Summer Newsletter 2006
I hope that by the time you receive this newsletter the summer will have arrived. It has been a long hard winter not only here but also in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. The snow has been plentiful and the spring very late. It was in the middle of February when we had a very special wedding in Romania. Valentin, one of the older Rehab boys, decided to marry Sanduta, a bride found for him by a pastor in a nearby village. It was a first for us and the peak of success for the work of the last five years. Brindusa and Titi, our leaders, were anxious about the reception as we were very short of helpers. To keep the costs down she had hired the restaurant. It had been closed for months and they had to clean it, produce tables and seats which they brought from the church, set the tables and decorate them. We had only Mariella, a volunteer from Holland, to help and a few of the staff from the Rehab Unit. About 250 people were invited. However some women from Calafindesti, a village off the beaten track between Siret and Suceava, had sent a message to say that they had heard about the wedding and they would like to help by baking the bread and making the samalis (cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and herbs).
Brindusa didn’t know these women but said she was happy with this and on the day before the wedding we went to meet them. I was amazed to find a big new church in the middle of this village and even more amazed as I approached it to go in and see the sign in big letters on the church “Pentecostale Fintana lui Jacob” - translated it is “Jacob’s Well.” It was finished in 2004 and is very beautiful - in fact - perfect. In the basement were 10 women all busy making Samali and preparing the bread. The oven was very primitive. They had started a bonfire of wood on the tin floor of this big oven but the bread was just perfect to look at and to eat. When I tried to thank them for what they were doing they told me that they really needed the medicines we had sent for their children and sick people and they wanted to do something for us now. Nobody else had sent help to this village. I ended up in tears. For us it was that God had remembered us in our time of need and sent us his angels to help, but it was also wonderful to be able to go back to my pill room workers and tell them how much their work was valued. To see this church, so perfectly built by the people of the village was to remind me how important is God’s hand in Jacob’s Well.
The bride and groom were duly married next day and the reception went well. The day ended with a get together in the cottage that had been purchased, half by Valentin and half by Jacob’s Well. We struggled to get back in the snow but when the minibus got stuck everybody got out and pushed and we made it back to Siret! Now the talk in our unit is all about weddings and who will be next. We have not yet managed to start building on the field we purchased as winter only ended in April and first the land must be sown and containers moved but our young people are full of hope. At the end of August we have arranged for another sponsored bike ride in Romania and we would be pleased to hear from any prospective cyclists.
At the beginning of March we had a very busy day when two very large Portakabins which we plan to use as our office and work room were brought in to our warehouse yard on a very large truck. A huge crane popped one on top of the other. Soon we hope to have the legal formalities finished and the alterations - disabled toilet, ramps and fittings. We are not yet ready for the grand opening!
At the end of March Peter and I again flew first to Karachi then up to Islamabad. We are having considerable problems trying to extract and deliver the two containers of valuable aid that we sent in for the earthquake disaster in Northern Pakistan. The containers arrived in Karachi at the end of November and beginning of December but there was one problem after another, all with the purpose of holding us up to try to extract fines from us. We visited the Ministry of Health to appeal for their intervention and they are now trying to sort out the problems with full exemption from any charges! We are praying for them. While we were in Pakistan the government closed down the work of the Relief Aid Commission and have now formed a new Committee for redevelopment. However this led to the closing of all the tent villages and the end of the aid for these people who were just sent “home.” Pictures appeared in the newspapers of them sat in the rubble of their homes with nothing. Some were allowed to take their tents with them but not all were given transport help to get them back to their villages. The food aid has stopped and most have no money to rebuild as yet. Our aid will be very needed and the sooner it is delivered the better. About 200 containers of aid are stuck like ours in the port.
From Islamabad we moved on to Peshawar and flew into Kabul. They have had a particularly hard winter with much snow which is good for the water supply but not much else. Our leader, Farid, found it impossible to heat his lovely new home with big rooms. Oil is too costly and there is still only electricity for a few hours in the evening. During our stay we were able to finish the distribution of one of our containers and another arrived the day we were leaving. The bureaucracy is still increasing and it is likely to take a month to get it through customs and quality checks before it can be distributed. Our clinic staff were very happy to see all our boxes arrive, even though they were all very wet and soggy - it rained! The clinic had almost run out of medicines but when we left they were swimming in it. The roads all turned to mud baths and everybody got splattered.
We need a roof on our pick-up truck - perhaps later this year. It has been very helpful to have our registration with the Ministry of Economics renewed. Many charities were not so fortunate and have had to leave. We were not happy to find that relationships between the Afghans and Pakistanis were very poor and there was talk that they might close the border. We are very uneasy about the British now having charge of the NATO forces and their role to take over from the Americans in Helmand province. It is likely that there will be an escalation of roadside bombs and even more trouble. The day before we left we went to visit a new project set up to help Afghan women in need. They had purchased some sewing machines and we had donated 3 knitting machines and some wool to them. We saw the women learning to make patterns out of paper and sewing them on the machines - they had no material. Our knitting machines were in action though the girls were not yet very skilful at using them. They really need a good teacher- any volunteers? I felt very happy that we had been able to help them to get started and I am sure we shall be able to help in future.
We returned to Karachi the next day to find nothing but trouble. Just 2 days before there had been a stampede at the mosque where a women’s prayer time had just ended. A child fell and her mother screamed. The others thought that there must be a bomb attack and panicked. There were 29 dead women and children. The next day they buried their dead. It was a day of celebrations for the Prophet’s birthday when we flew in and a special meeting was being held in the park by the men of this same group. A suicide bomber attacked at the end of the prayers killing 47 leaders of this group, only one leader survived, and many others were injured. The people reacted angrily, stoning cars and buses and setting some on fire. All shops, schools and garages closed down completely for three days and we found it difficult to arrange to get back to the airport for our flight home. It was a reminder for us just what a tinderbox this part of the world is. Thankfully we made it home to a very full warehouse and much to do. We have sent one container to Romania in April and another on return in May. Soon we shall move a Kabul container and we hope to send one to Poland and one to the Ukraine thereafter. We do want to thank you all for your support. You are all needed and so are your prayers. May God be with you all.
Beryl Beynon, Medical Director
Valentin and Sanduta
The “Jacob’s Well” of Calafindesti