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Leeds, England registered UK Charity No.1087961
Kingsport, USA charitable non-profit # 86-0957704
Oradea, Romania registered Charity No.14839712

 
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Adi Matis – Smiles Romania Assistant Director   September 2016

Kindness Days - another summer experience

At the Smiles Foundation we are ready to do things that will bring joy to people, no matter in what way, simply because we feel this is important. At least once in a while, everyone needs a little excitement about something, just to make the day brighter and to forget about how difficult life can be. And when doing that, we are not only limiting to our regular projects, but sometimes go out and put together some special plans for people that are not enrolled in our programmes.

We call this a Kindness Day. In the past, we have done many activities with disabled children for instance, or with elderly, or with special needs groups like Down Syndrome and Autistic Associations, who were so happy to participate and we were just as happy to be able to offer a special day out to them. You can read about it in our past articles, it was always a wonderful time to make new friends and to share the love, hope and faith that will always motivate us to do what we do.

This year we tried something a little bit different. We decided to offer a special day in the city to some children from our own projects. They have never had the chance to do what we were planning, so it could only be a great time for them. So, five children from Salard also had the chance to enjoy an unexpected and most interesting day in Oradea.

We started the day with me going to Salard to pick them up. As agreed one day before, this special opportunity was given to Vanessa, Alex, Shony, Pishty and Martzi. All of them going to school, all being rewarded this way for the efforts they make! So when I got there, of course they were all ready to go, they were actually waiting for me at the corner! They were all nicely dressed and washed, except for Martzi. His sad face told me something had happened. I asked what was it, why is he not ready and I found out that his parents, who had to go to work, asked him to not go anywhere, as they needed him to take care of his younger brothers… bad news! I called immediately his dad and under no explanation did I accept this situation! I helped him to understand how important it was for Martzi and I was happy to hear it was ok to go after all.

Then we all loaded the bus and despite the different language, we all agreed this is gonna be a great adventure! The first stop was the Zoo where we met up with several Mission Trip guests who were joining us for the day. They had never been to the Zoo before, so it is no wonder they felt a little bit uncomfortable with the rules of not knocking the protective glass and not climbing the fences… And for once or twice I have to admit they did break those rules. But once they started the tour and saw so many exotic and "never-seen-before" creatures, they were so amazed! Seeing all those snakes and reptiles, the fancy coloured birds, the noisy monkeys and lazy bears was so extraordinary! And feeding the monkey and horses was prime! What an experience!

After the Zoo, we had to eat something. The excitement soon transformed into hunger which had to be addressed. And what can be better to do this than those beautifully roasted chicken at KFC? There we went!... They had never had a KFC meal before. The fries were not altogether alien to the kids, but the meat was something else! And the sauce… And the toy they also received! That was such a treat!

Next was the movie, in the new cinema! We went to see "Finding Dory". Of course the glasses, the soft chairs, the large screen and powerful sound were huge, let alone the immersive experience of 3D. The movie was dubbed in Romanian, so they could understand something. This was again a first for them, as none of our Salard kids had ever been to the cinema. And I think, this probably would be the case also for their parents, who would probably enjoy this experience just as much as they did.

To conclude the day, we had some table-tennis arranged, we spent another hour or so playing, after which an ice-cream was the perfect way to finish. We were supported in doing all of these activities by the mission trip guests, who very patiently helped take care of the child ‘assigned’ to each one of them. For this, a sincere big Thank you to everyone!

Adi Matis

Adrian Matis
Assistant Director of Smiles Foundation Romania

adrian.matis@thesmilesfoundation.org

 


Previous reports from Adi:
August 2016 - Holiday Bible Class - Summer Experience

July 2016 - Celebration for an Eternal Future
June 2016 - What is Smiles to a family in Gepiu

May 2016 - When Home is not Your Home anymore...
April 2016 - Livia's story
March 2016 - The Boxer Guy
February 2016 - Kati and how Salard can surprise!
January 2016 - Christmas Joy

December 2015 - Hope
November 2015 - Salard Life snapshots
October 2015 - After Summer
September 2015 - The Small Things that go a Long Way
August 2015 - Mission Trips with significance
July 2015 - A great way into knowing God

June 2015 - History with a man that is no more
May 2015 - A Story Worth Sharing

March 2015 - Here in Romania, but not only...
February 2015 - New year, new hope and new plans

January 2015 - Management Team Reports

December 2014 - Preparing for the Celebration
November 2014 - A man's true story... an inspiration to us all

October 2014 - Golden September
September 2014 - A Summer of Experiences
August 2014 - Salard Community Reloaded
July 2014 - Sessions for the Mind

June 2014 - Unknown
May 2014 - Celebrate with us
April 2014 - Beliefs
March 2014 - From being taken care of to taking care...

February 2014 - My dream... to become a pig caretaker

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