Follow Your Arrow..: "I live in Romania??"

Wow. What a week.

It would be an understatement to say I' exhausted. Physically and mentally.

We are now working in the orphanage, volunteering in the hospital, and teaching english in a kindergarten each week.

Let's start with the orphanage:

We spend every day of the week working here. Last week we were able to rotate through each room, to get an idea of the children that stayed there. It is a very large orphanage. This week we will be assigned a permanent room in the orphanage that we will spend the rest of the summer in. The orphanage is a lot nicer than I expected. (Not nice compared to anything at home, but it isn't a dump site either). The workers are extremely caring and the children are miracles. The mass majority of them have disabilities, physical and mental. In addition, many of the children are either blind or death. I expected my first visit to the orphanage to be a dream. Instead, I had to walk out to the front doors, in order to not let the children see the mass of tears running down my face. (Blaming allergies was not going to work this time). I was just so overwhelmed with the thought that these children suffer from so many problems, and don't have a family who will help them feel belonged and loved.

Homesickness has set in this week. I have many months ahead of me, yet anytime I have felt homesick, I look to the orphanage as my saving grace. When I return there everyday, I am reminded why I am here.

The hospital:

We volunteer at the Children's Regional Hospital in Iasi three days a week. The hospital is nothing like I expected. The outside looks very damaged and run down. The inside isn't too much better. They do not have the same health care standards and advances like we do. When we go to the hospital, we stop by each nurses station and ask... "Aveți Copii Fără Mama?". Which is essentially, "Are there any children without mothers?". The way hospitals are set up here, family is in charge of the child. If they don't have family, they do not get held, played with, changed, etc. We are able to care for these children a couple hours a day.

*** I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched a doctor carry a seemingly lifeless child out of surgery, hooked up to all sorts of IVs, and take him to his hospital room. (WHAT). That would never happen at home. Doctor's don't carry children out of surgery??

***Also each room has 3-5 children in them. (My brain can barely handle the thought of all those germs being shared).

The school:

Let me start off by saying, I was NOT meant to be a kindergarten teacher. I have always loved children, but when it comes to teaching and discipling children who don't understand the language I am speaking, my patience reaches its near maximum. (No I have not harmed a child..yet). I have no idea what they are yelling in Romanian, or why they are running around the room banging into walls. They have attention spans of about 15 seconds and never seem to run out of energy. Haha

Although they are challenging, I am learning so much. The sweet and tender moments shared with the children, make up for all the chaos and stress.

Dear extended family who have been teachers...I didn't get your genes. Haha

At the end of this week we were able to go on a day trip to visit a famous fortress and a couple monasteries. It was a nice break and Romania is beautiful. Hence why I am about to share many pictures: