the proverbial rock star posters on walls and pictures on mirrors. Craig and Victoria were able to glean a lot of information from the orphanage about how a good home should be operated.

We were all so pleased to see an orphanage on the high caliber of this girl's orphanage in Romania, particularly because of all the horror stories we hear regarding orphanages in this country. It actually felt more like a huge family than an orphanage. Craig and Victoria were truly impressed and intend on getting to know this director a lot better. In fact, the director has offered to come live for a week at the St. Nicholas Home once it's open, giving the Goodwins and staff pointers and advice. This director was simply amazing. We were wondering why all State run orphanages aren't patterned after this one!

The cave called 'home'

It was through Ole, the young man who took us to meet the director of this State run orphanage, who opened the door for me to meet the cave kids today. Ole has his degree in social work, but he's also in his second year of theology at the institute here in Cluj, and he works with the Romanian charitable ministry, Cristiana. He and a couple other young men live out at a Cristiana house in Floresti (the first town going out west of Cluj toward Oradea). Anyway, Ole has been involved with the cave kids for quite some time, so knows them personally, and they know him and seem to really love and trust him. Otherwise, I never would have met them as easily as I did today. These kids are very leery of strangers and have been promised help many times and have always been burned.

Today when Ole and I went to meet them, it was around 5 in the afternoon, and since it's been raining a lot lately, Ole was pretty sure we would find some of them at "home." We were in luck, five were in the deepest cave.

Jacomin, 18 years old "The Boss"

Jacomin, a Gypsy, is the largest, and the oldest at 18 years old. I could see scars on his scalp through his jet black hair. His face also carries scars. He is obviously the leader of 5 other boys, ages 12 to 15. Jacomin is very forceful in his speech, but is gentle in his manner. He takes care of these smaller boys and acts almost like a dad.

Sandel, 14 years old has irresistible, bright brown eyes. His hair is brown, and his skin is fair. He has a clear, open face with freckles sprinkled across his nose, and he exhibits a mischievous and infectious smile that melted my heart. I saw cleverness in his eyes and it was obvious he is quite smart.

Calin, 13 years old, speaks a small bit of English and was anxious to show off his language skills. Light shown from his brown eyes, his hair was shaved to the scalp, and he too has creamy light skin, or so it seemed through the dirt. He had a huge piece of bread that he kept chewing and chomping on through his unending dialogue with Ole and me.

Calin has a brother living in the cave with him who is a year older named Gabi. Gabi looked like he had been sniffing chemicals, but I was assured by Ole that none of the kids had been doing drugs today because all the stores where they get their glue and paint were closed. But still, I thought Gabi's eyes looked rather glazed and his speech seemed slurred. He too had his head shaved to the scalp and he had on a green baseball cap. He was also wrapped in a dirty blanket. He said something about falling into some water. We couldn't figure out where the water was he told us about. Even though we were in the cave, Gabi was shivering in the cold, damp weather.

Cristi was the youngest, and he looked like he was the healthiest, for now. At least he appeared to have more "meat on his bones" than the others. He didn't talk much, letting others do the talking. He was holding one of two tiny, mongrel puppies to his chest. This little blonde-headed boy had on shorts. I couldn't figure out if he was holding the puppy so close to keep it warm, or to keep himself warm!

Marius, Jacomin's younger brother 14 years old

These five boys all came from different parts of the country, yet each had a similar story. I asked where their parents were. It was Calin who answered for them all, "They are drunkards, and we were beaten at home." I asked how long they had been living in the cave, and Calin answered that he'd been on the streets for 7 years or so. I found out that Calin had ended up in an orphanage where most of the boys were abused mentally, physically and sexually by the older boys. To them, it is obviously better to escape that kind of life and take your chances in the streets or subways or caves, or train stations. Up in the caves however, the older boys sexually abuse the younger ones. The younger ones in turn, will grow up to abuse the younger ones, new runaways, joining the cave families and so on and so on. I'm truly concerned about HIV and AIDS in these boys. They have no medical care whatsoever!

The boys want help. They want to go to school and live "normal" lives. But they've been thrown away by their own society, by their own blood relatives, by their mothers and their fathers. They are also killing themselves with the chemicals they sniff on a daily basis. Yet reality is so horrible for them, that they find escape and refuge in frying their brains on chemicals.

You might ask next, just how they get money to buy glue and paint? They beg. What can be done for these boys? There are nearly 20 that live in the caves. Obviously their population in Cluj will grow, but most runaways are drawn to Bucharest. In Cluj, they receive help from one ministry that gives them food at a certain time of day at "Piata, Mihai Viteazul" (Michael the Brave Square) on a daily basis. At least through the summer. What happens come winter? Ole didn't know.

