Per, Rob and Jane relaxing in front of the dunes. 

Politics can be fun!

Make your own Hungarian politician

Make your own country

And the number one reason why I'm glad to go to Romania?

No SUVs.

Ah, it will be sweet.

I'm flying!

This doesn't have to do with Romania but I can claim bragging rights anyways.  My friend BJ who is a pilot took me flying last night.  Literally.  He let me fly his plane.  I flew over the city and the golf course where I knew my mother was playing.  She didn't see me.   Still, it's something to cross off "the list".  I have now flown an airplane.

From 1967...

"If life in Romania does not have the easygoing affluence of neighbouring Yugoslavia, it far surpasses in the amenities the best Soviet Union is able to offer for years to come. The story is told that at a party in Bucharest during a recent international medical congress, a Soviet doctor accosted an American. 'Tell me, sir,' the Russian demanded, with a boldness supplied by several vodkas, 'do you not think we Russians will soon overtake the United States in living standards?'
'Well,' answered the American, more adroit at this sort of repartee than is sometimes the case, 'it seems to me, sir, that you'll have to overtake the Romanians first.'
The Russian, so the response goes, flushed; the American chortled, and - this is the point of the story - the Romanians chortled too."

-The Balkans, Life World Library

All set!

Everything is set:  I leave my city on the 17th, stay with Maud overnight and leave for Vienna on the 18th.  I arrive at 3:35 pm in Timisoara on the 19th.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you Tamara!

The Balkans

I stopped by the used bookstore and checked out the travel books section.  I found a 1967 Time Life book on the Balkans.  The undestroyed bridge of Mostar is on the cover.  Tito and Ceausescu are still alive.  The world is still in a state anti-Communist hysteria.
 
I'm sure I'll have some nice vintage quotes to put up later on.

News from Jo and Koren

Two of my good friends from my IR graduating class recently returned from Romania.  Koren used to live there for a few years as a child and decided to return for a couple of months after graduation.  Our friend Jo went with her.  I've been pestering them for information about what to expect while over there.  Jo wrote me a lovely long letter which I'm going to paste here for everyone to read.
 
Hi there, I'm on Canadian soil again, a little groggy from so much flying but happy to be back... despite the fact that I miss Romania quite a bit. I'm so glad I experienced that place. It was the first time I have ever felt justifiably unsafe. As you know, Romania has a very poor population, as a result everyone is trying to get an edge in any way they can. Robbery and assult are common, and nobody trusts anyone else. Everywhere I went I was clutching my purse, watching my pockets, wondering who was behind me and what their intentions were.
 
When Koren and I first arrived we were behaving like Canadians, we would be walking through the streets smiling or saying hello (buna) to people who passed by. Our friend Toni (Romanian working as a securityguard on the CANDU townsite) quickly advised us not to, smiling at strangers indicates that you want something from them or they can get something from you, remain stonefaced unless you know someone. It was probaby to the credit of Toni that we weren't assulted on the trip.
 
We met Toni our first night in town, he said he would take us out to the discos so we got Canadian references for him ('cause ya can't trust anyone) who said he was legit. For the rest of the trip Toni acted as our bodyguard. Koren and I looked different so we got alot of attention. Toni would come out to the disco with us, drink no more than 2 beer and just watch to make sure no one looked at us the wrong way. If we went to the washroom he would come and stand outside, all business. There are alot of pimps in Cernavoda, there is good money in that business which is hard to find in Romania, one night we were at an outdoor bar, Toni was very nervous the whole time, wouldn't let us go to the washroom even though it was within eyeshot, eventually he moved us inside because apparently some pimps were talking about Koren and me. Had we gone to the washroom alone we could have been druged and taken to a Turkish street corner before we knew it. Its happened before, many times. A trustworthy male friend is invaluable to women in Romania, otherwise many won't go out at night.
 
One night I was thinking about how vulnerable I was feeling, I wasn't sure if it was because I was a foreign female or just because I was female, so I asked some of my Romanian girlfriends. I asked them if it was very dangerous to be a woman in Romania, before I could even get the words out they were nodding their heads. Romania is still very chauvanistic, women have a defined place and laws about sexual harassment have not been impliented in most of Romania, you mix that with the poverty I've already mentioned that drives people to crime and what you get is a very volitile region for women. After we finished discussing this my friend Leylla, a Romanian woman raised in Cernavoda asked me to accompany her to the washroom because she was scared to go alone.
 
The living wage is very low there. Toni lives with his sick mother and makes 100$ a month, here is an example of the purchasing power of his wage. Koren and I went shopping with Linda (family friend) on this average grocery shop (just the basics) to feed her and her husband Linda spent 2000,000 Lei (about 80$) Toni would have to work for a month merely raise that much money. However, he cannot spend that money just on a 2000000Lei grocery shop to feed him and his mother, he has rent and bills to pay as well.
 
