Day 4 Adrian comes to collect us and Ioana has decided to join us, it will be good to have some female company, so the five of us head off for our first visit of the day, School 5 Bis. We are all invited into the staff room, which is quite small to meet the Headmaster and are given small cups of strong sweetened coffee – no decaffeinated here! We are introduced to Ann-Marie (the men are now doing their Homer Simpson impersonations, she is a very attractive young woman). Her English is excellent and she tells us this is her first job out of college so she is still learning the ropes. With her help we end up with the whole school outside to take part in the football. Paul & Roy set up the session, the Head sorts out he lads that will take part in the tournament on the Saturday and they have first go. The remainder of the lads take part and there is a lot of cheering & encouragement and all the young girls are watching with keen interest. Whilst I am taking some photos I am aware that I have an audience, one of the little girls tells me her name is Francesca and that she and some of the others would like to take part. I ask Ann- Marie if this is OK and Iaona & I take all the girls to one side to do their own little session. They all hold hands and form two large circles and it looks if they are doing "Ring a Ring o' Roses" we show the girls how to pass the ball back & forth to each other and some of the are very good. They want play a game but we do not have a enough bibs to go around so we separate everyone dressed in pink & red on one team and all the other colours on the other. This is basically a waste of time as they all run after the ball like a swarm of bees but thoroughly enjoy themselves and that is all that counts. The bell goes and they all return to their lessons and we all agree that it was a great session so much encouragement from the staff & children, an absolute pleasure.
Day 4 contd Ann-Marie comes with us to School 5, she has the seat in the front with Adrian and the rest of us squeeze in the back, although I am sure there was a lap or two that would have been offered. The school appears to be well maintained and staffed, the pupils polite & focused. We meet the sports master and it is Ioana & my turn to behave like a pair of teenage girls, he was ‘fit’!!!! We then go out to the sports area, there are goal posts and a pitch. This is very rough and rutted, so ball control is difficult. We divide the group and run our usual drills, assisted by the sports teacher. These players have and good level of skills and fitness and cope easily with the exercises. We end with a match between the two groups which is controlled by the teacher and distribute a set of kit for Saturday. When are invited back into the office for a coffee or coke and some nibbles. Whilst chatting through our translator we find out the sports teacher is also a referee. He officiates at the Romanian equivalent of our Championship level and is on TV Friday night at a town about 200 kilometres away. Ann Marie tells us that he gets paid about 150 Euros for the game, which is more than her monthly salary!!! She tells us she has to ‘hitch a lift’ to work & back each day, you pay for this in Romania, this costs her over £3 per day, nearly half her salary just to get to work. There is a bit of banter between the teachers about this and it seems there is a real camaraderie between them. We say our goodbyes and head back to the Robert Cole Centre, to meet a group from School 2, which is next door to RCC.
We have time for a quick drink, Adrian has to get the car to Cristina for her course and leaves us to it. We expect to have a teacher to act as a translator but she drops off the group and says if we need her she is close by but where exactly! We have about 30 teenagers and split them in two and get some drills going, we then split them into four teams and run a little round robin. The area is too small to have them all on at the same time. After the incident with the window on day one we make it clear that the ball has to stay on the ground. The ball goes over the fence a couple of times and we tell them that when it goes over again the session is finished. We manage to get a few games in, there are a few good players and a good general level of skill. We do not see the teacher again and when we end the match they all head off in different directions. We assume that school has finished or they don't have to go back. This has been a good day all in all, especially the morning.
Day 5: A short trip to School Number 1 which is opposite the Police station and close to the railway station. We arrive and are taken into the directors office, the first thing we notice is the sports teacher outside having a fag! We are taken on a tour of the school, shown the IT room and library and taken into a couple of classes. When we enter each classroom all the pupils stand and say hello, and then in English when they are told where we are from. We are told that the children will stay in the same classroom and seat for the whole of their time in school, the teachers move. Parents that can afford to can invest in their child’s education by paying for blinds and equipment for the classroom, knowing their child will be there for the next 8 years. The area that the school is in appears to be a little better off, the children are well behaved and motivated. The school has a tarmac sport area on which we are to hold the training session. It is rough and bumpy in places but the players are very skilful and clearly well able to cope. We split them into two groups and run through our usual drills with the help of the sports teacher who barks out instructions to the pupils. He looks very stern and grumpy but clearly knows what he is doing and encourages them constantly throughout. We finish with a match between the two groups which the teacher refs. It is a good competitive game and these players must be considered as one of the favourites for the tournament. We notice that every time they lose the ball the players drop straight back into formation, facing the ball and picking up men, well organised. We give the coach a set of kit for the team, they thanks us and say goodbye.
