Smile Because It Happened

Friday, September 24, 2010

Written by: Evan

Message of the Day from Evan: “We should begin by ensuring that every child in the word is able to eat and go to school. Let us internationalize children, no matter where they are born, by treating them as a world heritage deserving of the entire world’s attention.” Critovam Buarque – former Brazilian Minister of Education

On Steve and Lorraine's last day, Steve quoted Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." It has been a wonderful 3 weeks with many smiles. Somehow the leaking shower at the hotel and the overheated play rooms get forgotten and it is the time with the children that is most memorable. I did feel badly that I couldn't spend as much time with some of the babies this week but you just do what you can. I found out the next team member is in her mid-20s so I'm sure she'll have lots of energy compared to me. I am pleased to report that I stayed healthy all 3 weeks. If I get sick on the way home, who cares?

The weather today was not as warm as yesterday but we put jackets on the non-mobiles and took them outside with the mobiles for a little over an hour this afternoon. Miha made fewer escape attempts over the fence BUT later in the mobile room she did demonstrate that not only could she climb on to the windowsill she can open the window. I was in the room alone with the kids and I didn't know I could move that fast across a room.

Nicoletta is still in isolation but was all smiles whenever I went in to see her. She was making noises and would grab for my face and hair. Ana Maria and Costel are still in isolation as well and sleeping a lot but I did catch each of them awake once today. Ana Maria is quite the charmer - not only does she smile she practically laughs. I wasn't able to spend much time with Raul but I think Dan has been in with him some. Fortunately Maria Cleopatra is a regular visitor to the playroom so that is great. Except for this afternoon at 6:00 Mirella the aide seemed to think I could take Maria back to her room. I actually did try and lift her and there was no way I was going to be able to get her off the ground and me off my knees without doing major damage to both of us. So I went and got an aide.

We had our good-bye party as usual during afternoon naptime. Dr. Delia wasn't working today so I didn't get to say good-bye to her. Instead, we had Andreea, Ion and Miha as special guests. I'm surprised they didn't get tummy aches with all of the stuff they ate. Then when we were outside they were eating apples and then Jalina brought them cookies. I like that I'm getting to know the aides names better and talking to them a bit more. Mind you "talking" is their limited English and my limited Romanian but still we can get a few things across. I tried to take as many pictures of the aides with the children as I could so I can send copies after I get home.

I did go through all of the babies' journals and wrote an email to everyone whose email addresses I could find giving them this blog address and telling them that volunteer numbers are down. Whatever we can do to get more volunteers here is great, as the children will make more progress with more attention.