The wage for upperlevel positions isn't much better, doctors and police officers only make 200$ a month. This minimal wage leads to extensive bribery, a 20$ bill will get you anywhere. This is really frightening, people cannot depend on a legal system to rectify a wrong that is done to them. This is something I have really come to appriciate in Canada, a justice system I can trust. If I am assulted I know that I can go to a legal establishment, describe the person to them and they will at least try and bring that person to justice, anyone who does wrong to me will be punnished. This provides a security for Canadians that you don't even realize is there until you think of what it would be like without it.
 
There is also a widespread lack of confidence in government. Ilisecu (current Pres.) was actually in Ceausescu's cabinet, all the old commi boys are still around and, according to my friend Danni, the new generation won't be confident in gov until they are gone. I'm not so convinced though. There is deeply rooted corruption in Romania which gov is benefiting from and getting rich off of, they are certainly not going to change what is serving them. The next generation of politicians will be the rich as well because poor people can't afford the costs of politics. It is most likely that their wealth is at least in part the result of the same corruption and so how likely is it that they will change anything. What Romania needs right now is a single, wealthy, honest politician who is dedicated to reformoing the system and removing all the bureaucratic redtape.
I think these same politicians could keep Romania out of the EU. I'm not convinced that those at the top are particualrly interested in the checks and balances that come with EU participation.
Their interest in the rampent corruption may prevent EU entry.
 
One visit that really hit me was to the orphanage in Cernavoda. The orphanage has kids from infancy to 18 but eventually the kids start being transfered to another residence about 100 feet away to live and attend school. When Koren and I first arrived we ended up at the residence and school. The manager (Ben, great guy from UK) wasn't there yet but a 10 yr old kid who spoke excellent english greeted us and offered to show us around. This kid was fantastic, energertic, personable, articulate, so were the other 13 kids we met there. Very happy and welcoming.
 
About an hour later Ben arrived and offered to take us to the orphanage, on the walk down Koren and I learned that all those kids had HIV. I may as well have been punched in the chest, all those great kids are not only without families but they are going to die before the age of 25. You probably know this already but, during the commi era HIV went unacknowledged in Romania, it was a western problem that communists didn't have, therefore nothing was done about it. On top of that, when it was found that most of the children in Romania's orphanages were anemic the gov ordered blood transfusions for them, of course, the blood was not properly sanitized and the majority of the kids got HIV. These were some of those kids.
 
The orphanage was a dark, pooorly ventilated commi building. 50 kids, horribly understaffed. They get nurse volunteers from an NGO in Scotland who are wonderful with the kids but according to Ben the care there is generally bad. Roamnian women ahve a very rough way of "caring" for the kids. While we were there we say kids being dragged down halls by the arm and slapped for bad behaviour. Cre in this place means shoving 15 kids in a room with a woman standing at the door to ensure the kids can't get out. Very little one on one care which these kids need. Many if not most are quite handicapped, many of the kids even have families in Cernavoda but they were placed in the orphanage because the family couldn't afford to care for a disbaled kid. There are others who are in fine condition but cannot walk because they've been placed in their cribs for so long. This was such an upsetting sight. These kids need to be held and cared for and shown that somebody cares whether or not they're alive, and they aren't getting it there right now.

Waiting...and waiting...

Screw the beaurocracy.  I hate phones even more.  Everything is settled with Maud and I'm coming to stay with her Tuesday night.  Now all I have to do is talk to Tamara to get my ticket changed *crosses fingers*.  I've been on hold for almost 15 minutes while I listen to the same Public Service Announcements over and over.  @!#!#$!$#
 
A month from today, I'll have been on the plane for about 40 minutes.  Scary...

Relief!

My travel agent called me this morning. I now have 95% finalised my travel plans. I leave for Romania via Montreal and Vienna on the 18th. I arrive in Timisoara on the 19th at 3:35
pm. This is fabulous news.

If anyone needs to make travel plans, please talk to the amazing Tamara at Travel Cuts. She's a goddess.

Now all I have to do is decide on my Montreal stop-over. I can:
a) leave at 7:00 am and spend the whole day in Montreal.
b) arrive in the evening and make my connecting flight.
c) arrive the day before and stay with another intern.

Decisions, decisions... Anyone who knows me knows this is not my forte. I think two of the Montreal interns will have already left by this point. However, I'd really appreciate meeting the other two for drinks or whatnot. And I've never been to Montreal.

Damn you bureaucracy!

I knew I would have to face this sooner or later. Today I braved step one of my Romanian visa application.

Normally, this is quick and painless. When I went to Sweden, I filled  in a form, sent it off with my passport and a cheque and was promptly  mailed back my visa. France was even easier: a quicktrip downtown and  $70 took care of everything.

I don't know how many times I called the Romanian representative in my city. There was never any answer. You'd think he would have voice mail or the like.

Ok, onto step two: I called the embassy in Ottawa. No answer. Great. Why should they make this easy for us? Like anyone actually wants to visit Romania. Yes, I'm bitter.