Our next stop is at Casa Lumina where we are going to try and deliver a session to severely handicapped young adults. This is the first time Roy has worked with disabled people and he is apprehensive. We have the large ball that is used for wheel chair football and we use this for a game of skittles, with three ordinary balls sitting on top of marker cones. Four of the residents come and join in enthusiastically and a couple of others are on the fringe and have a go occasionally, when they get the chance. The staff start moving plant pots as the session gets a little more enthusiastic, we must be careful to avoid another window incident. Roy is involved in a one to one game of rolling the ball back and forward but all the balls are slowly being collected and hidden behind his participant. He is doing a great job for someone with no experience of this type of activity. It is soon time to go as we have to be at our final meeting with the students from Comanesti High School on the pitch opposite the RCC. We say our goodbyes and hope we have achieved something and maybe given the staff some ideas.
We wait at the RCC for a while, no body turns up, and we get the staff to make a phone call to the school. There has been some confusion, they are at their school waiting for us. By the time we get there and find them it is too late to run a session but from what we can see they are more than competent as they are finishing with a game. We take the chance to talk to their coaches about the games tomorrow and let them know we have some kit for them. One of them speaks very good English and this should prove useful at the tournament to overcome the language barrier. The teachers send a couple of the students back to the RCC with us to collect the kit, they seem very pleased with what we give them and thank us several times.
That is all of the sessions we had booked for the week completed, some had changed times, venues and dates during the week but we have got there in the end. Throughout the week the time of the tournament had changed from 12-4pm and then to 1-5pm and back again, often twice in the same day. We now think it is 12-4pm and we hope that all taking part have got the same message, this is typical Romanian organisation. We get the equipment sorted for tomorrow and are all ready to go, we can even have a bit of a lie in if we want tomorrow morning.
Day 6: Tournament Day! The weather forecast has been rain for Saturday, it’s cloudy outside but dry at the moment, fingers crossed. Adrian arrives and we load as much equipment as we can into his car, he drops us down to the Stadium for 11 am, we are still scheduled for a 12 o’clock start. When we arrive there is a junior club match on, this finishes soon after and we start to build the first goal. Another two teams then turn up and it is clear there is another game due to start, the sports teacher/ref from School 5 is already there and he tells us this match will be an hour long. We are therefore going to start late. Whilst we wait the goals are assembled and we simply have to wait our turn, the teams start to turn up in cars and mini buses and we direct them into the stand. We find a couple of conkers and try to ask the kids if they play the game. They do not understand so we put a couple of holes through them and thread them onto our whistle cords. We call them over and demonstrate the game, they look at us in bewilderment and walk off laughing amongst themselves. Not sure if it’s going to catch on!!! It’s approaching kick off time and we are wondering where Loraine, Ioana and Adrian are, they have the paperwork and the rest of the equipment. They arrive at about the same time as the people from Europe Direct and we start to get organised, we now have two sets of goals and can run two pitches. We struggle to find out exactly how many teams are there and try to call in the coaches/managers. We try and split them into two competitive age groups and appear to have this done, the really little ones will play in between the older age group matches. A couple of schools haven’t turned up, so we have two groups of three teams who will play each other twice in 15 minute matches. At the half way point the younger sides will play their games.
We get underway and say that another team will probably turn up and trash the arrangements, and lo and behold School 4 come round the corner without any teachers and want to play. The noticeable thing about the School 4 boys is that they have brought along the kit we gave them last year! Loraine now has to try and sort this out, but we are underway. It’s at about this time we are told that we now have to be off the pitch by 3.30pm. So with the late start and the earlier finish we have lost 45 minutes from our original programme. The man from Europe Direct has set up his PA system and has music pounding out, much too loud, you can barely hear the whistle. The group from Casa Lumina are dancing in front of the speakers and having a great time. The games are fairly even and very competitive but with very few fouls, lots of appeals and rolling around until they realise they are not going to fool the refs, Paul and Roy! Throughout the tournament there is much to and fro to check how the results are going, it’s getting a bit competitive. Every time a result is late being passed to Loraine by one of the refs, she gets surrounded by several people gabbling in Romanian and waving arms and pointing fingers.
