May 27, 2008 (Tuesday)
It was a regular day in the land of Romania – at least for the most part.
The events at the orphanage were pretty routine. I played with Constantine for a while. He was a sad boy today for some reason. I probably would be too if I had to lay in a chair all day. Then Valentina and I practiced jumping again. I don’t know how to get her to understand that in order to jump you have to bend your legs. She can’t jump on her own – only with my help. I did get Valentina to repeat the word “pup” which means kiss. Then I’d point to my cheek and she’d give me a kiss. So cute….I just had to watch out for her hands and mouth because she occasionally bites and pulls hair. Yesterday when I was holding her she bit my neck and my arm. I have lovely marks left by her.
Sera found me again today. Every time he sees me he gets this huge smile. He came and sat down and put his arm around me and I pulled away like normal. One of his superiors was in the room and she scolded him for not doing his work. She wasn’t really mad, but she definitely gave him a hard time. Elisa and Teo were trying to ask him some serious questions about buying new wheel chairs for the orphanage with the money that some of the girls in our group have raised. He kept trying to talk to me and they kept saying his name. I think he was pretty cranky by the end of his visit. Then when they were done I asked Sera if he could show me some exercises I could do with Constantine in order to get his mind off talking about “us.” He showed me some. Poor Constantine is so mangled. Then Sera started talking to me about what I was doing this weekend. I told him we had a branch picnic on Saturday if he wanted to come. The girls wanted me to invite him – we are secretly attempting to convert him. They think the situation is hilarious. I don’t think it will happen but it’s worth a try. He said to remind him and that he would join us….
In the other room my kids are Maria, Andrei and Iulia. Maria keeps surprising me with how much she can do and how much she actually understands. We threw the ball back and forth a few times. I didn’t think she even understood the concept, but apparently she does. Then she would scoot herself across the floor to get the ball. While we were playing I would periodically tickle her and she laughed for the first time since I’ve been here. She is normally pretty expressionless. This girl never laughs – so hearing a giggle from her is huge. Her stomach and feet are sooo ticklish. If I barely touch the bottom of her foot she will freak out.
Andrei was being a little rambunctious today so they put him in his crib for most of the time I was there. Sad. Mario came and found me to tell me about Andrei’s history. I had asked her to do some investigating. Apparently Andrei was brought to the orphanage a few months ago because his parents didn’t want him since he was deaf. Sadly, they won’t let anyone adopt him. It makes me sooo angry. If you’re going to give your kid up because you don’t want them you shouldn’t try and halt any chance they have at a better life. SO SELFISH. I was seriously so agitated. I was surprised at how hurt and angry I was about the news…She also said that Andrei’s brother and sister had been killed in a fire a few months earlier because the parents left them at home by themselves. I wish I could meet his parents and tell them what I think of them. I would seriously go off – I know it’s not very Christ like but they need a good kick in the butt! The only good news Mario had for me was that Andrei is supposed to be getting surgery sometime over the next couple of months so he can hear! I’m excited about that. He has a hearing aid and they are trying to turn it up a little bit each day so he gets used to sound. She also said that even though he can’t be adopted that he can be housed by a foster family. She said he could actually live with them his entire life if they wanted. Apparently foster care is different in the states than it is here. In Romania children can stay with foster parents for a long time. I guess I’m going to have to pray that he finds a good family. I feel so helpless. I can’t do anything else to help him….All I can do is pray that he will be taken care of and love him! I wish there were more that I could do though…I’ll have to contemplate about what else I can do…
Sera came into our room again to find one of the kids for physical therapy. It was so funny though because he didn’t look at me or say hi – he NEVER does that. The girls were like – he must be mad at you! I just laughed…I have no idea why he would be. Then we think we figured out the reason for his sudden lack of interest. Apparently he had been flirting with one of the other workers earlier that day. She was in a different room earlier, but when he came in the second time we were both in the same room. He didn’t say anything to either of us…so busted haha…not that I care – but we were all cracking up. Players, players….what are we gonna do with them?
On our way walking to the hospital we were honked at several times. It gets old after a while, but today the situation was especially funny. After these guys honked at us MacKenzie turned to us and made the comment that Romanian guys think they are so cool and they drive these teeny little cars that go “beep beep.” It’s so true though. They act like they are hot stuff and they are in cars the size of my first play toy car when I was one. We were rolling after that one for a while. It’s great when things are randomly funny…that’s probably one that you had to be there to think it was funny – but we thought it was hilarious.
The hospital was a lot of fun today. MacKenzie and I brought the laptop so Alex could watch a movie. Alex and his friend Andrei chose Spiderman 3 to watch. His little friend Andrei was so cute. He kept making sure MacKenzie and I was comfortable. Then MacKenzie sat on the ground and he went and got her a pillow to sit on. Not all the boys in Romania are disrespectful to women. It was refreshing to see him act so nice towards us…the parents must of taught him well.
While we were watching the movie in Alex’s room Florine came in to say hi to us. Mindy taught him to to say “I love you baby” in English and then he added a wink to finalize the combination. We were cracking up. He is such a little ladies man. He leaves on Thursday. I’m happy for him – but sad at the same time. All these kids come and go. We love them and then they leave us…so sad. After Florine left I could tell Alex was a little bothered by his visit. The kids get really jealous if our attention goes anywhere else but to them. Unfortunately, we have to be shared! We are quite desirable here.
MacKenzie and I also went to the intensive care area – they had several babies in there. A ton of them were soaked through. Poor things. There was one little baby who could barely breathe. The inside of her entire mouth was snot. I haven’t seen anything like it before. It was disgusting –the poor thing was screaming. MacKenzie said everytime she goes in there she is screaming…I just caressed her head and smiled at her. She quickly calmed down, but then the second we left she cried again.
When Annie and I arrived home our apartment was in ruins. We got a new door on our apartment today. Apparently it is supposed to be a lot more sturdy than the last one. Our apartment is always breaking. Then while the maintenance guy was working on putting our door in the fuse blew out and now only one room in our entire apartment has electricity. Then when Mary asked if he could fix it he didn’t tell us when…great.
This evening all us girls got together and made cookies for the workers in our rooms at the orphanage. We figured some treats will soften anyone’s heart. We’ll do anything to get them to like us…They tasted amazing thanks to Annie and Melissa. Hopefully they will do some good for us tomorrow. On the way home we were trying to make it as fast as we could to the cross walk in front of our apartment. If you miss the cross walk it is about a 2 minutes wait. (The cross walks here take forever) Anyways, we all decided to make a run for the cross walk and Mary yelled “Come on guys we can make it!” Then the next thing I know I see MacKenzie almost fall flat on her bumb but she steadied herself so she didn’t completely biff it. Then Mary followed MacKenzie’s path and she definitely biffed it right on her toosh. We were laughing hysterically. Annie and I had taken the steps and MacKenzie and Mary decided to try and run down the handicap ramp that was like a mini slide. Needless to say none of us will be walking down that again. The best part of the domino fall was when some Romanian guy yelled out the window in English as he passed by if we were okay. I don’t know how people know we are American right off the back. We must look the part….
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
May 26, 2008 (Monday)
I love great days…they make all the bad ones seem insignificant. My day started off quite humorous. My roommate Mary thought she new a shortcut to the orphanage. In actuality it took us the direct opposite way from the orphanage. I was the first one to speak up and say that I didn’t think we were going the right way. However, it took everyone a while to listen to me because my sense of direction isn’t always right on. For once in my life it was! I was so excited…we turned around and went the other way. We were cracking up.
When we got to the orphanage I helped Whitney finish her Brigance test on her kids. Then we played with the children. I had fun trying to teach Valentina to jump. I would hold her hands and jump and she would laugh and laugh. She doesn’t quite understand the concept of jumping. She keeps her legs stiff when I try and pull her hands up to show her the motion of jumping, but she’ll get it by the end of the semester. Then she pulled my hair again today…not a surprise. She does it about every day. Most of the kids love to pull hair because it gets an automatic reaction and lucky me I have the longest hair out of the group. Haha…
Andrei was a delight today. He was much mellower than Friday. He makes me feel so good. Every time I walk into the room he runs directly to me. It doesn’t matter who I’m with or who is around I’m the first person he comes to. It’s funny how his adorable little smile makes my year! When I was helping Whitney Scott do a Brigance Test on one of her kids in a little room Andrei waited outside the door for me. There was a little window in the door and he kept waving at me through the door. Then when Andrei and I were playing my headband came off and he picked it up and put it on his head and did his little smile sequence. I was laughing so hard. Andrei is adorable, but with adorableness comes stinkerness. Today he tried to get my attention and he yanked my ponytail hard. The worker helped me put him in time out. It’s funny that even though he hurt me I felt bad for punishing him. I still wanted to pick him up and cuddle him when he was upset in time out - even though he had hurt me. Maybe that’s the way parents feel when they have to punish their children for something they do wrong.
All the kids in the orphanage had runny noses today. I guess if one gets sick they all get sick. It was so weird because Friday they all seemed healthy – then when I walked in today there were snot and boogers all over the place. Disgusting – sadly I’m getting used to it…but I’m still not a big fan of it.
After the orphanage we went and bought food! It was so great…I got all the staples and fruit. At the piata this particular food stand tried to rip me off when I went to buy a watermelon. I caught them. I was proud of myself. They took a watermelon weighed it and said it was 33 lei. I almost had a heart attack. I thought they had said 3 lei. I was way off. Then they tried to shove it into my hands, and I said that I didn’t want it because it was too expensive. Then they got another watermelon and gave me a smaller portion at a reasonable price. I’m starting to be able to figure out when I’m getting gypped.
When we walked out of the piata there was the cutest little boy playing his recorder with a puppy in his lap. Some of these street beggar children know how to work it. There was no way I would be able to walk by without putting something in… they are too stinking cute.
The hospital was great. The Lord has blessed us so much by softening the hearts and minds of the people involved with the mace incident. I saw Alex and his friend Andrei. Alex was so excited to see us. They were waiting for us at the top of the stairs when we arrived. The two boys tried teaching Annie and I a card game in Romanian. It was hard to figure out the rules of the game with the language barrier so we attempted to figure out the rules by patterns, but we didn’t succeed real well…The two boys were laughing the entire time at us. Oh well…I’m getting real used to being laughed at around here.
Poor Alex. After we left the hospital I found out that the other girls had brought McDonalds to some kids on the same floor as Alex’s and he thought they were bringing food for him. The girls said his eyes got all big and excited and then when he realized it wasn’t for him they said he was so disappointed. Poor thing. We are going to bring him McDonalds sometime later this week. McDonalds is a big deal around here…Then to make things worse I didn’t bring my laptop to watch movies because MacKenzie and I had planned to do that with him the week before, but we couldn’t because of the incident. Then today wasn’t her day to go to the hospital so we decided to bring it tomorrow. Poor kid – no McDonalds and no laptop. He didn’t complain at all though. We’ll make it up to him somehow.
Today Alex told me that the lady who visited him was his grandma – which would explain why she looked so old and wrinkly. However, I keep getting different stories from everyone. Alex’s little friend Andrei said that Alex doesn’t have a mom or dad but that his grandma and grandpa take care of him. His grandma lives far away so she never gets to visit him because she doesn’t have the money. Then he also said that Alex doesn’t have any brothers and sisters. I wonder if I will ever get to the bottom of the story.
The nurses were watching us very, very closely because of the mace incident today. I felt like a criminal. They kept peeping their head in to check on us. It got kind of annoying, but I can understand to a certain extent why they were acting the way they were. Then we got kicked out of the hospital early. I hope it’s not going to be like this from now on. Maybe everyone will relax over the next couple of weeks.
For dinner we had homemade Macaroni and Cheese. Poor Annie was not happy because the cheese cooked weird. The sauce was a bit different – but still very good…I can tell Annie likes everything to be perfect while cooking. She kept apologizing that the sauce wasn’t the way it normally is when she cooks it at home. We kept telling her it was fine, but I could tell she was still worried about it.
Another Monday night means another FHE. When we got there we were divided up into teams, were given a Book of Mormon story, and then we each had to act it out. Our group was given the story of Ammon when he protected the king’s flock. I quickly volunteered to be the sheep. I must say that my “baaing” was excellent. We were laughing pretty hard – good times. Then we played the game when you have two people draw on the board an image and your team members have to guess. There were some interesting drawings. The funniest one was when Ionut (he’s about 28-years-old and he has some sort of disability) drew a squirrel that looked like a cow with udders. Apparently he is always yelling dirty comments in church, but we don’t understand any of them so they are funny to us. Mindy and I were dying when we saw the drawing. Mindy made the comment that the first thing he drew was the head and the second thing was the nipples. That boys mind is something else.
On the way home we had another speed walking contest. It’s amazing how fast that puts everyone into hysterics. I’m excited because we got it on video tape too…some of the girls were cheaters…but I won’t go into that. Haha.
After FHE we went to the mall and got a couple of movies for Alex to watch in Romanian. We got Cars and Spiderman 3. I’m pretty sure he will be really excited about our choice of movie. Hopefully we will make up for his disappointments from today. It breaks my heart that his feelings were hurt.
P.S. One of the counselors nailed me for a talk in a couple of weeks…nice…
May 25, 2008 (Sunday)
I taught my first Sunday school lesson in Romania. I was a little nervous about how it would go over because of language barriers. Luckily it didn’t end up being a problem. Elder Armstrong translated everything everyone said so we could all understand one another. I think it went over really well. I received several compliments when I was finished. Elder Armstrong said that they hadn’t had a lesson like that in a long time and that it was badly needed. I’m just glad the Lord helped me. Without him my lesson would have been nothing. While preparing for the lesson I did a lot of praying that the spirit would be with me, that the lesson would catch everyone’s interest, and that the words that were exchanged would help hit home with the needs of those in attendance. I got a lot of discussion and participation which I was happy about. Plus I love teaching! It’s one of my favorite things to do. Then when you add the spirit and the Lord’s help it makes everything grand! The lesson was on the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone of our religion. It reminded me that I need to take reading the scriptures more seriously. So many times I’ll be reading my scriptures and get done and be like “what did I just read?” I have a hard time concentrating sometimes because I have so many things going through my mind at once. I’m constantly making to do lists in my head. I need to figure out how to shut everything out when I’m reading the scriptures. Otherwise I won’t succeed in getting the most out of them that I can.
In the afternoon a huge storm came which provided a nice environment for a nap. The clouds looked really strange though – we thought maybe a tornado was coming, but it quickly passed. The wind was blowing so hard that big objects were easily getting batted around.
Dinner was an amazing American meal. We had good old hamburgers! I guess they finally found meat that looked like beef…some of the meats here are a little sketchy. Today was the last day of living on a Romanian budget. Thank goodness. I’m out of food! I did not enjoy eating situations this week. It was hard living on a Romanian budget. I had the same meals everyday which primarily consisted of bread, cheese and fruit. I got real tired of it real fast. Plus there was little room in our budget for treats. So sad…we had to watch the other apartment eat a chocolate gogosi. Talk about misery.
After dinner I almost finished my hand sewn skirt! I only have to sew a couple of clasps on so it will stay up. I don’t want to give anyone a surprise at church. I’m so proud of myself. The skirt looks cute and it fits perfectly. I just need to find something to go underneath because it is extremely see through.
To end the night Annie and I watched Ever After. It’s such a good movie – totally unrealistic, but so good. I wish love were like that haha…in my dreams…My favorite line is when she says, “It’s not fair sire – you’ve found my weakness and I have yet to find yours.” Then the prince replies, “I would think it’s quite obvious.” SO adorable!
Monday, May 26, 2008
May 24, 2008 (Saturday)
Sleeping in this morning was divine…I didn’t set an alarm clock or anything. I was so tired from the week. It was great. The day started off slow…some of the girls came over from the other apartment and we all worked on sewing our skirts. I’m still working on mine. It is a process that is taking quite a long time… the end results will be very interesting to say the least.
This afternoon we had a little bit of excitement. My dear roommate MacKenzie decided to dye her hair brown. Her natural hair color is like mine – dark, dirty blonde…and she gets it highlighted like mine. She was scared, but she decided to take the plunge and just do it…She kept saying “I’m just not gonna think about it or else I won’t do it.” I don’t have the guts to do that to mine. Plus my best friend Kendall would kill me. She said it would be unnatural for me to go brunette haha…I don’t think I’ll do it, but once my roots start growing out I’m going to have to do something. I don’t trust hair dressers in America – let alone here. I’ll figure something out.
In the middle of dying MacKenzie’s hair they realized she needed more hair dye so Whitney S. and I ran to the store to get some more – the box of dye she had originally bought was the last one. Of course. We were cracking up even though it wasn’t really funny…so we got a color that was close to it…We didn’t know what else to do. Here hair turned out nice – except for certain splotches of blonde in random places. She had to redo it again later on that night. After she was done she was freaking out. It was a little darker than she wanted it – almost black, but not quite. She kept saying “what did I do!” At least we don’t have to worry about what we look like here. It’s a good time to experiment. I don’t think I can do it though.
On the way back from buying the hair dye there was a guy who looked like a street bumb who was lying on the cement in a sleeping position outside the store. There was a group of people gathered around him. He wasn’t moving. I don’t know if he was dead…Whitney and I kept walking – creepy.
