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.