Mihai is a 2-year boy from Costesti, a village in the heart of Iasi County, one of the six Romanian counties hit by the floods of July 2008. Mihai’s house was severely damaged by the torrents which inundated his village. It’s hard to tell whether he understood what happened or what images will remain in his memory.

When the UNICEF team arrives in his village with a Gendarmerie truck full of emergency supplies, the sun is shining brightly and the birds are singing. It is hard to imagine the troubled, furious waters that flooded the area only few weeks ago. The only reminders of the power of the floods are the tired, sad faces of the people and the marks the waters left in the hills surrounding the village.

Together with other children, Mihai receives from the UNICEF team a sack with personal hygiene and sanitary products and a backpack with clothes and toys. He keeps a tight grip on the big sack he’s just received. He holds in his arms a big teddy bear from the sack. It is a beautiful new toy that brings amazement to his little face. Encouraged by the sweet happy boy’s smile, Victor Ionescu, a UNICEF volunteer comes closer and asks him:
”Do you like it?”
Shyly, the little boy raises his blue eyes. He has a bit of dirt on the top of his nose from playing with other children while waiting for the pack.
“Yes,” whispers Mihai. “May I sleep with it tonight?” he asks in a small voice.
“I don’t know,” Victor answers. “You’ll have to ask your mother about this.”
“I usually sleep with my mommy,” says Mihai and than pauses…”Can it feed me? My mommy feeds me at night.”
The encounter puts a wide smile on Victor’s face. He feels rewarded for all the long trips he has made in the past month. And suddenly he’s not feeling so tired anymore. The little boy and the adult are smiling together. And for one long moment the floods are far away from their life.

The UNICEF distribution of supplies continues in Costesti. It is now the turn of Andrei to receive a sack and a backpack. His story is sadder. Andrei lost his parents in an accident and now his only family is his grandmother. And then the floods came and their house was destroyed. He found shelter with some distant relatives. Although he is only six, he is very helpful, always ready to give a hand in the household, trying to repay in his own way for the shelter and food received. He’s like a little beaver, always busy with something, but when you see the serious expression on his face, you see how the tragedy has affected him. He’s grown up overnight, and it is too soon to leave his childhood behind him.

Now he has received a big sack. It is almost as big as he is. His face brightens up and a smile appears. People are looking at him and this is a moment of content. In the sack there are new clothes, new toys, not old, used or borrowed. These things are now his. It’s like a new beginning. He’s getting back a small piece of the world he lost in the floods.

“It is incredible how he lost so much in such a short time and still he feels content and maybe a drop of happiness. Children have their own world and ways in life. We can only be there for them and smile at their happy faces,” says Dana Petcovici of UNICEF, impressed by the boy’s story and his reaction when he received the pack.

On August 21 and 22, UNICEF distributed around 600 sacks to the child victims of the floods in Costesti (Iasi), Vicovu de Sus and Tibeni (Suceava).

Over the 20 day period between Aug 9 and Aug 29, UNICEF distributed emergency supplies, clothes and toys to almost 4,000 children from 42 communities in the counties Bacau, Neamt, Iasi, Suceava, Botosani and Maramures. Until September 15, UNICEF will also deliver school supplies to the nearly 3,000 children of school age from the affected villages.

All these actions have been possible with the generous contribution of the Romanian population who responded with extraordinary promptness to the appeal made by UNICEF and Realitatea TV in the campaign “Romania Takes Roots”. The fundraising campaign brought over half a million Euros that will change for the better the lives of thousands of child victims of the floods.

Alphabet Story

At one point and time, I used to be a mage back in the medieval times.

Because of all the dragons and fighting and such, I had to be very skilled in my art.

Comprised with a lot of spells, charms, and amulets, my weapons were short swords and magical explosives and such.

During lunch one day, my scribe came running in yelling about an archaic dragon that has detained much of the middle east and was heading straight our way.

Ending my lunch was the wrong thing to do on the dragons part.

Fast but witty, I ran to meet the dragon in battle.

Giant as he was, I decided to plan something to capture him for eternity.

Highly anticipated, I realized that I could send him to the 4th dimension using an ancient ritual.