The volume of the music finally gets to Roy and he pulls the lead from the computer, we have asked for it to be turned down without success, the final straw was when the players couldn’t hear his whistle. The younger players only get to play one round of matches as we are running out of time, and they are presented with their medals and diplomas as the older players go into round two of their games. We press on and get the games finished before 3.30pm, the players and grounds man are putting up the nets ready for the match. With the help of some of the teachers and pupils we get the goals down and the marker cones picked up and packed away. The presentations are made by Sandra Dolan from the Biggin Hill Romania Group, she hands out the diplomas and the Cups to first, second and third placed teams. This also ensures that the event is not hijacked by the man from Europe Direct. Loraine, Roy and Paul help to give out the medals. We are thanked by players and coaches for organising the event, it seems to have gone well despite seeming to be total chaos from our point of view. As the teams leave they are given some balls to keep for the schools, those that have already gone will receive theirs when Adrian visits them in the next week or so. We leave some of the surplus kit with the Comanesti Football club as a thank you for the use of the ground, hopefully they will put it to good use. We get the equipment back to the RCC and that is our mission completed, time for a shower and then out for something to eat, I think we have earned a celebratory drink, it’s our last night in Romania.
Day 7: We have a bit of a lie in, not too late as we have promised to get some painting done in the newly refurbished rooms for the Medical Centre. Roy gets stuck into the painting while Paul draws up an inventory of the equipment we are leaving at the Centre for next time and the list of equipment he has to distribute to the schools. This completed he joins Roy and Sandra and helps with the painting. Loraine, Ioana and Adrian go to Casa Lumina to see Radu to give him the trainers that Paul and Loraine bought him in England. He is delighted with them and says he will be wearing them to school, it is normal for Romanians to wear their best clothing to school. Loraine and Ioana go out for a walk and see some of the things you see when you go a little off the beaten track, the housing and the way the locals live. They come across a funeral procession, with an open coffin which is the norm in Romania. Orphans were carrying the floral tributes and the men carrying the food, followed by large numbers of people. Sandra, Roy and Paul have two rooms to work on. They manage to get both rooms washed down and primed and Roy gets an undercoat on one of the rooms, unfortunately the paint will not dry in time for us to get any more paint on the walls. We take a well earned shower to try and get some of the paint off and arrange to meet the others at the nearby bar.
Adrian arranges to pick us up at 5.30pm for our trip to Bacau Airport, we are dropping Ioana off at friends in Bacau. We stop at Casa Albert on the way, this is a Hospice for people with HIV/Aids and run by ‘Cry in the Dark’. We meet Steve Cooper the CEO and get a guided tour of the facility, it’s very well equipped but cost a lot of money. We have to make a move as time is getting on. The rest of the journey is quite eventful, every so often we come round a corner and are confronted by a cow in the middle of the road. We weave in and out of them and finally meet someone about 300 yards behind herding the cows, it’s starting to get dusky and it is a bit dangerous to say the least. We also come across horse and carts, they have number plates but no lights on them. Accidents between them and motor vehicles are quite common, as are collisions with cattle and horses. We get to Bacau and drop Ioana off, it’s been great to meet her and her help has been appreciated, especially the filming of the tournament. We have time to go for a Macdonalds, yes they have one in Bacau! It’s quite a big town. We are dropped off at the Airport, we say our goodbyes to Adrian and thank him for all his help and entertaining stories. We think he should commit his stories to print and sell the books for fund raising, we even come up with a title for him. We get into the airport fairly easily, we don’t experience the scrum of last year as we have checked our bags in advance this time. We take off 35 minutes early! Throughout the flight the temperature is almost unbearable on board the plane and we are glad to get off. The car park mini bus picks us up straight away and the car is waiting for us, the roads are clear and we are home by 2.00 am, a good end to the trip for all of us.
Thanks to everyone for their support in making this visit such a success.
