Servus. . .In winding down and getting ready to return to the States, I reflect on the people we've met and those who are beneficiaries of the cantina. Not long ago on a Saturday, I was coming out of a restaurant with friends when I ran into Andrei our "famous" piano player at the cantina. "Andrei! Ce faci?" (How are you?) "Oh Doamna Zan," Andrei exclaimed, his eyes lighting up, "I've been wanting to speak with you. I was going to wait until Monday, but will ask you now. Do you mind?"
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"Of course not," I responded, "what's up?"
Without a home to call their own, Andrei and Varvara have taken several homeless
kids under their wings and sort of look out for them. One young man, Romeo,
was released from Gherla Prison in March. It was through Andrei that he made
his way to the cantina to find me. You see, Romeo was in a program another social
worker and I took into Gherla Prison a couple of years ago for young men who
had been street kids. I suppose Andrei mentioned my name to Romeo and I was
told that Romeo wondered if I would remember him. "How could I forget?"
is the better question. When we finally met once again on the "outside"
I gave this shy young man who is barely 17 years old, a huge hug!
When Romeo was in prison for stealing tape decks and such from cars, he told
me that he was from Cluj and had lived in the part of town where the cantina
is so naturally, I asked him about his parents. "Oh, they're in Hungary
now." I asked about brothers and sisters, grandparents. With each question,
there was a shake of the head and a short answer. In probing further he told
me, "My parents left me when I was 13 years old."
"Why didn't you go with them?" I asked, and felt my eyes open wider.
He shrugged and stuffed some more food into his mouth. "They didn't want
me to go with them," was his nonchalant response.
"Your parents just threw you away?" I asked, trying not to show the
growing shock inside my gut.
"Yes, they left me like they would an empty pack of cigarettes on the
ground," he said as he turned back to his food. Romeo is hungry for more
than just food!
So, essentially Romeo is totally alone. I suppose Andrei is going to be the
adult figure in Romeo's life now.
Andrei has also taken another young man, Atila, under his wing, so I wasn't
surprised when I began talking with Andrei that late, Saturday afternoon. "Well,
you know Atila?" I nodded my head that I did. "Atila has a sister,
Eva," he began. "Eva has been thrown out of her grandmother's house
because the grandmother is a drunk. We are trying to get her into a shelter,
but they don't have any room now. And what's worse, Eva has a three month old
baby to take care of."
Need I tell you that my heart dropped at the thought?!
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Andrei went on with his request. "Doamna Zan, do you think
that Eva could come up to the cantina to eat until she gets into a shelter?"
"Of course she can come to eat!" was my immediate response. "Please
bring Eva to the cantina this Monday."
I need to emphasize here that we are limited in the amount of people we can
feed. When we opened our doors in June, we had 12 people to feed. Now we order
100 portions per day, Monday through Friday, and that is our maximum. Not all
of the 100 people we feed come to the cantina to sit down and eat. Many come
to the cantina with containers to take food home to others who can't get out
of their homes. This makes up about 60 portions. The other 30 to 40 come to
sit and eat in the cantina. More times than not, there are those beneficiaries
who don't show for one reason or another. So, when Andrei asked if we would
have room for Eva, I wouldn't turn her down for anything. Since that day, Eva
has been a regular at the cantina, nursing baby generally sleeping through it
all. We're hoping that a place will open in a shelter soon for Eva and her baby.
In the meantime, the Lord will just have to multiply the food so there's always
enough.
In the near future, we want to establish a Meals-on-Wheels or "Masa Mobil"
outreach to the many people who are homebound. According to government statistics
for Cluj, there are 680 people who are "registered" as homebound,
and there is nothing like a "Masa Mobil" in this city of nearly 350,000.
It is truly interesting to watch as friendships form at the cantina. Little old ladies sit together "yakking" it up like they're in a fine restaurant. Of course some of the men sit together and you'd think they were discussing the problems of the world. The teenagers seem to find one another to hang out and eat together. Of course the younger kids have to kick balls around and play a bit outside before sitting down to eat. One woman puzzled me as she began to come to the cantina. I asked Cristina, my lead social worker about this particular woman. She's not elderly, she's not homeless, and she dresses nicely. "What's the deal?" I asked Cristina. Well, seems she has a circulatory problem with her legs and she can't stand long enough to cook. She was recommended by one of the other ladies at the cantina and has been eating with us for several weeks now. She's a pleasant woman, always has a smile and a kind word. One day as I was passing by and asking how everyone was, this woman said she was having problems with her leg and proceeded to pull up her pants leg and what I saw nearly made me faint! I don't know how she gets around on such swollen legs! So when this woman tells me she's having a "bit of pain" in her legs, I believe her! Ligia, the young woman whose husband lost both legs to illness, approached me recently and asked if I knew of an organization where she could get prosthetics for her husband. Right off the top of my head, I knew of no one I could send her to for help. She said the cost for the two legs together would be close to $3,000. Anyone out there know of a prosthetics company who would be willing to donate time and effort into this one??
