Our community house in Podriga is now open as a drop-in centre on certain days of the week. It’s mainly for local people who feel the need for comfort and companionship. Our partnership with the Monastery at Stiubieni which deepened during the Covid-19 lockdown is bearing new fruit, with the Abbot joining the drop-in. He was there on the day that ‘Tomas’ (not his real name) turned up from a neighbouring village for the first time. Wearing all his clothes in layers, and not having accessed washing facilities for some time, he sat at the table and talked for an hour non-stop. He regaled the staff with increasingly fantastical stories of his apparent world travels. Having listened for all this time, and wanting to give Tomas a new focus, the house co-manager found a chess set and offered it to him. It seemed an odd choice, yet for the next hour Tomas sat in silence beating the Abbot at chess. It is good to be able to open our doors once more.
