23th October 2020,
It's 8 am, I'm at Henri Coanda International Airport in Otopeni, Romania. My thoughts don't give me peace at all, I'm nervous and excited at the same time. This is the first time I leave the country alone and for a long time. I don't even know when it's been a month since I interviewed to work as a carer in England. I don't even know what I have to do as a carer, I don't know what will be waiting for me there. Everything is new and foreign to me.
- Please prepare your passports and travel tickets, a voice brings me back to my senses, I was long lost in my thoughts.
The moment of departure is approaching and as if from nowhere a claw appears and grabs me by the throat, I feel like I can't breathe, I feel like I leave everything behind and go into the unknown. What will be waiting for me there? This question gives me no peace at all, it is very hard for me to leave my family and the people I love behind. You would think that a man would do anything for his family, including giving up the time they spend together to go to another country to work, so that the family doesn't miss anything.
Landing was easy, a few passengers clapped loudly, they're here. It's my first time in England. Everything is strange, I have to change a train and a bus to get to my final destination in Dorset. The whole journey takes about 8 hours.
Late after 11 pm I arrive at the place where the company was going to put me up, I was fascinated by that beautiful place, the moonbeams reflecting in the ocean waves, the silence broken only by those waves. Everything was wonderful, for a moment I forgot that I was in a foreign country and I was just a stowaway. To my joy I was warmly welcomed by my colleagues who were already there. We started talking and getting to know each other, I found out that I was not the only one who was there for the first time and at the same time other colleagues, older in the guild, explained to us what we were going to do and what it really meant to be a carer.
This is what scares me.
- And how, do I have to cook for them? Do I have to make them tea? I ask in amazement.
- Yes, you have to make them breakfast in the morning, lunch, dinner at tea time or snacks, depending on what the patient wants, and dinner in the evening - my colleague promptly answered.
I was shocked, I didn't know how to make tea with the English, I didn't know what kind of food they eat, I didn't know how to wash and help them. In short I was scared of myself. Later I manage to fall asleep thinking that tomorrow will be a new day and I will take each thing step by step, it won't be as bad as it seems, right?
24th October,
It was a very long night, even though I was very tired from the trip, I could hardly sleep at all. The strong wind kept me awake all night. I decided to go and visit the island I was on, so I walked every street and was amazed by the beauty of the place. I was in a beautiful part of England, everything was new, everything was strange to me.
The same day I was visited by my future team leader and we met. She explained to us in broad terms what we had to do as carers and what the job entailed. I was more upset than I was before after this talk, not because it wasn't explained to me, but because the emotional fear that I wouldn't be able to handle it and would fail grew worse.
- I didn't think I'd ever get to do anything homemade, I said raspily to my colleague.
- I didn't say I was going to do it either, but look at me after 7 years in the same company still doing the same thing, my colleague reinforces.
- Seven years? I ask in amazement, how can you do that for so long?
- I love what I do and it pays well.
I think I pay well too, since you have to wash old people, take care of them and look after them, I think to myself.
27th October 2019,
- Today at 7 pm your colleague will come to take you to work together, you will shadow for her. - our team leader told us rapidly.
Arriving at the parking lot we were picked up by our colleague. Very cheerful and full of positive energy she invited us to get into her car. Ann is a woman in her forties, she doesn't show her age, always smiling, she exudes a very positive energy that makes you feel safe around her. I went to my first patient, my first patient in my future profession - carer.
Everything seemed natural, the way Ann talked to the patient, the way she made things so fast and so easy, it seemed like that's what she did all her life. It was her first visit to that patient too, but it seemed like she had known that nice man all her life, how is it possible to be so happy and glad that you go to a stranger?
I didn't understand much from the visit, I only understood that if you really want everything can be very easy, but you have to want it and you have to love the human being, with good and bad.