Romania in September

Toys in Romanian!

The road beside the hospital

t(Don't ask me how some of these pictures ended up at the top of the post - I need to figure out again how to do this.)

I'm nearly in shock being in Tutova with weather in the 70's, trees in bloom, and greenery everywhere. So different from the bleak winters I've experienced here before. For those of you who have been on teams with me in the winter, I'm attaching pictures of a different Tutova.

I had a day in Bucharest at the start of my trip. Went to the Patriarchal Cathedral on top of a very small hill, the only hill, in Bucharest. It was quite beautiful and definitely more ornate than some of the simpler and poorer Romanian Orthodox churches I've seen elsewhere. I also went to the Unirii shopping center near my hotel to look for things for the babies. I found two fisher price "learning" toys that have sounds and language, in Romanian! Too cool. I hear some of the older children like Mihaela and Celine are learning words so this will be great for them.

We are a team of 3 - me, Steve who is on his 12th trip, and his mother who is here on her first trip. Steve is a banker from Pennsylvania and was actually on the 2nd or 3rd team here. We are something like the 149th team. He comes every Sept. and has seen lots of changes. Lorraine, Steve's mother, and I will work with the non-mobiles and Steve with the mobiles although we will be back and forth. They are here for 2 weeks so I will be on my own for the last week. I know some of you out there who are reading this have done it so let me know your tips! I definitely will need to stay healthy and keep my energy up.

There are 19 children now about evenly split between the two groups.  Only two new children since I was here last: Nicoletta the premie who came at 3 months weighing under 2 pounds and is now something like 9 months and 9 pounds; and Raul who has the skin disease, EB, that Caroline Ruhl has written about. Caroline I haven't had a chance to ask too many questions yet but sounds like they are working on the appointment for his passport so he can come to the US for treatment. I will try and get more info for you and ask more about what needs to be done.

We had about an hour with the children today so not much news to report. I can tell you that the mobiles now include Mihaela, Celine, Alexandra, Ion, Marius, Andreea, Daniela, Petre, Alina, and sometimes Cristi. The non-mobiles are Andreaa and Roxana (the twins), Gabriela, Ionutz, Maria Cleopatra, Nicoletta, and Daria.  Paula is sometimes with the non-mobiles and sometimes doing her own thing whatever that may be. Raul is non-mobile but mostly in the isolation room due to his susceptibilty to infection. We will have to be sure to get in to visit him. Right now Alina and Marius are in isolation after having been at the hospital for check ups but hopefully will be out on Tuesday. AND, it looks like we don't have to wear masks partly because it isn't flu season and partly because I think they don't have any.  Have done a quick read through recent entries in the journals and it sounds like everyone is making progress albeit slowly for some. Still, every little bit of progress is success and thanks no doubt to all of the wonderful volunteers who have preceeded our team. 

Despite the difference in weather, many things are still the same: the clip clop of the horses and carts, the roosters crowing, the dogs barking, and oh yes, the showers leaking. I think pretty much all of the water from my shower leaked out from underneath it on to the bathroom floor. Thank goodness I remembered rubber sandals for in the bathroom instead of cloth slippers. I did forget my clinic slippers but see two pairs I left on previous visits are in the closet at the clinic so I'm good to go. Oh yes, I'm in one of the single rooms with a double bed and while it has less space than the rooms with two twin beds it is fine. 

Here are a few pix - will try and get some of the children tomorrow although I'm sure we will be busy.

The path to the clinic

The house behind the hotel

The Raluca, complete with outdoor tables