Friday, September 22, 2006

The day started off really early. We had to meet at Scala at 8am and I got up at 7:15. After meeting together we all walked to where we had to take a Maxitaxi to get to Tomesti. The walk was actually really pretty and along the way we saw a couple of cars get in an accident. It wasn’t bad, just a fender bender, but still interesting. Then, the ride on the maxi taxi took us too what seemed like the very edges of the city where it gets to be much more like the country. There were a lot of horse-drawn carts. The kids in the apartment were really cool. First we were all just sitting in the living room by ourselves. Then one little boy walked out and you should have seen his face when he walked out into the room with 11 girls staring only at him. He walked as suavely as he could and just kind of tried to act cool. It was very cute. Then there was another little girl who started playing with Melissa and who really liked to be thrown up and down. Then there was another cute little girl with tights and a little skirt and her hair up in a pony tail who just sat in Abbi’s lap the whole time. Next came a little autistic boy who just sat on the floor and played with Shannon and would laugh every time she peeked her head through the door on this plastic house thing. Last, but certainly not least was a veeeery autistic little girl whose favorite activity was to hit and pull hair. We were instructed that in order to curb this activity we were to keep her hands busy as best we could and keep a very good eye on her. If she were to succeed and either slap us or pull our hair we were to act without emotion and not give her the satisfaction of getting a reaction. Let me tell you, we had some practice. This girl literally did not seem to think of anything else. You could see her little mind working as she just went from person to person trying to get a shot at them. Most of us prevented her, but a few people just weren’t prepared. Like, she flat out slapped Melissa (not gonna lie, it was pretty funny). She also pulled Abbi and Holly’s hair. It was amazing the first time when she pulled Abbi’s hair because Abbi was playing with another child and her hair was up in a bun. Well, this little girl just walks up, stares straight at her hair and just gets her entire fist on the top on Abbi’s head and just pulls as hard as she can. Abbi just takes her hand off and continues playing with her hair completely messed up. It was amazing to behold. She did the same thing to Holly, except I don’t know why Holly didn’t prevent it. Holly was sitting there and this little girl came up to her and caressed holly’s cheek and kept it there. And see I had been watching this kid like she was a comedy show, so about this time I remember thinking “Oh, Holly, what’re you doing, she just about to slap you!” Then all of a sudden she just jets her hand up and yanks on Holly’s hair so hard her head goes about as far around as it can. Some girls tried to get her hand out of Holly’s hair, but it took them some time to wrestle it out of Holly big beautiful head of thick red hair. Right there I was sold on her and have wanted to work in Tomesti ever since. Well, after the apartment we went to the orphanage for a little while. I went with Melissa and Abbi to Mickey Mouse first, then Bambi, then Donald Duck. Mickey Mouse was actually a lot of fun. I played with quite a few kids and really enjoyed getting all the smiles out of them. They are pretty much all in wheelchairs but you get them out of their wheelchairs and play with them on a big mat like you would use in gymnastics. You move them, dance with them, talk to them and play with toys with them and they like to just stare at you and smile. After Mickey Mouse we went over to Bambi which is incredibly active. There are lots of kids and they are almost all out of their wheelchairs and on their feet most of the time and quite a few of them really like to have constant affection. A few of them also like to hit and kick, etc. The worst of it was when I was leaning back on the couch thing with my face facing the ceiling because one of the girls had just been inspecting my mouth (she likes to just inspect people like a doctor – she’ll have you open your mouth and then she’ll put her face like right up to it and peer inside – a bit nerve racking) when all of a sudden one of the other girl comes and stand on the couch right next to me and just takes and stomps her foot right on my face real hard. It was mean! Since we spent a lot of time in the other two rooms we didn’t have much time for Donald Duck, which was sad because that’s the one I really wanted to spend time in. Also, I only got to spend time in one of the 3 rooms in that section because the nurse yelled at me for going in one of them (not sure why) and the other two girls were in the first room holding the babies. The room was mostly kids who are a little bit older (like 8 or something) who are severely handicapped and don’t talk or move much and just lie in their cribs and whose limbs are usually very bent and such. They’re a lot of fun though because you just walk up to the crib and look at them and they laugh. You can also take them out alright and just sit with them or rock them. The only one not like the rest is Maria, the little down syndrome baby whose really young and is just like any other baby with down syndrome I suppose. So cute – I want one. After the orphanage, Jessica, Jenna and I went to the clothing fair, which was inside a discoteque building. It had quite a bit of clothes, but was kind of expensive and made me nervous because all the shops were so small and the salespeople were so pushy and yet I couldn’t even understand them and it was just really nerve racking. So I was having a hard time feeling free to just look and not feel pressured so I just followed Jessica around and had her pick stuff out for me J. I actually ended up getting a really cute green sweater too. After that we decided we didn’t have enough time to go to the hospital, so instead we went to Hala and did more clothes shopping. Jessica and I had a lot of fun and we went through the entire place – every shop. I ended up getting some black Sunday shoes and a really cute jacket that I love. At night we all went to the Philharmonic. Possibly the most interesting thing about the philharmonic was the building. It was so beat up! Like, when we walked by the building when we mapped the city I thought it was an abandoned building until they started talking about how we could attend concerts there. The inside was better with frescoes on the wall and such, but it had like wires and such coming through the walls as well (as in a whole wall with just tons of metal bars stuck through it). Other parts of it have sections of the wall that have just crumbled, etc. etc. The inside where the concert was actually performed seemed to be a lot nicer though. The concert itself was very enjoyable. It was Bela Bartok and someone else whose last name was Enescu I think. I struggled to stay awake but not because it was boring, just because it was beautiful and soothing. Afterward we just all got ready for bed. Oh wait, also, all day we were trying to decide who would work where in the orphanage and apartments. We were supposed to have figured it out and I was thinking about it all day, but we still haven’t determined it. I’ll either do Tomesti and Donald Duck (and switch off) or I’ll be in Dancu and go with them to the Orphanage to do physical therapy every other day. Honestly I think I’d rather be in Tomesti/DD, but I’ll be ok with Dancu. It sounds like that’s probably what I’ll end up doing too.