Inveigled by the towns people to actually capture the dragon and get rid of him, I got to work right away.

Just after I got all the ingredients for the ritual, something happened.

Kronos appeared and told me that by sending the dragon to the 4th dimension, I would doom the entire world 50,000 years into the future.

Left with a choice to either save the world now, or leave the future people to their fate, I was unsure of what to do.

My instincts told me to flip a coin so I did.

Never have I seen a coin spin so rapidly in the air.

On the ground, I saw that it had landed on heads; save the now but in a different way.

Peeved by all that was going on I quickly conjured a dark army from the Underworld.

Quadrillions of soldiers stood by my side.

Ready to fight, we marched on towards the dragons whereabouts.

Storms came as we neared the enemy stronghold.

Time to fight to the death!

Under my command, we all ran into the castle and fought valiantly against the enemy.

Various people and monsters and other creatures were destroying each other.

Winter came when we finally found and captured the dragon.

Xenophanes decided that by decapitating the dragon, we would all be safe.

Yanked at the head, the dragon just pulled in two.

Zany things happened back in the day.

Dog

I was at the pound. All these strange people were coming up and looking at me, poking their fingers through the cage. I was scared and huddled in a corner, shaking. One little boy came up and said something to this larger looking lady. They left for a few minutes and came back with the guy that held me there. They opened the cage and let me out. The little boy picked me up and held me close petting my head. I was still shaking all the way to their home.. They had me a little corner set up with toys and this amazingly soft bed. I felt at home. 

New Years

I didn't do anything to out there for New Years. All I did was hang out with Stormy all day and we just sat up in her room and did whatever to keep entertained. We somewhat watched a couple of movies and listened to music and stuff. It was fun :] My New Year's resolution was to have fun and do what I want. Hopefully I'll keep it.

Christmas FreeWrite

Every year during Christmas, I have a lot of places me and my family go to celebrate it. The first one is at my dad's house, where we open the ones him, Kristin, and her family got us. Then we go to my mother's where we open hers and both my grandparent's. Then after hers we go to Michael's house and open all his stuff and see my cousins and stuff. It's a lot of trouble but getting all the presents and seeing everybody sure makes it worth it. :]

Free Friday

I am going to tell the story I had about a dream a year ago.

It started off with me in bed and I awoke to something banging on my door. I get up and I hesitate at first to open it. After a few seconds I finally open it a crack and I see a zombie standing right there! It scared me to death. I quickly slammed the door shut and ran over to the side of my bed, where I keep a bat and I slowly walked to the door. The zombie was now beating on it and I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to my brothers and parents. I screamed as I opened the door and rushed at the zombie. I hit it over and over again trying to knock it off its feet. I managed to knock it down and start beating on its' head, trying to destroy the brain. I killed it after a few swings and sat down, holding the bat, staring into nothing.

The next thing I remember was that me, Dad, Uncle Sammy, Alex, and two other people I didn't even know, where up stairs fighting off hundreds of zombies from making their way up. I had a samurai sword, my dad had a spear, my uncle had a shotgun, and the two people had sniper rifles, shooting all the zombies around the house. Alex was sitting in my room just in the fetal position, not really able to grasp what was going on. I pulled a piano out from my room and we threw it down the stairs knocking most of the zombies down and blocking their way for awhile. We were about to leave the house, when the two people told us to lock them in my brothers room and they would cover our way out. Alex disappeared somewhere and the three of us climbed out my window onto the roof. My dad and uncle jumped down first and got into a car and started it up. They came to get me and I jumped onto the hood of the car while they were driving. I stayed on there holding on for my life. We drove and drove until finally there was nothing left and I awoke.

Halloween Banned

I think that they are making way to big of a deal out of it. I mean it is just one stupid guy and one stupid costume. If something of the sort happens again then I suppose they should take action on whoever does it but making everyone stop is crossing way far over the line. Either way, it was wrong of him to do it just to get attention for himself and get people to be like, "Oh, it was that kid that stopped Halloween dress-up for us." To me that seems a bit pathetic, but if that's how he wants to be remembered among his community, then that's his own problem.

