BUCHAREST – After landing in Bucharest we quickly realised that, despite the
calendar indicating spring, there would be winter weather during our stay
there. Once we were comfortably situated in the van driven by our friend Valy,
we passed by the impressive Palace of the Parliament, the second largest
building in the world, and left the city on the country’s only highway. Along
our route, the consistency of the grey skies and green fields were occasionally
interrupted by the colourful little houses on either side of the road. The
journey to Ramnicu Valcea, where there were nearly 200 children and 10 instructors
awaiting us, lasted almost three hours.
The rural landscape, with wagons loaded with hay zipping along in either direction of the road, and the presence of dogs and farm animals nearby, told us we were almost there. Upon our arrival at the house that hosted the youngest children, the cooks had prepared us a dinner. Once we were warmed up by an excellent soup, we had a bit of time for a meeting with the local staff, coordinated by Lidia Dobre, president of the foundation of our partner Inima Pentru Inima, and Dumitru Telespan, the head of the local instructors.
We confirmed the intense schedule of our days
to come, which consisted of teaching updates in the classroom and on the pitch
(carried out by coaches Roberto Picardi and Paola Balconi), workouts with all
the children, games and plenty of fun. There were some emotional moments, as
when we had a chance to embrace the youngsters in the orphanage once again. On
one occasion, as we were all on our way to the pitch, we sang happy birthday to
Yossuf, a small Roma child who lives with his mother and five brothers and
sisters in a tiny but loving household. It was a joy to behold his smile when
he saw the cake that marked his seventh birthday.
After three days in the Ramnicu Valcea region, it was time to move on to the nearby Inter Campus Slatina location, where the project is managed with the Comunità Nuova partner as part of a collaboration with Pirelli Tyres Romania. The visit here served as support for the partners in the evaluation of new instructors to add to the project, in addition to the usual monitoring, and the highly awaited meeting with the 100 children that participated in the daily activities. The snow, which was unexpected at this time of year, made the training sessions even more special. Our teeth were chattering but our hearts were kept warm as we witnessed the unbounded joy of the children.
Visita il sito intercampus.inter.it
