A Typical Day

I thought I would blog tonight for those of you who are thinking about signing up for the Romanian trip and want to know what a typical day is like.

8:00am-8:45am- Breakfast and reading of the team journal and the quote of the day.

9:00am-12:30pm- We leave for the clinic, about a three minute walk. Our first feeding is around 9:30. The non-mobiles usually have bottles and the mobiles we feed a chicken, potato and carrot puree from a bowl. Messy! The rest of the morning is play time. We play games, dance, practice sitting, crawling and walking, work on basic Romanian words and generally do things to stimulate the kids. Regarding Romanian words, we all get a laugh when we say "pa" to the older kids and they reply with the English translation of "bye"! The kids have also picked up on "uh-oh" and say it throughout the day! We have a snack around 11:00am, usually yogurt and fruit puree. Diapers are changed after that and then around noon, lunch is given to the kids, most often a repeat of breakfast.

12:30pm-2:45pm- Time for our lunch back at the hotel. We then have free time to rest, take a walk, do laundry, etc.

3:00pm-6:30pm- Back to the clinic to wake the kids up from their naps and to feed them again. Maleka, the amazing nursery school teacher, is with the older kids during the afternoon. We help her with the older kids, go to the non-mobiles room to play with them or sometimes help the aides fold mounds and mounds of cloth diapers. If the weather is nice, we also spend as much time outside as we can. Diapers are changed again around 4:00pm and then we feed the kids dinner around 6:00pm. Diapers and feeding are usually every four hours.

6:30pm- We have dinner at the hotel. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we go to Barlad to have dinner at a restaurant in the city and a stop at the grocery store. Then, collapse into bed! That time for me is now.......good night!