Incidentally, during this whole ordeal, I was chatting on MSN with Maud, the intern going to Bucharest.  I told her I was going to call the consulate in Montreal. She informed me that she was there that morning and that she was amazed by its disorganisation. Lovely. I called and
and when a man answered the phone, I explained in French that I would be requiring a visa for my internship. He must have mistaken my English accent for Romanian because he replied in a stream of Romanian. "Wait! Wait! I'm English!" "Vous preferez parler en francais?" "Oui, oui, s'il vous plait." Ok, no problem. I have a minor in French. I can do this!

The guy had no clue what was going on at all. You'd think that the representative at the consulate would have a vague idea of...say...how someone should acquire a visa? He kept having to check with some invisible woman standing behind him to clarify what he was telling me. Should I really Fed-Ex my passport to some guy who didn't even know that I needed an application form?

He told me to come in Monday morning where we could discuss this further. "C'est impossible. Je n'habite pas a Montreal!" "Mais Mlle. Maud, tu etais ici ce matin" "Non, je m'appelle Karla. Maud est une copine. Elle fait la meme programme que moi, mais elle ira a Bucharest et j'irai aTimisoara." Incidentally, I was talking to Maud at the same time on MSN. Small world, huh? We must be the only eastern Canadians applying for visas.

We hung up and I tried an alternate number for the Ottawa embassy. A man answered and after I went through my spiel about needing a visa, he told me that the secretary was out and that I'd have to call back Monday. "Bye bye" *click*.

Great. So this means that I have no:
a) visa
b) fixed travel plans
c) idea of what I'm getting into

What *am* I getting into?

Hepatitis and Rabies and Tick-borne Encephalitis, Oh My!

I got my first of three series of shots this afternoon. I alternately felt like:
(a) a patient in a psych ward who needed to be sedated
(b) a six year old getting immunised against all the ills of the world (believe me...the world would be a healthier place if we didn't insist on protecting kids against every germ in the universe)

I paid $50 to listen to a travel nurse tell me to not drink the local water, use protection when sleeping with the enemy and to not eat food from a street vendor, as well as read from a report she found online warning me not to trade money on the street. Oh, and to stick three needles in my arm. I had no idea how deep you have to stick those suckers in. It'll be a miracle if I survive the next round. Looking on the bright side, at least I don't have to take the Malaria pills like Kat.

Incidentally, I'm now protected against Hep A, B, Typhoid, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Measles, Polio, Mumps, the three and four year old strains of Influenza and who knows what else.

My arm is killing me now (thanks Mr. Tetanus!).

This better be covered by Blue Cross.

Overcoming racism

I spent the weekend with a friend of mine, who is Greek. I mentioned to her mother about my internship. "Romania? That's where the gypsies come from! You shouldn't be going over there! There are gypsies!" You should have seen the look of horror on her face when I told her that one of my organisation's projects was to integrate the Roma (gypsies) into Romanian culture.

"The gypsies will steal the teeth out of your head!"
"The IIT is working to counteract this negative impression of the Roma."
"Roma?"
"Yeah...that's what they want to be called. Like 'Inuit' instead of 'Eskimos'."
"You watch out for those...those...gypsies. They'll steal the teeth from your head!"
"I think that's a slight exageration. This is like a vicious circle. You see the same thing with the First Nations here."
"I was almost lured into a gypsy camp when I was younger...good thing I was rescued before it was too late. I would never have been found again. You better listen to me: watch out! You should never trust a gypsy."
"Roma."

Old stereotypes die hard, I guess.

Kenan receiving the perks of young female interns 

Tony: "I particularly like the one with giant Per and teeny Lee" 

Rob showing us his favourite pass-time 

Machtpolitik 

Our first dinner 

Bucharest and Timisoara, bonding 

Lee demonstrating what it will be like on the ice for the first time in Sarajevo 

Happy times 

FAC and CIDA 2004-2005 

What happens when you put 14 Type A people together for a weekend...

I just got back from my training session for my internship. I met the other 13 interns who will be joining me on this programme. Most of us will be in the Balkans with the exception of Kat in The Gambia and Marc and Per in Bangladesh.

You know those dumb advertisements you see in magazines and on TV "Meet Tomorrow's Leaders"? That's exactly what this was. Our coordinator described us as "the best of the best" (and yes, I'm going to write this because I'm sure the only people who will be reading this are the other interns themselves). I was intimidated to be with such a group of people but we quickly became friends.

So is this what human rights are all about? 14 of us in cramped quarters, no air conditioning, wretched weather, perpetual bad hair days and living with people whom you've just met yet feel like you've known forever. For once, it was nice to talk with others of similar backgrounds about democracy, racism and governance without reverting to tree-hugging hippie ramblings.

Of course, our nightly debates were fueled by copious amounts of liquor and I developped a particular affinity for Jack (as in Daniels) [Thanks Marc!]. Kat's right: Keith's should be sponsoring our next get-together.

I was able to cry on someone's shoulder without feeling like an idiot and talk about wanting to change the world and having him agree with me.

I left the week with inspiration that people truly can make a difference. We're all going to prestigious organisations where we will have the chance to contribute, help and learn a little about the world and a lot about ourselves and what we can do. We all agree that there's something special about the group and I know we'll be meeting again (and again) in the future.