A Warm Welcome after the Weekend!

Monday October 25 – Wednesday October 27, 2010

After a wonderful weekend in Transylvania with Radu it was nice to see all the children again on Monday. When we arrived at the clinic, Andreea waived as we looked through the window. It was a wonderful feeling that they recognized us and were happy to see us after being gone for the weekend. We were happy to hear that some students from Mihaela’s high school visited them while we were away.

Monday afternoon we were in the big playroom and the mobile children joined us around 5pm. Without their ringleader Mihaela, they didn’t try to get up on the radiator and open the window. Ion did but he only did it once.

The twins, A&R, are now walking quite well. Especially in the big playroom where we usually go in the afternoon. Alina and Gabby are usually with the mobile kids in the morning and we see them in the afternoon. They are both sweet little girls with cute smiles. Alina, though, loves to hit the other children and pull their hair. One of the mobile children, Marius, joined us for the first time and also loves to pull hair. He then looks at his hand and smiles.

Ionutz and Maria can’t move around but they both have wonderful smiles especially when you rub their tummies and talk to them. Cristi loves to crawl over you and loves to look at himself in the mirror. You can always find him amusing himself in a corner or under the rocking chair. Daria is as sweet as ever. She’s good at entertaining herself but she loves to be bounced. She has a wonderful smile with those big brown eyes. All the children, mobile and non-mobile, love to swing in the air. I love it when they laugh and all their big smiles.

On Monday afternoon we got to meet two Peace Corps volunteers from the US, Brent and Allison, and they will be Romania for two years. They stayed for awhile in the afternoon and helped with the children.

After lunch on Tuesday afternoon, Lisa and I were walking back to the clinic on the dirt road and I slipped and fell. The staff at the clinic was so nice; they cleaned my pants and shoes for me. If nothing else, we got a good laugh out of it!

Written by Volunteer Sheridan

Getting Settled In

Monday October 18 – Wednesday October 20, 2010

We were getting to know the children during our first full days at the clinic. Lisa and I kept getting the twins Roxana & Andreea mixed up. The twins love to be held but are learning to walk pretty well. If you keep at them, they will. Daria is so cute with her brown eyes and big smile. She loves to be bounced and she loves to pull your hair. Alina loves to hit everyone but she is very smart. Loves to sing with Lisa.

Gabriela has a beautiful smile, is quiet and sneaks up behind you. Ionutz is an adorable little boy. He smiles when you rub his stomach and he rolls back and forth with his hands up like he is dancing to music. He can entertain himself pretty well. Cristi is also good at entertaining himself. He makes funny faces and can sit in many poses, almost like yoga. He loves to climb over you and has a great smile. I have found in the first couple of days that they are very loving children and it’s wonderful being around them.


We met Dr. Delia, a very delightful person and a great doctor. It’s hard to believe that she does everything by herself. We got a tour of the hospital and got to see everything that Global Volunteers has done.

Written by Volunteer Sheridan

A NEW Holiday Volunteer Opportunity in Romania!

We've added a December 18 (Dec. 18 - Jan. 8) program in Romania due to the high interest in volunteerism during the holidays!!



Please check out our website for more details on winter service programs: www.globalvolunteers.org

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.