Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Wow, today was quite the day. What DIDN’T happen? So, we got off late to Dancu again. Shannon woke up when we were supposed to be leaving, and only then because I woke her. Dancu went really well. Before the professors came I first played with Petrica, but I also played with all three of the other kids at some point. I almost never take Iulia, but for some reason one time when she was throwing a fit I asked Shannon to get her, but then for some reason I decided to instead and without even saying anything just started being with her. It went REALLY well. Shannon said that was the longest she’s played with the xylophone since we’ve been back from Budapest. We were really excited for the professors to come over because then we felt like we’d have more people on “our side.” So, when they rang the apartment Shannon came running into the room smiling. Well, the visit went pretty well. Mario got the workers to be ok with the kids being on the floor if we could get a heat blanket, so we’re going to get one! Yay! And time goes by so much faster when you have distractions like that. Also, having them there helped us feel so much more helpful because we got to see us from their perspective and while they were and as we were telling them all about the kids and everything we do I actually came to the realization that, hey, we do know what we’re doing and we are doing a good job. Very good feeling. Not surprisingly, they really loved Mihai especially. While they were there we also were informed that Mihaela from Donald Duck is going to come to Dancu! Yeah, that is going to be insaaane. Mihaela is like 2 or so and she’s this tiny little adorable terror with attachment disorder worse than any kid I’ve ever seen. It’s going to change the dynamic of Dancu soooo much. Like, 1 kid who is super active in this little apartment with 4 other kids who aren’t mobile at all. We talked about it on the tram ride home and decided it’ll definitely be good and bad. Good for her and bad for the kids and the workers. It’ll be great for her because she’ll get more attention and she’ll have more stability and better workers and better toys. But bad for the other kids because they really need the attention that they already have and they’ll definitely not get as much. It’ll be especially hard to give attention to Costica and Petrica who don’t demand it and I am afraid for the kids when the next group comes because I’m afraid that since they won’t already have a connection with the original Dancu kids, they’ll never be able to form them and they won’t get much attention. Also, I just don’t know how it’ll work having Mihai, Mihaela and Iuliana all vying for attention! And I don’t know how much more progress we’ll be able to make with them. Shannon said something about how in Bro. Botts “Sharing the Gospel” class he always would say that instead of just coasting out the end of your mission, the best way to do it is to work harder than you’ve ever worked before and I think this’ll be the perfect opportunity for us to do that here as well. Anyway, after they all left and we were playing with the kids like normal again, Nut(z)i came in and gave us each this little scone thing that was soooo good. It was pretty much like an extra good gogoasa with nothing inside, sugar on top and straight out of the oven. I didn’t want it to end. We liked it so much that afterward I went in and praised it and asked if I could get a recipe for it. She seemed really really pleased and told us that if we waited a few minutes she’d give us pizza too and that she give us the recipe and I was like “oh, we’ll wait!” So, not only did we get amaaaazing food from workers who almost never feed us, but we had this amazingly positive conversation with them as well. Then, they let us stay extra long, so we didn’t actually leave til like 12:30 and as we were leaving Corrina told us that she’d get the recipe and bring it tomorrow. So, in high spirits we went to the hospital and talked about Mihaela along the way. We started off on the 3rd floor. Shannon went in with Iulia and I was about to play with Ilie, but first the doctors and nurses (who were all so nice) wanted pampers and while they were doing that, Megan and Jessica came by. We started playing with them while the two of them started talking about Tomesti and all the things they’d found out after the professor’s visit. While they were talking one of the nurses had us leave because they were feeding Ilie, so we went out and talked in the hall for a while. I stayed because I wanted to talk to Jessica and Mihaela. Well, after they finished, Jess and I first went to the 6th floor, where there were already kids with girls. Then we went to the 2nd to see Ionut. Well, he was in the play room, which we didn’t even know existed, so we went in there. One of the ladies that run in started talking to us and just talked to us like the entire time. She always said “I know” this and “I know” that, but a lot of the time she didn’t. Like, she was convince that we were part of Dan Ferguson’s program, which we aren’t anymore, but she didn’t believe us. And she kept bring up things and saying “American’s do this” or “American’s like that” and we’d be like, uh, no. She’d say things about Romania too that wasn’t true, like that they have great fashion and great water . Like, she wanted to know a lot of things and thought she did, but was actually just incredibly naïve and uneducated. She also kept trying to get us to do things we didn’t want to do and would get all mad at us when we wouldn’t do them. Like, she wanted us to go play with these kids who have moms because their moms don’t know how to play with then and we’d be like, “no, the orphans need us more, that IS who we’re going to play with” and she’d just keep trying to convince us. She was well meaning, but I didn’t like her. By the time we got out of there it was time for me to leave, so I didn’t really spend any time with kids at the hospital! I left early because I wanted to go home and get coloring books before going to Dacie. On my way there I met up with the Soras and talked to them for a minute. Then, right before I got home I realized that I didn’t have my key. I decided to go up anyway, just in case it was in my backpack or the door was unlocked or something, but no such luck. Then I decided I may as well at least drop by Hala for something to drink and it wasn’t til I was in the motion of swinging my backpack off my back to put in the locker that I realized, mid swing, that I don’t have a wallet and I just swung it right back up in one fluid motion. All I could do after that was just go to Tirgu Cucu and wait, except I didn’t have a watch. So, I waited there for what felt like forever, before I finally got worried that they’d left me and I decided to walk to Podul and see if Bri was home yet because I figured she’d walk with them. Well, she wasn’t, so I grabbed these plastic bowling pins that they have for Dacie, got some water and waited. Eventually, Marina, instead of Bri, came home and I rushed out, but they were already far ahead, so I just met them at the tram stop. Dacie actually went really well. When I got there Marian asked if I had toys and I said I did, but that they’d have to be good first and then I’d bring them out. Well, they were! And while they were good I got some great quality time with Costica. When I decided they’d been good long enough I brought out the pins. I had them wait, sitting a little ways away while I set them up (big step), then got them to take turns rolling the ball to hit the pins while they stayed in the same place. That is until Costica decided he wanted to just knock all the pins over. Not too long after that, though, Professor Nelson, Holly and Mario came over, which broke it up a little. Holly used to work at Dacie, so she’s great with the kids and it was good to have Mario there to translate. I love those kids. I think Viorel is my favorite. After that, I left early and went with them to Dacie 3rd and played with all of them too, which was fabulous. By the time we were going home I was sooo tired and my eye was acting up again. On the tram ride home this Romanian guy came and sat down by us and started talking to us, but mostly Shannon. He said he was a sailor and had been all over and to America too. He said he lived in Podul like Holly and when we got off he tried to get us to come with him. After Dacie, Mario went home, but Prof. Nelson came with us to our apartment, just to chat. Podul came over too and we did have a good chat. He’s a pretty personable guy and he’s just in his 30’s and easy to talk to. He’s also really smart. We had a great conversation about “mean girls” and parenting because he did a study on aggression in girls. We also talked about Romania and orphan stuff too. Oh, I forgot, Mihai from Dacie 7th and Maria, Mihaela and Catalin from Dacie 3rd are all getting fostered! That’ll be so great for them and hopefully it’ll leave room for some other kids to go to the apartments! I hope that due to the EU the Romanian orphanage system just continues to get better and better. Apparently it has come a reeeeally long way just in the last 6 years. Like, the early girls had a completely different experience and it was so much harder and the conditions were so much worse. We were also talking about how bad it was in the very beginning and about the videos that different news agencies filmed and even about how our orphanage was at the beginning. Apparently, there’s a worker there now who worked there in 89 and she said she used to have to keep her eyes up because there’d be dead kids on the floor. She also said that the bathroom had just tons of pipes in it and rats used to fall down on you while you were going to the bathroom. When I heard that I just imagine dead children on the floors of our orphanage and it gave me such a chill. How do I hear these things and not go insane? We also talked a lot today on how close we are to leaving. We only have a month left and the topic is coming up increasingly frequently. It scares me and I don’t like it. Holly talks about how some of us will get pretty weird and we just need to give people extra space, which should be interesting too. I can’t believe that it’s time to close up. I don’t know what Ill do when I can’t come back and it’s just over.