Istvan is the local representative for a charitable organization from the U.K. called North Nibley Romania Team. NNRT has "adopted" a village here in Romania and for 20 years has worked to help the psychiatric hospital, the school and the kindergarten. They contacted us at the beginning of March for help, so we went to take a look.
The hospital has 147 chronically ill psychiatric adult patients who have come from all over the region. They will never leave here - it is their home.
We met the head nurse - a happy, capable and devoted woman who has worked here for 30 years. With Istvan as our translator, she gave us a tour of the hospital.
A meal was being dished up for the patients. The menu included a healthy portion of meat, potatoes carrots and bread.
We saw a rehab room where patients work on various arts and crafts. Vicky was presented with a pretty plaster of paris plaque made by some patients here.
There was some nice work being done on the loom as well.
The seamstress showed us the industrial sewing machine that previous humanitarian missionaries from our church had donated in 2007. It was still going strong.
The head nurse modelled the robes they were making for the patients. Things were looking pretty good until we got to the laundry room....
This ugly beast is their washing machine. It handles a very large load and it agitates the clothes, but it doesn't have a spin function.
It even foams at the mouth! When the machine finishes its cycle, the laundry workers have to take the sopping linens and clothes out of the "beast" and carry them to a "spinner", soaking themselves in the process, of course. They even have to wear rubber boots when they work in here.
The head nurse told us they would love to have a clothes dryer, but they can't afford the power it would use. So once the load has finished in the "spinner" it is hauled outside to hang on the clothes lines. In order to keep up, workers are doing laundry this way 5 days a week!
This is the shelter that NNRT built to cover the seven clothes lines of laundry, so the clothes will still dry even when it rains or snows.
This is what it looked like when we came for the visit. The severe winter storms that we have described previously had collapsed the drying shelter and the clothes lines with it.This is what NNRT was asking us for help with. We gladly got a project approved and waited for the snow to melt.
On a warm, sunny April day, we dismantled the broken shed.
With three of us working together...
...it came down in surprisingly good time.
Some of the patients were very interested in the activity and wanted to help.
After Randy measured and inventoried the re-usable material, the patients gladly carried and stacked it for us. It was touching to see how it made them happy to be working with us.
Randy and Istvan straightened the posts.
We checked to make sure they were plumb, then there wasn't much more we could do at the site until the NNRT volunteers come in June except...
to deliver a large new washing machine and laundry soap to the staff's delight. We'll be back!
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