Ole says that what is needed is a "safe" house for these cave kids that will be a refuge from their daily "reality." It must be a house of love, acceptance, a place to receive direction for their lives, spiritually and practically, a place that will bring some structure into their shattered little lives. But a house and staffing takes money. Ole has been desiring a house for the cave kids for as long as he's known them, but it seems like the government, the church or other charities have higher priorities than these kids as well as other very important causes for which funding has already been set aside, and this is understandable.

Pray for the cave kids. Pray that soon a "safe" house will be available for them.

Ole and I are going to be taking some fruit up to them soon as well as shoes and hopefully some clothes and blankets. Ole also wants to take his guitar up to the caves, and we'll spend an evening talking with them and he'll play the guitar and sing with them. He'd also like to take these five to a place near Cluj call Faget. It's a forested area where you can take a picnic and play games. I think there's a lake nearby for swimming too.

Hey, please remember a priest here in your prayers. I've written about him in the VR newsletters. His name is Lucian Vaida. I think he has kidney stones! Lucian is a young man, going on 27, and when I saw him last Sunday, he was walking like an old man. I asked what happened to his back and he kept saying, "Nothing." I pinned him down about it, as only a mama can, and he said, "It's my water, it has sand in it." Well, I flipped! I told him he had to get to a doctor! He said that he's been taking the best "medicine," that of the Eucharist. I told him that I agreed, but that God also gave us St. Luke the PHYSICIAN!!! I found out through Craig Goodwin that Lucian was in Cluj last Monday trying to see a doctor. I've asked about him since, but have no further news of his condition.

Right down the road from Lucian and Juliana in their village, Luna de Jos, is a mental hospital. A small river flows in back of that hospital and through the village. Well, ALL the waste from the hospital is dumped in the river! It is appalling! I think the whole village uses that river to dump waste of one kind or another in! There is no sewer system in the villages, no septic tanks, just wells and outhouses. The river is a muddy-brown color. David Goodwin, Craig and Victoria's youngest child, took it into his head to go "swimming" in that river. Talk about frightening! Victoria told me that she still hasn't been able to soak, wash, or bleach the muddy-brown color out of his underwear yet, and doesn't know if that particular pair will ever be the same!

The medical care here needs improvement in such a huge way. People die from lack of medicine, outdated treatment and equipment. Old ways hold strong in this country. For instance, I believe that a lot of people become sick because many believe that if you simply "rinse" your plates and glasses after meals, that's enough, hence they become sick from the lack of simple hygiene. I believe that's the reason I used to get sick each time I visited a friend of mine in a city nearly two hour's drive from Cluj. I'd watch my friend "wash" the dishes in cold water and only a little, if any, detergent at all. She doesn't do that anymore, but a lot of people in Romania still wash their utensils, pots and pans and dishes this way. In fact, out at a village today after church, we had lunch with a family, and I witnessed the wife washing dishes in that very manner.

The past couple of days have been quite busy. I've been helping to pack clothes with the Goodwins, then we take clothes and food packages to needy families around Cluj. The needs here are so great. There are families where no one is employed, or several family members are sick. One woman has a mentally handicapped youngster of 7 years of age. This boy has to be tied in a chair to keep from pulling all his clothes off! In the warehouse where Prison Fellowship Romania stores clothing and food, Victoria found a one-piece ski suit that she felt would fit this boy nicely. When we took the clothes to this mother, she was very grateful to see the coveralls. Victoria told me that this mother can't work because her husband left her when the boy was barely a year old and he needs 'round the clock care. She gets some State care, and hopefully there's help from relatives, but I don't know about that. Her name was on the list of needy from a nearby church.

One woman who we delivered food and clothing to answered the door and I was shocked to see her left eye and surrounding area. It was all black and blue! Felicia, the Romanian woman who translated for us whispered to me as we went inside, "Looks like she's received a beating by someone." Her eye looked painful, but she exhibited no embarrassment about the bruise.

Living in this one bloc of flats were 7 families who were receiving the food and clothing packages we delivered on Friday. Well, we naturally aroused the curiosity of a small army of children who proceeded to follow behind. They also began to run ahead of us to open the heavy, glass doors going into the entrance of the blocs of flats. The longer we were there, the bolder they became and would follow us all the way to the tops of some of the blocs. Oh, and why is it that the neediest seem to live at top of the buildings AND in buildings with no elevators? Believe me, we sleep quite well after a day of climbing flights and flights of stairs, hauling boxes of clothing and food, but the rewards are enormous not only for the families receiving the supplies, but for us as well.

This has gotten a little long, but then, when have I ever been known to be short on words??!! :-) Keep your email coming at me! I love to hear from y'all! Pray for the cave kids! Pray for Lucian and Juliana. Pray for Romania!

Cu mult drag. . . (With much love)

Zan

Down the trail with Zan to Volume V 1/2 ...
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