Halfway...

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It is Wednesday, and Wendy and I figured we are over halfway finished with this leg of our journey. Even though we feel we have bonded with the children at the orphanage, and adore our time with them, we are definitely looking forward to moving on to our next stop: Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Yesterday we woke up to the greatest sound in the world...rain! The temperature was around 10 degrees cooler than the previous few days, and our spirits were immediately soaring. Because the children stay indoors when it rains, and because our current group just stays in their cribs when they are indoors, we took it upon ourselves to take the morning off since we weren't really needed. Now, in our real jobs, we would NEVER do that! We slept in a bit, had a wonderful breakfast with our host, exercised, and then went to the Jumbo to have lunch and window shop. Because of our affinity for natural fabrics and modesty, there aren't many stores that sell the type of clothes we like, but it's fun to look around and see where people actually buy the clothes we see on the streets.

We had been concerned about our "old" group of 4 year olds acting so strange on Monday, so we were anxious to see them again and check on their dispositions when we arrived at the orphanage in the afternoon. First, however, we went to the playroom of our current group to spend time with them. Even though the sun was out and the weather was beautiful, the caregiver would not let us take them outside. In fact, she only let us take one of the children out of the crib at all. Wendy and I were very frustrated with not having much to do; plus she didn't open any windows in the playroom, just one in the hallway, so were getting pretty hot.

I was holding Nastia, a three year old with Downs, and took her to the open window to try and catch some of the breeze. I saw our 4 year olds were outside playing near the window. Even though the temperature had cooled slightly, their caregiver had dressed them for the fall season. Boys and girls alike had wool tights on under their shorts. They still had their sandals on, though, but I figured I would not share my aversion to pairing hosiery with open-toed shoes with the caregiver. I called Wendy over to the window and we started calling out the kids' names. They ran over and were jumping up and down, saying stuff in Romanian, and generally seemed much happier than when we last saw them. When we left for the day, we went out the door near their play area to get some face time with them. Wendy is going to blog about the reaction we got, so I will just say they were back to their old smiling, playful selves. We are planning to speak with our Moldova Projects Abroad Leader on Friday to share our concerns with him about the strange behavior we saw on Monday, and ask him to follow up.

This morning, back at the orphanage, we were again dismayed that the caregiver would not let us take the kids outside. This time, we couldn't even take Nastia out of the crib. After about an hour we couldn't take anymore, so we went over to the other Downs group we love so much. Andre and Nicolietta were out of the pen and playing in the dirt. Now I got in trouble when I let them play in the sandbox and they got a little sand in their hair, but the caregivers today were letting them run free, sit in the dirt, and throw sand at each other. When Andrea and Nicolietta saw us, their faces were delighted, and they further showed their enthusiasm by throwing dirt at us. When we left, Andre blew kisses at us--he is such a sweetheart when he doesn't have dirt in his hands! 😊

This afternoon we are going to a winery with the other volunteers. Igor called us last night and told us to eat a good lunch, because we would be drinking a lot of wine in the afternoon. Yikes! We took him at his word, and each had a slice of mushroom quiche, coffee, and 2 flavors of gelato. For around $4.

Hopefully we will have some good stories about the winery tomorrow. With Igor, we know we are guaranteed an adventure.

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Comments

[Itty Lemon]

The Caregiver
A., I'm so glad you have Wendy with you! It sounds like it would be a very lonely trip without her. I'm dying to see pictures of "The Caregiver"...she sounds like some creepy character from a 70's film. It seems like your time at the orphanage is a combination of frustration and reward. Please keep the entries coming...I really enjoy hearing all about your adventure. Lemon