Feel-Good Days

First off, I apologize for my previously distraught post. If you couldn't tell, I'm a little frustrated with my lack of capabilities to cook here. I admit I cooked fairly simple and quick dinners for the most part in college. So having to start everything from scratch makes it harder for me to think of things. I did buy some pork chops (half the price of chicken) and intend to try out a few different tweaks to flavor it some (including Aunt Eileen's orange/soy sauce pork chops..yum!) I'm also headed to the piata (pee-at-suh) tomorrow to buy more tomatoes (rosii=roshee), potatoes (cartofi=car+toff), bell peppers (ardei gras=are+day+grass) and oranges (porticale=porti+call+ay). Perhaps even some cabbage as I've learned I like that too! Tonight I attempted to make some jello/pudding from a package that was left from a previous semester. I'm fairly sure it was out of date as it never even set. Translating the directions was hilarious. The last direction told us to pour mixture into a dish with hot pancake water...no joke, and I checked that I put in the right words into the translator gadget. No wonder why cooking in Romania is so hard! :)

All this week at the orphanage, we've been playing outside from 9-11 until the kids go in for masa (lunch) and then are put down for naps. Today the worker told us that we couldn't go outside it was too hot. We thought it was hotter inside than out, but what do we Americans know? We're the ones that freeze our children and put ice in our water! When another worker came in that spoke English, she explained to us that one of the kids had a fever. Thus it was not the temperature outside she had referred to, but the fever a child had been running...this also made more sense because earlier I had asksed another child if they were sick and the worker said something about 46....oh her temperature. I get it!
So Melanie and I were stuck in the stifling room while the worker took the kids two at a time for a walk around the play yard. At one point, I was taking a little girl for a piggy back ride and ventured into the hallway. I'm not kidding when I say there was at least 15 degree difference thanks to the AC swamp in the hallway to keep the plants cool (yeah, nice!). A few minutes later, the worker came in and told me to take the girl away from the hallways because of the "current". The current in Romania is the belief that any movement of air (hot or cold) will get you sick, especially children. Thus, we are destined to swelter in the heat this summer. It's been about 75 or so outside and these kids are in long sleeves, tights for girls even under shorts and hats (okay sun protection makes sense with the hats). Most of the babies we hold in the hospital are sweaty too as they are swaddled in blankets...so we get to hang out not only with cute kids all day but sweaty ones at that....yeah, be jealous haha.

Despite the lanauge barrier, kids love it when we sing primary songs to them (quick plug: THANK YOU to all my primary teachers, and Elk Ridge Primary for re-teaching me songs). A little girl I work with who I will call "V" absolutely loves popcorn and is slowly picking up on motions (we use anything to distract her from pulling hair and being rough). Throughout the week she has picked up on some phrases we use to remind her to be gentle to others, and after repeating them 100 times, she starts to associate "frumoasa" with stroking someone's hair nicely. Frumoasa actually means beautiful, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

Today for some reason surpassed her understanding of frumoasa though. We were sitting playing with some blocks. I smiled at her and said "Ta da". Then I looked at "V" and said "V, spuneti (say) 'ta da'!" and spread my arms out as I said it. I repeated this twice and a moment later, she mimicked me and repeated in her quiet little voice "Ta da!" I never felt so proud. She doesn't quite understand the meaning or when to use it really. But I love to see her learning, and this is only the beginning! Unfortunately, I tried to get "V" to say it to the worker in the room later, but the worker was too busy feeding/cuddling with a favorite child and didn't seem to hear us. This obviously isn't the first thing she's learned from us, but teaching her how to be proud of herself just made me so overjoyed. I'd like to think after I leave, she'll understand it, and be able to do it and have people applaud her when she says it after finishing a project, getting dressed by herself, or acheiving something else....without future interns, it's doubtful, but I sure hope one day she'll get the attention and loving she deserves. All of these kids deserve so much more than what they get! They can all be pills at times, but what child isn't? It just seems harder because they're being difficult on top of having more difficulties and disabilities.



This sign translates to "Romania, I kiss you" When you "pup" someone it's the air kissing on both cheeks. Embarassing: I thought I'd be funny and send it to Mark and not tell him what he thought...but I misspelled it as "poop" (just as it sounds)....good thing he doesn't know Romanian! Who knows what he thought it meant!