The rest of the evening was pretty boring. We simply did school work and hung out together. We have so much to do and no time to do any of it! There is a lot of course work and church responsibilities besides volunteering at the orphanage and hospital. I thought I’d have more free time since I’m in Romania. Nope!
Sleeping in this morning was divine…I didn’t set an alarm clock or anything. I was so tired from the week. It was great. The day started off slow…some of the girls came over from the other apartment and we all worked on sewing our skirts. I’m still working on mine. It is a process that is taking quite a long time… the end results will be very interesting to say the least.
This afternoon we had a little bit of excitement. My dear roommate MacKenzie decided to dye her hair brown. Her natural hair color is like mine – dark, dirty blonde…and she gets it highlighted like mine. She was scared, but she decided to take the plunge and just do it…She kept saying “I’m just not gonna think about it or else I won’t do it.” I don’t have the guts to do that to mine. Plus my best friend Kendall would kill me. She said it would be unnatural for me to go brunette haha…I don’t think I’ll do it, but once my roots start growing out I’m going to have to do something. I don’t trust hair dressers in America – let alone here. I’ll figure something out.
In the middle of dying MacKenzie’s hair they realized she needed more hair dye so Whitney S. and I ran to the store to get some more – the box of dye she had originally bought was the last one. Of course. We were cracking up even though it wasn’t really funny…so we got a color that was close to it…We didn’t know what else to do. Here hair turned out nice – except for certain splotches of blonde in random places. She had to redo it again later on that night. After she was done she was freaking out. It was a little darker than she wanted it – almost black, but not quite. She kept saying “what did I do!” At least we don’t have to worry about what we look like here. It’s a good time to experiment. I don’t think I can do it though.
On the way back from buying the hair dye there was a guy who looked like a street bumb who was lying on the cement in a sleeping position outside the store. There was a group of people gathered around him. He wasn’t moving. I don’t know if he was dead…Whitney and I kept walking – creepy.
The rest of the evening was pretty boring. We simply did school work and hung out together. We have so much to do and no time to do any of it! There is a lot of course work and church responsibilities besides volunteering at the orphanage and hospital. I thought I’d have more free time since I’m in Romania. Nope!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
May 23, 2008 (Friday)
Today was a much better day than yesterday… It started off with us getting poured on while walking to the orphanage. We were absolutely soaked. One of the workers was really sweet to us though – she went and got us a blow dryer and told us to dry our hair. She didn’t want us getting sick. The rest of the morning was pretty hectic. I had to finish my last Brigance Test on Andrei. Whitney Scott and I tried to do the test – he was jumping off the wall. He wouldn’t cooperate with ANYTHING we were doing…I’ve never seen him with as much energy as he had today. WOW. I was so worn out after half an hour of trying to get him to cooperate it was ridiculous. Whitney Scott and I were talking about how frustrating it is that the caretakers discipline tactics are so harsh, because when we try and discipline the kids they don’t respond because we are so much softer. In order to get them to listen it’s almost like we are forced to yell at them, and we don’t want to do that. In the middle of doing the Brigance Test Sera found me…I was trying to control Andrei so I brushed him off. He was trying to put his arm around me…boys…He tries to “woo” a BYU girl every semester. Ha. The girls said he came and talked about me to them. They said they asked how it was going with me and he said that I was “shy” and “scared” of him…haha…They keep teasing me that they are going to tell him I like certain things that are actually my biggest pet peeves. For example, I hate feminine men. They said they are going to tell him I love it when guys act really sensitive and cross their legs. Sick.
After the orphanage we all anticipated talking to Mario. She was going to let us know the results of her meeting with the hospital in the afternoon. To lighten the mood before she came us girls decided to make a list of who we think is going to get married in what order. Out of 9 girls it was predicted that I will be will be the third to get married out of the group. We all spent an hour debating and guessing who we thought would go first and why. We are such girls…but it was kind of fun. I don’t know if marriage is coming soon for me or not, but I do know when it’s time it will happen. I’m not too worried about it though…the Lord will take care of me like he always does.
When Mario got over to the apartment she took a while to tell us the conclusion of the meeting. I think she was trying to build the suspense to remind us of the consequences that could have taken place. Luckily the hospital is going to let us come back, but they were very, very upset. Mario said that she was yelled at for about 15 minutes straight by one of the doctors. Apparently they are going to try and keep it quiet so the doctor in charge of the entire hospital doesn’t hear. She said if he were to find out we would be kicked out forever for sure. She said it would probably be wise to drop off some chocolates at the nurses’ station when we start going again on Monday. We are going to be walking on egg shells for a while…we are already watched so much – we are going to have to be really careful. I’m afraid they are going to look for reasons to get us kicked out. However, I’m SO grateful that we are able to stay…I love going there and visiting the children. I would be so sad if we didn’t get to go back.
After the good news it was time for Annie and I to cook dinner. Of course everything we needed for dinner we couldn’t seem to find at the store. We wanted to make hamburgers, but they were out of hamburger meat. The grocery stores here have random stocks of certain types of food. One day they will have a certain type of meat and the next day there won’t. You just never know. It’s extremely frustrating. After walking around for about an hour and a half we finally figured out something for dinner…
When MacKenzie and Annie got back from the apartments we all took a taxi to a nearby mall. We had a lot of fun. We needed to get out of the apartment after a stressful week. We went into a bunch of different shops and looked at all the different clothes. Everyone here is so fashionable – it’s crazy! The malls are a little different though. They don’t have department stores…we still had a good time though. Oh and I was so excited because I got a camera. I’ve needed one so bad! My mom and Rob said they would pay for half of it because I couldn’t afford it….very nice of them. Then we came home and watched a movie, laughed and ate a bunch of cookies! That’s what I call a Friday night…
Today was a much better day than yesterday… It started off with us getting poured on while walking to the orphanage. We were absolutely soaked. One of the workers was really sweet to us though – she went and got us a blow dryer and told us to dry our hair. She didn’t want us getting sick. The rest of the morning was pretty hectic. I had to finish my last Brigance Test on Andrei. Whitney Scott and I tried to do the test – he was jumping off the wall. He wouldn’t cooperate with ANYTHING we were doing…I’ve never seen him with as much energy as he had today. WOW. I was so worn out after half an hour of trying to get him to cooperate it was ridiculous. Whitney Scott and I were talking about how frustrating it is that the caretakers discipline tactics are so harsh, because when we try and discipline the kids they don’t respond because we are so much softer. In order to get them to listen it’s almost like we are forced to yell at them, and we don’t want to do that. In the middle of doing the Brigance Test Sera found me…I was trying to control Andrei so I brushed him off. He was trying to put his arm around me…boys…He tries to “woo” a BYU girl every semester. Ha. The girls said he came and talked about me to them. They said they asked how it was going with me and he said that I was “shy” and “scared” of him…haha…They keep teasing me that they are going to tell him I like certain things that are actually my biggest pet peeves. For example, I hate feminine men. They said they are going to tell him I love it when guys act really sensitive and cross their legs. Sick.
After the orphanage we all anticipated talking to Mario. She was going to let us know the results of her meeting with the hospital in the afternoon. To lighten the mood before she came us girls decided to make a list of who we think is going to get married in what order. Out of 9 girls it was predicted that I will be will be the third to get married out of the group. We all spent an hour debating and guessing who we thought would go first and why. We are such girls…but it was kind of fun. I don’t know if marriage is coming soon for me or not, but I do know when it’s time it will happen. I’m not too worried about it though…the Lord will take care of me like he always does.
When Mario got over to the apartment she took a while to tell us the conclusion of the meeting. I think she was trying to build the suspense to remind us of the consequences that could have taken place. Luckily the hospital is going to let us come back, but they were very, very upset. Mario said that she was yelled at for about 15 minutes straight by one of the doctors. Apparently they are going to try and keep it quiet so the doctor in charge of the entire hospital doesn’t hear. She said if he were to find out we would be kicked out forever for sure. She said it would probably be wise to drop off some chocolates at the nurses’ station when we start going again on Monday. We are going to be walking on egg shells for a while…we are already watched so much – we are going to have to be really careful. I’m afraid they are going to look for reasons to get us kicked out. However, I’m SO grateful that we are able to stay…I love going there and visiting the children. I would be so sad if we didn’t get to go back.
After the good news it was time for Annie and I to cook dinner. Of course everything we needed for dinner we couldn’t seem to find at the store. We wanted to make hamburgers, but they were out of hamburger meat. The grocery stores here have random stocks of certain types of food. One day they will have a certain type of meat and the next day there won’t. You just never know. It’s extremely frustrating. After walking around for about an hour and a half we finally figured out something for dinner…
When MacKenzie and Annie got back from the apartments we all took a taxi to a nearby mall. We had a lot of fun. We needed to get out of the apartment after a stressful week. We went into a bunch of different shops and looked at all the different clothes. Everyone here is so fashionable – it’s crazy! The malls are a little different though. They don’t have department stores…we still had a good time though. Oh and I was so excited because I got a camera. I’ve needed one so bad! My mom and Rob said they would pay for half of it because I couldn’t afford it….very nice of them. Then we came home and watched a movie, laughed and ate a bunch of cookies! That’s what I call a Friday night…
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Day from HECK!
May 22, 2008 (Thursday)
It was a bleak, strange and weird day for everyone. It started off with Mary falling in the shower – she pulled the shower curtain and rod down with her…so we will be showering with no shower curtain for the next couple of months. What’s funny is that it didn’t even phase me. Everything around here breaks so easily I think I just expect it now…Then I broke another dish – this time it was a ceramic bowl. I’ve never thought of myself as clumsy until I came to Romania. Then we all walked out the door to head for the orphanage, and I realized I didn’t have my scrubs with me. So I had to run back upstairs and quickly grab them. Then the elevator wasn’t working right and once we finally got onto it Mary made the comment “hopefully this isn’t a omen of the rest of the day”….yes, yes it was – it only got worse…way worse…
We all got to the orphanage and for some reason ALL of the workers were grumpy. It’s not fun to be in an environment where you feel you are disliked. We walked in and started playing with some of the kids and one of the workers Christina seemed extremely annoyed with our presence. Whitney Scott, Elisa and I were thinking “what is their problem today?” I even asked one of the workers if she needed our help with anything. She just looked at me, shrugged her shoulder and didn’t respond. Whitney Scott and I just looked at each other and were like “okay”...
When we went to the next room the workers weren’t any happier. Andrei instantly ran to me, but the workers get mad at me if I hold him long at all…it’s so frustrating. I’ll hold him for like 30 seconds, and they’ll tell me to put him down. Then he just cries and reaches up for me. Grrrr….so frustrating. Then they stuck him down for a nap so I barely got to play with him. I did get to play with Maria though. Maria is a lot more aware than people give her credit for. She will constantly try and grab my hand every time I walk by her now. I think she recognizes my presence. She’s a little sweetheart.
The girls continued to tease me about Sera’s new interest in me. Luckily he wasn’t there today so they didn’t have anything new to tease me about…Elyse kept asking me when the wedding was. We are all so immature together. It’s great. I get teased a lot, but what goes around comes around…I’m gonna laugh when his new interest is one of them.
More bad news continued to come throughout the day. While we were playing with the kids in the orphanage I started talking to Elisa about how I was excited to go to the hospital later that day. MacKenzie and I have been planning all week to bring our laptop and watch a movie per request from Alex. Then we were going to have a dance party. Alex has been so excited about it all week…that’s when I got the worst news ever. Elisa goes “that would be fun except we can’t go to the hospital today.” I looked at her very confused, and she was like “did I forget to tell you?” I was like “yes.” I had no idea what was going on. Then she told me what had happened. Apparently when Mindy went to the hospital yesterday she had mace in the pocket that holds her water bottle - her family wanted her to carry it around to be safe. While she was attending to Marius and Florine a little gypsy boy in a bed next to theirs had stolen it out of her backpack. Then apparently when we left the hospital he went into the bathroom and sprayed himself with it and injured himself. Poor Mindy, I know she didn’t mean for it to hurt anyone at all…it could of happened to any of us, but she shouldn’t of had it within easy reach of a child. We all know it was a complete accident, but we may be permanently kicked out of the hospital. Us girls were talking about the incident, and we were just grateful he didn’t spray it in the hospital room. Mace could kill babies or small children if they inhaled it. They would definitely never let us come back then. I kept thinking about how this situation is a public relations nightmare – since PR is my major. This event reminded me of something that would happen in a PR case study I have studied in my classes. I wish I knew the details of what was going on and what was being said between both parties so I could help solve it somehow…if Mario (our Romanian liason) doesn’t figure out a way to help mend our reputation we aren’t going to be allowed back. We need a strong spokesperson.
In conclusion the hospital didn’t want us coming back today. Mario has a meeting to speak with them sometime today. She was not happy about the situation at all. We have no idea what the outcome will be. I’m going to pray that whatever is supposed to happen will happen…I can understand why they are upset, but at the same time it was a complete accident. I don’t know…but I do know that I will be very, very, very sad if I don’t get to go anymore. That’s half the reason we are here.
If things weren’t bad enough another weird situation happened. As four of us were leaving the orphanage we crossed a petite street located directly in front of the orphanage. About five seconds after we finished crossing we heard a high pitched screech. It stung my ears. I quickly turned around and all I saw was a car desperately trying to stop. The driver’s arms were tense and he looked panicked. Then I heard a huge crash. My heart started racing and my blood pumping. There was a building blocking my view so I couldn’t see what had happened. The four of us rushed over to the scene. I was afraid a pedestrian had been hit or someone was badly injured. I was silently praying that when I turned the corner that I wouldn’t see a person plastered all over the road. For some reason drivers in Romania are CRAZY. They don’t stop until the last minute and they rarely follow any laws. The other day some guy got mad at another driver and he threw a bunch of water into the other guys car while he was in his. Road rage is ridiculous here. Drivers are vicious.
We got to the scene and the driver had hit two cars on either side of him. One car he hit had been parked with no one in it and the other car was a van with a very angry driver. Both drivers had gotten out of their cars. Thank goodness they were unharmed, but they were both angry. A bunch of people started gathering around including several construction workers who had been close by working when they heard the commotion. After we saw that everyone was okay we quickly left, and I’m glad we did. People can get violent here. Elisa told us a story about when she was a passenger in a taxi and the driver hit a little kid. The child ended up being okay, but the parent pulled the taxi driver out of the taxi and beat the crap out of him…Elisa didn’t know if the driver was alive when she left.
When we got home from the orphanage us girls decided that it would probably be best to hang out at the apartment. Too many crazy things have been happening today. So I ran with MacKenzie to pick up some groceries. Then we went home and caught up on some school assignments. I feel bad about not seeing Alex today. I hate breaking promises, but there was nothing I could do about the situation.
It was a bleak, strange and weird day for everyone. It started off with Mary falling in the shower – she pulled the shower curtain and rod down with her…so we will be showering with no shower curtain for the next couple of months. What’s funny is that it didn’t even phase me. Everything around here breaks so easily I think I just expect it now…Then I broke another dish – this time it was a ceramic bowl. I’ve never thought of myself as clumsy until I came to Romania. Then we all walked out the door to head for the orphanage, and I realized I didn’t have my scrubs with me. So I had to run back upstairs and quickly grab them. Then the elevator wasn’t working right and once we finally got onto it Mary made the comment “hopefully this isn’t a omen of the rest of the day”….yes, yes it was – it only got worse…way worse…
We all got to the orphanage and for some reason ALL of the workers were grumpy. It’s not fun to be in an environment where you feel you are disliked. We walked in and started playing with some of the kids and one of the workers Christina seemed extremely annoyed with our presence. Whitney Scott, Elisa and I were thinking “what is their problem today?” I even asked one of the workers if she needed our help with anything. She just looked at me, shrugged her shoulder and didn’t respond. Whitney Scott and I just looked at each other and were like “okay”...
When we went to the next room the workers weren’t any happier. Andrei instantly ran to me, but the workers get mad at me if I hold him long at all…it’s so frustrating. I’ll hold him for like 30 seconds, and they’ll tell me to put him down. Then he just cries and reaches up for me. Grrrr….so frustrating. Then they stuck him down for a nap so I barely got to play with him. I did get to play with Maria though. Maria is a lot more aware than people give her credit for. She will constantly try and grab my hand every time I walk by her now. I think she recognizes my presence. She’s a little sweetheart.
The girls continued to tease me about Sera’s new interest in me. Luckily he wasn’t there today so they didn’t have anything new to tease me about…Elyse kept asking me when the wedding was. We are all so immature together. It’s great. I get teased a lot, but what goes around comes around…I’m gonna laugh when his new interest is one of them.
