Aveți Copii Fără Mama?

"I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then."- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

This week has been incredible! So much has happened, and it has all been a little crazy, but as of today we are officially in the orphanage, hospital, and kindergarten!!! 

Ok so I guess I will start with the school! We started teaching there on Monday. Here is some background info about teaching: I am part of Group A, so I go to the school on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. We have a little less than 30 students, and we are in charge of teaching english. There is an opening, where we talk about weather and do calendar and sing songs, then we do lessons. There are always 4 lessons going on at once, with each teacher doing a different category, and the children rotate around to each lesson. With ILP, we teach english but not directly. We do drama, kitchen, arts and crafts, games, gym, and shop, then incorporate the english into our lessons. It is taking a while to get used to, but we are all improving! We turn in our lesson plans the week before we teach so our head teacher can approve them. 

So Monday was our first day and I was so excited! I have heard stories about how ILP teachers sometimes cry after their first day teaching and I thought it wasn't possible. I mean, I have been around kids my whole life and I am an Elementary Education major...so it should be easy, right? Well I was very wrong...it was rough for all of us. Crazy would be a good word to describe the day...it was like no classroom I had ever experienced before, and I think we all left feeling frustrated. But the good  news is... It got way better!!! Wednesday we were able to actually control the children and get through lessons, and by Thursday I was actually enjoying myself! I can tell you so many great things about those kids! They are absolutely adorable!! They know a lot english already, so we can easily communicate with them. They have really strong Romanian accents and it is the cutest thing ever. They are so loving and some kids will just run up and kiss your cheek. One sweet girl was talking to me about Frozen, and then she sang "Let it Go" for me(the whole song) in Romanian!! When they want you, they go "Teacher!! Teacher!!"(in their adorable accents) and they love hugs! One of their rules is "English only, no Romanian" and if a child hears another child speaking Romanian, they don't hesitate to  yell out "English only!!!" I already love them and I am excited to become a better teacher and enjoy my time with them! 

The next thing we do is go to the children's hospital. Just so everyone knows, we aren't allowed to take pictures in the orphanage or hospital, or use the children's names when we are talking about them. Anyways....it's about a 30 minute walk to the hospital. The hospitals here aren't anything like the ones in America. The outside looks gross and has broken windows and stuff. Inside isn't much better. Anyone is allowed to go anywhere and it is kind of dark. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but I would never want to be a child there. Each room has about 3 children in it, with windows so you can see into the room next door. There really isn't any privacy. If children are taken there, someone from the family is supposed to stay with them. Usually the moms are in charge of changing their child's diaper and feeding the child and keeping the child happy. If the child does not have a mom, or the mom can't stay with them, the child might not get his or her diaper changed or wont have much interaction with others. Once we get there, we go inside this little room and change into our scrubs and new shoes(you aren't allowed to wear "street shoes" in the orphanage or hospital because they are dusty and dirty) and then go up to each floor. We walk into each wing and find a nurse and say, "Aveți copii fără mama?" which basically means "Do you have any children without a mom?" The nurses then point us to rooms where the children are and we spend time playing with or just loving the child. Today I spent most of my time playing with a very sweet girl who has heart trouble. When we walked in the room she started jumping up and down because she was so happy to have someone there! I think I am going to really like working there!

Not the best picture, but here is what the hospital looks like

Then last, but certainly not least...the orphanage!! I loovvee it there! After a hard week, it was a great reminder of what I came here for! I fell in love with all of those children! I didn't really know what to expect, but the orphanage is way nicer than I expected! I mean, it isn't like having a home, but I was expecting some dirty place with kids everywhere. It feels organized and safe there! There are five rooms with five different types of children. Today was our first day, so we spent time in each room so we can see what they are like before we decide which one we want to spend the summer working in. The first is called Isolation. That is where all of the babies are, and they are precious!! Then there are the Bambi rooms. That is where all of the toddlers are. Bambi 1 has the highest functioning kids at the orphanage. They can all walk, but still have disabilities...although most of theirs are mental. They had so much energy but were really cute! Bambi 2 has toddlers, but they do not function quite as well as the other group. None of them can really walk, but are learning! One child was just developmentally delayed, but now he can stand and walk a little with help! Then there are the Mickey rooms. All of these kids are disabled. Mickey 1 has the higher functioning kids. About half of them are in wheelchairs, but I don't think any of the other ones can even stand. I spent a lot of my time there today with a little girl who can't move on her own. I don't know exactly what she has, but I found her crying in her crib and picked her up and pretty much just cuddled with her. She loves being held! She also loves dancing! We had fun twirling around the room together! The oldest boy in the orphanage is in that room. He is 16, is in a wheelchair, and can understand everything, but he can't communicate back. He loves to smile and we enjoyed talking with him! I could go on and on, these kids really stole my heart! Mickey 2 is the last room, and every single one of those children is in a wheelchair. They can't communicate at all, but love to be talked to and touched! All of the rooms were wonderful and I wish I could spend time in all of them, but we have to pick one room and that is where we will be every day until we go home. There will be about two girls in each room, so we have to submit our top choices to our head teacher this weekend and we will find out soon which room we will be in! I will have lots of stories once I start in my assigned room! 

A "first day at the orphanage" picture with my roommate! 

I now know why they need us here! These children are so special and need so much love, and there are just not enough people to help them! The orphanage workers are fantastic and they work so hard! I can tell they really care about the kids! But with so many kids and so few workers, the kids do not get the attention they need. The fact that we can be there to love and hold and teach the children is amazing! I am so happy to be here! I can tell you my favorite part of the orphanage today...I was in the isolation room and there is a little boy there who is blind, but loves to be touched. I was in the room so I walked up to him and held my hand against his face and a huge smile spread across his face  and it took all my energy to not burst out crying. It was so sweet! He just sat there and smiled as I talked to him and rubbed his cheeks, and soon I found his ticklish spot! To hear him laugh was amazing! Those kind of moments are the reason I am here! 

In other Romanian news...Iași is wonderful! It is a great city! We love to shop at the Palas mall, and try new foods, and still love all of the desserts! There is a place called Petru and they have these chocolate filled pretzels that we loWe took our first bus ride and that was pretty exciting! The apartment is interesting...it is so noisy all the time! We can hear everything happening on the street and our neighbors, but whenever we make any noise we get in trouble. One neighbor threatened to call the police because she heard us in the hall. And sometimes(like, yesterday) our power will be out all day and our wifi will stop working...but it is all ok, we are getting used to it! The girls in my group are all great! We have gotten so close this week! And my roommates(Emma, Kara, and Cammy) are amazing! 

Cammy, Kara, and Emma(the roommates)

I am so happy and grateful to be here! It has been hard to get used to living in a new place...but I know I am supposed to be here and I am so excited to spend my time with these children! I know they will change my life and I hope I can change theirs! Noapte bună!

Love,
Madeline