Day 4
ReplyDeleteAdrian comes to collect us and Ioana has decided to join us, it will be good to have some female company, so the five of us head off for our first visit of the day, School 5 Bis. We are all invited into the staff room, which is quite small to meet the Headmaster and are given small cups of strong sweetened coffee – no decaffeinated here! We are introduced to Ann-Marie (the men are now doing their Homer Simpson impersonations, she is a very attractive young woman). Her English is excellent and she tells us this is her first job out of college so she is still learning the ropes.
With her help we end up with the whole school outside to take part in the football. Paul & Roy set up the session, the Head sorts out he lads that will take part in the tournament on the Saturday and they have first go. The remainder of the lads take part and there is a lot of cheering & encouragement and all the young girls are watching with keen interest.
Whilst I am taking some photos I am aware that I have an audience, one of the little girls tells me her name is Francesca and that she and some of the others would like to take part. I ask Ann- Marie if this is OK and Iaona & I take all the girls to one side to do their own little session. They all hold hands and form two large circles and it looks if they are doing "Ring a Ring o' Roses" we show the girls how to pass the ball back & forth to each other and some of the are very good. They want play a game but we do not have a enough bibs to go around so we separate everyone dressed in pink & red on one team and all the other colours on the other. This is basically a waste of time as they all run after the ball like a swarm of bees but thoroughly enjoy themselves and that is all that counts. The bell goes and they all return to their lessons and we all agree that it was a great session so much encouragement from the staff & children, an absolute pleasure.
Day 4 contd
ReplyDeleteAnn-Marie comes with us to School 5, she has the seat in the front with Adrian and the rest of us squeeze in the back, although I am sure there was a lap or two that would have been offered.
The school appears to be well maintained and staffed, the pupils polite & focused.
We meet the sports master and it is Ioana & my turn to behave like a pair of teenage girls, he was ‘fit’!!!!
We then go out to the sports area, there are goal posts and a pitch. This is very rough and rutted, so ball control is difficult. We divide the group and run our usual drills, assisted by the sports teacher. These players have and good level of skills and fitness and cope easily with the exercises.
We end with a match between the two groups which is controlled by the teacher and distribute a set of kit for Saturday.
When are invited back into the office for a coffee or coke and some nibbles. Whilst chatting through our translator we find out the sports teacher is also a referee. He officiates at the Romanian equivalent of our Championship level and is on TV Friday night at a town about 200 kilometres away. Ann Marie tells us that he gets paid about 150 Euros for the game, which is more than her monthly salary!!! She tells us she has to ‘hitch a lift’ to work & back each day, you pay for this in Romania, this costs her over £3 per day, nearly half her salary just to get to work. There is a bit of banter between the teachers about this and it seems there is a real camaraderie between them.
We say our goodbyes and head back to the Robert Cole Centre, to meet a group from School 2, which is next door to RCC.
We have time for a quick drink, Adrian has to get the car to Cristina for her course and leaves us to it. We expect to have a teacher to act as a translator but she drops off the group and says if we need her she is close by but where exactly!
ReplyDeleteWe have about 30 teenagers and split them in two and get some drills going, we then split them into four teams and run a little round robin. The area is too small to have them all on at the same time. After the incident with the window on day one we make it clear that the ball has to stay on the ground. The ball goes over the fence a couple of times and we tell them that when it goes over again the session is finished. We manage to get a few games in, there are a few good players and a good general level of skill. We do not see the teacher again and when we end the match they all head off in different directions. We assume that school has finished or they don't have to go back.
This has been a good day all in all, especially the morning.
Day 5: A short trip to School Number 1 which is opposite the Police station and close to the railway station. We arrive and are taken into the directors office, the first thing we notice is the sports teacher outside having a fag! We are taken on a tour of the school, shown the IT room and library and taken into a couple of classes. When we enter each classroom all the pupils stand and say hello, and then in English when they are told where we are from. We are told that the children will stay in the same classroom and seat for the whole of their time in school, the teachers move. Parents that can afford to can invest in their child’s education by paying for blinds and equipment for the classroom, knowing their child will be there for the next 8 years. The area that the school is in appears to be a little better off, the children are well behaved and motivated.
ReplyDeleteThe school has a tarmac sport area on which we are to hold the training session. It is rough and bumpy in places but the players are very skilful and clearly well able to cope. We split them into two groups and run through our usual drills with the help of the sports teacher who barks out instructions to the pupils. He looks very stern and grumpy but clearly knows what he is doing and encourages them constantly throughout.