More bad news continued to come throughout the day. While we were playing with the kids in the orphanage I started talking to Elisa about how I was excited to go to the hospital later that day. MacKenzie and I have been planning all week to bring our laptop and watch a movie per request from Alex. Then we were going to have a dance party. Alex has been so excited about it all week…that’s when I got the worst news ever. Elisa goes “that would be fun except we can’t go to the hospital today.” I looked at her very confused, and she was like “did I forget to tell you?” I was like “yes.” I had no idea what was going on. Then she told me what had happened. Apparently when Mindy went to the hospital yesterday she had mace in the pocket that holds her water bottle - her family wanted her to carry it around to be safe. While she was attending to Marius and Florine a little gypsy boy in a bed next to theirs had stolen it out of her backpack. Then apparently when we left the hospital he went into the bathroom and sprayed himself with it and injured himself. Poor Mindy, I know she didn’t mean for it to hurt anyone at all…it could of happened to any of us, but she shouldn’t of had it within easy reach of a child. We all know it was a complete accident, but we may be permanently kicked out of the hospital. Us girls were talking about the incident, and we were just grateful he didn’t spray it in the hospital room. Mace could kill babies or small children if they inhaled it. They would definitely never let us come back then. I kept thinking about how this situation is a public relations nightmare – since PR is my major. This event reminded me of something that would happen in a PR case study I have studied in my classes. I wish I knew the details of what was going on and what was being said between both parties so I could help solve it somehow…if Mario (our Romanian liason) doesn’t figure out a way to help mend our reputation we aren’t going to be allowed back. We need a strong spokesperson.
In conclusion the hospital didn’t want us coming back today. Mario has a meeting to speak with them sometime today. She was not happy about the situation at all. We have no idea what the outcome will be. I’m going to pray that whatever is supposed to happen will happen…I can understand why they are upset, but at the same time it was a complete accident. I don’t know…but I do know that I will be very, very, very sad if I don’t get to go anymore. That’s half the reason we are here.
If things weren’t bad enough another weird situation happened. As four of us were leaving the orphanage we crossed a petite street located directly in front of the orphanage. About five seconds after we finished crossing we heard a high pitched screech. It stung my ears. I quickly turned around and all I saw was a car desperately trying to stop. The driver’s arms were tense and he looked panicked. Then I heard a huge crash. My heart started racing and my blood pumping. There was a building blocking my view so I couldn’t see what had happened. The four of us rushed over to the scene. I was afraid a pedestrian had been hit or someone was badly injured. I was silently praying that when I turned the corner that I wouldn’t see a person plastered all over the road. For some reason drivers in Romania are CRAZY. They don’t stop until the last minute and they rarely follow any laws. The other day some guy got mad at another driver and he threw a bunch of water into the other guys car while he was in his. Road rage is ridiculous here. Drivers are vicious.
We got to the scene and the driver had hit two cars on either side of him. One car he hit had been parked with no one in it and the other car was a van with a very angry driver. Both drivers had gotten out of their cars. Thank goodness they were unharmed, but they were both angry. A bunch of people started gathering around including several construction workers who had been close by working when they heard the commotion. After we saw that everyone was okay we quickly left, and I’m glad we did. People can get violent here. Elisa told us a story about when she was a passenger in a taxi and the driver hit a little kid. The child ended up being okay, but the parent pulled the taxi driver out of the taxi and beat the crap out of him…Elisa didn’t know if the driver was alive when she left.
When we got home from the orphanage us girls decided that it would probably be best to hang out at the apartment. Too many crazy things have been happening today. So I ran with MacKenzie to pick up some groceries. Then we went home and caught up on some school assignments. I feel bad about not seeing Alex today. I hate breaking promises, but there was nothing I could do about the situation.
May 21, 2008 (Wednesday)
It’s starting to get hot in the land of Romania…which is not fun especially when there is no air conditioning. I can’t wait until it’s really summer with a hundred degree weather and no air conditioning. Ha ha… My day started off with the regular routine at the orphanage. I played with Constantine for a while and Whitney and I started doing the Brigance Test on the kids we work with. The Brigance Test is a developmental test which helps judge where the kids are mentally and physically. I tested Constantine first. His body is completely mangled and he just lies there, but he smiles when you talk to him and it’s adorable. Apparently his mother was raped by her father and he was the result…
Then I went outside and played with some of my other kids. One of the other workers was watching Andrei on the playground which bought me some time with the other kids. However he did run over and give me a hug and sit on my lap to say hi…he’s so cute! I really mean it when I say that my goal this semester is to get him adopted. I’m going to see what I can do. Hopefully there is something…I will keep little Andrei in my thoughts and in my prayers.
While I was on the playground Sera (the physical therapist) found me outside and came and talked to me again today. I thought he would quickly move on to another girl. Apparently not, the girls have decided that he’s stuck on me. Whitney Scott was sitting outside when he came out, introduced one of his friends to me and started his flirting routine. She told me later that she moved closer to us so she could purposely hear some of the cheesy things he had to say to me. Haha. Each time he comes to say hi he brings another friend to meet me. Boys are so funny. He jokingly told his friend that I was his girlfriend and he kept asking him if we looked good together. I repeatedly said that I wasn’t his girlfriend, but he didn’t seem to get it. I didn’t really know how to respond except to laugh awkwardly. Like I said he’s harmless, but he is a little charmer.When we left the orphanage he gave me a prolonged hug in front of all the girls…it was the most awkward hug ever. He does this weird hug where he pulls your head into his chest. He’s done it to the other girls too...he wants to talk tomorrow. Little does he know that I’m going to try and get him to go to church…
After the orphanage it was hospital time. We only got to see Alex for a few minutes today. We played the game “Slap Jack.” Alex is such a little cheater he kept looking at his card before he put them down…then I would call him out on his cheater ways and he would just laugh. His mom was there today, and I met her. She wasn’t at all what I expected – she was extremely old and wrinkly. I’m so confused about the story behind his life…I was told that his mom left him…maybe not? All I know is that he definitely isn’t visited often by family… and he said his dad has never visited him. No matters – I still love visiting him and he gets so excited when I come.
We went and held our babies today. The poor things are always drenched in sweat when we go to pick them up. Then Annie had promised some little boy that she would come visit him, and we went to go see him and the nurse yelled at us from the other end of the hall and told us there were “no children without moms on that floor.” We knew she was lying, but she kept shhing us out the door. So we left so she didn’t continue to make a scene. So rude – we were both like “what’s her problem?” People around here get cranky for no reason a lot. Annie was way sad she didn’t get to see him – she kept saying that he probably thought she had forgotten about him. She kept saying that she broke her promise…but there was nothing else we could do. I told her to just explain the situation to him…but wait we can’t because we don’t speak Romanian very well.
Tonight was my night to cook dinner and boy was that the task. I decided to make quesadillas. You would think that would be a simple meal to make, and it would if they had tortillas that you could buy in the store. But they don’t. So I made tortillas from scratch…my family and friends who know me would be amazed to hear that! It was quite interesting…it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, but they ended up turning out okay. I started off mixing the ingredients for the tortillas; and I was about to put the last ingredient needed which was baking powder; and I noticed the package said “baking soda” instead. I asked Annie our little cook if you could put baking soda in place of the baking powder. She said that probably wasn’t a good idea. Earlier some of the girls had gone shopping with me to get the ingredients and they grabbed the wrong thing for me. I should have checked. So right in mid making dinner mode Annie and I had to run to the grocery store. Then we couldn’t find baking powder there so we had to run to the girls’ apartment and borrow some. Talk about a pain. Then I got back and started rolling the dough into balls so I could flatten it with a rolling pin, and somehow I knocked over the ceramic plate that was holding the dough. The plate shattered everywhere, and so I spent the next couple of minutes throwing away dough that we couldn’t use…I finally got to the last step which was frying them in the pan. If I haven’t already complained about this – our pans are terrible - certain ones burn everything you cook. I got one of those pans so it burned some of the edges of some of the tortillas. Then I had to pick burnt edges off… but at least I’m trying. In the end they tasted good…it was rough though. Thank goodness for my roommate Annie’s help…I keep telling my roommates I’m excited that I’m learning how to cook things…by the time I get back home I will be much better!
After dinner we spent some time on the internet at the other girls’ apartment. Poor Elyse had been running to the bathroom and throwing up all day today and yesterday. Apparently she got sick from Sister Geneviva’s food. Then some of the girls went to drop off a thank you note and flowers to Sister Geneviva for making us dinner the other night (P.S. she had no idea her dinner had made some of us sick) and she ended up insisting that they eat more. She made them eat some mixture of goat cheese and old sour cream. The girls said it was way worse than what we had the other night. That’s hard to believe. Elyse was one of the ones that went to drop off the note, and she had to eat more food from the hands of the lady that had made her sick for the past couple of days. I felt bad for her. However, Elyse did play a joke on me the other day. I’ll have to tease her and tell her she got sick because of her little prank. I forgot to sign off of the Facebook on her computer, and she changed my status from “single” to “engaged.” I had several comments that said “Congratulations!” and “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! Who is the lucky guy?!” Crazy girls…
The end of the day ended up with a laugh. I went to take a shower and I was about to get in when I noticed there was something stuck to my chest. Apparently I had stuck my key in my bra and forgotten it was in there. It looked like someone had glued it onto my body. I started laughing hysterically…when I got out of the shower the girls were like “why were you laughing?” I told them the story, and they started cracking up. For some reason it was really funny to all of us. Who knows…
Before I got into bed MacKenzie and Mary were freaking out because they think they have fleas…they have a bunch of bites on their legs. They haven’t washed their sheets since they’ve been here which is probably why. Annie and I have washed our sheets once a week since we’ve been there…I’ve been way paranoid about getting bugs. It pays off to be a little bit of a clean freak sometimes….
It’s starting to get hot in the land of Romania…which is not fun especially when there is no air conditioning. I can’t wait until it’s really summer with a hundred degree weather and no air conditioning. Ha ha… My day started off with the regular routine at the orphanage. I played with Constantine for a while and Whitney and I started doing the Brigance Test on the kids we work with. The Brigance Test is a developmental test which helps judge where the kids are mentally and physically. I tested Constantine first. His body is completely mangled and he just lies there, but he smiles when you talk to him and it’s adorable. Apparently his mother was raped by her father and he was the result…
Then I went outside and played with some of my other kids. One of the other workers was watching Andrei on the playground which bought me some time with the other kids. However he did run over and give me a hug and sit on my lap to say hi…he’s so cute! I really mean it when I say that my goal this semester is to get him adopted. I’m going to see what I can do. Hopefully there is something…I will keep little Andrei in my thoughts and in my prayers.
While I was on the playground Sera (the physical therapist) found me outside and came and talked to me again today. I thought he would quickly move on to another girl. Apparently not, the girls have decided that he’s stuck on me. Whitney Scott was sitting outside when he came out, introduced one of his friends to me and started his flirting routine. She told me later that she moved closer to us so she could purposely hear some of the cheesy things he had to say to me. Haha. Each time he comes to say hi he brings another friend to meet me. Boys are so funny. He jokingly told his friend that I was his girlfriend and he kept asking him if we looked good together. I repeatedly said that I wasn’t his girlfriend, but he didn’t seem to get it. I didn’t really know how to respond except to laugh awkwardly. Like I said he’s harmless, but he is a little charmer.When we left the orphanage he gave me a prolonged hug in front of all the girls…it was the most awkward hug ever. He does this weird hug where he pulls your head into his chest. He’s done it to the other girls too...he wants to talk tomorrow. Little does he know that I’m going to try and get him to go to church…
After the orphanage it was hospital time. We only got to see Alex for a few minutes today. We played the game “Slap Jack.” Alex is such a little cheater he kept looking at his card before he put them down…then I would call him out on his cheater ways and he would just laugh. His mom was there today, and I met her. She wasn’t at all what I expected – she was extremely old and wrinkly. I’m so confused about the story behind his life…I was told that his mom left him…maybe not? All I know is that he definitely isn’t visited often by family… and he said his dad has never visited him. No matters – I still love visiting him and he gets so excited when I come.
We went and held our babies today. The poor things are always drenched in sweat when we go to pick them up. Then Annie had promised some little boy that she would come visit him, and we went to go see him and the nurse yelled at us from the other end of the hall and told us there were “no children without moms on that floor.” We knew she was lying, but she kept shhing us out the door. So we left so she didn’t continue to make a scene. So rude – we were both like “what’s her problem?” People around here get cranky for no reason a lot. Annie was way sad she didn’t get to see him – she kept saying that he probably thought she had forgotten about him. She kept saying that she broke her promise…but there was nothing else we could do. I told her to just explain the situation to him…but wait we can’t because we don’t speak Romanian very well.
Tonight was my night to cook dinner and boy was that the task. I decided to make quesadillas. You would think that would be a simple meal to make, and it would if they had tortillas that you could buy in the store. But they don’t. So I made tortillas from scratch…my family and friends who know me would be amazed to hear that! It was quite interesting…it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, but they ended up turning out okay. I started off mixing the ingredients for the tortillas; and I was about to put the last ingredient needed which was baking powder; and I noticed the package said “baking soda” instead. I asked Annie our little cook if you could put baking soda in place of the baking powder. She said that probably wasn’t a good idea. Earlier some of the girls had gone shopping with me to get the ingredients and they grabbed the wrong thing for me. I should have checked. So right in mid making dinner mode Annie and I had to run to the grocery store. Then we couldn’t find baking powder there so we had to run to the girls’ apartment and borrow some. Talk about a pain. Then I got back and started rolling the dough into balls so I could flatten it with a rolling pin, and somehow I knocked over the ceramic plate that was holding the dough. The plate shattered everywhere, and so I spent the next couple of minutes throwing away dough that we couldn’t use…I finally got to the last step which was frying them in the pan. If I haven’t already complained about this – our pans are terrible - certain ones burn everything you cook. I got one of those pans so it burned some of the edges of some of the tortillas. Then I had to pick burnt edges off… but at least I’m trying. In the end they tasted good…it was rough though. Thank goodness for my roommate Annie’s help…I keep telling my roommates I’m excited that I’m learning how to cook things…by the time I get back home I will be much better!
After dinner we spent some time on the internet at the other girls’ apartment. Poor Elyse had been running to the bathroom and throwing up all day today and yesterday. Apparently she got sick from Sister Geneviva’s food. Then some of the girls went to drop off a thank you note and flowers to Sister Geneviva for making us dinner the other night (P.S. she had no idea her dinner had made some of us sick) and she ended up insisting that they eat more. She made them eat some mixture of goat cheese and old sour cream. The girls said it was way worse than what we had the other night. That’s hard to believe. Elyse was one of the ones that went to drop off the note, and she had to eat more food from the hands of the lady that had made her sick for the past couple of days. I felt bad for her. However, Elyse did play a joke on me the other day. I’ll have to tease her and tell her she got sick because of her little prank. I forgot to sign off of the Facebook on her computer, and she changed my status from “single” to “engaged.” I had several comments that said “Congratulations!” and “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me! Who is the lucky guy?!” Crazy girls…
The end of the day ended up with a laugh. I went to take a shower and I was about to get in when I noticed there was something stuck to my chest. Apparently I had stuck my key in my bra and forgotten it was in there. It looked like someone had glued it onto my body. I started laughing hysterically…when I got out of the shower the girls were like “why were you laughing?” I told them the story, and they started cracking up. For some reason it was really funny to all of us. Who knows…
Before I got into bed MacKenzie and Mary were freaking out because they think they have fleas…they have a bunch of bites on their legs. They haven’t washed their sheets since they’ve been here which is probably why. Annie and I have washed our sheets once a week since we’ve been there…I’ve been way paranoid about getting bugs. It pays off to be a little bit of a clean freak sometimes….
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
May 20, 2008 (Tuesday)
This morning we took the kids outside early and were there most of the day. My little Andrei was playing on the playground when I got there. Boy oh boy was he a little pill today. He was definitely on one. While we were on the playground one of the therapists came and put hearing aids in his ear. I couldn’t really tell if they worked though because he didn’t seem to act much different than the way he normally does. He didn’t act like he could hear anything. He kept doing a hundred yard dashes to all the areas that were off limits to children. Then I would have to grab him.
Today the physical therapist Sera picked me as a target to flirt with – Mindy was cracking up. Us girls agreed that they are good looking guys, but they are little players. Plus we aren’t allowed to date, and we don’t want to date Romanian men. Anyways, he was playing with some of the kids on the playground talking to his friend about his age who was sitting next to him, and he was like “Hey Whitney come over here.” I said “yes” and he continued to say that him and his friend were talking and that I was “very, very beautiful.” I told him “thanks and that I was flattered” then tried to leave it at that. He kept talking to me though, and in somewhat broken English he said that instead of flirting he was being direct. I just laughed and said okay. He’s harmless, but he is a charmer – we’ve already been warned that Sera tries to “woo” the BYU girls when we come…so funny. Then he said that my eyes were pretty and quote “when I look into your eyes I am astonished.” Mindy was listening and I saw her cracking up a few feet away from me. She kept repeating that to me today…it was a pretty cheesy line. Then he asked me what I thought, and asked me if I was single. I told him that I had just gotten out of a relationship and was single, but that he was a little smooth talker…and that I know many men like him. I told him that he was a charmer and asked him if he knew what that meant. He was like “is that a man who talks to all the women and says stuff?” I replied “yes.” Then he said that he wasn’t bad – that he no longer drank or slept with girls…I told him that was good. After talking to him I found out that apparently he used to be a bad boy – then he was paralyzed while doing something stupid when he was drunk and he had to learn how to re-walk and everything. He showed me the scars he had and told me how he was Pentecostal and how he had “found God” through the incident. Then he said that he wanted to talk with me about “life, love and God” sometime when I was off work. He said I could bring some friends to make sure I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I kind of just shrugged and laughed without answering him. He’s 27 and he is still very much of a little player. We all thought that maybe he was gay because he was good looking and he hangs out with other good looking guys that are his friends, but apparently Elisa asked someone who knows him really well and they said he wasn’t. Oh well, I’m sure he’ll be on to flirting with someone else tomorrow. Haha…I wonder who his next target is….
