Physiotherapy Graduation Placement University Hospital Sibiu, Romania
Late November 2004, the Urgenta Foundation was contacted by two physiotherapy students (Mariëlla and Froukje) of the Avans University Breda to inquire about a possible placement abroad, more specifically Romania. Off course, Urgenta was willing to introduce them to some people in Romania and all arrangements were made. The students are doing a 4 months placement at the Physiotherapy II department of the University Hospital in the city of Sibiu.
They've left for Romania the first week of February and will be home somewhere around the end of May. The technicians team of Urgenta will be able to pay them a visit during the upcoming development projects of April.
The students keep us posted from Romania and inform us about their adventures and experiences...
February 21st | March 11th | March 28th | April 22nd |
April 22nd
OK I confess, it's been a long time since my last report. But there are some good reasons: the Urgenta crew was in town and when they left, my boyfriend and his sister paid a visit. I hope you understand I rather spend some time with them, then writing reports for the web site. The last reason (and not unimportant): we were very busy with our graduation project. I'll start from where I left off.
The second weekend the Urgenta crew was here, we went to Porumbacu. It's a small village just outside the city of Sibiu. We enjoyed the good weather and especially the hospitality of the Romanians. Everywhere we went, we were invited to drink a cup of coffee or a glass of tuica, the local home brewed plum brandy. The hospitality of the Romanian people is something I'll never forget. A son of an old lady used to be a shepard and still had some sheep coats lying around. Jan knew this of course and arranged to put these coats on our shoulders. Some nice and hilarious photos were taken.
Sunday, Arnold took us to Paltinis, a mountain in the vicinity of Sibiu. It was impressive just like the rest of Romania's nature. Unfortunately, we missed some Romanian traditional costumes, because the person was out of town. We also visited the Icon Museum in Sibiel. When we drove to the museum, we came through a village with a lot of stork's nests. Nice to finally see a real life stork. Next on the site seeing tour was a dam. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Arnold took us everywhere and we loved it! At the dam, we weren't allowed to take a stroll on it or to take pictures. It was a matter of national security. I can't think of any dangers to Romanian society, but who am I? Still, we enjoyed it.
The following week, the Urgenta crew left for home on Wednesday at 6.15 am. We waved them goodbye in our pj's. We made 500 balloons out of it. To Arnold: you were right; it's really great to make the Romanian children smile with such a simple gift. Nowadays, we walk the streets with our pockets filled with balloons. Again to Arnold: we know how to make ice creams too! And then, another great week followed. My fiancée and his sister came by! It's funny to see them astonished by the same things as we were in our first weeks over here.
Due to all these visits, we didn't spend much time on our graduation projects so we had to work hard the last couple of days. We finished our exercise schedules and are waiting on dr. Luca's opinion and ultimately his approval. He is one of the doctors who subscribe the therapies. We are waiting and hoping...
In the meantime, we continue our work at the Physiotherapy II department. We are now able to communicate with the patients on a basic level, thanks to our Romanian lessons. We can even talk with the Romanian therapist who only speaks Romanian. We'd like to thank our Romanian teacher for all the progress we've made. We also see some therapists doing some of our therapy methods and exercises. It's a slow process of course. Up so far, it's only some minor adjustments but we are glad to see it. The best part of it all is that it is all done voluntarily. We just treated our patients with our methods and the other therapists picked some up. The therapists also are doing some exercises from our textbooks and are getting enthusiastic about it.
We are involved in another project as well. When the Urgenta crew was here, Arnold paid a visit to the Children Infection House to do some reconnaissance for possible projects in the near future. When he told the director we were here, she immediately showed interest. She wanted us to do some exercises with the kids over there. We had a talk with her and we agreed to come by twice a week and give some gym lessons to three AIDS/HIV patients. These children really need some exercises because they never do anything and are in a terrible shape. So we did some jumping and dancing to music to get those stiff joints a bit loosened up. I think we'll have to meet the director again this week to talk about how to continue these exercises when we are gone.
Well, I think I've told everything there is to tell. See you with my next mail...