Day 34

First thing this morning, when I walk into the hallway to go to my room in the orphanage, my worker yells at me and tells me to walk along the side because she just cleaned the floor. What a great start to my day! haha.

Dr. Porter, our professor at BYU, visited us at the orphanage! His insights were much appreciated in regards to the children, and Romania in general.

FHE was really fun.. interesting talking to some of the branch members and gaining insight about the Romanian culture. They seem to have a very fatalistic way of thinking. That 'this is the way it is and there is nothing you can do about it. This is life'. I was telling them well why dont you go out and find happiness, make yourself happy. Find happiness in the small things. They laughed at me and said essentially.. easy for you to say, you are american. Whether it is your fmaily, job, or any situation.. they do not have a proactive 'i can change this' mentality. One girl even said in her broken english 'the world is a prison'. In my hospital room today, my kids from last week were all gone. The two orphan babies were there so I stayed, but there were also 3 older boys. It was a bit intimidating because as most patients do, the boys and their mothers just stare and speak in hush tones while I rock the babies. Turns out one of the boys spoke english so it was really interesting to hear more blunt and teen tainted opinions of this country. You obviously have to take these kind of opinions for face value, but i feel like I am gaining a lot of interesting perspectives the longer I am here. YOu can only learn so much about a country and a people by reading books or even being there for a week. In India, I learned so much about the rituals, and surface culture, but I did not get to know the people and the way the Indian mind works. The longer I am here, the more I am starting to see very specific ways of thinking, priorities, opinions, and views of life of these people. They are so different from our own and it is something that it already starting to deepen my understanding of the world and of myself.