After my little adventure outside we went inside and turned on some music. All the kids were dancing – even those who are stuck in a chair. Maria grabbed my arm when I walked by her wheel chair which was quite a surprise. Most of the time she seems like she is in her own little world. Then Andrei started dancing with me and it was the cutest thing ever. He would wiggle his little hips and giggle. I don’t think he could really hear the music, but that little boy has some smooth moves. My goal is to get him adopted into a good family this semester. We shall see if that is possible...The caretaker that was in there today was kind of harsh with the kids. It bothered me. Today Vlad – one of the kids Whitney Scott works with – was thirsty so the caretaker got him a bottle. He is about 5 years old and he can easily drink on his own – not to mention hold the bottle on his own. Well she went to feed him the bottle, and he wanted to do it himself. She wouldn’t let him for some reason…at least it didn’t make sense to me or Whitney. He was screaming bloody murder and closing his mouth. Then instead of letting him settle down she went and got a cup and forced water down his throat. He kept choking. Whitney Scott turned her head…that’s hard to see when you feel like your kids are being treated badly….really hard.
The hospital was tons of fun today. MacKenzie and I went and saw Alex – the ten year old who was left by his mom. I brought him his favorite kind of candy. It’s so cute his eyes will get huge and he will say “wow.” He was so grateful for the candy. He’s ten years old and the poor boy is stuck in that horrible hospital on his own…he can’t even walk around. They yell at him if he goes in the hall. Anyways, right after I gave him the candy he pulled out a note that he had written for me while I was gone. So adorable. The note talked about things he liked to do and then it said thanks for visiting him and for playing “go fish” with him the other day. Then he signed it “with much love, Alex.” Seriously cute. Then we threw a ball around the room and threw it between the three of us as fast as possible. We were all laughing hysterically…I have a blast with that little kids. He’s so cute. Then MacKenzie and I were trying to talk to him and we think he said that his mom was visiting him tomorrow…but that his dad has never visit him. I’m really confused because the boy who translated for us the other day said that his mom had left him and that his dad rarely visited him…I guess I will see if his mom comes when I go to visit him tomorrow. I wonder if he was making it up or if I just didn’t understand very well…who knows…Regardless, MacKenzie and I promised him that we would bring our laptop on Thursday so he could watch a movie and we could have a dance party. He was really excited about that. It makes my day to see him smile and laugh…I doubt he gets much of that in the hospital. I’m so grateful that I can bring a little light into his life.
After Alex we went and visited two babies without moms who were on floors higher than we normally visit – we didn’t know they were there until yesterday. They were both a few months old and cute as can be. MacKenzie and I chatted as we held them...good times. Then we started talking about how we couldn’t believe a parent would be able to leave their baby after looking at them and seeing their sweet spirits. We don’t get it…we just don’t get it…and I’m afraid I won’t ever understand the mind of someone who leaves their baby alone in the world. Sad.
After the hospital Mindy and I decided to do one of our Cultural Proof assignments for school – we had to make “a traditional Romanian craft.” At the Relief Society activity the other night they showed us how to make skirts so we decided to make one. It was quite funny considering Mindy and I are the least sewing oriented out of everyone. We were good troopers though and Elisa was nice enough to help us out. Mindy was hilarious. She said that in school when she took a sewing class her teacher would always do it for her because she couldn’t. Luckily by the end of the night neither of our skirts looked too bad. Mindy’s was a little shorter than what it was supposed to be, but still modest and wearable. When she tried it on we were all laughing. Neither of us have completely finished our skirt, but I’m pretty proud of myself this far. I don’t sew and I’m not the best cook in the world, but I am quickly learning how to do both in Romania…ha…and I’m not quite as bad as I thought I would be when I try…it feels good…
When we got home MacKenzie and Mary were on one…they were hilarious. I heard laughing and a lot of noise coming from their bedroom and when I entered Mary was holding MacKenzie out the window. They were both cracking up…then they got in a water fight…those crazy girls…!
This morning we took the kids outside early and were there most of the day. My little Andrei was playing on the playground when I got there. Boy oh boy was he a little pill today. He was definitely on one. While we were on the playground one of the therapists came and put hearing aids in his ear. I couldn’t really tell if they worked though because he didn’t seem to act much different than the way he normally does. He didn’t act like he could hear anything. He kept doing a hundred yard dashes to all the areas that were off limits to children. Then I would have to grab him.
Today the physical therapist Sera picked me as a target to flirt with – Mindy was cracking up. Us girls agreed that they are good looking guys, but they are little players. Plus we aren’t allowed to date, and we don’t want to date Romanian men. Anyways, he was playing with some of the kids on the playground talking to his friend about his age who was sitting next to him, and he was like “Hey Whitney come over here.” I said “yes” and he continued to say that him and his friend were talking and that I was “very, very beautiful.” I told him “thanks and that I was flattered” then tried to leave it at that. He kept talking to me though, and in somewhat broken English he said that instead of flirting he was being direct. I just laughed and said okay. He’s harmless, but he is a charmer – we’ve already been warned that Sera tries to “woo” the BYU girls when we come…so funny. Then he said that my eyes were pretty and quote “when I look into your eyes I am astonished.” Mindy was listening and I saw her cracking up a few feet away from me. She kept repeating that to me today…it was a pretty cheesy line. Then he asked me what I thought, and asked me if I was single. I told him that I had just gotten out of a relationship and was single, but that he was a little smooth talker…and that I know many men like him. I told him that he was a charmer and asked him if he knew what that meant. He was like “is that a man who talks to all the women and says stuff?” I replied “yes.” Then he said that he wasn’t bad – that he no longer drank or slept with girls…I told him that was good. After talking to him I found out that apparently he used to be a bad boy – then he was paralyzed while doing something stupid when he was drunk and he had to learn how to re-walk and everything. He showed me the scars he had and told me how he was Pentecostal and how he had “found God” through the incident. Then he said that he wanted to talk with me about “life, love and God” sometime when I was off work. He said I could bring some friends to make sure I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I kind of just shrugged and laughed without answering him. He’s 27 and he is still very much of a little player. We all thought that maybe he was gay because he was good looking and he hangs out with other good looking guys that are his friends, but apparently Elisa asked someone who knows him really well and they said he wasn’t. Oh well, I’m sure he’ll be on to flirting with someone else tomorrow. Haha…I wonder who his next target is….
After my little adventure outside we went inside and turned on some music. All the kids were dancing – even those who are stuck in a chair. Maria grabbed my arm when I walked by her wheel chair which was quite a surprise. Most of the time she seems like she is in her own little world. Then Andrei started dancing with me and it was the cutest thing ever. He would wiggle his little hips and giggle. I don’t think he could really hear the music, but that little boy has some smooth moves. My goal is to get him adopted into a good family this semester. We shall see if that is possible...The caretaker that was in there today was kind of harsh with the kids. It bothered me. Today Vlad – one of the kids Whitney Scott works with – was thirsty so the caretaker got him a bottle. He is about 5 years old and he can easily drink on his own – not to mention hold the bottle on his own. Well she went to feed him the bottle, and he wanted to do it himself. She wouldn’t let him for some reason…at least it didn’t make sense to me or Whitney. He was screaming bloody murder and closing his mouth. Then instead of letting him settle down she went and got a cup and forced water down his throat. He kept choking. Whitney Scott turned her head…that’s hard to see when you feel like your kids are being treated badly….really hard.
The hospital was tons of fun today. MacKenzie and I went and saw Alex – the ten year old who was left by his mom. I brought him his favorite kind of candy. It’s so cute his eyes will get huge and he will say “wow.” He was so grateful for the candy. He’s ten years old and the poor boy is stuck in that horrible hospital on his own…he can’t even walk around. They yell at him if he goes in the hall. Anyways, right after I gave him the candy he pulled out a note that he had written for me while I was gone. So adorable. The note talked about things he liked to do and then it said thanks for visiting him and for playing “go fish” with him the other day. Then he signed it “with much love, Alex.” Seriously cute. Then we threw a ball around the room and threw it between the three of us as fast as possible. We were all laughing hysterically…I have a blast with that little kids. He’s so cute. Then MacKenzie and I were trying to talk to him and we think he said that his mom was visiting him tomorrow…but that his dad has never visit him. I’m really confused because the boy who translated for us the other day said that his mom had left him and that his dad rarely visited him…I guess I will see if his mom comes when I go to visit him tomorrow. I wonder if he was making it up or if I just didn’t understand very well…who knows…Regardless, MacKenzie and I promised him that we would bring our laptop on Thursday so he could watch a movie and we could have a dance party. He was really excited about that. It makes my day to see him smile and laugh…I doubt he gets much of that in the hospital. I’m so grateful that I can bring a little light into his life.
After Alex we went and visited two babies without moms who were on floors higher than we normally visit – we didn’t know they were there until yesterday. They were both a few months old and cute as can be. MacKenzie and I chatted as we held them...good times. Then we started talking about how we couldn’t believe a parent would be able to leave their baby after looking at them and seeing their sweet spirits. We don’t get it…we just don’t get it…and I’m afraid I won’t ever understand the mind of someone who leaves their baby alone in the world. Sad.
After the hospital Mindy and I decided to do one of our Cultural Proof assignments for school – we had to make “a traditional Romanian craft.” At the Relief Society activity the other night they showed us how to make skirts so we decided to make one. It was quite funny considering Mindy and I are the least sewing oriented out of everyone. We were good troopers though and Elisa was nice enough to help us out. Mindy was hilarious. She said that in school when she took a sewing class her teacher would always do it for her because she couldn’t. Luckily by the end of the night neither of our skirts looked too bad. Mindy’s was a little shorter than what it was supposed to be, but still modest and wearable. When she tried it on we were all laughing. Neither of us have completely finished our skirt, but I’m pretty proud of myself this far. I don’t sew and I’m not the best cook in the world, but I am quickly learning how to do both in Romania…ha…and I’m not quite as bad as I thought I would be when I try…it feels good…
When we got home MacKenzie and Mary were on one…they were hilarious. I heard laughing and a lot of noise coming from their bedroom and when I entered Mary was holding MacKenzie out the window. They were both cracking up…then they got in a water fight…those crazy girls…!
May 19, 2008 (Monday)
Today I felt much more energized than last week. I needed a day of rest – I’m not sure you could call yesterday a restful day, but I needed a day away from the kids to gather myself physically and emotionally. I woke up and did Tae-Bo which always starts my day off right, and had some fruit for breakfast. For one of our assignments all of us have to live on a middle income Romanian food budget for a week. We only have 50 lei which is equivalent to about $21 US dollars for a weeks worth of food…haha…nice huh? No wonder Romanians are so slender. All we are going to be eating this week is fruit, bread and cheese probably. We’ll see how it goes…it shall be quite interesting…no chocolate for me – that’s gonna be really really really hard!
The orphanage was good as normal. Sometimes it’s hard to see the workers be harsh with the kids though. When we came in from outside today one of the workers wanted Andrei to go somewhere and she kept following after him and yelling at him – but he can’t hear…so I was really confused. Whitney Scott and I were like, “what does she want him to do?” The poor thing couldn’t understand anything because he can’t hear – at least as far as I know. I WANT someone to adopt him so bad. He is so smart – oh and I was so excited because Andrei repeated some signs I taught him today. He did the sign for “more” and “please.” I’m not sure if he knows what they mean yet, but he will soon. Elisa and I were talking about him. I think he is above average in intellect for his age group.
I got some of the other kids I work with out of their chairs and stretched their legs. Sometimes I wonder what is going on in their minds. Although they can’t move much, they still smile when I smile at them which reminds me that although they aren’t all the way there – they still are. If they can smile in response to your smile then they can at least comprehend emotions and happiness…I think that’s amazing. Even children with disabilities still feel all the same emotions any normal human being feels. Sometimes we forget that people with disabilities are still a human being. It’s sad.
When I left the orphanage Andrei cried again. It breaks my heart every time I leave him. He just clings to me and reaches up screaming bloody murder. Then the workers get mad at him and scold him for being upset that I left. The women here are just not soft with their children. That little 3-year-old boy fully has my heart…not good…I’m going to be so so sad if he doesn’t find a home…I’m going to see what I can do while I’m here. I need to talk to Mario to see if he is even able to be adopted. Apparently parents can put their children in an orphanage, but not let anyone adopt them. That’s pretty much the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard of – it makes absolutely NO sense to me…but a lot of things the people do here don’t.
Today at the hospital was a grand time. Three of us girls played “Go Fish” with Alex. Then directly next to Alex’s bed is a mom and her little boy. The little boy always acts so shy, but I can tell that he likes me. When I was talking to Elisa she said the little boy (mind you he is about 2 years old) was desperately holding on to the stickers I had given him several days before. Then he was fascinated by a little “I Spy” toy that is like a bean bag but has different objects and trinkets you can find amidst the crystal beads. His mother is a sweetheart too – she seems very soft spoke and very sweet unlike most of the women in the hospital. You can tell she has a sweet spirit about her. We said goodbye to them all and that we would see them tomorrow. Before I left I asked Alex what kind of chocolate he likes, because he looked sad that we were leaving. It’s fun to buy the kids treats here – they don’t get them too often and the are very appreciative when they do.
Then us girls went to visit the babies. That was fun as usual. It was really strange though because when I went up to the floor the moms kept coming up to me and saying “posa, posa.” That means picture. I was really confused, but I thought maybe MacKenzie had taken some pictures of the moms and told them she would get them developed. I don’t even have a camera, but MacKenzie had taken a picture with some moms a couple days before and printed it out for them. Pictures are a HUGE deal here. I guess because not many people can afford a camera - let alone get a picture printed off. Then when we were about to leave the other girls came up to get us and all of a sudden I walked out of my room into the hall and some of the moms were talking to the other girls and they looked quite upset. Apparently what had happened was that the moms who MacKenzie had taken a picture of a few days before, had told some other moms on the same floor. All the moms wanted pictures. Then Elyse had come yesterday and had no idea that MacKenzie had taken pictures in the past and when she went to hold some of the babies some of the moms saw that she had a camera, took it away from Elyse and started taking a bunch of pictures of each mom in every room. It was a mess of a situation! Poor Elyse has to get a bunch of pictures developed now. Then no more. Elyse said one of the moms was so upset she didn’t have a picture developed for her today that she looked like she was gonna punch her. No more pics of the moms with their kids. They will try and take advantage if they can.
There was a new little girl in the hospital today named Florinta. She was beautiful and she was probably about one year old. I gave her a little bracelet that I bought in the states. She loved it. In the same room was a gypsey mom and some other ladies. I kept bringing out toys for her to play with and each time I brought out an object the moms would ask me how much it cost and where I got it from. It was funny…I was like I got it in America and then I would tell them how much it cost in dollars. They seemed amazed. I feel so special being an American.
We had Family Home Evening tonight, and we played a classic game of spoons. One of the girls in the branch that everyone calls J-Lo cornered me and asked me for help with a dance she is trying to make up. She knows that I did dance in high school…I gave her some ideas and showed her some moves, but she wanted me to choreograph the entire thing. I told her I didn’t have the time, but that I didn’t mind looking at it and giving her tips once she was done. People here don’t take “no” for an answer very well. I kept telling her that she could do it herself…she has good style and good moves. She just needs a little more confidence, experience and practice with placement. I have to be careful with her though, because we were warned that she gets clingy, and I think I am the preferred person she wants to attach to right now.
Monday, May 19, 2008
May 18, 2008 (Sunday)
Sunday hit once again – we had choir practice bright and early. Luckily today they didn’t make us sing anything we practiced that morning. Not that it would be a huge deal but it’s nice to have some preparation…Next Sunday I get to teach a lesson in Sunday school. I’m excited about that. I’m hoping to try and get a lot of participation. Too many of the lessons here people just get up and lecture, and I think that gets really boring really fast. I fell asleep almost twenty times today. I feel so bad, but tiredness and lessons in a different language that require little participation are quite hard for me to be attentive in. I struggle…
After church I came home and took a nap. It was heavenly. I haven’t felt real good, and I desperately needed a little extra sleep. Then we made dinner – it was our turn to cook dinner. We made parmesan chicken, French fries, fry sauce and broccoli. I’m learning some good recipes here. Then we had a fruit pizza dessert. My mom called as I finished eating. It was great to talk to her…it reminds me of home a bit! I just told her about my latest adventures…there are a lot here in the little land of Romania.
Right after we finished eating dessert Elisa got off the phone and was like…”umm guys, one of the sisters in the ward apparently made dinner for us and we have to go over and eat it at 7:00” – it was about 6:30 when we were told and we were all stuffed – VERY stuffed. I guess they had tried contacting us earlier, but they couldn’t get a hold of us….we all let out a groan. It was nice of the sister to make dinner, but we were SERIOUSLY stuffed full. However, we decided to grin and bare it. If we only would of known what lied ahead.
