This morning we went to Azilul de Noapte Ruchama, Prison Fellowship of Romania. The Fellowship provides shelter for up to 60 individuals who are homeless - not all are ex-convicts. There were four different rooms of accommodations - 18 beds in each room. I couldn't imagine living in such conditions. We spoke as a group to one of the residents, an ex-convict. His story was harrowing. He had been born in prison and was in prison until he was in his mid-20s. He's now 31 and has absolutely no hope in regards to improving his quality of life in the future. I felt so absolutely sad about his situation. There were also many residents who appeared to have mental conditions, that are left untreated. One woman was obviously responding to both audio and visual hallucinations. I felt so horrible for their situations and I hope that prison reform and care for the homeless will improve in the near future.
Lunch was spent dining outside on the Piata Unirii with my girls and Mihai, our grad assistant. I had a cafe macchiato. Here is a picture and I hope you can see how incredibly small the mug is - I miss my 24oz cups of coffee!!
Here is what Mihai ate. They are called Cabbage squares, but I unfortunately don't know their name in Romanian.
One of the things I love about Romania is all the festivals. Today, in the Piata Unirii, there was the Festival of Cookies and Ice Cream. Only in Romania!!!!
After a trip to Cora, in which Mallory and I had our bags sealed in plastic and the security guard burned my hand, there was a showing of Avatar in our room. I am loving Romanian cheeses: Cascavol classic, Rucar, and Bobalna.
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