topum | They didn't come

You're viewing

topum's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

We were on a train crossing Romania from east to west (don't do this it really sucks, drive instead). The train stopped in this bleak small town only for three minutes very early in the morning. It was cold, wet and grey and the station was really run down, depressing and almost empty. This old guy was standing there, his head and hands shaking, scanning the train from the front to the end and back anxiously trying to see if anybody was getting off the train. Nobody did and as soon the train started moving he walked away with his two walking sticks, dragging his left foot a bit every third step or so.

I called granddad in a couple of hours and got "What is it about? I can't really talk now, we are driving to Gothenburg today and had to leave the house two hours ago but your grandmother is not being easy about this as usual so I am going through some intense stuff here now so that we can bloody leave already." That was great to hear.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

topum.livejournal.com

Yes, I think this theme has been used quite often, seeing it happening in reality turned out to be something quite different to me.

Worse stories are all around us here in Moldova. Almost every village has a whole bunch of "forgotten children". Their parents had to leave to work abroad and either died or disappeared or simply started new lives gradually leaving their existing kids out of those new lives. The kids are left on grandmothers who are too old to care for them and after they die the kids are on their own. Just yesterday in the village not far from ours one of such families, an old grandmother and eight (!) kids (widowed father was hit by a car abroad where he worked I think) had their cow die on them, which pretty much means hunger. Luckily one of local IT companies ran a fundraising campaign among their employees and bought a new cow for them today.

Edited Date: 2016-08-16 08:53 pm (UTC)

From:

bunn.livejournal.com

Oh my goodness. That definitely is not a story I have heard told before. 8 of them relying on one cow. I had no idea that people did not take their children with them.

From:

topum.livejournal.com

Almost none of them do. They used to not even know where they were going exactly, the trafficking firms used to take them to some construction sites somewhere in Europe in those overcrowded minibuses where they lived in barracks arranged by the firm. It is better now but still almost none of them can take their kids with them, they usually live in hostel type accommodation at least in the beginning. They leave the kids with the grandparents and send the money to them every month.

Edited Date: 2016-08-16 09:15 pm (UTC)