Spitalul (The Hospital)

This past week blew by so quickly. It is so hard to believe that I have already been here for a month. At times I feel as though I arrived in Romania just yesterday and at other times I feel a sense of home and familiarity as if I have always lived here. Those are my favorite moments; when I am walking down the street or sitting by the Palace and I feel a sense of belonging. I can't even imagine leaving this place only to never come back. I have grown closer to the other girls here and the fact that I may not see some of them again after I leave also makes me sad.

Our portion sizes of meals are very small and the food can be very bland. We decided to go out and eat and I have never enjoyed a cheeseburger so much. It tasted a little like home!

A beautiful park we found. It has some cute little jewelry stands and many gelato shops so you can bet that I will be back to this place. It will be beautiful when the leaves start changing colors.

This week was much easier at the orphanage because we are starting to really get to know our kids and get the hang of how things work. My kiddo that I will introduce this week is nicknamed my little teddy bear. He is about to turn three and is the sweetest little boy I have ever met. He is so chubby and loves to sit on your lap and snuggle. One of my favorite moments with him is when we were outside and I was sitting on the porch swing in the playground. He had found a baby doll and carried it over to where I was sitting. He climbed up right next to me and snuggled up under my arm. Then he held the baby like it was real and started rocking it back and forth and singing to it like a lullaby. My heart absolutely melted!! I started singing with him (even though the words were just Romanian gibberish) and we sat like that swinging and singing for probable 15 minutes. Another thing he loves to do is dance. When we come inside we sometimes put on music and he stops whatever he is doing and starts dancing around. Then at the end of every song he would start clapping enthusiastically while yelling "Bravo!!". However, because my little teddy bear is completely healthy, they decided to send him to the apartments until they find him a permanent home. This is good news because it will help him transition into a great family eventually but I will miss him terribly. Thankfully, a few times a week I get to go visit the kids at the apartments so I will get to still see him every once in a while.

This week I had the opportunity to go to the Hospital where I will be volunteering for the first time. It was quite the eye-opening experience. I go with a few other girls and we walk along the floors of the hospital asking the nurses "Copii fara mama?" which means "Children without mothers?". More often than not the nurses say no and shew us away because they don't want to deal with us. But on a good day, the nurses will direct us to the rooms of children who are abandoned or whose family doesn't have time to come visit very often and we get to sit and play with them for a little bit. The ages of the kids vary from week old babies to teenagers. The teenagers are hard because they don't speak English and I definitely don't speak well enough Romanian so we can just say hi and introduce ourselves. We can play with the younger kids more and we bring bubbles and coloring books to entertain them. Most of the little babies are too sick to pick up and play with so we just give them the affection and physical contact that they desperately need.

The hospital. The conditions are not the best. There are 3-5 patients in each room and right now they can't afford AC so the rooms are all about 80 degrees!

There was one baby girl I saw who was only a few weeks old. She had been abandoned and had a heart problem and was too small to pick up so I put my finger up to her tiny hand and she grabbed on with all the strength she had. She did not stop crying the entire time that we were there and it broke my heart. The only thing the nurse told us about her was "she needs affection". All of these poor children live with less than the bare necessities and all they crave is affection. So many times we take affection for granted. These kids just want one hug, one kiss, one smile given to them, or even a warm hand to cling onto for just a few moments. They need some way to know that they are not as alone as they feel. It is such a simple thing to give yet many people ignore the need or shrug off it's importance. After witnessing this over and over again on a daily basis, I am going to try a little harder to be a little better at giving a little more affection to the world.

Romanian Orphans make me a whole lot of happy.

I was listening to a General Conference talk this morning and it was about how we can more successfully be God's hands. One thing that the speaker said was that we need to "throw away the mirror, and look through the window". My entire life I have been looking in a mirror. I'd like to think that it was a somewhat transparent mirror as I have always tried to be considerate of other's needs and feelings. Nevertheless, I have been focusing on my own reflection throughout my life. Coming to Romania was a big decision for me and I knew that I would be able to touch these children's lives. However, I am willingly admitting that I was looking at the mirror more than looking through the window. I knew that I would have the opportunity to go on these big vacations and see the world and that this experience would change me. I was excited to make my own reflection in the mirror brighter and better. However, after getting to know all of these wonderful children, I have chosen to make a bigger effort to throw away the mirror, and look through the window at all of their beautiful faces instead. By looking through the window, I can focus on how to make their reflections brighter and better instead of mine. I have been so blessed in my life and I know my individual worth as a child of God. In order to truly be His hands, I need to help these kids see their worth in their reflections as well. This mean I need to stop complaining about broken sinks and noisy neighbors, and start making sacrifices without seeing it as a burden.

