Wales, away from home
Maria and Florin Spiridon are professional chefs. They have been working at The Manor Hotel in Wales for 2 years now, along with an entirely -Romanian team, who have persuaded their employers of their efficiency. On her arrival, Maria did not speak any English and you may say that there is no need for foreign languages when working in a kitchen, but believe me, you are quite wrong…One must be able to understand many things, because tastes and habits differ, and, if you do not understand what the boss tells you, you may make mistakes that you would not usually make. During the week I spent in Wales, I saw Maria smile, laugh out loud, bite her lips, throw aside her kitchen apron, I saw her cry, repress her frustration and I saw her mute with anger. She works around 12 hours a day with only a short break. She begins work very early, as she gets prepares breakfast for the hotel guests and then carries on with lunch and dinner finishing by cleaning up the kitchen. Only when everything is sparkling clean, does she walk into her small room next to the restaurant, lights a cigarette, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
She desperately misses home and intently listened to all the details I could give her, welcoming any information on faraway Romania. This is not due to an interest in politics and gossip, it is due to the fact that her little boy, Mihai is there, at home waiting for her. A month before, she had posted a parcel of toys for him, but they hadn’t reached him yet. The airport newspapers bought minutes before the flight had long been read and reread. Maria and Florin bought satellite dishes for Romanian channels, and had carried them all the way from Romania; they patiently explained to customs officials the aim of those huge dishes, namely the need to hear spoken Romanian from time to time and to see images from home. As seen from there, Romania is weird and it becomes somehow alien. Maria’s thoughts evolve around her son: ‘is Mihai safe? They said there was a flu epidemic in Romania on TV. Florin, let’s go and buy a phone card, to call home…Listen to this, They report-10 degrees Celsius, what would my little boy be doing?’
“He is very proud of us. He knows that mummy and daddy are away in order to ensure a good future for him, so that he will not be forced to work as hard as we do. We want to make his future easier, and provide him with all of the things other children lack. You cannot achieve anything without putting in an effort. It is tough, but we try to live through it.“He asked me to buy him a small robot and a Spiderman. I searched through all the shops until I found what he had seen on Cartoon Network. He had specifically told me not to buy Batman, but Spiderman…Of course Batman was everywhere. I’ve grown to know them all by heart.”
Maria puffs on her cigarette and tells of Spiderman’s odyssey..It took us several hours to search for toys for Mihai. She sprayed her perfume all over the teddy bear that we eventually bought. I wrapped it in a paper bag, to make sure it preserved the scent, because Mihai knows that this is what Mother smells like. I took out the small robot from the box and I put it in my luggage. Maria smiles: “Wait, don’t put them in the suitcase. Wait until I show them to Florin.” I try to picture them in their room, as they sit on the rug, facing each other, weighing and feeling the toys. They are excited because at least they can send this to Mihai. Whenever they think about him, they smile at each other to boost their courage. But, I noticed that Maria is having a hard time. I could feel this, because I witnessed her carefully assessing her options, concluding that it was useless to spend 7 pounds on an English lesson and better to use the money to buy something for the little boy. Living among strangers is tough, but it is much more difficult for Mihai: ”Mihai is the apple of my eye. He knows this and every time I go home, he gives me a Welcome back banner, although he’s only in the first grade. He tries so hard to write and draw so as to make the card as appealing as possible, but for the first few moments the poor child cannot help but feel that we are strangers to him. Then he gets used to us again…When I came home in September, on our first day together he asked me: „Mummy, is this for real or am I just dreaming? Are you really home? I started to pinch and tickling him, to show him that I was his mummy in flesh and blood.. and eventually, he said „Yes, this is for real”. All I want is for things to go well and to fall into place at home. I want to work in my own country and be close to my child, not far away in a distant land. Why work for others when we could very well work for ourselves?”
Flori and Toni Florescu have been married for more than 30 years. In Romania, Toni Florescu worked at the Intercontinental restaurant and other elegant restaurants. Flori was a housewife and took care of their child. They are an easy-going couple who are very willing to work. But, for people over 45 it is very hard to become employed in Romania, even in the restaurant business. Young people are favoured as it is believed that they have more stamina. Last year, Toni Florescu joined the Romanians working in The Manor Hotel in Wales. A few months afterwards, his wife joined him. He had managed to find her a job with the hotel cleaning staff. Although she didn’t speak much English, nor had she ever travelled by plane before or for that matter had worked for years, Mrs Florescu braced herself and left Romania. She is now working between 6 and 8 hours a day and has settled into the tiny community which is beginning to take shape. Although her boy is all grown up now and can take care of himself, she still longs for her home sweet home, her flower pots and the life she left behind. ”My boy, like any young man, wanted to start a family, he had a girlfriend and was planning to getting married. He couldn’t pack up and leave her, for she wants to graduate from college so that she will be able to make a living in Romania. And so, it fell upon us to go and work abroad. But, we said to ourselves: we’re not only doing this for them, but for us as well. We’re at that age – my husband is 55 and I’m 54 -where it would be difficult for most people to start over from scratch, but we couldn’t find a job in Romania so it became impossible to make a living, to pay the bills or to be able to go on a holiday, to the mountains or to the coast, I haven’t been on a holiday with my husband for 14 years.”
I asked Mrs Florescu what the toughest moment in her life had been? "When I left, my father said: I won’t be here when you come back. Myself and my husband didn’t want to believe that. Two months later, we were told my father had passed away. That was the toughest moment in my life, for I loved my father very much and I was unable to be there, by his side, when he died."
