Despite being tired from the weekend trip, September,
Laura, and Lori were up a bit early and took a walk to the outdoor market. They
had a fine time admiring all the vegetables for sale, and Laura and Lori each
bought a jar of honey.
Back at the hotel we held our usual morning meeting
with Dan. Lori’s afternoon assignment has changed from 4th graders
to 6th graders from the “high school.” Today she had students in
both groups describe what they did on the weekend. It was amazing how many
reported they had spent Saturday doing homework. The next most popular activity
was computer games. In addition to this discussion, they used letter stickers
to make their name and then wrote 4-6 words for each letter of their name in
both English and Romanian. The rest of the class time included Hangman and
various Jingo games. After afternoon school Lori went with Dan to the “Chinese
store” to buy window blinds for the hospital rooms where the precious children
stay.
The hospital team members reported the children
have seemed to settle into a schedule with the volunteers. The kids are surely
being kids, showing jealousy when
someone else is getting attention and also moving fast and slipping away
in just an instance of time. All expressed concern about Clio’s change of
health status. And, one little lady now has her own necklace and she doesn’t
have to feel sad in the afternoon when the volunteers leave. A special treat
for the toddlers today was yogurt and bananas – food that may seem common to
us, but something they don’t see often.
All joined together for lunch with Dan. We asked
questions about the vegetables we had seen in the market that were unusual to
us. We also learned about the building history in Bârlad. Much doesn’t look
“old” here because of a devastating earthquake in 1975 followed by more
destruction of buildings by the Communist administrators. Mihaela joined us for evening meal at the
hotel. We had a wide ranging conversation at dinner, too. A fine time had by
all. Our weekend tour plus all of these wonderful meal-time discussions with
Dan and Mihaela help us achieve another team goal: to learn more about Romanian
culture and language.
Entry submitted by: Lori
Message of
the Day – Corey: “Don't be stressed, just be confident at what you do and
that you did it. Understand that there is more than one road you take to your
happiness.” - Steve Breaston (University
of Michigan football player and now at free agent status in the NFL)
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