On a bit of a lighter note, my apartment has a new pet! Unfortunately it is not a brown or black puppy like I suggested getting last week. Instead, we have an obnoxious, inconsiderate, stubborn, and very noisy pigeon living in our kitchen pantry. It's not actually living in our kitchen pantry, but the only thing separating it from us is an old screen. This bird has been with us since day one and apparently is planning on remaining with us all winter as it has already begun building its nest. Now this pigeon isn't your average run of the mill city bird. I think it has social anxiety as it never ever ever leaves our pantry. Ever. That wouldn't be a problem except that I think it also has brain damage and it's ability to stop making bird noises is broken. It is constantly making the obnoxious noises that pigeons make. You know when people listen to horrible singers and say, "They sound like a dying bird"? Well I can assure everyone that no sound is as bad as the sound this bird makes and it isn't even dying!! We are in the process of coming up with a way to get rid of it in a more civilized manor and I will keep you updated on the bird status. Although at this rate, the decision we come to will most likely not be so civilized.

It is literally a box in our pantry with a screen separating the bird from us. The bird is probably out getting it's daily meal but don't worry-it will be back soon to eat it so we can all hear. 

This will be my last blog post for a few weeks because on Friday I leave for Greece for ten days! I will update when I can but thank you for reading and sending your love and support. Below are some pictures from the Botanical gardens that me and the girls visited this week. Until next time!

Superstitions

I'm not going to lie, this week was rough. I woke up early Monday morning ready to officially start in my room at the orphanage when I got very sick and had to stay home for two days. However, the good news is that our washing machine and exploding pipes finally got fixed! Remember last week how I was saying that when I complain about things, worse things happen? I got my final lesson (hopefully) on that this week. I was complaining about being sick and not being able to go to the orphanage along with a few other trivial things. So naturally, Wednesday night, our toilet broke. So we had no working toilet in our apartment for 36 hours. And we were all sick. It made a broken washing machine and exploding pipes seem like a dream house. I ended up staying at another apartment for a night which was actually fun but I was thrilled when our toilet was finally functional again. Life sure does have a funny way of putting things into perspective.

Supporting my cougars all the way from Romania for the big rivalry game this weekend.

I've decided that the reason I am having such bad luck is because of the many superstitions here in Romania. I read about a few of them before I came but didn't pay much attention to them. However, because I have recently been getting the worst luck, I decided to do a little research. Here are a few that I found: 1. Seeing an ambulance brings bad luck, unless you pinch your nose right away or hold your breath until you see a brown or black dog. We live by a very busy street and an ambulance drives by literally every 10-15 minutes. So no wonder I have had such bad luck! The dog thing is a bit of a problem but if I needed another excuse to get a puppy, this is it. 2. The next superstition I found is if a black cat will cross the road in front of you, you will have bad luck. This is a better known superstition and there are hundreds of wild cats roaming around the city. So if I needed any more reasons to hate cats, this is it. 3. If you spill water on the floor, never wash it with your foot. Well when pipes are exploding in my kitchen and water is spreading everywhere, I had to use my feet to move the towels around because my hands were too busy frantically trying to use the phone. So that one just isn't fair. 4. If you catch a falling leaf on the first day of autumn, you will not be cold all winter. This superstition is very important because with my luck, our heaters will all break and we will freeze all winter. So you can betcha that on September 22nd I will be running around the park frantically trying to catch leaves.

This is not me in the picture, but it is my roommate Katie! We all love to come and sit under these tree's and read in the afternoons.

However, there is hope for my bad luck! There are two positive superstitions that I found as well. 1. If you dream of killing a bear, it is a signal that you're free of all tangles in your life. 2. If you dream of yourself with false teeth, you will have unexpected help for your problems. So everyone cross your fingers this week that I will dream of either killing a bear or having false teeth. Better yet, lets just hope that I dream of killing a bear while wearing false teeth. That would surely fix all of my problems.

I am definitely going to miss this Palace. I finally got to see it with the lights on this week.

The room in the orphanage I got put in is called Bambi 1. My roommate Katie got put into that room as well so we will have a lot of fun. We have 12 kids total and they are between the ages of 2 and 4 with a few exceptions. There are three kids who are usually in their cribs or wheelchairs and are less functional. The rest have very minor to no disabilities and are playful as can be. And by that I mean they have tons of energy that they need to get out and are not afraid to do that when we are there. We spend the first two hours outside on the playground with a similar group and so I get to know those kids as well. Then we all come inside and the workers take most of the kids to work on potty training or give them a bath while we hang out with a few of the kids. Then the last half hour, the kids all come into the room and we put on music and it turns into mass chaos. They love to dance around and sometimes get a little too carried away. Then we drop them off at the cafeteria for lunch and head on our way.

The view from the food court at the mall. So beautiful! I can't wait until it snows and everything is white.