We finish with a match between the two groups which the teacher refs. It is a good competitive game and these players must be considered as one of the favourites for the tournament. We notice that every time they lose the ball the players drop straight back into formation, facing the ball and picking up men, well organised.
We give the coach a set of kit for the team, they thanks us and say goodbye.
Our next stop is at Casa Lumina where we are going to try and deliver a session to severely handicapped young adults. This is the first time Roy has worked with disabled people and he is apprehensive. We have the large ball that is used for wheel chair football and we use this for a game of skittles, with three ordinary balls sitting on top of marker cones. Four of the residents come and join in enthusiastically and a couple of others are on the fringe and have a go occasionally, when they get the chance. The staff start moving plant pots as the session gets a little more enthusiastic, we must be careful to avoid another window incident. Roy is involved in a one to one game of rolling the ball back and forward but all the balls are slowly being collected and hidden behind his participant. He is doing a great job for someone with no experience of this type of activity. It is soon time to go as we have to be at our final meeting with the students from Comanesti High School on the pitch opposite the RCC.
ReplyDeleteWe say our goodbyes and hope we have achieved something and maybe given the staff some ideas.
We wait at the RCC for a while, no body turns up, and we get the staff to make a phone call to the school. There has been some confusion, they are at their school waiting for us. By the time we get there and find them it is too late to run a session but from what we can see they are more than competent as they are finishing with a game. We take the chance to talk to their coaches about the games tomorrow and let them know we have some kit for them. One of them speaks very good English and this should prove useful at the tournament to overcome the language barrier. The teachers send a couple of the students back to the RCC with us to collect the kit, they seem very pleased with what we give them and thank us several times.
That is all of the sessions we had booked for the week completed, some had changed times, venues and dates during the week but we have got there in the end.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the week the time of the tournament had changed from 12-4pm and then to 1-5pm and back again, often twice in the same day. We now think it is 12-4pm and we hope that all taking part have got the same message, this is typical Romanian organisation.
We get the equipment sorted for tomorrow and are all ready to go, we can even have a bit of a lie in if we want tomorrow morning.
Day 6: Tournament Day!
ReplyDeleteThe weather forecast has been rain for Saturday, it’s cloudy outside but dry at the moment, fingers crossed.
Adrian arrives and we load as much equipment as we can into his car, he drops us down to the Stadium for 11 am, we are still scheduled for a 12 o’clock start. When we arrive there is a junior club match on, this finishes soon after and we start to build the first goal. Another two teams then turn up and it is clear there is another game due to start, the sports teacher/ref from School 5 is already there and he tells us this match will be an hour long. We are therefore going to start late.
Whilst we wait the goals are assembled and we simply have to wait our turn, the teams start to turn up in cars and mini buses and we direct them into the stand.
We find a couple of conkers and try to ask the kids if they play the game. They do not understand so we put a couple of holes through them and thread them onto our whistle cords. We call them over and demonstrate the game, they look at us in bewilderment and walk off laughing amongst themselves. Not sure if it’s going to catch on!!!
It’s approaching kick off time and we are wondering where Loraine, Ioana and Adrian are, they have the paperwork and the rest of the equipment. They arrive at about the same time as the people from Europe Direct and we start to get organised, we now have two sets of goals and can run two pitches.
We struggle to find out exactly how many teams are there and try to call in the coaches/managers. We try and split them into two competitive age groups and appear to have this done, the really little ones will play in between the older age group matches. A couple of schools haven’t turned up, so we have two groups of three teams who will play each other twice in 15 minute matches. At the half way point the younger sides will play their games.
We get underway and say that another team will probably turn up and trash the arrangements, and lo and behold School 4 come round the corner without any teachers and want to play. The noticeable thing about the School 4 boys is that they have brought along the kit we gave them last year!
ReplyDeleteLoraine now has to try and sort this out, but we are underway. It’s at about this time we are told that we now have to be off the pitch by 3.30pm. So with the late start and the earlier finish we have lost 45 minutes from our original programme.
The man from Europe Direct has set up his PA system and has music pounding out, much too loud, you can barely hear the whistle. The group from Casa Lumina are dancing in front of the speakers and having a great time.
