Lovelight Romania

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The journey to Medias is slow but interesting. We notice quite a few stalk nests, always in villages and towns. It is an odd site as the nests are so large. The remnants’ of communism are shocking, huge derelict factories overpower the countryside and demoralize small communities. Medias is a town without much merit and despite instructions we find it difficult to find the road to the village of Igushi Nou. The landscape on the way to the village is truly beautiful. The hills are wonderfully shaped and the whole landscape is green and lush. That should have made us think – ‘it’s rains here’ but somehow it didn’t occur.

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The tarmac runs out as you drive into Ighusi Nou and the dirt track is full of potholes. The village is very pretty with its red tiled roofs, but not what you could quaint. There is a medieval castle and several small churches and a shop situated in the centre at the main junction, which also serves as the local pub. We find the sanctuary, Love Light Romania and meet Jo and Ron who run the place with their son Robert. Several of the older children help us to unload the heavy arts materials, which we are keen to do, before driving to the other end of the village to our accommodation. It is amazing how much you can get in a Focus Estate, it was packed well and we have a lot of supplies to paint murals and run arts and craft sessions for the 3 weeks we are here. Jo shows us round the Sanctuary, a lovely home for children and young people deserted by their families. It is a bit overpowering to hear the stark reality of such tragic stories of living with HIV in Romania and how Jo, Ron and Robert have chosen to give up their lives in England to provide the help these young people desperately need. We meet the two small children aged six and seven, who have spent most of their short lives living on a rubbish tip and who were rescued by Jo when their mother died of AIDS. We meet baby A, whose mother has special needs and got pregnant by being raped at school. We also meet two of the older young people, R & I both have special needs and were rescued by Jo after years in institutions – but more about them at a later date. The older children are all out as it is Saturday afternoon and Ron and Robert (Jo’s son) take us to our accommodation, next to their house. Although it is a converted pigpen it is pretty deluxe. We have a power shower, a washing machine (much to our delight after ten days of camping) and fridge. Ron and Robert undertook all the building work, including the building of a well and the development of reed-beds to overcome the issue of not having a sewage system in the whole village. It is pretty amazing that with all the work these people do looking after ill young people, in a country that ignores their plight, that these guys have also made a commitment to being environmentally sound. It’s made particularly difficult, as it is impossible to buy eco-friendly cleaning products, which seems peculiarly twisted in a place that would benefit so much from a ‘green’ approach. The next day (Sunday) we start work; we had intended to have a day relaxing after all the traveling but you can’t help but to ‘just get in there’. Jo is desperate to get the three rooms at one end of the house converted into an area for the 3 young children, who aren’t (hopefully) HIV positive. The Authorities are demanding separate living space for them and putting the charity through beauocratic hoops. Jo thinks our timing is perfect, as the murals will help prove their commitment to keeping the little ones by converting the rooms to bedrooms and a playroom. We start with one end bedroom, for baby A and start to paint a train with track, going all the way round the room. Monday we get help painting from one of the teenagers, O. She speaks good English, but is a bit shy at first. It is really hot but we put in a good day’s work and run a craft session, making name plates for the rooms. Jo and Ron are pretty amazing people, the energy that they have to keep this place going is staggering. As well as looking after the young people in their care, they support families living below the poverty line and have extra young people staying for extra care. It seems that everyone having difficulty is welcomed in as part of the family. Apart from rescuing children from institutions, they have taken to rescuing dogs. Currently they are feeding 20 of them, 8 of which we have to pass to get to our accommodation, which can be a bit of a mission. They are all good-natured dogs, just a bit excitable. Sometimes, at night, all the dogs in the village send messages to each other by barking. Occasionally a grand orchestra of howling will reach a deafening pitch and then silence will suddenly fall as they all stop in perfect unison. It is very funny. We are now doing Winnie the Pooh characters in the playroom. It is driving me bonkers; in 25 years of being an artist I have always refused to do Disney characters and with very good reason - they take ages! It's not as if you can get away with something similar. We have also got some of the older teenagers painting with us. A is a very careful painter and will keep going for a couple of hours at a time.

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The art sessions we are running in the afternoons for an hour or so are difficult to maintain as there is a real mix of age groups, special needs and teenagers so it is impossible to work with them all in the same session. Given that murals seem to be the most desired thing we are concentrating on ploughing through them. The youngsters let us know if they want anything in terms of materials, the young ones are always asking for plasticine and funky foam has been a real hit with the teenagers - you can make great grips for bike handlebars.

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We are watched every time we walk from one end of the village to the other (at least twice daily). The old folk treat us with great suspicion even with our pathological optimistic 'salute!'. At the centre of the village there is a shop, which also serves as the local pub.

We are beginning to feel a bit cooped up, only going between the pigpen and the sanctuary, a ten-minute walk or so. Part of the reason, apart from working so hard is that its starts to rain every day as soon as we finish. What with dogs howling and thunder rumbling around, Transylvania certainly deserves it reputation. Not to worry we have loads of garlic and in our spare time we are practicing our vampire slaying skills on each other!