The Elders showed us where Sister Geneviva lived and we were warmly greeted. You could tell she had worked hard on the meal – we all felt bad that we weren’t that hungry – we would have to pretend that we were. We didn’t want to be rude so we all sat down and were ready to face the meal. Right before the sister brought out the food Elisa said that she could tell her that a couple of us weren’t feeling real well and that we didn’t want much to eat. I quickly volunteered. Boy did that backfire. Elisa had the missionary translate and tell Sister Geneviva that I didn’t feel well (she doesn’t speak English). After he told her that I figured I wouldn’t get any food. The sister brought out some soup and bread for everyone except me. In my head I was like “score!” All the other girls were trying to get it down we were soooooo full….I was watching and laughing at them. They looked like they were painfully trying to get it down. Then all of a sudden the sister comes in with a bowl bigger than all of theirs with soup for me. I wanted to die. They all started laughing hysterically. The poor sister had no idea what we were all saying to each other…So I mechanically started eating my soup. Mindy tried helping me eat some of it…such a good friend….
We all got done with our soup and were like okay that wasn’t too bad. Then all of a sudden the sister brought out another plate full of beans and some weird meat. We were all dying laughing when she walked out of the room…Elisa kept saying “no more, no more”….we were rolling. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at dinner. Then the sister got schwarma (some of the soup she made) in MacKenzie’s hair and dropped beans all down Melissa’s shoulder. Then I accidentally flicked beans all over poor Annie when I was trying to cut my meat. I wish we would of videotaped everything…the Elders were sitting there acting like our coaches telling us we could eat it all and keep it down. After we were done with that we were definitely brought out another course – oh yes. It was some weird kind of sausage, by then we were all forcing it down, and I felt like I was gonna throw up. Then the sister came in and the Elders translated that she said “to eat up because she had lots more.” We were like please no, please no….
The last thing she brought us was this little dessert thing. It was small, but wow I was ready to puke. We all sat lethargically in our chairs. I felt like I was pregnant, and my shirt that had been loose that day was now quite tight. I went home and made myself throw up because I felt sick…but at least it makes for a good story…one I will never forget…the memories, the memories.
Sunday hit once again – we had choir practice bright and early. Luckily today they didn’t make us sing anything we practiced that morning. Not that it would be a huge deal but it’s nice to have some preparation…Next Sunday I get to teach a lesson in Sunday school. I’m excited about that. I’m hoping to try and get a lot of participation. Too many of the lessons here people just get up and lecture, and I think that gets really boring really fast. I fell asleep almost twenty times today. I feel so bad, but tiredness and lessons in a different language that require little participation are quite hard for me to be attentive in. I struggle…
After church I came home and took a nap. It was heavenly. I haven’t felt real good, and I desperately needed a little extra sleep. Then we made dinner – it was our turn to cook dinner. We made parmesan chicken, French fries, fry sauce and broccoli. I’m learning some good recipes here. Then we had a fruit pizza dessert. My mom called as I finished eating. It was great to talk to her…it reminds me of home a bit! I just told her about my latest adventures…there are a lot here in the little land of Romania.
Right after we finished eating dessert Elisa got off the phone and was like…”umm guys, one of the sisters in the ward apparently made dinner for us and we have to go over and eat it at 7:00” – it was about 6:30 when we were told and we were all stuffed – VERY stuffed. I guess they had tried contacting us earlier, but they couldn’t get a hold of us….we all let out a groan. It was nice of the sister to make dinner, but we were SERIOUSLY stuffed full. However, we decided to grin and bare it. If we only would of known what lied ahead.
The Elders showed us where Sister Geneviva lived and we were warmly greeted. You could tell she had worked hard on the meal – we all felt bad that we weren’t that hungry – we would have to pretend that we were. We didn’t want to be rude so we all sat down and were ready to face the meal. Right before the sister brought out the food Elisa said that she could tell her that a couple of us weren’t feeling real well and that we didn’t want much to eat. I quickly volunteered. Boy did that backfire. Elisa had the missionary translate and tell Sister Geneviva that I didn’t feel well (she doesn’t speak English). After he told her that I figured I wouldn’t get any food. The sister brought out some soup and bread for everyone except me. In my head I was like “score!” All the other girls were trying to get it down we were soooooo full….I was watching and laughing at them. They looked like they were painfully trying to get it down. Then all of a sudden the sister comes in with a bowl bigger than all of theirs with soup for me. I wanted to die. They all started laughing hysterically. The poor sister had no idea what we were all saying to each other…So I mechanically started eating my soup. Mindy tried helping me eat some of it…such a good friend….
We all got done with our soup and were like okay that wasn’t too bad. Then all of a sudden the sister brought out another plate full of beans and some weird meat. We were all dying laughing when she walked out of the room…Elisa kept saying “no more, no more”….we were rolling. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at dinner. Then the sister got schwarma (some of the soup she made) in MacKenzie’s hair and dropped beans all down Melissa’s shoulder. Then I accidentally flicked beans all over poor Annie when I was trying to cut my meat. I wish we would of videotaped everything…the Elders were sitting there acting like our coaches telling us we could eat it all and keep it down. After we were done with that we were definitely brought out another course – oh yes. It was some weird kind of sausage, by then we were all forcing it down, and I felt like I was gonna throw up. Then the sister came in and the Elders translated that she said “to eat up because she had lots more.” We were like please no, please no….
The last thing she brought us was this little dessert thing. It was small, but wow I was ready to puke. We all sat lethargically in our chairs. I felt like I was pregnant, and my shirt that had been loose that day was now quite tight. I went home and made myself throw up because I felt sick…but at least it makes for a good story…one I will never forget…the memories, the memories.
May 17, 2008 (Saturday)
This morning we woke up, went back to our apartment from the sleepover, and played Cinderella in our apartment. We cleaned and cleaned– it still didn’t feel real clean after we were done, but it made us feel better. Plus our tub won’t drain so every time someone takes a shower the next person has to stand in about a foot of dirty water from the person before. Gross. Then after we cleaned I decided to go with Elisa and Melissa to the hospital. We don’t have to go on the weekends, but we can if we want to. I wanted to see my little babes – so we took a nice walk over there. Tomorrow is going to be my break away from the kids. I figure I need at least one day to recover from all the sadness from the week.
Once I got to the hospital it seemed to be the day that everyone wanted to talk to me in Romanian... The first baby I visited was adorable Octavian. He was screaming bloody murder when I walked in the room. I’ve never seen any of the other moms in the room pick him up. It’s so weird. I wonder if it is a cultural rule that you don’t pick up orphans…so sad. I just know if I were in there, and I heard a baby crying I would pick it up. Who knows? Anyways, I started holding Octavian and a nurse walked in and started speaking to me very fast in Romanian. At least it felt fast because the only thing I could manage to pick from her sentences was “we go” and “two kids.” She was trying to motion to me what she wanted, but her acting wasn’t very good, so I made the motion that I would follow her with the baby. She nodded and I followed her. Then she went to pick up the other orphan baby from a few doors down. I followed her with Octavian in my arms even though I had no clue where we were going, but I figured there was some point to this adventure. We ended up going to a little room where a nurse handed us little masks like you would see at the dentist. They motioned for me to hold the petite mask over Octavian’s mouth. I put it over his nose and mouth and he was not a happy camper – neither was the other baby. Apparently it was some type of medicine that they breathe in. He was screaming, and I kept saying “I’m so sorry.” I just kept kissing him and hoping he would forgive me for holding the mask on his face. I think he did, because after we were done I rocked him back and forth and kept kissing him and he fell fast asleep.
Then I went to hold the blue baby and the nurse on that floor decided to talk to me like I spoke fluently once again. I must be really good at pretending I understand, but I would think that they would know by now that none of us girls are very good at the language. They don’t. So I just I just smiled and tried to pick out words I understood. She brought in a bottle and just sat it by the baby so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feed the baby or not. The only thing was that the bottle didn’t have a nipple, but it also didn’t have a little syringe so I could insert it into the feeding tube. I went out to attempt to ask the nurse what she wanted me to do and it turned into quite the ordeal. I think they thought I was saying that there was something wrong with the milk. The nurse called up to the doctor and was saying amounts of numbers and after chatting with the other nurse she acted like – this is the right amount of formula. Finally they got someone who spoke English to translate. I was like I just want to know if I’m supposed to feed the baby or if someone else will later. She said they would later, so I went back to the room and just held the baby until they came and fed her. Furthermore, I’ve decided that I’m becoming immune to gross stuff – I picked up Maria (the baby who needs heart surgery AKA the blue baby) and got a huge booger on my finger from her. It barely even phased me. I wiped it on the clean part of her dirty diaper and put hand sanitizer on. That must be the way moms feel.
Directly after the hospital Mindy and I had signed up to go on splits with the missionaries. I was pretty tired and dragging, but we said we would go so we did. After the experience I have to admit that being a missionary in a foreign country wasn’t real appealing to me. I admire their courage and strength, but talk about a tough job everyday. Mindy split off with Sister Rosenwall, and I went with Sister Betham. What we did was start at the top of each block and make our way down. The first door we went to we didn’t even get out good evening before the door was shut in our face. That pretty much sat the pattern for the rest of the night as well, but it’s okay. I just feel bad for the missionaries. That must be so frustrating to have something so special to you and no one will listen…grr…Most of the people we talked to were Orthodox. Yet ironically they never went to church – except for Easter and Christmas. Then after each door Sister Betham would look over and be like “did you understand?” Then I would smile and say “not really.” At one point Sister Betham was like I thought you understood because you smiled, nodded and laughed at all the right times. I just replied “I’m starting to get good at making people believe I understand what they’re saying to me. I just laugh when everyone else does.” She just laughed. Then we both had a good chat about our families and different situations that was going on with them. After we were done we met up with the other girls. They went street contacting. Mindy said some guy called them ugly, and then some guys were following them saying mean things about Mormons. Mindy just laughed about it – she’s such a good sport.
After splits with the missionaries us girls planned a relaxing ice cream and movie night. We went and got gelato which was so good – but I’m missing regular ice cream. Then we all turned on a movie, but everyone fell fast asleep after about 10 minutes. That seems to be what happens every time we turn on a movie now days. We’re all just so exhausted and tired from the day….I’m sure we’ll get used to the routine pretty quickly though.
The other day I wasn’t feeling real well, and I fervently prayed to feel better. I think it’s working. I’m feeling a lot better. I felt like I was getting hit hard with something, but I feel like the Lord has at least appeased the severity of my sickness.
One last item of business, my schedule has changed again for the 30th time. I'm not going to the apartments in the afternoon anymore - only the hospital. I'm kind of sad, but that's okay. In essence, I will be going to the hospital everyday unless they open the orphanage up in the afternoons.
P.S. We found cockroach #4…it wasn’t in our room this time! Annie and I were so excited!
This morning we woke up, went back to our apartment from the sleepover, and played Cinderella in our apartment. We cleaned and cleaned– it still didn’t feel real clean after we were done, but it made us feel better. Plus our tub won’t drain so every time someone takes a shower the next person has to stand in about a foot of dirty water from the person before. Gross. Then after we cleaned I decided to go with Elisa and Melissa to the hospital. We don’t have to go on the weekends, but we can if we want to. I wanted to see my little babes – so we took a nice walk over there. Tomorrow is going to be my break away from the kids. I figure I need at least one day to recover from all the sadness from the week.
Once I got to the hospital it seemed to be the day that everyone wanted to talk to me in Romanian... The first baby I visited was adorable Octavian. He was screaming bloody murder when I walked in the room. I’ve never seen any of the other moms in the room pick him up. It’s so weird. I wonder if it is a cultural rule that you don’t pick up orphans…so sad. I just know if I were in there, and I heard a baby crying I would pick it up. Who knows? Anyways, I started holding Octavian and a nurse walked in and started speaking to me very fast in Romanian. At least it felt fast because the only thing I could manage to pick from her sentences was “we go” and “two kids.” She was trying to motion to me what she wanted, but her acting wasn’t very good, so I made the motion that I would follow her with the baby. She nodded and I followed her. Then she went to pick up the other orphan baby from a few doors down. I followed her with Octavian in my arms even though I had no clue where we were going, but I figured there was some point to this adventure. We ended up going to a little room where a nurse handed us little masks like you would see at the dentist. They motioned for me to hold the petite mask over Octavian’s mouth. I put it over his nose and mouth and he was not a happy camper – neither was the other baby. Apparently it was some type of medicine that they breathe in. He was screaming, and I kept saying “I’m so sorry.” I just kept kissing him and hoping he would forgive me for holding the mask on his face. I think he did, because after we were done I rocked him back and forth and kept kissing him and he fell fast asleep.
Then I went to hold the blue baby and the nurse on that floor decided to talk to me like I spoke fluently once again. I must be really good at pretending I understand, but I would think that they would know by now that none of us girls are very good at the language. They don’t. So I just I just smiled and tried to pick out words I understood. She brought in a bottle and just sat it by the baby so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feed the baby or not. The only thing was that the bottle didn’t have a nipple, but it also didn’t have a little syringe so I could insert it into the feeding tube. I went out to attempt to ask the nurse what she wanted me to do and it turned into quite the ordeal. I think they thought I was saying that there was something wrong with the milk. The nurse called up to the doctor and was saying amounts of numbers and after chatting with the other nurse she acted like – this is the right amount of formula. Finally they got someone who spoke English to translate. I was like I just want to know if I’m supposed to feed the baby or if someone else will later. She said they would later, so I went back to the room and just held the baby until they came and fed her. Furthermore, I’ve decided that I’m becoming immune to gross stuff – I picked up Maria (the baby who needs heart surgery AKA the blue baby) and got a huge booger on my finger from her. It barely even phased me. I wiped it on the clean part of her dirty diaper and put hand sanitizer on. That must be the way moms feel.
Directly after the hospital Mindy and I had signed up to go on splits with the missionaries. I was pretty tired and dragging, but we said we would go so we did. After the experience I have to admit that being a missionary in a foreign country wasn’t real appealing to me. I admire their courage and strength, but talk about a tough job everyday. Mindy split off with Sister Rosenwall, and I went with Sister Betham. What we did was start at the top of each block and make our way down. The first door we went to we didn’t even get out good evening before the door was shut in our face. That pretty much sat the pattern for the rest of the night as well, but it’s okay. I just feel bad for the missionaries. That must be so frustrating to have something so special to you and no one will listen…grr…Most of the people we talked to were Orthodox. Yet ironically they never went to church – except for Easter and Christmas. Then after each door Sister Betham would look over and be like “did you understand?” Then I would smile and say “not really.” At one point Sister Betham was like I thought you understood because you smiled, nodded and laughed at all the right times. I just replied “I’m starting to get good at making people believe I understand what they’re saying to me. I just laugh when everyone else does.” She just laughed. Then we both had a good chat about our families and different situations that was going on with them. After we were done we met up with the other girls. They went street contacting. Mindy said some guy called them ugly, and then some guys were following them saying mean things about Mormons. Mindy just laughed about it – she’s such a good sport.
After splits with the missionaries us girls planned a relaxing ice cream and movie night. We went and got gelato which was so good – but I’m missing regular ice cream. Then we all turned on a movie, but everyone fell fast asleep after about 10 minutes. That seems to be what happens every time we turn on a movie now days. We’re all just so exhausted and tired from the day….I’m sure we’ll get used to the routine pretty quickly though.
The other day I wasn’t feeling real well, and I fervently prayed to feel better. I think it’s working. I’m feeling a lot better. I felt like I was getting hit hard with something, but I feel like the Lord has at least appeased the severity of my sickness.
One last item of business, my schedule has changed again for the 30th time. I'm not going to the apartments in the afternoon anymore - only the hospital. I'm kind of sad, but that's okay. In essence, I will be going to the hospital everyday unless they open the orphanage up in the afternoons.
P.S. We found cockroach #4…it wasn’t in our room this time! Annie and I were so excited!
May 16, 2008 (Friday)
Last night was quite the miserable night sleep. I started feeling a cold coming on because my throat and head ached. I took airborne before I went to bed, but I don’t think it helped much. I woke up a couple of times with a fever – I was cold but then I would be sweating…I hate that! I kept thinking oh great I can’t get sick.
When I woke up this morning I felt a bit better but not a lot – I took a ton of vitamin C, but I can’t tell if I’m just holding off the inevitable. I said a prayer that I would feel better because it’s hard for me to be my best and take care of the kids when I’m sick. I guess if it’s the Lord’s will then it will quickly pass and if it’s not then it’s not. Anyways, I’m praying for a miracle.
Today at the orphanage was great. Valentina AKA “my little stringbean” got a hold of my hair and pulled as hard as she could. Needless to say I have a few less hairs on my head. She’s a little stinker. Valentina has fetal alcohol syndrome and is just a tiny little thing, but she has some power to her grasp.
Today I got to see Andrei! It makes my day even though he’s a little stinker. I know I say “stinker” a lot – but it’s the best word to describe most of the kids. Anyways, Andrei does this adorable little thing with his face – he will quickly raise both of his eye brows, do the cheesiest smile you’ve ever seen showing his little teeth, then he will throw his head back and forth to the right and left, and finish off the sequence with a giggle. SO CUTE. I need to make sure I don’t favor him, but it’s hard sometimes…there are certain kids each of us girls have connected with more than others – just like each one of us have certain human beings we want to be around more than others. He’s just my little cuddler and it makes me feel so good when he runs into the room at full speed towards me and jumps into my arms. He lights up when sees me, and I love it!
I thought it was quite interesting because the last girl that worked with Andrei said that it took some time for her to warm up to him, and I instantly fell in love with him even though he requires so much attention and is probably the biggest pill – but he keeps me on my toes. In our apartments we have several binders that have pictures of all the kids in the orphanage and a write up on each one of them by the girl that worked with them the semester before. I read the last and only write up about Andrei by the last girl that worked with him. It was so funny. The first line read something to the effect of this – it took me some time to develop love for Andrei – and sometimes I had to take breaks away from him and go play with the other kids - but once I got to know him he was the cutest….for me I instantly adored him – weird huh?
When I left I waved goodbye and he waved goodbye, and then I blew him a kiss and he blew me a kiss back. Adorable. Keeping Andrei in mind I wanted to ask Mario (our local Romanian who is our adult caretaker) about the adoption process in Romania. First of all, apparently international adoption isn’t open in Romania which makes me sad. I know so many amazing people that would love to adopt a child. I heard that part of the reason they closed international adoption was because parents would readily give their children up if they knew they were going to the states because they knew they would be taken good care of. Today we met with Mario for a language lesson, and I asked her about how adoption works and told her that I wanted her to work a miracle and find a family for Andrei. She said there wasn’t a lot she could do and that the older they get the less chance they have to get adopted – but she said she would pull his files and take a look. I also asked her if there was anyway to get around the “no international adoption rules” and there might be, but I think they are hard to come by. She said that we could have a long talk about it sometime soon…it’s just so hard for me to sit back and see someone like Andrei –whose only disability is that he can’t hear – stuck in an orphanage with a bunch of children who can barely move. What will become of him? Also, if he doesn’t learn sign he will have no way to communicate which will cause some severe behavioral issues with him…If you think about it that would be so frustrating never being able to explain your needs or listen to anothers….I’ve already said it a million times but we take so much for granted! Grr…
At the hospital I visited my usual babies and changed their diapers. Poor Octavian has really bad diaper rash all over his bumb. Sometimes I wonder if the hospital cares about anything else besides simply keeping the person/baby/child alive. I was chatting with Whitney Scott about it and she said that the African hospitals are even worse. I didn’t know that was possible. The conditions are absolutely horrible in every room here. For example, in Octavian’s room (which is probably 12 x 12) there are four baby cribs that line the wall. Then with each baby there is a mom who sits in the crib with the baby. It’s so funny because you see room after room with multiple women in their pjs and their baby. It was somewhat surprising to me because the women are so harsh – but some of them really do love their babies. So now with the mom and baby you have about 8 sweaty bodies in a little room. Then to make it worse they don’t open windows because they believe that drafts will make their baby sick. Plus, because all the babies are in the same room they wake each other up. There are no clocks in the room and no television. There is absolutely nothing to do…I think hell is like that hospital. Sad to say. I wonder what it’s going to be like when it gets even hotter.
After the hospital we went to the church for a Relief Society activity. At first I was pretty worn out and not all that excited to go, but it ended up being fun. The sisters showed us how to sew a skirt and blouse. Not exactly my field of expertise…but it was good for someone to attempt to teach me. Then after that we had a little mini talent show. Mindy and Elyse had a gogosi eating contest. Poor Mindy lost…but we had a blast watching the two stuffing their face. Then for another one of the talents we had a dance contest…we all just danced around and goofed off and had a marvelous time! They even turned on the Macarena – old school! I ended up winning a certificate for the dance contest which was quite a surprise. I definitely didn’t feel like I deserved it….but I got a really pretty peach/pink colored scarf out of it. It was so funny the elders walked by to do something at the church and women of all ages were dancing around like we were little girls. I bet they think all girls do that when they get together…hahah…Awesome!
After the Relief Society activity we all went home exhausted and prepared for our slumber party between the girls’ apartments. We had Pizza Hut pizza – which was quite different than the states – but still very good - and then we had girl chat like usual. It was fun having the two apartments together. We went around chatting about how many boys we’ve kissed, played the game “Never Have I Ever,” and then we watched Newsies. Actually we didn’t watch it because all of us fell fast asleep when we turned it on – even though sleeping was quite uncomfortable. We were practically all squashed in one room – but at least we had a super fun night…
Last night was quite the miserable night sleep. I started feeling a cold coming on because my throat and head ached. I took airborne before I went to bed, but I don’t think it helped much. I woke up a couple of times with a fever – I was cold but then I would be sweating…I hate that! I kept thinking oh great I can’t get sick.
When I woke up this morning I felt a bit better but not a lot – I took a ton of vitamin C, but I can’t tell if I’m just holding off the inevitable. I said a prayer that I would feel better because it’s hard for me to be my best and take care of the kids when I’m sick. I guess if it’s the Lord’s will then it will quickly pass and if it’s not then it’s not. Anyways, I’m praying for a miracle.
Today at the orphanage was great. Valentina AKA “my little stringbean” got a hold of my hair and pulled as hard as she could. Needless to say I have a few less hairs on my head. She’s a little stinker. Valentina has fetal alcohol syndrome and is just a tiny little thing, but she has some power to her grasp.
Today I got to see Andrei! It makes my day even though he’s a little stinker. I know I say “stinker” a lot – but it’s the best word to describe most of the kids. Anyways, Andrei does this adorable little thing with his face – he will quickly raise both of his eye brows, do the cheesiest smile you’ve ever seen showing his little teeth, then he will throw his head back and forth to the right and left, and finish off the sequence with a giggle. SO CUTE. I need to make sure I don’t favor him, but it’s hard sometimes…there are certain kids each of us girls have connected with more than others – just like each one of us have certain human beings we want to be around more than others. He’s just my little cuddler and it makes me feel so good when he runs into the room at full speed towards me and jumps into my arms. He lights up when sees me, and I love it!
I thought it was quite interesting because the last girl that worked with Andrei said that it took some time for her to warm up to him, and I instantly fell in love with him even though he requires so much attention and is probably the biggest pill – but he keeps me on my toes. In our apartments we have several binders that have pictures of all the kids in the orphanage and a write up on each one of them by the girl that worked with them the semester before. I read the last and only write up about Andrei by the last girl that worked with him. It was so funny. The first line read something to the effect of this – it took me some time to develop love for Andrei – and sometimes I had to take breaks away from him and go play with the other kids - but once I got to know him he was the cutest….for me I instantly adored him – weird huh?
When I left I waved goodbye and he waved goodbye, and then I blew him a kiss and he blew me a kiss back. Adorable. Keeping Andrei in mind I wanted to ask Mario (our local Romanian who is our adult caretaker) about the adoption process in Romania. First of all, apparently international adoption isn’t open in Romania which makes me sad. I know so many amazing people that would love to adopt a child. I heard that part of the reason they closed international adoption was because parents would readily give their children up if they knew they were going to the states because they knew they would be taken good care of. Today we met with Mario for a language lesson, and I asked her about how adoption works and told her that I wanted her to work a miracle and find a family for Andrei. She said there wasn’t a lot she could do and that the older they get the less chance they have to get adopted – but she said she would pull his files and take a look. I also asked her if there was anyway to get around the “no international adoption rules” and there might be, but I think they are hard to come by. She said that we could have a long talk about it sometime soon…it’s just so hard for me to sit back and see someone like Andrei –whose only disability is that he can’t hear – stuck in an orphanage with a bunch of children who can barely move. What will become of him? Also, if he doesn’t learn sign he will have no way to communicate which will cause some severe behavioral issues with him…If you think about it that would be so frustrating never being able to explain your needs or listen to anothers….I’ve already said it a million times but we take so much for granted! Grr…
At the hospital I visited my usual babies and changed their diapers. Poor Octavian has really bad diaper rash all over his bumb. Sometimes I wonder if the hospital cares about anything else besides simply keeping the person/baby/child alive. I was chatting with Whitney Scott about it and she said that the African hospitals are even worse. I didn’t know that was possible. The conditions are absolutely horrible in every room here. For example, in Octavian’s room (which is probably 12 x 12) there are four baby cribs that line the wall. Then with each baby there is a mom who sits in the crib with the baby. It’s so funny because you see room after room with multiple women in their pjs and their baby. It was somewhat surprising to me because the women are so harsh – but some of them really do love their babies. So now with the mom and baby you have about 8 sweaty bodies in a little room. Then to make it worse they don’t open windows because they believe that drafts will make their baby sick. Plus, because all the babies are in the same room they wake each other up. There are no clocks in the room and no television. There is absolutely nothing to do…I think hell is like that hospital. Sad to say. I wonder what it’s going to be like when it gets even hotter.
After the hospital we went to the church for a Relief Society activity. At first I was pretty worn out and not all that excited to go, but it ended up being fun. The sisters showed us how to sew a skirt and blouse. Not exactly my field of expertise…but it was good for someone to attempt to teach me. Then after that we had a little mini talent show. Mindy and Elyse had a gogosi eating contest. Poor Mindy lost…but we had a blast watching the two stuffing their face. Then for another one of the talents we had a dance contest…we all just danced around and goofed off and had a marvelous time! They even turned on the Macarena – old school! I ended up winning a certificate for the dance contest which was quite a surprise. I definitely didn’t feel like I deserved it….but I got a really pretty peach/pink colored scarf out of it. It was so funny the elders walked by to do something at the church and women of all ages were dancing around like we were little girls. I bet they think all girls do that when they get together…hahah…Awesome!
After the Relief Society activity we all went home exhausted and prepared for our slumber party between the girls’ apartments. We had Pizza Hut pizza – which was quite different than the states – but still very good - and then we had girl chat like usual. It was fun having the two apartments together. We went around chatting about how many boys we’ve kissed, played the game “Never Have I Ever,” and then we watched Newsies. Actually we didn’t watch it because all of us fell fast asleep when we turned it on – even though sleeping was quite uncomfortable. We were practically all squashed in one room – but at least we had a super fun night…
May 15, 2008 (Thursday)
Today was kind of a strange day. I’m not a big fan of days like that. Apparently there was some type of evaluation at the orphanage so all the workers were a bit more stressed out than normal. We played with all the kids – but I was so sad because I didn’t really get to see Andrei. He had run into Mickey Mouse Room #1 while I was in there and gave me a hug– he once again escaped his room – but they quickly took him back. Then when we went to go play with the kids in room #2 all the toddlers were sleeping including Andrei…I was so sad. It ruined my day not seeing that little monkey’s smile.
The afternoon at the hospital was a good one. I held lots of little babies that were sick. There was a newborn baby who was tiny who is having heart surgery soon. Poor thing. MacKenzie and I held some of the other babies as well. MacKenzie asked one of the nurses what one of the little boys name was and the nurse said that it was an orphan it didn’t have a name. SO sad. So MacKenzie and I named him Octavian. He is a beautiful baby boy. Then before we left we went and said hi to Florine and Marius…they are both such little studs. During that visit we ended up meeting a little boy named Alex. Alex is ten years old and had the most gorgeous blue/green eyes I have ever seen. A teenager in a bed next to him who spoke English told us that Alex was sad often because his mom had left him. Apparently she kept his brothers and sisters but not him. He was such a sweet boy too…it’s so hard to see so much sadness everywhere we look, and what’s even sadder is that his story seems to be a common one. How could a parent just leave their child? I don’t understand it.
Regardless, Alex and I had fun playing. I would say an animal or name of an object and then he would draw it on a little Magna Doodle. I’d tell him good job after each picture he drew…I could tell he was so proud when I praised him and patted his back. It’s amazing what a smile and kind words can do for someone – absolutely amazing. There was no better feeling than to look into his eyes and see a little light because I decided to give a bit of my time and heart to him…He was adorable. I can’t wait to see him again. He’s going to be one of my regulars that I visit.
After the hospital we went to the church for the fourth time this week…haha…we had to be set apart for our callings – I received a nice and encouraging blessing from one of the elders about being a Sunday school teacher. The priesthood is great – especially when men honor it.
Today was kind of a strange day. I’m not a big fan of days like that. Apparently there was some type of evaluation at the orphanage so all the workers were a bit more stressed out than normal. We played with all the kids – but I was so sad because I didn’t really get to see Andrei. He had run into Mickey Mouse Room #1 while I was in there and gave me a hug– he once again escaped his room – but they quickly took him back. Then when we went to go play with the kids in room #2 all the toddlers were sleeping including Andrei…I was so sad. It ruined my day not seeing that little monkey’s smile.
The afternoon at the hospital was a good one. I held lots of little babies that were sick. There was a newborn baby who was tiny who is having heart surgery soon. Poor thing. MacKenzie and I held some of the other babies as well. MacKenzie asked one of the nurses what one of the little boys name was and the nurse said that it was an orphan it didn’t have a name. SO sad. So MacKenzie and I named him Octavian. He is a beautiful baby boy. Then before we left we went and said hi to Florine and Marius…they are both such little studs. During that visit we ended up meeting a little boy named Alex. Alex is ten years old and had the most gorgeous blue/green eyes I have ever seen. A teenager in a bed next to him who spoke English told us that Alex was sad often because his mom had left him. Apparently she kept his brothers and sisters but not him. He was such a sweet boy too…it’s so hard to see so much sadness everywhere we look, and what’s even sadder is that his story seems to be a common one. How could a parent just leave their child? I don’t understand it.
Regardless, Alex and I had fun playing. I would say an animal or name of an object and then he would draw it on a little Magna Doodle. I’d tell him good job after each picture he drew…I could tell he was so proud when I praised him and patted his back. It’s amazing what a smile and kind words can do for someone – absolutely amazing. There was no better feeling than to look into his eyes and see a little light because I decided to give a bit of my time and heart to him…He was adorable. I can’t wait to see him again. He’s going to be one of my regulars that I visit.
After the hospital we went to the church for the fourth time this week…haha…we had to be set apart for our callings – I received a nice and encouraging blessing from one of the elders about being a Sunday school teacher. The priesthood is great – especially when men honor it.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
May 14, 2008 (Wednesday)
Everyone is trying to get in a routine at the orphanage still – we all keep switching where we are going at what times, but I think it will be all settled by the end of the week. This morning I went to the orphanage and worked with my three main kids in Mickey Mouse Room #1 and then my three in Mickey Mouse Room #2. Valentina AKA my little string bean (that’s my name for her) was much more calm today. She likes to climb in my lap constantly, or if I’m playing with one of the other kids while sitting on the ground she will come from behind and wrap her arms around your neck. She is a tiny little thing, and she probably weighs about 15 pounds max. Right now I’m trying to teach her to imitate me. I will clap once and then do it with her hands once. Then I will clap twice and do it with her hands twice. She doesn’t quite get the concept yet but she will. She will just sit in my lap and look at my hands in amazement. As for the other two in room #1 Irina and Constantine, today I took them out of their seats. They just sit in their seats all day. It’s so sad…When I took Irina out I would do exercises with her and move her legs and body around because her body gets so stiff from sitting in their chairs. I got her to smile big today – Elisa said that smiling is basically the maximum amount of a reaction that I will get from her - so I think I’m doing good. It’s just hard to feel like you’re making a difference when they are disabled so severely that they don’t respond too much – but even if I make them smile it makes it worth it to me. When I took Constantine out of his chair I could tell how excited he was – he is a very flat boy – his head is flat on one side because he sits all day like that…when I put him back in his chair he cried. I hate it when they cry…it makes me feel bad.
One of the kids I work with in Mickey Mouse Room #2 has changed. I work with Andrei, Ulia and Maria. Andrei was his usual self today – full of energy. I have decided to nickname him “my little monkey.” He gives me a workout. We took Andrei and the rest of the kids outside again. I had two toddlers to take care of outside today – Andrei and Gitza. That was quite the chore – they can both walk fast but neither are very good, and they would both want to run in opposite directions. I have a lot of respect for mothers with twins. Ha ha. Finally I put both of them in swings next to each other so I could easily watch both and they couldn’t escape. Andrei would still try and squirm out of his chair though when he was done. I’m trying to sign to him. Everytime I say “yes” or “no” I will do the hand action – I think he only knows “no” right now though because he is constantly doing stuff to get in trouble – but he’s so cute it’s hard to get upset with him. After outside I took Ulia out of her seat. I’m trying to get her to reach for objects I put above her head with both arms – she will do it with one or the other but never both. I didn’t have time to work with Maria, but some of the other girls played with her – I will make extra time for her tomorrow.
In the afternoon I went to the apartments – floor 3 and floor 7. Nothing too exciting happened in apartment 7 today. Ilena was really grouchy but the caretaker there was super nice. She gave us some type of chocolate cake, and it was really good. As for the floor 7 apartment, it was my first day to really meet and get to know the kids. There are 5 children from 5 to 7 years old and they are all extremely high functioning. They go to school and everything and easily talked to us. They were so sweet and so fun to be around. One of the girls was braiding Elyse’s hair, we blew bubbles, played with blocks – lots of fun stuff. I’m excited to go back to see them…!