The games are fairly even and very competitive but with very few fouls, lots of appeals and rolling around until they realise they are not going to fool the refs, Paul and Roy!
Throughout the tournament there is much to and fro to check how the results are going, it’s getting a bit competitive. Every time a result is late being passed to Loraine by one of the refs, she gets surrounded by several people gabbling in Romanian and waving arms and pointing fingers.
The volume of the music finally gets to Roy and he pulls the lead from the computer, we have asked for it to be turned down without success, the final straw was when the players couldn’t hear his whistle.
ReplyDeleteThe younger players only get to play one round of matches as we are running out of time, and they are presented with their medals and diplomas as the older players go into round two of their games.
We press on and get the games finished before 3.30pm, the players and grounds man are putting up the nets ready for the match. With the help of some of the teachers and pupils we get the goals down and the marker cones picked up and packed away.
The presentations are made by Sandra Dolan from the Biggin Hill Romania Group, she hands out the diplomas and the Cups to first, second and third placed teams. This also ensures that the event is not hijacked by the man from Europe Direct.
Loraine, Roy and Paul help to give out the medals. We are thanked by players and coaches for organising the event, it seems to have gone well despite seeming to be total chaos from our point of view.
As the teams leave they are given some balls to keep for the schools, those that have already gone will receive theirs when Adrian visits them in the next week or so.
We leave some of the surplus kit with the Comanesti Football club as a thank you for the use of the ground, hopefully they will put it to good use.
We get the equipment back to the RCC and that is our mission completed, time for a shower and then out for something to eat, I think we have earned a celebratory drink, it’s our last night in Romania.
Day 7: We have a bit of a lie in, not too late as we have promised to get some painting done in the newly refurbished rooms for the Medical Centre.
ReplyDeleteRoy gets stuck into the painting while Paul draws up an inventory of the equipment we are leaving at the Centre for next time and the list of equipment he has to distribute to the schools. This completed he joins Roy and Sandra and helps with the painting.
Loraine, Ioana and Adrian go to Casa Lumina to see Radu to give him the trainers that Paul and Loraine bought him in England. He is delighted with them and says he will be wearing them to school, it is normal for Romanians to wear their best clothing to school.
Loraine and Ioana go out for a walk and see some of the things you see when you go a little off the beaten track, the housing and the way the locals live. They come across a funeral procession, with an open coffin which is the norm in Romania. Orphans were carrying the floral tributes and the men carrying the food, followed by large numbers of people.
Sandra, Roy and Paul have two rooms to work on. They manage to get both rooms washed down and primed and Roy gets an undercoat on one of the rooms, unfortunately the paint will not dry in time for us to get any more paint on the walls.
We take a well earned shower to try and get some of the paint off and arrange to meet the others at the nearby bar.
Adrian arranges to pick us up at 5.30pm for our trip to Bacau Airport, we are dropping Ioana off at friends in Bacau. We stop at Casa Albert on the way, this is a Hospice for people with HIV/Aids and run by ‘Cry in the Dark’. We meet Steve Cooper the CEO and get a guided tour of the facility, it’s very well equipped but cost a lot of money. We have to make a move as time is getting on.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the journey is quite eventful, every so often we come round a corner and are confronted by a cow in the middle of the road. We weave in and out of them and finally meet someone about 300 yards behind herding the cows, it’s starting to get dusky and it is a bit dangerous to say the least. We also come across horse and carts, they have number plates but no lights on them. Accidents between them and motor vehicles are quite common, as are collisions with cattle and horses.
We get to Bacau and drop Ioana off, it’s been great to meet her and her help has been appreciated, especially the filming of the tournament.
We have time to go for a Macdonalds, yes they have one in Bacau! It’s quite a big town.
We are dropped off at the Airport, we say our goodbyes to Adrian and thank him for all his help and entertaining stories. We think he should commit his stories to print and sell the books for fund raising, we even come up with a title for him.
We get into the airport fairly easily, we don’t experience the scrum of last year as we have checked our bags in advance this time.
We take off 35 minutes early! Throughout the flight the temperature is almost unbearable on board the plane and we are glad to get off.
The car park mini bus picks us up straight away and the car is waiting for us, the roads are clear and we are home by 2.00 am, a good end to the trip for all of us.
Thanks to everyone for their support in making this visit such a success.
Loraine, Paul and Roy.