I'm going to be honest, I was less than thrilled when I found out which room I was going to be in. I had made such a connection with every other section in the orphanage and I wanted so badly to be in those instead. However, I went in with a softened heart and an open mind. After spending about 20 minutes with these kids, I can honestly say that I am exactly where I need to be and I cannot imagine spending my mornings anywhere else. Each child has such a unique personality and I already feel like I am getting to know them. I love seeing their faces light up when we walk in, or the cute little scrunched-nose smiles they get right before they burst into a fit of giggles when we tickle them. I love how they are constantly coming up and grabbing my hand, pulling me over to a swing, or to show me something magical that they found in the dirt. I especially love sitting there listening to them babble on and on in Romanian about something exciting and all I can do it smile and nod and say "Da" ("Yes") every once in a while. Verbal communication with them is next to nothing. But emotional communication has never been easier for me. I wish I could post pictures of all of my kids for you to see because oh my goodness are they cute. However, I am not allowed to take or post pictures because of security and privacy reasons.

One night we were hanging out by the palace and a group came to perform. They sang some songs from Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia, Somewhere over the Rainbow, and a few Disney songs. They were in English which was fun and I felt like I was in a real life Fairy-tail while listening and looking at the Palace.

Each week I will introduce you to one of my kids who I will give nicknames so you know who I am talking about. This week I will talk about one of my new favorite little boys on the planet. I will call him Gus Gus (yes, like from Cinderella). Gus Gus just turned 3 and he is so ridiculously chubby and cute. He has the biggest cheeks and widest eyes and cutest little smile. Whenever he walks in to a room, he looks straight at you, puts on the biggest smile, and runs full force into your arms. He loves sitting on your lap and being tickled. He also loves food more than anyone else in the world. Its like he has a sixth sense. Whenever anyone has any kind of food, he finds it and is right there waiting for you to give him some within seconds. However, this also causes him to have a biting problem. We constantly find bite marks on other kids arms or legs. One time I was playing peek a boo with him and he was all happy and smiles when all of a sudden he grabbed my hand, stuck my finger in his mouth and bit down HARD. So if we go a day without getting bit, it's a win for us! But he is still my little Gus Gus and I love him already.

Well that's all for this week! I could probably go on forever with stories but my blogs are all so long already. I also didn't take very many pictures this week. Sorry! We start in the hospital this week which is exciting. Talk to you all next week!

Orfelinatul (The Orphanage)

Hello everyone! What a week it has been. I can't believe that I have only been here for a little over a week. I feel like I have been here for a month because of everything that has happened. That being said, living in a completely foreign country has not gotten any easier in the last seven days. Monday through Thursday were pretty laid back as we just did some sight seeing. I finally got to go inside the beautiful Palace! They turned it into a four part museum that you can tour. It was pretty cool to see some of the history of where I have been living and I attached some pictures below. We also decided one day that we were sick of being stuck in our apartment and so we ventured out into the busy streets of Iasi. Quite honestly, we didn't find anything super exciting but we are still getting to know the city and I am very hopeful for different results on our next blind quest.

A beautiful Monastery in Iasi

My group sitting in front of the Opera house

They had these cool glass floors in the palace showing underground tunnels!

The beautiful inside of the Palace

So last week I gave you a small glimpse of the apartment that I so enthusiastically call my home. Well, I can confidently say that it has even more character than I originally thought possible. I discovered that I am building a relationship with the apartment and it responds to me in the same way that I respond to it. Let me give you some examples. Because this week was so crazy, I often found myself tired and hungry. Like most cases, these symptoms almost always lead to complaining. And my poor little apartment happened to be on the receiving end of my not so happy attitude. One day in particular, I was complaining about the way in which we are suppose to wash our clothes. We have to line dry everything and I DO NOT like the texture my clothes have when they line dry. So due to my ungrateful attitude, our small little washing machine decides to stop mid-cycle and hold my roommates entire wardrobe hostage inside. We literally cannot get them out of the machine. It may be small but boy is it mighty. So now not only do we have no dryer, but I have to hand wash each and every piece of clothing I have. But wait...it gets better. Last night I was skyping a friend and I showed her my tiny kitchen and was complaining about how our water is leaking and our sink is moldy, and our fridge sorta works when all of a sudden, a pipe underneath our kitchen sink explodes. Okay, it didn't actually explode but I kid you not, dirty water was dispersing all over the kitchen floor!! It was like a scene from a movie. So I go flying into the bathroom where my poor roommate is mid shower as I'm yelling at her to turn off the water. Once we all realized what was going on, we also realized that we have no clue what to do. We can't communicate with our neighbors, no one was answering the phone, and we have no idea who our landlord is. Finally we got a hold of some people and the water stopped on its own. So we wiped up the gross water with our towels and went to bed. Meanwhile I'm also trying to figure out how we are going to wash these dirty towels with no washing machine. Let's just say that there is never a dull moment in our moody little apartment.