On our way home Elyse and I had to take a tram that we don’t normally take, because we had to go straight to the church for an activity called Outreach. Mary told us to get off at the stop after the “red bridge.” It turns out that there are about 5 “red bridges” so we just decided to get off when it looked like we were getting far away from familiar buildings, etc. We ended up getting off and roaming around until we found our way to the church. We just laughed about it – we figured we would get there at some point…Elyse said that the only reason we found our way back so easily was because we were going to church…the Lord helps us out!
Outreach was a lot of fun. Us girls played card games with some investigators and the missionaries. I guess Outreach is just a fun way to interact with those who are investigating the church. I lost at Skip-Bo, but then we played a game similar to Slap Jack (I forgot the name of it) and I won. My reflexes were like a cat. Haha…I slapped those cards! We were all laughing pretty hard. Then when I was turning to put a card down a Romanian guy in the ward (I forgot his name) set popcorn down right when I turned and the popcorn went flying all over Whitney Scott and on the floor…then before the night was over I didn’t see someone’s drink sitting on the floor and I knocked it over. Oh yes – that’s me. Every since I got to Romania I seem to be more clumsy. I don’t understand it…
On the walk home from church we all had a speed walking contest along the sidewalk. It was Mindy’s idea – and it was amazing. We all looked like COMPLETE fools, but we were cracking up. Anything that makes us laugh after a long and somewhat stressful day is worth it. So fun!
P.S. My Romanian vocabulary is starting to get better.
P.S.S. We killed another cockroach (#3 to be exact). The countdown begins…
Everyone is trying to get in a routine at the orphanage still – we all keep switching where we are going at what times, but I think it will be all settled by the end of the week. This morning I went to the orphanage and worked with my three main kids in Mickey Mouse Room #1 and then my three in Mickey Mouse Room #2. Valentina AKA my little string bean (that’s my name for her) was much more calm today. She likes to climb in my lap constantly, or if I’m playing with one of the other kids while sitting on the ground she will come from behind and wrap her arms around your neck. She is a tiny little thing, and she probably weighs about 15 pounds max. Right now I’m trying to teach her to imitate me. I will clap once and then do it with her hands once. Then I will clap twice and do it with her hands twice. She doesn’t quite get the concept yet but she will. She will just sit in my lap and look at my hands in amazement. As for the other two in room #1 Irina and Constantine, today I took them out of their seats. They just sit in their seats all day. It’s so sad…When I took Irina out I would do exercises with her and move her legs and body around because her body gets so stiff from sitting in their chairs. I got her to smile big today – Elisa said that smiling is basically the maximum amount of a reaction that I will get from her - so I think I’m doing good. It’s just hard to feel like you’re making a difference when they are disabled so severely that they don’t respond too much – but even if I make them smile it makes it worth it to me. When I took Constantine out of his chair I could tell how excited he was – he is a very flat boy – his head is flat on one side because he sits all day like that…when I put him back in his chair he cried. I hate it when they cry…it makes me feel bad.
One of the kids I work with in Mickey Mouse Room #2 has changed. I work with Andrei, Ulia and Maria. Andrei was his usual self today – full of energy. I have decided to nickname him “my little monkey.” He gives me a workout. We took Andrei and the rest of the kids outside again. I had two toddlers to take care of outside today – Andrei and Gitza. That was quite the chore – they can both walk fast but neither are very good, and they would both want to run in opposite directions. I have a lot of respect for mothers with twins. Ha ha. Finally I put both of them in swings next to each other so I could easily watch both and they couldn’t escape. Andrei would still try and squirm out of his chair though when he was done. I’m trying to sign to him. Everytime I say “yes” or “no” I will do the hand action – I think he only knows “no” right now though because he is constantly doing stuff to get in trouble – but he’s so cute it’s hard to get upset with him. After outside I took Ulia out of her seat. I’m trying to get her to reach for objects I put above her head with both arms – she will do it with one or the other but never both. I didn’t have time to work with Maria, but some of the other girls played with her – I will make extra time for her tomorrow.
In the afternoon I went to the apartments – floor 3 and floor 7. Nothing too exciting happened in apartment 7 today. Ilena was really grouchy but the caretaker there was super nice. She gave us some type of chocolate cake, and it was really good. As for the floor 7 apartment, it was my first day to really meet and get to know the kids. There are 5 children from 5 to 7 years old and they are all extremely high functioning. They go to school and everything and easily talked to us. They were so sweet and so fun to be around. One of the girls was braiding Elyse’s hair, we blew bubbles, played with blocks – lots of fun stuff. I’m excited to go back to see them…!
On our way home Elyse and I had to take a tram that we don’t normally take, because we had to go straight to the church for an activity called Outreach. Mary told us to get off at the stop after the “red bridge.” It turns out that there are about 5 “red bridges” so we just decided to get off when it looked like we were getting far away from familiar buildings, etc. We ended up getting off and roaming around until we found our way to the church. We just laughed about it – we figured we would get there at some point…Elyse said that the only reason we found our way back so easily was because we were going to church…the Lord helps us out!
Outreach was a lot of fun. Us girls played card games with some investigators and the missionaries. I guess Outreach is just a fun way to interact with those who are investigating the church. I lost at Skip-Bo, but then we played a game similar to Slap Jack (I forgot the name of it) and I won. My reflexes were like a cat. Haha…I slapped those cards! We were all laughing pretty hard. Then when I was turning to put a card down a Romanian guy in the ward (I forgot his name) set popcorn down right when I turned and the popcorn went flying all over Whitney Scott and on the floor…then before the night was over I didn’t see someone’s drink sitting on the floor and I knocked it over. Oh yes – that’s me. Every since I got to Romania I seem to be more clumsy. I don’t understand it…
On the walk home from church we all had a speed walking contest along the sidewalk. It was Mindy’s idea – and it was amazing. We all looked like COMPLETE fools, but we were cracking up. Anything that makes us laugh after a long and somewhat stressful day is worth it. So fun!
P.S. My Romanian vocabulary is starting to get better.
P.S.S. We killed another cockroach (#3 to be exact). The countdown begins…
May 13, 2008 (Tuesday)
Today we picked a couple of children to work with in each room. In Mickey Mouse Room #1 I have Valentina, Constantine and Irina. Valentina is a tiny little string bean who runs around everywhere – she is a workout and she likes to blow raspberries constantly so you can’t get too close to her face or she will spit all over you. Lovely – but she’s a cutie. The other two are older, and they are basically in their chairs all day. Constantine has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he gets the biggest smile when you touch his face and talk to him. Irina is a sweetie, but she barely responds to much of anything. I’m going to try and have to think about what I can do to help her. When I was sitting in Mickey Mouse Room #1 with the other kids all of a sudden Andrei came running in as fast as he could and jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. He had escaped from Mickey Mouse Room #2…haha. He is absolutely adorable!
After Room #1 we went to Room #2, and took all the kids outside to play on the swing set. I followed Andrei around most of the time. He is seriously so stinkin cute but boy does he have a ton of energy. He will run as fast as he can, but his feet can’t always catch up with him and he will fall. The only disability he has is that he is deaf – he smiles and makes noises and points to things he wants to do and is a very energetic little boy. Whitney Scott is going to try and teach me some sign so I can work with him. I need to teach him how to let me know yes, no, up and down. Whenever Andrei is done swinging he will just jump off the swing all of a sudden, but he’s just a little guy so I have a heart attack almost every time. Then if I try playing with the other kids he will come over and sit in my lap, because he wants my full attention. I think if I were able to adopt him I probably would. He is such a stinker, but he instantly had my heart. He wants love so bad, and that’s what I’m here for!
We took our little break for lunch, and then six of us headed to the hospital. Today with Melissa I hung out with Marius (the boy who was badly burned) and his roommate Florine. The rest of the girls went to the other floors which are primarily filled with babies. However, starting Wednesday they are going to have two of the same girls come every day to visit him so there isn’t a different girl everyday for him to get to know. I think Melissa and Elisa are going to do that. I’m okay with that – but I’m still going to drop by and say hi every once in a while.
Marius’s aunt was there today so that was really nice. She speaks English so it was a lot easier to understand him. She would translate for us when we didn’t understand what the boys were saying – which was most of the time. His aunt was a sweetheart and she showed Melissa and I pictures of his parents, brothers and sisters and what he looked like before the fire. He was a handsome little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s amazing the damage that a fire can do to someone physically. Marius had a picture and video of his mom on his cell phone. He showed us it and listened to his mom’s voice. He played it a few times…I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking because he can’t make many physical facial expressions, but he just stayed real still and listened. We also blew bubbles and let him watch a movie on our lab top since I’m pretty sure they don’t have one television in the entire hospital to watch a movie. You have to be very creative in that hospital in order to find something to do. Then I gave Marius and Florine some toy cars my mom helped me buy before I came. I let them pick their two favorite ones. They seemed to really enjoy them.
I went to talk to Florine, and the poor thing had just gotten out of surgery. They had to take some skin off of his backside and put it around his knee area. He was in and out of sleeping and in a lot of pain. Apparently his mom works in Europe somewhere far away and his dad tries to come visit him once a week – but he doesn’t very often. That is a regular situation around Romania – the mom will leave the country to find work and send money home. Very foreign to the mormon way of doing things, but I guess whatever has to be done. I don’t understand it. Anyways, I just stroked his head for a while to help him go to sleep and to let him know someone was there and someone cared. I kept saying “im para rau” which means “I’m sorry.” Then I gave him some Spiderman stickers before I left. He seemed very grateful. Right before we left we took a picture. We told him we would print one out for him and bring it…he’s a little ladies man haha…
After that we all left and went to the internet café for a while to catch up on some things we needed to do. I’m already feeling worn out and it’s only the second day, but I LOVE being here. I love making other people happy…I’ve needed to get myself focused off myself and being here has definitely worked! I love it!
Today we picked a couple of children to work with in each room. In Mickey Mouse Room #1 I have Valentina, Constantine and Irina. Valentina is a tiny little string bean who runs around everywhere – she is a workout and she likes to blow raspberries constantly so you can’t get too close to her face or she will spit all over you. Lovely – but she’s a cutie. The other two are older, and they are basically in their chairs all day. Constantine has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he gets the biggest smile when you touch his face and talk to him. Irina is a sweetie, but she barely responds to much of anything. I’m going to try and have to think about what I can do to help her. When I was sitting in Mickey Mouse Room #1 with the other kids all of a sudden Andrei came running in as fast as he could and jumped into my arms and gave me a big hug. He had escaped from Mickey Mouse Room #2…haha. He is absolutely adorable!
After Room #1 we went to Room #2, and took all the kids outside to play on the swing set. I followed Andrei around most of the time. He is seriously so stinkin cute but boy does he have a ton of energy. He will run as fast as he can, but his feet can’t always catch up with him and he will fall. The only disability he has is that he is deaf – he smiles and makes noises and points to things he wants to do and is a very energetic little boy. Whitney Scott is going to try and teach me some sign so I can work with him. I need to teach him how to let me know yes, no, up and down. Whenever Andrei is done swinging he will just jump off the swing all of a sudden, but he’s just a little guy so I have a heart attack almost every time. Then if I try playing with the other kids he will come over and sit in my lap, because he wants my full attention. I think if I were able to adopt him I probably would. He is such a stinker, but he instantly had my heart. He wants love so bad, and that’s what I’m here for!
We took our little break for lunch, and then six of us headed to the hospital. Today with Melissa I hung out with Marius (the boy who was badly burned) and his roommate Florine. The rest of the girls went to the other floors which are primarily filled with babies. However, starting Wednesday they are going to have two of the same girls come every day to visit him so there isn’t a different girl everyday for him to get to know. I think Melissa and Elisa are going to do that. I’m okay with that – but I’m still going to drop by and say hi every once in a while.
Marius’s aunt was there today so that was really nice. She speaks English so it was a lot easier to understand him. She would translate for us when we didn’t understand what the boys were saying – which was most of the time. His aunt was a sweetheart and she showed Melissa and I pictures of his parents, brothers and sisters and what he looked like before the fire. He was a handsome little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s amazing the damage that a fire can do to someone physically. Marius had a picture and video of his mom on his cell phone. He showed us it and listened to his mom’s voice. He played it a few times…I couldn’t really tell what he was thinking because he can’t make many physical facial expressions, but he just stayed real still and listened. We also blew bubbles and let him watch a movie on our lab top since I’m pretty sure they don’t have one television in the entire hospital to watch a movie. You have to be very creative in that hospital in order to find something to do. Then I gave Marius and Florine some toy cars my mom helped me buy before I came. I let them pick their two favorite ones. They seemed to really enjoy them.
I went to talk to Florine, and the poor thing had just gotten out of surgery. They had to take some skin off of his backside and put it around his knee area. He was in and out of sleeping and in a lot of pain. Apparently his mom works in Europe somewhere far away and his dad tries to come visit him once a week – but he doesn’t very often. That is a regular situation around Romania – the mom will leave the country to find work and send money home. Very foreign to the mormon way of doing things, but I guess whatever has to be done. I don’t understand it. Anyways, I just stroked his head for a while to help him go to sleep and to let him know someone was there and someone cared. I kept saying “im para rau” which means “I’m sorry.” Then I gave him some Spiderman stickers before I left. He seemed very grateful. Right before we left we took a picture. We told him we would print one out for him and bring it…he’s a little ladies man haha…
After that we all left and went to the internet café for a while to catch up on some things we needed to do. I’m already feeling worn out and it’s only the second day, but I LOVE being here. I love making other people happy…I’ve needed to get myself focused off myself and being here has definitely worked! I love it!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
My First Full Day at the Orphanage
May 12, 2008 (Monday)
My day started off well this morning – I finally got to talk to my mom which was a surprise - there have been many issues with calling cards. I only had time to chat with her for about 15 minutes, because I was getting ready to go to the orphanage but it was nice to hear the voice of someone familiar. I quickly briefed her on the experiences I’ve had so far. Yesterday was kind of a rough day for me, but today was much better. The hospital was such an eerie place, but I loved talking to the children and holding the sick babies.
Today was our first full day in the orphanage. When I first entered Mickey Mouse room #1 a little toddler named Andrei ran to me and put his hands up like he wanted me to hold him. Andrei is normal except for the fact that he is deaf. I’m guessing he is barely two years old. He was absolutely adorable, but boy does he cling to you. He wouldn’t let me put him down once I started holding him. I think that’s why the workers sometimes don’t let you hold them. After I held him for a while we took some of the little ones outside to play. It’s so funny here – they bundle their kids up when it’s not even that cold outside. The caretaker put on a jacket and snow hat with ear muffs on Andrei to go outside when it was probably about 75 degrees outside. They are really paranoid about the kids getting sick.
Outside Whitny Scott and I pushed the children on the swings. Andrei excitedly led me to the swing set. The swing set we went to was surrounded by thick tall weeds like someone had let their grass grow for months and months. The weeds were about as tall as him – poor Andrei had to lift his legs so high to simply walk. It was so cute. Then I took a dandelion and blew on it and all the seeds flew everywhere in the wind. Andrei was fascinated. I showed him how to blow on the flower and he would try but he just ended up spitting on it instead. It was pretty funny and adorable. Every once in a while he would blow on it correctly and the seeds would fly everywhere, and he would get so excited. We probably blew on flowers for about half an hour. It’s amazing what amuses children.
There was also another little baby named Kristen who you could tell was everyone’s favorite, because he is so adorable. He is probably 8 months old and he has cerebral palsy – so essentially there is nothing wrong with his mind, and he knows what is going on, but his body doesn’t work. He was seriously beautiful, and he had the longest eyelashes ever. You would just touch his face and he would smile so big…but the poor thing would just sit in his chair. They wouldn’t let us take him out until later in the morning – I don’t know what makes them decide when it’s okay for us to take them out. Some of the other toddlers had to stay in their crib – we asked if we could take one of them out and she said not until the afternoon and we weren’t going to be there then. It’s sad when they do that…
The rest of the children in that room are pretty low functioning. Some of them are in wheelchairs and some of them just lay on the mat. There is a wide range of ability in every room in the orphanage. However, I’m having a hard time figuring out how they put which children in which room – the majority of the children in the Mickey Mouse room are older babies or toddlers, but then there are some older lower functioning older children as well.
The caretakers there were more loving than I thought so that was nice. Some of them obviously seemed nicer than others, but they did seem to care about the children. However, I have noticed that the cuter children get played with more – I feel bad for the ones that aren’t as attractive. If you are in an orphanage as a child and you aren’t attractive you aren’t paid much attention to. I tried to play with the ones that didn’t get as much attention as well…
Whitney and I went to go to the other Mickey Mouse room, but the children were all napping. Tomorrow we will go to their room first and then while they are napping we will play with the children in the other room. After playing with them for a few hours we all took a break for lunch and then Mary and I headed for the apartment on floor 7. I talked with MacKenzie and she said they let them hold the smaller babies for part of the time – so that was really good to hear. I guess they have lightened up a little about letting the girls hold the babies.
