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CopDrop Trip 2005

The COPDROP Team, consisting of founder members, Frank Speake, Jules Millington, Brian Kettleborough and Barry Hollingsworth together with new team members, Trev Hiatt, Keith Briggs, Guy Farmer, Heather Kettleborough and Dave Randall and BBC Reporter, Clare Crooks  set off for Romania in the latest trip to aid the children and orphans of Prahava County, Romania.

The group set off from Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire on the morning of Sunday 3rd April, travelling in two vehicles, a LDV mini-bus loaned by FW Tempests of Stickney and a Renault Espace towing a trailer loaned by Frank Speake.

The journey was to be covered for radio stations, BBC Radio Lincolnshire and BBC Radio Humberside and for the BBC, regional television programmes, Look North by Clare who was undertaking her first trip to Romania.

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The journey was fairly uneventful, apart from a misunderstanding with a German Police Officer over speed limits and allowing for fuel, food and toilet stops the team travelled from Woodhall Spa to Dover, across the English Channel by ferry. Then through France, a tiny section of Belgium, Germany. Austria and most of Hungary non stop and arrived in the Village of Balastya, near to the Hungarian/Romanian border at about 5pm on Monday 4th April.

As can be seen from notes on the previous trips, this planned, overnight break in a hotel is to allow all the team to have a good nights rest before tackling the dreaded border crossing and then into Romania. The Hungarian hotel was very comfortable and the food was excellent.

The team were back on the road early on Tuesday morning and within an hour we were at the Hungarian/Romanian border, the site of long miserable waits on previous journeys. The expected problems of entering Romania just never occurred, the Hungarians are now part of the EEC and exiting Hungary was just a case of showing passports and through we went. The next stage is like a no-mans land where lorry drivers congregate as they have their vehicles weighed and disinfected before joining the queue to enter Romania. We made a brief stop in no-mans land to visit a couple of shops and then to the queue.....where is the queue?....what's going on? The queues have gone! We drove to the customs kiosk, showed our passports and were then directed to the next kiosk where we showed our vehicle documents....,and that was it, we were in.

Our entry into Romania took a matter of 30 to 40 minutes an on previous trips we had spent hours and hours in abject misery and negotiating with customs officials to get in. Once inside of Romania we, the seasoned members, were amazed that the queue to get back out of Romania, which was measured in days rather than hours, had also gone. The stories we had told preparing the new members for the dreaded crossing were dated, untrue and un-necessary.

We then drove through Romania and over the mountains and arrived at our hotel base in Cormarnic at about 6 or 7pm - and there waiting for our arrival were our good friends Angela and Adrian. We quickly abandoned our belongings before re-grouping in the hotel restaurant for a much needed meal and an early night.

The following day we commenced work at the Martha Bibescu School Club, in Cormarnic. We mixed and laid a concrete floor in a ground floor toilet block which had been damaged by flooding. We laid a gravel footpath over about 200 metres, in a an area the school students traditionally walked. In bad weather the students would get very muddy and dirty but the new path would hopefully allow them to use the area all year round.

The CopDrop team did not work alone, we were joined and ably assisted by school teachers and maintenance staff, school pupils and family and friends of all. The atmosphere was wonderful, and though normal conversation was difficult, we all managed to understand one another, and it is to the shame of us ALL of the children spoke excellent English and assisted in the adults understanding of each other! It was a wonderful day.

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We were treated to a delicious lunch prepared by the ladies of the teaching staff and by some of the pupils and by mid to late afternoon we had completed the task undertaken. It was then that pupils aged from as young as 7 and 8 year olds to young men and women up to 18 and 19 years old arrived and they put on a very entertaining and enjoyable music and dance show in the grounds of the club. It seemed like the whole Town had turned out to watch too - it was an excellent day!

The next few days were a blur - we returned to the School Club and edged the footpath we had built - we repaired some central heating pipes and then boxed them in. We erected some playground equipment and then painted that and all the other equipment. Again we were joined by both pupils, staff and friends of the school.
 

We also worked at the St Andrews Hospital in Ploesti, where children with mental and physical disabilities are housed. The hospital is also used for day care treatment for the children of the area. We were able to purchase various equipment for the use in the physiotherapy for the residents and day care visitors, but, our main task was to create a 'sensory room' at the hospital directors request.

We were shown the room to be used and within a day and half had padded the floor and walls and fitted bands of spotlights controlled by dimmer switches, fitted yards and yard of coloured rope lights, installed lava type lights and a sound system. We also supplied two ball ponds with the room. The room is designed to calm and sooth the disruptive children and we were amazed a the apparent success. The director told us that a room like we had created would reduce the amount o medication needed to clam a disruptive child.

Whilst at the hospital we also bought and fitted a new door in one of the boy's wards, it had been damaged numerous times by patients and had got beyond repair. We also purchased a quantity of sand to supplement the sand already around the bas of the playground equipment.

Whilst in Romania we had the opportunity to visit old friends in Tatarai, the scene of our first visit to Romania. The unit is now an adult unit and is striving towards self sufficiency. Some of the residents we have known since our first trip and it was emotional to see them again, but pleasing to see their advancement, the director at the unit is a very quiet and reserved man but he is doing a wonderful job. The residents are clean and healthy, they hall have jobs or tasks and have a purpose to their lives, that damned Tatarai made my eyes fill with tears again!

Our last day, Sunday 10th April, was spent filming with the BBC and saying our goodbyes, once again the people of Romania looked after us well, and it was a pleasure and an honour to help such nice people.

We set off for home at 7am Monday 11th April, and again only stopped for fuel and toilet breaks, we spent that night in the hotel in Balastya. Another early start the following morning saw us thundering through Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France, where, because, we had gained so much time were able to catch an early ferry, before the final sprint for home where we arrived back in Woodhall Spa by 10am Wednesday 13th April.

The list of people to thank for their part in the success of the trip is endless and I will not try to name everyone for fear of offending someone I might miss. I will, however, say a special thank you to Angela, Adrian and Christian Nasulea, they are true friends!

If, after reading the account of our latest trip, you feel able or want to join or assist CopDrop in any way please contact any team member or send an email to this site.

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