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Published: August 14th 2006
Okay, Wendy here -- in case Adrienne's Mom is reading this -- this story turns out okay and with a happy ending. Remember the last blog when we said how dirty and tired we were from the picnic and all we could think of was getting clean? Well, we were locked out of our apartment! We walked up the five flights in the dark; couldn't fnd the light. My son gave me a key chain light two years ago, so we were able to see the keyhole, and get the key in. The key turned, but the door would not open. We were stunned, as I had tried they key that morning before we left.
Luckily, one of the hosts gave us her phone number, and we knew she lived close by. So, we went to the Internet place and used their phone to call Tatania. Tatania arrived shortly after with her mother, and back up the steps in the dark we went. We told them all about the key and, of course, they could not open the door either. So, Tatania called our apartment owner, Adela, who promptly told her she was not in the city, and was not going to be home until the next day at 2 p.m. At a complete loss, Tatania and her mother walked us to their place, about five blocks.
The whole time Adrienne and I are angry and practically in tears at the idea of not being able to access our stuff -- clean clothes, bath, etc. At Tatania's family's place, they served us tea, found us robes and towels, and showed us where the bathroom was. A shower and shampoo improved things considerably. We could only tell ourselves that we were safe, we were taken care of, and this would be okay.
Now, this family of five has three rooms -- a living room, and two bedrooms, small kitchen and bathroom. They are in the process of remodeling, and -- hurray! -- bathroom is remodeled and they have warm (not hot) water. It was heaven. They pulled our one of the sofas in the bedroom, put sheets on, and after tea, we went in there and promptly went to a dead sleep. Remember, we were fresh off the plane with seven hours sleep when we left for this picnic. I will tell you that Adrienne slept nearly 11 hours. Many of you who know me know that I am not a good sleeper, but I slept pretty well, and was ready to go the next morning when we awakened at 10 a.m. (!). In fact, I had to wake Adrienne up, because I could hear the family stirring and talking.
A bathroom break thru the night told both of us that Tatiana and her mother gave up their bed for us, and slept on a mattress on the dining room floor. This made us a little sad to know their sacrifice for us. So, the next morning we came out in our robes, and the entire family was waiting for us to eat their breakfast, and we had a chance to meet Tatiana's father and brother. Here, we were thinking that these two would be thinking what a pain in the neck it would be to have two extra people in the house (now seven people in three rooms/one bathroom), but nothing could be more wrong. He was smiling, and we could tell how pleased the entire family was to have us there.
The father (we can't remember his name) started breakfast by opening a bottle of red Moldovan wine. Yes, wine. Then we ate a special cottage cheese with honey, which was good, but we could not finish it. Then he opened a white wine, and we had some of that in little glasses shaped like cowboy boots. He made a big deal about keeping our little fingers tucked under the heel, and wouldn't let us drink it until our little fingers were in place. Then we ate some meat. Then he opened champagne, and we had that in the first glass. These people were so thrilled to have us there, it really moved us. The father and brother especially were entertaining and really putting on a show -- telling stories that Tatiana had to translate, though her brother's English is quite understandable.
They were so animated the entire time. Off telling a story about Russia, the father decided to open some smoked salmon and beer -- the salmon from Russia, the beer from the Ukraine. We had a little glass of beer, and when we drank that, the father whips out these big glasses, and of course, we drank that too. They have a cat, who loves to play football with candy wrappers, so we had to eat some candy and toss it for the cat. I'm telling you, we had the best time with that family. Breakfast lasted nearly three hours, and it was a barrel of laughs the entire time.
At the end, Tatiana, Adrienne, and I decided that, in spite of our putting on our dirty, sweaty, filthy clothes again, we were up for a trip downtown, and would head back to our homes after that. Unbelievably, we chose to spend the day in our gross clothes instead of head back to clean up some more and change.
Downtown, we saw a few landmarks, a park, a statue of Pushkin. We replaced my mascara that had been taken away in Cincinnati, and boarded the bus for home. Back home, we were able to get in, and promptly peeled off our clothes. I think I will burn the clothes that I had on that day. We prepared for the next day -- which was today, and slept another blissful evening in our own place. Adela was quite apologetic. We never got the full story of what happened on Saturday night, but we have our own ideas about what happened ... hmmmm. I don't think this event will be repeated. If it is, we now have three people we can call, but you can guess who will be at the top of the list.
We were planning for Adrienne to pick up where I left off to tell about our placement at the orphanage today, but she's feeling a bit queasy this evening, and not able to sit at the computer long. My queasiness is a bit lower in the intestines. We both think we got this -- not from Moldovan food -- but from McDonald's, where we had a "Royale with Cheese" (like Pulp Fiction). We are not likely to go there again. We'll stick to the Moldovan food. Those of you who know me know that I have not set foot in a McD's in at least three years, maybe longer.