After we took our lunch break some girls went to the hospital and Mary and I went to the apartments that have the orphans. We all alternate going to the apartments and hospitals each day. Each apartment had 4 children and they are all so adorable. The kids just light up when we walk into the room, because they know we are going to play with them. I’m so excited to get to learn and understand their personalities.
On the way to the apartments Mary and I had a good talk with Elisa. Elisa (our facilitator) was talking about how if you don’t leave Romania changed with all the experiences you go through then you did something wrong. I agree…it’s amazing how insignificant things are when they are put into perspective. It’s so funny how people – my self included – can worry about material things like having a new car, wearing the most fashionable outfit or having the nicest house when there are kids like Marius. Marius has been in a hospital for over 6 months because of severe burns all over his body, his hands and nose are burned off, his face is distorted, his parents and brother were killed in a fire that nearly killed him, and in the hospital he still manages to joke and smile. How could that be? How could he still be happy after all of that? I was amazed…but then again what right do any of us have to walk around being unhappy – especially when we have so much. He doesn’t even have the gospel to rely on…but if he can be happy then I sure as heck better be…He’s my inspiration. I need to be better, and I want to do better.
After we left the apartments we ran home and went to Family Home Evening at the church. FHE primarily consisted of the BYU girls, but that’s okay. We had fun. It was a nice relaxer. Then my mom and Ariane called…I wasn’t able to talk to them too long, but it was so good to hear their voice. I miss all my family!
MY FIRST DAY IN THE HOSPITAL - MY HARDEST DAY
May 11, 2008 (Sunday)
This morning I woke up to get ready for church, and I stepped out of the shower and there was a huge cock roach so I had to kill it – so disgusting! Then I went to blow dry my hair and the blow dryer started smoking profusely…the appliances in Romania are terrible. I don’t know what the deal is. Then I went to church which was excellent as usual, and us girls had to go to church an hour early for our first choir practice. The choir consists of the BYU girls and the missionaries. Everyone was singing whether or not they were able to…needless to say we still sounded decent. After we practiced a particular hymn with the group about once we were asked to sing in sacrament meeting – so we did. It’s very fast paced around here…The first hymn we sang had a word in Romanian in it that if we pronounced it slightly wrong it would sound like we were saying the “f” word in Romanian…way to bring the spirit in. It was kind of funny because we all got real quiet when we had to sing that word because we were all afraid we were going to pronounce it wrong.
Church is kind of hard to sit through – we have the missionaries to translate, but I feel bad because the teacher or speaker will stop in between every sentence so the missionary can translate what they are saying. It’s nice of them to do it for us so we don’t have to sit through three hours of meetings only understanding about two words that are spoken, but it’s kind of distracting having several people speaking at once. Elisa (our facilitator) said the missionaries wouldn’t translate for their group when she came a couple of years ago because they didn’t want to – I guess we are lucky.
During church Elisa asked MacKenzie and I if we wanted to go to the hospital that afternoon. We aren’t required to go on the weekends, but apparently we can if we want to so we decided to give it a shot since we hadn’t been yet. After church we quickly got dressed in our bright blue scrubs and headed off to the hospital. When I first walked in I felt like I was in a nightmare. The hospital was horrid looking. The walls were stark white, the floors were broken in sporadic places, glass windows were broken and everything looked and smelled old. I couldn’t believe people stayed there when they were sick. I thought our hospitals were bad. I was scared just walking in there – I couldn’t imagine how scared the children must have been that were staying there. MacKenzie and I were pretty shocked. We just looked at each other and kept following Elisa. She was showing us where to go since it was our first time.
Elisa showed us what to do once we got to the hospital. When we arrive we are supposed to go to each floor and ask the nurses “Aveti copii fara mama?” which means “Do you have kids without a mom?” If they have kids on the floor that don’t have a mom then they show us where they are and we hold and take care of them. The first floor we went to didn’t have any kids without moms so we went to the next one. Elisa dropped me off in a room that had several babies in it. One of them didn’t have a mom, and I picked her up and held her. With the babies we just hold them and then we change their diaper if needed. The little girl I picked up was probably about 4 months old and she was absolutely beautiful. You could tell the poor thing was so sick though. She had snot coming out of her nose and her entire body shook when she coughed. As I rocked her and held her close I kept thinking it’s not fair that these children don’t have anyone to care and love them. It’s just not fair. I softly touched her cheek and smiled and talked to her. After a while she finally smiled back. Some of these poor babies are simply lethargic. They just sit in their cribs all day and are rarely held – they have no one to love them – not even when they are sick except for a few strangers like us…I can’t think about it too much. It’s so sad – the only thing that makes me happy was the small light in her eyes that I saw when I smiled at her, but it was hard - really hard – but I’m grateful to bring a little light into someone else’s life.
The next room over I went to had another baby even smaller than the one I had just held. She was probably about a month old and she had a tube coming out of her nose and a tube coming out of her head. She was tiny and frail. She was also very sick…at one point she started coughing so hard that she turned blue. I thought I needed to get a nurse but then she stopped…Apparently they call her the blue baby. I couldn’t get out of my mind that these poor things have to bear being sick alone – not to mention life – at least for the time being. They are so tiny and fragile. I sang to this baby, held her close and told her everything was going to be alright…I kept singing nursery hymns and primary songs like “I Am A Child of God.”
In both the rooms I held the babies there were several other iron cribs with other children. Some gypsy moms were in there. The culture is very different here. A gypsy mom just lied on the bed with her baby and her baby just played with her chest quite openly…she didn’t seem to care that I was there. At first it was a little awkward, but I just smiled at her baby and she smiled back. The language barrier made it hard to say too much, but I managed to get out a few sentences.
After I laid the babies down – which was hard to do – I went down to switch places with Mindy who was on another floor. Melissa and Mindy had been feeding an orphan boy who was badly burned in a fire. When I walked into the room the site was quite gruesome, but I handled it better than expected. The boys name was Mario and his entire family was killed in a fire. His face was badly burned and so was the rest of his entire body. His nose and hands had been burned off along with other body parts so the girls were feeding him. It will be an image I will never get out of my mind…never… If you would like to learn more about his story the girls who came before us put together a Web site for him at www.teammarius.org
Next to him was another boy who was about 13 years old who had also been burned in a fire, and his name was Florine. His face hadn’t been burned but the rest of his body had. Melissa and I tried talking to the boys in our broken Romanian – it was soooooooooo frustrating trying to speak to them. They could speak well and between the two of us we could barely put sentences together. The boys were good sports though – they just laughed at us and attempted to teach us words in Romanian. I WISH I were better at speaking the language! It was quite intimidating that they could speak well, but I had a blast being with them anyways. It was the most frustrating thing in the world to not be able to ask and say fairly simple things. I basically played charades with them in order to get him to understand what I was doing. I’m going to bring a dictionary with me next time I go….
Florine was an absolutely adorable boy – such a sweetheart. He drew me pictures on a magna doodle and told me what the words meant in Romanian. He has been in the hospital for about 1 month and 3 weeks…we asked the boys what they did all day and they said lay in bed. The thought of laying in a bed with severe burns for that long in the most terrifying hospital I had ever seen made me sick. Those boys amaze me – so courageous. My problems are so so so so so so trivial. Right before I left Florine drew me a picture of hearts and flowers – it was cute. I think he liked me visiting him – I can’t wait to visit the boys again. I’m more motivated than ever to work on my Romanian….
On the way home from the hospital I was a bit overwhelmed…but I will be fine. It’s amazing how people can live in the same world and experience such different things. My heart aches for the kids – but hopefully I can bring some sunshine into their life. I’m trying not to let the sadness get to me too much, but it’s going to be hard, and I have a feeling there are going to be several instances where I’m going to break down and cry over the next few months – which is normal considering the circumstances… being with these kids made me never want to complain about my life – I have no right to. They have nothing and they still manage to laugh. If anyone is reading this please keep the kids in your prayers – they need all the help they can get…
After the hospital all both the apartments got together to have Sunday dinner. While we were gone apparently Mary and Annie had a creepy experience. Some guy had called our apartment and asked if he had reached the “American” girls. Mary said she thought it was some guy in the branch who was looking for us so she said yes. Then he continued talking to her in broken English saying that he had seen us in “the Halla” which is a place where we buy our groceries and that we were very beautiful. He continued to tell her over and over again that he loved American girls. She asked him if he had spoken to us and he said he was too shy. Then she asked him how he got our phone number and he said that he worked for a phone company or something like that…I was like great the last thing we need is stalkers on our hands….SO CREEPY! I told the girls if he called again to hang up – I don’t have a good feeling about it.
After the events of the day all us girls were a bit irritable. We have a lot to deal with right now, and we have to make sure we don’t take it out on each other….today was Mother’s Day, and I wanted to talk to both my mothers so bad! I still can’t seem to figure out how to communicate over the phone. It is quite the process…I really need to talk to my parents! I was kind of panicking tonight. I NEED to talk to someone who is familiar to me. Our apartment doesn’t have the internet so it makes it really hard to get anything done or to communicate with the outside world – quite frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Tonight Elisa told us what rooms we are going to be working in. Every morning of the week I will be working in the orphanage in the Mickey Mouse room with some toddlers and other children who are unable to move. Then on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons I will be going to work with children in the apartments on floor 3 and 7 and on Tuesday and Thursday I will work in the hospital in the afternoons. I think it will work out well…
This morning I woke up to get ready for church, and I stepped out of the shower and there was a huge cock roach so I had to kill it – so disgusting! Then I went to blow dry my hair and the blow dryer started smoking profusely…the appliances in Romania are terrible. I don’t know what the deal is. Then I went to church which was excellent as usual, and us girls had to go to church an hour early for our first choir practice. The choir consists of the BYU girls and the missionaries. Everyone was singing whether or not they were able to…needless to say we still sounded decent. After we practiced a particular hymn with the group about once we were asked to sing in sacrament meeting – so we did. It’s very fast paced around here…The first hymn we sang had a word in Romanian in it that if we pronounced it slightly wrong it would sound like we were saying the “f” word in Romanian…way to bring the spirit in. It was kind of funny because we all got real quiet when we had to sing that word because we were all afraid we were going to pronounce it wrong.
Church is kind of hard to sit through – we have the missionaries to translate, but I feel bad because the teacher or speaker will stop in between every sentence so the missionary can translate what they are saying. It’s nice of them to do it for us so we don’t have to sit through three hours of meetings only understanding about two words that are spoken, but it’s kind of distracting having several people speaking at once. Elisa (our facilitator) said the missionaries wouldn’t translate for their group when she came a couple of years ago because they didn’t want to – I guess we are lucky.
During church Elisa asked MacKenzie and I if we wanted to go to the hospital that afternoon. We aren’t required to go on the weekends, but apparently we can if we want to so we decided to give it a shot since we hadn’t been yet. After church we quickly got dressed in our bright blue scrubs and headed off to the hospital. When I first walked in I felt like I was in a nightmare. The hospital was horrid looking. The walls were stark white, the floors were broken in sporadic places, glass windows were broken and everything looked and smelled old. I couldn’t believe people stayed there when they were sick. I thought our hospitals were bad. I was scared just walking in there – I couldn’t imagine how scared the children must have been that were staying there. MacKenzie and I were pretty shocked. We just looked at each other and kept following Elisa. She was showing us where to go since it was our first time.
Elisa showed us what to do once we got to the hospital. When we arrive we are supposed to go to each floor and ask the nurses “Aveti copii fara mama?” which means “Do you have kids without a mom?” If they have kids on the floor that don’t have a mom then they show us where they are and we hold and take care of them. The first floor we went to didn’t have any kids without moms so we went to the next one. Elisa dropped me off in a room that had several babies in it. One of them didn’t have a mom, and I picked her up and held her. With the babies we just hold them and then we change their diaper if needed. The little girl I picked up was probably about 4 months old and she was absolutely beautiful. You could tell the poor thing was so sick though. She had snot coming out of her nose and her entire body shook when she coughed. As I rocked her and held her close I kept thinking it’s not fair that these children don’t have anyone to care and love them. It’s just not fair. I softly touched her cheek and smiled and talked to her. After a while she finally smiled back. Some of these poor babies are simply lethargic. They just sit in their cribs all day and are rarely held – they have no one to love them – not even when they are sick except for a few strangers like us…I can’t think about it too much. It’s so sad – the only thing that makes me happy was the small light in her eyes that I saw when I smiled at her, but it was hard - really hard – but I’m grateful to bring a little light into someone else’s life.
The next room over I went to had another baby even smaller than the one I had just held. She was probably about a month old and she had a tube coming out of her nose and a tube coming out of her head. She was tiny and frail. She was also very sick…at one point she started coughing so hard that she turned blue. I thought I needed to get a nurse but then she stopped…Apparently they call her the blue baby. I couldn’t get out of my mind that these poor things have to bear being sick alone – not to mention life – at least for the time being. They are so tiny and fragile. I sang to this baby, held her close and told her everything was going to be alright…I kept singing nursery hymns and primary songs like “I Am A Child of God.”
In both the rooms I held the babies there were several other iron cribs with other children. Some gypsy moms were in there. The culture is very different here. A gypsy mom just lied on the bed with her baby and her baby just played with her chest quite openly…she didn’t seem to care that I was there. At first it was a little awkward, but I just smiled at her baby and she smiled back. The language barrier made it hard to say too much, but I managed to get out a few sentences.
After I laid the babies down – which was hard to do – I went down to switch places with Mindy who was on another floor. Melissa and Mindy had been feeding an orphan boy who was badly burned in a fire. When I walked into the room the site was quite gruesome, but I handled it better than expected. The boys name was Mario and his entire family was killed in a fire. His face was badly burned and so was the rest of his entire body. His nose and hands had been burned off along with other body parts so the girls were feeding him. It will be an image I will never get out of my mind…never… If you would like to learn more about his story the girls who came before us put together a Web site for him at www.teammarius.org
Next to him was another boy who was about 13 years old who had also been burned in a fire, and his name was Florine. His face hadn’t been burned but the rest of his body had. Melissa and I tried talking to the boys in our broken Romanian – it was soooooooooo frustrating trying to speak to them. They could speak well and between the two of us we could barely put sentences together. The boys were good sports though – they just laughed at us and attempted to teach us words in Romanian. I WISH I were better at speaking the language! It was quite intimidating that they could speak well, but I had a blast being with them anyways. It was the most frustrating thing in the world to not be able to ask and say fairly simple things. I basically played charades with them in order to get him to understand what I was doing. I’m going to bring a dictionary with me next time I go….
Florine was an absolutely adorable boy – such a sweetheart. He drew me pictures on a magna doodle and told me what the words meant in Romanian. He has been in the hospital for about 1 month and 3 weeks…we asked the boys what they did all day and they said lay in bed. The thought of laying in a bed with severe burns for that long in the most terrifying hospital I had ever seen made me sick. Those boys amaze me – so courageous. My problems are so so so so so so trivial. Right before I left Florine drew me a picture of hearts and flowers – it was cute. I think he liked me visiting him – I can’t wait to visit the boys again. I’m more motivated than ever to work on my Romanian….
On the way home from the hospital I was a bit overwhelmed…but I will be fine. It’s amazing how people can live in the same world and experience such different things. My heart aches for the kids – but hopefully I can bring some sunshine into their life. I’m trying not to let the sadness get to me too much, but it’s going to be hard, and I have a feeling there are going to be several instances where I’m going to break down and cry over the next few months – which is normal considering the circumstances… being with these kids made me never want to complain about my life – I have no right to. They have nothing and they still manage to laugh. If anyone is reading this please keep the kids in your prayers – they need all the help they can get…
After the hospital all both the apartments got together to have Sunday dinner. While we were gone apparently Mary and Annie had a creepy experience. Some guy had called our apartment and asked if he had reached the “American” girls. Mary said she thought it was some guy in the branch who was looking for us so she said yes. Then he continued talking to her in broken English saying that he had seen us in “the Halla” which is a place where we buy our groceries and that we were very beautiful. He continued to tell her over and over again that he loved American girls. She asked him if he had spoken to us and he said he was too shy. Then she asked him how he got our phone number and he said that he worked for a phone company or something like that…I was like great the last thing we need is stalkers on our hands….SO CREEPY! I told the girls if he called again to hang up – I don’t have a good feeling about it.
After the events of the day all us girls were a bit irritable. We have a lot to deal with right now, and we have to make sure we don’t take it out on each other….today was Mother’s Day, and I wanted to talk to both my mothers so bad! I still can’t seem to figure out how to communicate over the phone. It is quite the process…I really need to talk to my parents! I was kind of panicking tonight. I NEED to talk to someone who is familiar to me. Our apartment doesn’t have the internet so it makes it really hard to get anything done or to communicate with the outside world – quite frustrating. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Tonight Elisa told us what rooms we are going to be working in. Every morning of the week I will be working in the orphanage in the Mickey Mouse room with some toddlers and other children who are unable to move. Then on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons I will be going to work with children in the apartments on floor 3 and 7 and on Tuesday and Thursday I will work in the hospital in the afternoons. I think it will work out well…
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