Day 49

Today was a good day, not because of the workers, but because of the kids. The longer I am here the more I realize that the kids are seriously my little angels. They lift me, they make me smile when I feel down, they teach me so much without saying anything at all. Everything else in Romania is pretty challenging, from the living conditions, to the food, to the culture, to the language... but the kids make everything worth it.

Maria was working again today and was in a fitful mood. She always brings brownies (thick Romanian style brownies called ‘negreses’)… I had my eye on them for a while. Haha she gave all the other workers massive chunks and gave me this little pinch of a brownie. I think she gave me one out of pity and obligation but hey.. a brownie is a brownie. She got mad at me for not cupping my other hand under the brownie… man oh man. I was able to spend some time with Petro which is always such special time. Even though she is not the most responsive, I am starting to feel like I am becoming closer to her. She acknowledges me now.. almost like she can recognize me somehow. It was a pretty normal day today.. let’s see… Today Maria asked me to feed the babies in the nap room so I took a couple bottles back and starting feeding them. She came in, yelled at me for doing something wrong that I did not really understand, and told me to leave. So I went back into the play room “camera de joaca". Today was a crazy day so the kids were fighting and being noisy. I found this big monster puppet and started talking in this like sesame street/grover voice with it.. I talking to the kids and pretending to eat their hands. They attention was captured! It was so funny though because Jr. was super scared of the puppet but intrigued at the same time. He would inch forward only for me to say something with the puppet and he’d scream and run away or fall backwards onto his butt. Maria came in and was like ‘Bravo Ashley Bravo!’ … so that was good. I was not able to play with Alex today because he did not come back from school until 11:50 or so and I leave at noon. When he got back to the room though, 4 of the kids were trying to run away and Maria grabbed them one by one and forcefully sat them down on the ground. Maria was all ‘Pa ashley. Pa pa. PA ASHLEY!’ waving in my face meaning like… bye bye bye get the freak out of here already… haha.. I waited in the hall for Kala and she came out all aflame yelling ‘PA ASHLEY’ … simmer! So I left a few minutes early. Motive of the story: I really do not think that Maria likes me too much.

Hospital… I spent some time playing with this adorable boy named Cosmin. He was probably 5 years old and is this cute little blondie. He talks like crazy though which leads me to believe that he is older than 5. I then spent some time with a baby up on the 8^th floor who was tiny and did not seem to really like being held. He will not hold my hand and bucks a bit when I hold him. He actually cried the first time I helped him. He does not cry when I leave which is really interesting. Raresh is a baby that has been in the ICU on and off since May. His mom and him are still hanging in there. She speaks english and Megan has really formed a relationship with her. Today she was saying that Raresh had had a really bad night. It is so heartbreaking to see her in so much emotional pain. She looks like she was on the verge of tears with each thing that she says. It is so incredible to see her strength. When I told her that she was strong, she laughed and told me that what else was she to do.. she said..‘well I am his mother. It gives me hope that while we see so many sad stories day in and day out.. there are mothers like her too who know that no matter what happens, they will stay by their child's side. Even if the child is too sick to acknowledge their mother's presence, still the mothers stay because this is their child. What a powerful thing maternal love can be.

Went to Carrefour tonight with Kala.. It is a massive store kind of like a Romanian version of Costco. I got some much needed items like leggings and an umbrella. I also got some salted cashews that I cannot wait to eat! I want to start eating really healthy here. I do not eat poorly, but I mainly eat carbs because living with very little means and very poor water greatly limits the fresh produce and cooking means that you have. Not to mention completely different food and everything is labeled in Romanian. I bought the cashews as a step in the right direction. Because we walk so so so much all day I find myself always hungry. I think that getting more healthy stocked up snacks will prevent me from just wanting to grab some crackers or something.

Anyways.. over and out until tomorrow!