Anyways, I learned my lesson this week and I am determined to be much more positive. So here is my positive outlook on some of the many unfortunate parts of my adventure so far. 1. Yes my washing machine decided to break down mid cycle and steal my roommates clothes. Oh, and there are no instructions on how to use the machine by the way, just some little symbols which mean absolutely nothing to me. But here is the bright side: Upon arriving to the apartment we found various sticky notes taped to certain items with instructions. The instructions that they decided to leave us for the washing machine were as follows: "WARNING: Be sure to unplug the washing machine when not using. It has been known to electrocute us when we touch the inside when it is plugged in". And there you have it! Without this warning I probably would have tried to get the clothes out prior to unplugging it which would have resulted in the electrocution of myself. So thank you to the kind girls who lived here before us for protecting our safety even though they failed to mention how on earth to use the dumb machine. 2. Okay my second positive outlook is related to our food situation. As I mentioned previously, we get catered two meals a day. I have quickly learned that European portion sizes are much smaller than American portion sizes. Also that they REALLY like cabbage. I have attached some pictures below of some of the meals I have had the delight of eating and as you can hopefully tell, we have yet to be impressed. But here is my positive outlook on it all: Some of the cheapest items at the grocery store are Oreos, chocolate bars, ice cream, and chips. So at least I wont starve. Oh and also (minus pretty much everything I just mentioned), due to small portion sizes-I won't get fat! 3. My last positive outlook is about the exploding pipes in my kitchen. I thought long and hard about this one and well, lets just say that at least my floors will be somewhat cleaner once we're done cleaning it all up.

This stuff was GOOD...

Now, let me tell you why coming to Romania is worth each and every misfortune that could possibly come my way in the next four months. This week I had the pleasure of meeting some of the most influential and important people that I will ever have the privilege of knowing. There are about 50 of them and most are under 3 feet tall. Meeting the kids in the orphanage was above and beyond what I was expecting. I didn't know that such tiny humans could have such a big hold on my heart in the short minutes I got to spend with them. The actual building is fairly large and consists of five sections. The first section consists mostly of infants and children under the age of two. Most of the newborn babies are actually healthy and don't stay for too long. Most of the 1 and 2 year olds however have varying degrees of disabilities. The babies usually come to the hospital after being abandoned in the hospital when they are born. There are two rooms full of cribs where the babies sleep and a third room where they play. This is my favorite room in the orphanage because when I walked in I was greeted by 7 baby bounce-around's that were full of smiling babies looking up at me. I almost started laughing because the bounce-around's barely fit in the room and I just imagined the babies all playing bumper cars together with them. There is also a room in this section with about five kids who are a bit older. These kids are the sickest kids in the orphanage and they unfortunately have lived a majority of their lives in the hospital or in their cribs. Our job with them is to rub their backs, hold them, and talk or sing to them. All these kids want is love. The rest of the sections in the orphanage have a similar layout. There is one big playroom with two smaller rooms filled with cribs or beds for them to sleep in. Two sections have the kids who are higher functioning and therefore are more energetic. They still have disabilities but love playing with toys and playing outside on all of the orphanage playgrounds. The fourth section consists of kids who are a bit more fragile but still able to walk around for the most part. These kids were so sweet and quickly stole my heart. The last section was another one of my favorites. This section had two rooms with five cribs in each. These kids had such limited function that they hardly ever leave their cribs. Some may be blind or deaf and the only thing they respond to is touch and sometimes sound. However, the simple act of placing my hand on their skin was enough to light up their face. Depending on what position the child was laying on I rubbed their back or tickled their tummy or just pushed the hair out of their face. Each time, the child would instantly calm down and smile and stare at my face as I sang to them or told them how special they were. This one little boy in particular especially touched my heart. I placed my hand on his tummy and he immediately wrapped his arms around it and held onto my hand as hard as he possibly could. Then he would just get the cutest little smile and start laughing. It was in that moment that I knew that I would not want to leave these kids in December. I already miss them and it has been two days!

The outside of the orphanage!

This is a bounce-around for those of you who had no idea what I was talking about. Seriously though, can you imagine 7 of these things shoved together in a tiny room full of bouncing babies? Hilarious!

Next week we will start working in the apartments and hospital and I will tell you all about it. In order to give the kids consistency I will only be working in one section of the orphanage and I will find out which section that will be tonight. Although I cannot communicate with these kids, they have already taught me more about life than anything else I have experienced in the past twenty years. I CANNOT wait to see what else I will learn these next four months.

Here are a few more pictures we took while exploring: