Family House/Fosterhome

Current events of our family house in Keresztúr

The latest is that Gyöngyi and Jenö have been studying in Cluj since autumn - Gyöngyi studies theology-social work and Jenö theology-German. Julián has started his training at the Forestry professional school in Udvarhely.

After having taken their school-leaving examination, all three had one more long summer holiday.

Yes, one might say - great- but what a difficult way has led here.
When Gyöngyi, Jenö and Julián started to learn at the grammar school, they fell behind with some subjects because of the school system in the Children's Home. lt was not easy to catch up with them. The children have found support, encouragement and help from the foster-parents Jana and Robi in order to get the whip over the difficulties. The special study plans and discussions especially with the foster-father Robi led to success. On the other hand the children have got concrete help in the different subjects from Birgit and later Margret.
Birgit had been employed by our association and Margret's work was supported by the Bosch-Foundation.
The study the three of them have now started has been established by these helps.
Even if the older ones are "out of the house" now, they still belong to the family house.
lt continues to be their home, for Julián each day, for the other two in the holidays, at feasts and when they have problems.

Eduard, 13 and Krisztina, 10 were the most problematic children. In 2001 wrote Jana and Robi the following:
"Just like all families with their problems, we also have our difficulties with our children. We can clearly sense even today the disorders in the behavior that inevitably appear if a child stays long in the Children's Home. Apart from the normal pubertal problems, we have to face hysterical outbreaks and rocking, venting the fury on the furnishing. The most cases can be cleared only with patience, much time and long talks. lt often helps us as well, if we put ourselves in the place of the children and then understand the motive of their deed and behavior. lt is easy to write all these now, but we have also learnt a lot from these things and we will always learn more and more." As a result of this learning Krisztina has abandoned her behavior disorders and has become a well-balanced and happy girl. This has strengthened her self-consciousness at school as well. She is so good at German that one can only admire it.
Eduard has his typical pubertal problems. He is the football player- the future player in the Romanian or Hungarian national football team.

A swimming pool has been opened this summer in Sóskút so Eduard, Krisztina and Fanny learnt to swim.

T'here is a new family member in the house since September 2004.
After a long tiring battle with the Romanian bureaucracy Sofie, Gyöngyi's sister has finally been allowed to move into the house and is living with us.

Beside the work with the children, there is the task of ensuring the provision of the house. The garden needs to be arranged and looked after, the fruit needs to be gathered in and tumed into lasting conserves for the winter.
The animals- pigs, rabbits, chickens, dog and cats need to be looked after as well. All family members help at these time-consuming works.

And not only do these works need time- despite of all the savings and self-sufficiency- they need a lot of money as well.

It were necessary to employ a girl or a boy again by the association who could do all kind of work in the family, the house and the garden.
Financial support is needed for the studies of the three older ones.
Financial support is needed for buying seeds, young cattle, garden utensils etc. Financial support is needed for maintaining and repairing of the bus.

Although we are a very young mixed family, there are some traditions that have been developed in these years or that we have taken over. Some of them are very small but to us very important ones. There is for instance the praying together. In the evenings we thank God for the day He had given us to be together.
We usually celebrate the birthdays in the family circle. It has become a custom for us to meet in the kitchen at 5 pmi, sing blessing- and birthday songs (in Hungarian and German) and cut the cake.
The Advent Sundays are very peaceful in our family. Even if the week is quite a rush - we look for new DIY- and decoration ideas, we look for and try out new recipes, decorate the house, buy and wrap up presents etc.-, we try to rest on Sundays and have a nice time together, eat at candlelight, pray together, sing Advent songs, prepare ourselves for Christmas.

This is also the time of our pig-slaughter. All the necessary utensils, tools, spices are gathered days earlier in order to start it early on the certain day. Everyone has his or her task from the old to the young (even Róbert's grandmother), everybody helps. The works go on the whole day and it is late night when everything — the sausage made of blood and liver, the meat sausage, the meatball, the bacon and the grease is made.
Christmas is especially filled with Tradition. About such a day in our family Birgit (an ex-volunteer) has written in one of the letters: "The Christmas tree has been decorated in the afternoon together with the three older children while the younger ones were away. According to the local Tradition the presents are brought by the angel and not by the Santa Claus as in Germany. As then the whole family was sitting around the Christmas tree and singing together, a very special atmosphere could be sensed in the room. Then first came the usual tearing of the paper, opening of the presents and happy shouts. Everybody was very happy; they were laughing, showing each other the things they received and were happy for them...
After the presentation we went to church and after the mass went home for a delicious dinner.

The New Year starts with the annual home-blessing.

 

 

 

 

Even if not everyone is crazy about the carnival, especially the young like to dress up as Little Red Riding-Hood, clown, shepherd or cheer-leader.
We celebrate Easter in two-day time, Easter Sunday after the German Tradition and Easter Monday after the Hungarian one. Easter Sunday starts with a very rich and special breakfast. The morning church is then followed by the warmly waited search for Easter eggs in the garden in the afternoon. On Easter Monday our boys and Robi visit our friends' wives and daughters and recite thein an Easter poem. After that they sprinkle water on their heads. This is said to keep the beauty and make them look young for a long time. As a response the boys receive red-painted eggs, sweets or money and Robi is offered a glass of pálinka (spirit).

Thanks to the association Rumänieninitiative/Romania action group we could make a Tradition of our summer holiday as well. Each year we close the house and go away with the whole family for a week. Weeks before the journey we make preparations for it in order not to forget something: have we packed enough food, does everyone have his sleeping bag, have we got enough toys, what if the weather is bad, who will get sick in the bus etc. We can only enjoy the trip when everybody is already in the bus and we set off. Everybody has beautiful experiences and we have pleasant memories of each holiday.

Beside the traditional feasts we also love the spontaneous outings, grilling in the garden, inviting or visiting friends, bathing in summer and going sledging in winter.