First Day with the Babies

Hello everyone, or in Romanian, "Buna". We arrived in Tutova Saturday night after our long trip from home. After arriving in the Bucharest airport, we traveled 4 hours to Tutova in a big van. We (12 volunteers) are staying at a very cute little hotel just a short walk from the Tutova Clinica where the babies live.

Yesterday, we met all of the children for the first time. They are all so cute and unique in their own way!! We fed and played with the babies. Let me tell you, feeding time is quite different than what I have experienced while working in preschools and the hospital back home! After dinner last night (btw, the food is GREAT!) we chose our child that we will primarily take care of. Of course ,we will switch and help each other when breaks are needed, but for the most part we are responsible for one child. (There are 18 children at the clinic currently.) My little guy, Christi Daniel, is a 3 year old with Down Syndrome. He is very cute and could probably entertain himself all day long! However, I want him to interact more and enjoy the presence of others, so mainly I hope to help develop his language skills (as much as I can in 2 weeks!)

Today, we had a tour of the entire Tutova hospital. Dr. Delia is the program director there.She is a very admirable woman. The hospital has about 70 beds (I think, can't quite remember.) They are able to do basic testing at the hospital and can deliver babies if absolutely needed. However, no surgeries are performed there. The hospital was very clean and everyone was very friendly. Dr. Delia told us that she has a M.D. and then got a Ph.D. in Minneapolis while working at their children's hospital. Originally she was to stay at the Tutova clinic for 6 months, but has been there for 18 years (I think). She is very knowledge and truly cares about the well-being of the hospital, the community and her patients as is evident by her hard work and small salary compared to American doctors. She truly seems to be an amazing individual!

Tonight we went to the "city" of Barlad. I think about 75,000 people live there. There were some very beautiful buildings there! We ate at a restaurant, and again, the food was delicious! I think we will be visiting there again later this week.

There is so much more to tell, but for now this is all I have.