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Iutca, our schizophrenic, glamour queen generally makes her grand entrance toward the end of the meal, her 10 year old son Stefan in tow, and announces that she is "here" and ready to eat. I'm always interested to see what wild hat is on her head and lately, she's taken to wearing a metallic, micro-mini dress, her feet clad in slinky sandals. For some reason, she whirled in recently, waving a camera and kept insisting that someone take a picture of her and Stefan and me! She lined Stefan and me up, gave the camera to Iulia, our other social worker, directing her all the while to get us all in the frame. Then she gave Stefan a quick, little smack on the shoulders to make him stand up straight. We smiled as Iulia clicked the camera and I was relieved that the flash went off and we didn't have to pose again. I try not to have favorites, but invariably favorites pop up. We are constantly being asked by people to help them out with their electric bills, their rent, their medicines, clothing, shoes, etc. Cristina and I learned early on to tell people that we are not a bank. We have to focus on what our mission is and that is to feed people.
We direct people to other places where they might be able to get help with their needs. But there's a mother, Constantsa, who brings her adorable, well-behaved kids with her to eat every day. Daniel is 13 and Madalina is 8. Daniel is always a little gentleman, has intelligent, hazel eyes fringed with dark lashes, his short dark hair is combed to one side. Madalina is an absolute doll, her long, light brown hair kept in braids or curled gently around her bright, angelic face. These kids are always dressed nicely in clean clothes, and Mada always wears a pretty little dress. Mada and Daniel kept asking Cristina and me to please come to their home for a visit. Cristina had made a visit there to make certain they qualified to come eat at the cantina. Well, I wanted to go with Cristina to their home, so we made a date for Daniel to meet us at the cantina and we would drive him back to his home.
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On the appointed day and hour, Daniel met us at the cantina
with his uncle and we all proceeded to drive to another part of town. When we
got there and were walking to the house, I asked Cristina where Daniel went
to school. "Oh, he goes to a school for people who can't see well."
"Why? What's wrong with Daniel's eye sight?" I asked, not having a
clue that Daniel had trouble with his eyes. "They are really bad,"
Cristina continued, "and he has no glasses." "Why not?"
I asked incredulously. "I think they broke. Madalina also needs glasses,
because hers are broken too." She went on, "They can't afford to get
them the glasses they need. Besides, they need to go to a doctor to get a prescription
for the glasses, then there is the cost of the glasses which they cannot afford."
Without giving it a second thought I exclaimed, "This is the kind of thing
when the cantina needs to step in and do something to help. We're going to get
those kids glasses!" When we reached their house I was shocked to see they
actually live in two rooms in the basement of another house. The house is in
a very poor area of town and the poverty they live in broke my heart. The rooms
were dark and sparsely furnished. They had a couple of kittens that looked sick
and had a skin disease, but that didn't stop Madalina from cuddling up to them
and showing them off. Mada and Daniel seemed oblivious to the poverty around
them. They were just too excited that we were there for a visit. We met another
sister who is 16 years old. On the way back, Cristina told me that she told
the mother that we were going to get glasses for Daniel and Madalina.
I would never have known that these delightful kids needed
glasses. Their mother never approached Cristina or me about their needs. They
seemed happy enough to be eating at the cantina. They always take one extra
portion home which, I assume, is for the other sister. A few days ago, Constantsa
took Mada and Daniel to the doctor for their eye exams, and they're now in the
process of obtaining their glasses. It's people like Daniel, Mada and their
mother who become so special and end up being among our favorites.
I've told you about Andrei and how beautifully he plays the piano. Now you
can hear him if you visit my new website, at www.home.earthlink.net/~zanadu,
go to Virtual Romania XXII and click on the "play" button at his picture.
It's just a small byte from the wonderful concert he gave us. On the first page
of my new website, you can also click the buttons to take you to the galleries
where you can see a plethora of pictures of the street kids and the cantina.
. .Enjoy!!
Cu Mult Drag. . . (With Much Love. . .)
Zan
Surf on over to my website at. . .
www.home.earthlink.net/~zanadu