Invisibility Cloak

If I could be invisible that would be a bit crazy. First of all I'd like go to WalMart and run around screaming like a retard and nobody would know where it was coming from. I'd manipulate objects and make fun of so many things and just have fun with it. The advantage of it would just being able to do things and nobody able to get you into trouble for it. Disadvantage would be that lets say it was permanent then people that you would want to see you would never be able to.

Memories

One memory I have is when my parents were still together and getting along. I think I was like around 5 or 6, I'm not too sure, but I had one of those fishing nets and my dad had the fishing rod while my mom had a camera taking pictures and laughing at us. He would cast it out across the yard and I would chase after the lure with the net. I messed up and got it kinda tangled up in the net and I started crying and screaming. My dad got it untangled and I stopped crying and that's about all I remember.

Tradition

I loved going to the bonfires. I thought it was always cool when the fire started to twist and make a little tornado looking thing there. But overall I just liked to social event that took place for it. Right now I'm not thinking the parade will be to great but I suppose it'll grow to be big in a few years after everybody gets used to it. As for me I'm not to excited about the whole parade thing but I really don't know what else we could do now that the bonfires gone. Maybe just having like a little one of those carnival type things with the person over the water and throwing a ball at the target and just stuff like that. Just fun stuff to get people out and supporting the team.

I Wish.

I wish there was a law that said that I was the ruler of everything. This would be a good law because with me as the ruler everything would be amazing. Nobody would dare defy me or I shall strike them down with the back of my hand. But if you're a good kid then you get a cookie. Everybody would have a monthly income of $200, but they had to have fighting tournaments in order to be able to continue this. This would make our country very strong and we would destroy as an armed force.

Beauty vs. Wealth

If i had to chose between being wealthy and ugly or poor and handsome I would definitely choose being poor and handsome. I mean nobody really wants to be ugly. Either way, money and looks are just insignificant things that people look at and judge by and sometimes lie to get what they want with it. But to me I would still rather be poor and handsome. Money has never been the most important thing to me just because I never really had it growing up.

Journal

I think that my life in 10 years will change so much just because that I’ll actually be out on my own and I’ll either still be in school or just starting out on my career. What I plan on doing for that is going to school to do something with electronics. Whether or not it be with cars or something even bigger. I do plan on having a family someday and the relationship I’m in at the moment isn’t too serious but you never know. That’s how my last one turned out. Though her parents were the cause of that break up. I’m also planning on living on the beach somewhere in California or at least looking at places by then. This is basically what I’ve planned out. Just the simple ideas to get me started.

Journal

To be honest, I really don't remember the attack even happening. I have no idea who my teacher was or them even mentioning it on the intercom or showing it on t.v. So I really don't have any memories at all of any of it happening.

As for what I would do to commemorate the people that died or at least risked their lives, I would have some kind of function to have everyone go to and have guest speakers to tell about their opinions on what happened and what their experience was with it. Their would be a bunch of bands and everything to play tributes to them. I would also have people who wanted to make videos or art about it to display to everyone else.

Journal

Right now, the thing I wish i could change is the way I do at school. My grades are okay for me but I can do better. I just don't have time. It's school, work right after I get out and I work till 8 p.m. That leaves me almost no time to do anything and I usually have to do my homework during school if it's to get finished. I just wanna make my mom proud of me. She tells me all the time how smart I am and I just wanna be the best i can be at it.

If i went to war

For me the perfect weapon in front line combats would definantly be explosives. I would have like 50 grenades on my person and I'd have a rocket launcher with a littler robot person that followed me around that manufactured rockets so I would never run out of ammo. I would rush the lines firing non-stop and releasing grenades left and right.

Seriously, if all you had was a high caliber rifle and you bust into a room and by some chance they have a fast enough reacting time, you're pretty much giving them a chance to shoot at you considering there's more than one and you have only one gun.

If it was me, all I would have to do was throw about five grenades and the rooms cleared in a matter of a few seconds. But then if I had to retrieve information from the room I would throw a flash-bang grenade and run in there with my machete.

All in all, using anything like that is risky and should only be used by professionals like me.