I'm going to write until my hour is up, so you can find out about the placement in the orphanage ... today Igor picked us up. Now, I'm going to tell you that I actually asked Igor if his name is pronounced EEgor or EYEgor -- I've watched Young Frankenstein too many times! Okay, so Igor picked us up this a.m., and took us on bus 103 to the orphanage. It is obvious that things aren't really as organized as we expected, as I don't think these orphanage people had any inkling we were coming there. Igor is a supreme negotiator, and pretty soon he asked us what did we want to do.
We had visited each group of children for about five minutes each. These children ranged in age from 1-2 years old to 7-8 years old. Now, the children are clean and well cared for. Not dirty and hungry, which is what we expected. The caretakers eyed us with suspicion, but we won them over soon with our Romanian phrasebook knowledge, and by taking an interest in them as well as the children. So, Igor suggested that we work with the Down's Syndrome children and the babies, since we don't speak their language and couldn't communicate. I took exception to this, as I believe the language of play is universal. And, furthermore, let me tell you that this was not a playground full of playing children. This was a playground of children who are herded out, and then the children stand around their caretaker, and then they are herded inside. Not one child did we see playing.
The Down's Syndrome children were in a big playpen, as were the babies. I told Igor we wanted to work with each group -- so that's what we are going to do. We are going to spend a few days with each age group of children. Today we spent about one hour with the Down's Syndrome group. These children are not held at ALL, just put in the playpen and kept safe. That's it. It's very sad. So, we learned their names, and when we began to interact with them, their faces lit up.
One boy, Yorgi, was extremely animated, such that he screamed with pleasure (caretakers very unhappy about this), and took to spitting on Adrienne. Shortly after that, Igor returned to advise that he has negotiated us out of the required medical tests, if we pay 170 lei. That's about $15, and beats having our blood drawn in Moldova. They did require us to have an XRay, however, which we did.
Now, this was a very unpleasant experience for me -- Adrienne's wasn't so bad. We were required to strip from the waist up and stand in front of an XRay machine from the 1950's. Right in the middle of my trip in there, Igor shows up. I yelled at him like you wouldn't believe. I don't think he meant to do this, but he is a bit of a spazz, and just popped in. Needless to say, he wasn't about to do the same thing to Adrienne, who was after me. Back in the dressing room, there were three women waiting their turn. All I could say was, "Have fun, ladies!" as I waved goodbye. They smiled and waved back.
So, Igor took us to a cafe where we discussed our 'strategy' of what was to happen tomorrow -- Tuesday. Tatiana is coming to pick us up at 8:40 a.m.; we'll take bus 103 to the orphanage and work from 9 a.m. - Noon. Then, we have a break while the kids sleep. Back at 3:30 p.m. and work until 6 p.m. We've signed up to work on Saturday mornings as well. So, we are brushing up on the colors of the rainbow in Romanian, and coming up with material for tomorrow's adventure.
Sorry, this is a bit out of order -- when we left Igor, Adrienne and I took a bus downtown -- bus #18 -- and shopped a bit, had a coffee, and walked at least 4-5 miles. Our feet are aching a bit. Around 5:30 p.m. we grabbed bus #18 to return, managed to get off at the correct stop, walked to a park, then home. At least another two miles there.
Back home, it was bath time for both of us, dinner, and now I'm here writing while Adrienne recovers from her stomach episode. I think she'll be fine tomorrow. Adela gave her some charcoal, which should help.
So, friends and family, this is our big adventure for Sunday and Monday! It's 10:15 p.m. here, and I'll head off to check on Adrienne, and head for bed. Thanks to all for your messages -- we appreciate them so much! Apologies for errors -- these are wonky keyboards!
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Robert Emmons
non-member comment
Good to hear all is OK
Well it looks like you two found the adventure you were looking for, as well as some unexpected events. I am sure there will be more surprises, both good and bad, during your trip. I am glad to hear both of you are safe and have found some excellent folks to help take care of you. Sounds like you had quite a party at breakfast. I hope the stomach bug that Adrienne has is not too bad. My son ate a hamburger in Singapore and he said it was the worst burger he had in his life. It was not a McD's. Your description of your adventure is great and I can tell your spirits are still high in spite of the set backs. PS You may know this already that downs kids are slow to develop spoken language. They do however pick up on sign language very quickly. It may help you to associate words to hand signs in order to communicate with them.