If you should find yourself in the market of Abergavenny (the largest town in the area where the people I was telling you about work) on a Tuesday, you will definitely hear people speaking Romanian. This is one of the few occasions when they get the chance to meet up, for they do not have time to socialise. Maria and Florin Spiridon, Flori and Toni Florescu are but four of the thousands of Romanians working abroad. Despite their sorrows, longing or tears, the affect of their labour starts to be felt by the living standards of the people back home. They are perhaps the most European of Romanians, for they are already learning what it means to live in a EU country.
(oct 2004)
She desperately misses home and intently listened to all the details I could give her, welcoming any information on faraway Romania. This is not due to an interest in politics and gossip, it is due to the fact that her little boy, Mihai is there, at home waiting for her. A month before, she had posted a parcel of toys for him, but they hadn’t reached him yet. The airport newspapers bought minutes before the flight had long been read and reread. Maria and Florin bought satellite dishes for Romanian channels, and had carried them all the way from Romania; they patiently explained to customs officials the aim of those huge dishes, namely the need to hear spoken Romanian from time to time and to see images from home. As seen from there, Romania is weird and it becomes somehow alien. Maria’s thoughts evolve around her son: ‘is Mihai safe? They said there was a flu epidemic in Romania on TV. Florin, let’s go and buy a phone card, to call home…Listen to this, They report-10 degrees Celsius, what would my little boy be doing?’
“He is very proud of us. He knows that mummy and daddy are away in order to ensure a good future for him, so that he will not be forced to work as hard as we do. We want to make his future easier, and provide him with all of the things other children lack. You cannot achieve anything without putting in an effort. It is tough, but we try to live through it.“He asked me to buy him a small robot and a Spiderman. I searched through all the shops until I found what he had seen on Cartoon Network. He had specifically told me not to buy Batman, but Spiderman…Of course Batman was everywhere. I’ve grown to know them all by heart.”
Maria puffs on her cigarette and tells of Spiderman’s odyssey..It took us several hours to search for toys for Mihai. She sprayed her perfume all over the teddy bear that we eventually bought. I wrapped it in a paper bag, to make sure it preserved the scent, because Mihai knows that this is what Mother smells like. I took out the small robot from the box and I put it in my luggage. Maria smiles: “Wait, don’t put them in the suitcase. Wait until I show them to Florin.” I try to picture them in their room, as they sit on the rug, facing each other, weighing and feeling the toys. They are excited because at least they can send this to Mihai. Whenever they think about him, they smile at each other to boost their courage. But, I noticed that Maria is having a hard time. I could feel this, because I witnessed her carefully assessing her options, concluding that it was useless to spend 7 pounds on an English lesson and better to use the money to buy something for the little boy. Living among strangers is tough, but it is much more difficult for Mihai: ”Mihai is the apple of my eye. He knows this and every time I go home, he gives me a Welcome back banner, although he’s only in the first grade. He tries so hard to write and draw so as to make the card as appealing as possible, but for the first few moments the poor child cannot help but feel that we are strangers to him. Then he gets used to us again…When I came home in September, on our first day together he asked me: „Mummy, is this for real or am I just dreaming? Are you really home? I started to pinch and tickling him, to show him that I was his mummy in flesh and blood.. and eventually, he said „Yes, this is for real”. All I want is for things to go well and to fall into place at home. I want to work in my own country and be close to my child, not far away in a distant land. Why work for others when we could very well work for ourselves?”
Flori and Toni Florescu have been married for more than 30 years. In Romania, Toni Florescu worked at the Intercontinental restaurant and other elegant restaurants. Flori was a housewife and took care of their child. They are an easy-going couple who are very willing to work. But, for people over 45 it is very hard to become employed in Romania, even in the restaurant business. Young people are favoured as it is believed that they have more stamina. Last year, Toni Florescu joined the Romanians working in The Manor Hotel in Wales. A few months afterwards, his wife joined him. He had managed to find her a job with the hotel cleaning staff. Although she didn’t speak much English, nor had she ever travelled by plane before or for that matter had worked for years, Mrs Florescu braced herself and left Romania. She is now working between 6 and 8 hours a day and has settled into the tiny community which is beginning to take shape. Although her boy is all grown up now and can take care of himself, she still longs for her home sweet home, her flower pots and the life she left behind. ”My boy, like any young man, wanted to start a family, he had a girlfriend and was planning to getting married. He couldn’t pack up and leave her, for she wants to graduate from college so that she will be able to make a living in Romania. And so, it fell upon us to go and work abroad. But, we said to ourselves: we’re not only doing this for them, but for us as well. We’re at that age – my husband is 55 and I’m 54 -where it would be difficult for most people to start over from scratch, but we couldn’t find a job in Romania so it became impossible to make a living, to pay the bills or to be able to go on a holiday, to the mountains or to the coast, I haven’t been on a holiday with my husband for 14 years.”
I asked Mrs Florescu what the toughest moment in her life had been? "When I left, my father said: I won’t be here when you come back. Myself and my husband didn’t want to believe that. Two months later, we were told my father had passed away. That was the toughest moment in my life, for I loved my father very much and I was unable to be there, by his side, when he died."
If you should find yourself in the market of Abergavenny (the largest town in the area where the people I was telling you about work) on a Tuesday, you will definitely hear people speaking Romanian. This is one of the few occasions when they get the chance to meet up, for they do not have time to socialise. Maria and Florin Spiridon, Flori and Toni Florescu are but four of the thousands of Romanians working abroad. Despite their sorrows, longing or tears, the affect of their labour starts to be felt by the living standards of the people back home. They are perhaps the most European of Romanians, for they are already learning what it means to live in a EU country.
(oct 2004)
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