Happy New Year!

A happy new year to everyone,

from the Szakal family.

Airport incident

Bucharest, Otopeni Airport, 30 December 2007, 11:27 am.
A Tarom flight after getting the permission to take off hits a van which was stopped by at the airport runway. All people aboard frightened, the plane already had 250 km/h speed. Due to the skilful pilot the plane managed to stop finally. Within one and half minutes everybody left the plane succesfully at the emergency exit. As a result of the accident the plane was seriosly damaged. The van was destroyed entirely. There were no casualties but most passangers were extremely frightened, and considering sueing the airport.
This was a very serious incident as the airport officials noted. Still many questions remaining, and especially: how can a flight get permission to take off while the runway is not clear? These things happen in Romania...

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas day. Been in church with the family, both morning and evening services attended. Christmas gifts received by the kids last night, when we all went to bed very late.
In the evening it was a Christmas concert in the church (probably the same as last year), and quite a lot of people were there (more than usual).

On this day we pray for John Roche, may the Lord heal him, and have a succesful operation, and also for Peter Tolson, let the Lord give him quick recovery after the operation.

I am also thankful for the gifts we received, for all the Christmas greetings.
May God bless all the team members!

Team Visit

The team visit was good, was short, was done. Did a lot of shopping, especially for the hospital, than bought presents for the patients, and for the school. Nina also joined the team from early morning till late night (wonder she knows any limits). The head nurse had a needing list like usual, but this time was different, food weren't the most important. Most important was the electrical bulbs and fluorescent tubes and also pots for the kitchen. We managed to buy all, plus extra food what she remembered later on that she needs, plus the gifts for the patients.

Had an evening in Brasov, where is a beautiful Christmas tree in the centre.

We visited the school in Mina, which is going through a transformation: after having all new double glazed doors and windows, now they have new central heating system installed with new radiators. Good for them.

Team arrival

Laura and Andy arrived safely, in time. The road conditions however were quite difficult as there was a lot of fog, and often very dense fog. Stopped at Busteni at the Caraiman restaurant (very nice rustic one) for a meal.

Quite warm in the flat as the new radiators were hot, and they were pleased about it.

And there is a new radiator in the toilet as well.

Some changes in the flat

Today as I been in Mina, I brought out the food for the team, turn on the fridge, checked the flat turned on the heaters. As in the past few weeks a new central heating system is being installed they went up to the flat and fitted new radiators there. The old ones were removed, and now there is a radiator in the kitchen, a radiator in the big bedroom, a radiator in the living room. The secured room remained as it was: "cold". Actually it was not too bad in the flat, perhaps from now on it will be warmer up there, which may encourage you to come in the winter time too. The door between the kitchen and the living was removed and missing...perhaps they know where it is. I asked the ladies from downstairs to make sure it will be clean by Saturday afternoon.
Downstairs in the hallway there is a small new radiator, I wonder if it will be enough.
I also discovered that quite often the sewing ladies use the flat as a drying room for many clothes and bedding. I told them to disappear by tomorrow. But this is not the first time I find it.
Now as the hospital has new fridge and freezer, perhaps they will ask the team to get some meat for an empty freezer is useless...am I right? I don't know, I just asked the head nurse to be there Monday morning for a meeting. I could not find a water heater bottle.
Have to go now to the doctor, as Amadea has fever.
Looking forward to meet the team tomorrow.

6 December in Mina 1 Mai

6 December is the St. Nicholas day in Romania. People used to exchange gifts too. Well, the hospital, this year had a great St. Nicholas day. I met in Brasov elder G. Val Lofgreen, Karen Lofgreen and Patricia Beer, from the central office of the Mormon mission in Bucharest, Romania. We went to the Metro and purchased a Whirlpool washing machine, an Indesit fridge and a Zanussi freezer for the hospital. With a hired van we transported to the Hospital and gave them as present. They were very happy. Here are some photos when we unloaded all in the snowy Mina.

This is the road to Mina

And this is the surgery in winter

Snowfall in Brasov again

Photo of the heavy snowfall between Brasov and Predeal. Look at the railway...

Heavy snowfall

Heavy snowfall in and around of Brasov, today. Traffic was temporarily closed between Brasov and Poiana Brasov, and also between Rasnov and Brasov. The traffic is with difficulties between Predeal and Brasov. Trains delay about 4-5 hours.
Hopefully by tomorrow things will get better.

Snowing

This morning was snowing again. Very wet snow, but still snow. Of course it's winter time!

This is the view I can see from my flat.

Good weather, good...

Someone once said: there is no such thing as bad weather. There is only nice weather and good weather. According to this we had good weather today, meaning that it was raining all day long and is still raining now. We also had fog, so that is a lovely variety: combined fog and rain, who can complain? Needless to say that all the snow has melted.
Did a few shopping, bought a sleeping bag, some food for the team and some minor gifts for the kids...
Tomorrow evening St. Nicholas will come and give gifts to each child who behaved well, and cleansed their shoes. St. Nicholas (the parents actually) will place the gift in the clean shoes. That is for December 6, but usually we have a night before. The kids are looking forward to this.
Karina was not well today, had fever, so she was not going tot he kindergarten, rather visited the doctor, got some medicines, and hopefully she will be better.

The 1st of December

Today is the national day of Romania. Parades in the major cities, people have a day off and perhaps think that already we are in December getting closer to the end of the year. In the last weeks the Romanian lei (RON) has been losing from value meaning that all the other currencies were more expensive, a GBP was about 4.9 Lei last week, comparing to 4.5 in July. However as we all know in December the Lei will get stronger as millions of Euros will come into the country from the people who work abroad and come back for the holidays. So the Pound's rate will drop again soon.
Romanians are perhaps hated more than ever. The Italians hate us, especially after the fact that the Romanian gypsy has murdered an Italian lady near Rome, and racism exploded, shouting Romanians go home... Why is that a whole nation have to suffer because of the crime of one citizen (who actually was gypsy)?
Also Romanian officials think they are more clever than anyone else. Since the 1st January 2007, since Romania has joined the EU there is a new car registration tax for all the second hand cars from the EU "in order to protect the environment". So a car of 3-4 years old having Euro 2 engine has a tax of 2500 Euros, just for discouraging the import of second hand cars and buy new ones over here. That is illegal. Soon the officials will have to pay back every penny what they have taken as "first registration tax" from the ordinary people.
Some good thoughts at the end, as the national football team has done very well, and we all look forward for Austria and Switzerland 2008. Also the Brasov team is excellent, the best in the second league, they will be back in the first league next year.