Today was a little more difficult at the orphanage apts. When I arrived, both of the kids were in the bathroom because they are potty trained. I went in and changed into my scrubs and wasn’t sure if I needed to put diapers back on the kids or if I was supposed to wait for the workers. After ttrying to figure it out, I decided to go ask the workers, who were in the other room, where the pampers are. My attempt in Romanian fired back a response from both workers – none of which I understood. Then, one of the workers gave me two pieces of bread on a plate and smiled. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to give the bread to the kids, or if she wanted me to eat in the other room? I had heard her say “camera de joaca” which means playroom, so I decided to go in the other room and eat the bread. I ate slower than usual thinking that the worker would go in and finish helping the kids get changed – but that didn’t happen. Finally, I decided to go back in, take my plate and start washing it. When I got into the kitchen and said thank you to the worker for the bread and started washing the plate in the sink. She grabbed it from me and said “acolo” which means “there” and pointed in the other room. So I went in the other room and the other worker went in the bathroom to get the kids changed and dressed finally. I would have done it, but I didn’t know how and they are very particular on things and ended up just standing there – feeling bad that I couldn’t help and that I was completely clueless. It’s times like this that the language barrier is very difficult. In this situation in English, I could atleast ask or communcate with her and figure out where I need to go, what I can do to help, what they expect of me, and more about the kids. Instead, it is a constant guessing game. Whenever they start speaking, I am constantly trying to pick out words I know and string them together. Sometimes, I stand there and have no idea what was said. I’m getting sick of saying “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” I am trying to work on the language everyday – either through listening to Romanian/English lessons on my ipod, practicing verb conjugation, pronunciation, indefinite and definite nouns, and masculine and feminine words. Still, I feel like my Romanian is only a teaspoon in the ocean. Sorry, I will stop complaining!
Back to my story: after the kids got dressed, she told me to take them in the playroom and to stay in there because they were doing cleaning in the rest of the house. I thought – no big deal. Well, there was a cord in the door so that it couldn’t shut, and V is absolutely obsessed with doors. I would have to run and grab him almost every 2 minutes. After a few hours, it got really old. I tried everything, I would sit down and try to play with him, try to distract him, work on playing with G, find a new toy – you name it, I tried it. But he still kept running to open the door and walk out. I know he wasn’t doing it to spite me, he just couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed walk out when the door was cracked open and the workers would either yell at him or come get frustrated at me.
On a good note, remember how I said I was going to try to help him learn how to feed himself? We made great progress today. Instead of feeding him his bananas, I would put them in his hand and move his hand up to his mouth. By the end, If I put them in his hand, he would move his hand to his mouth by himself. He needed a little bit of help, but it was definitely progress!
Today in the hospital, they had moved all 3 of our kids into one room this time. It made it easier because we didn’t have to go back and forth through the hall, but the kids were riled up today.
I took Denisa out of her crib and usually I will just play with her on one of the beds. I decided to put her down and see if she can walk. She’s getting to the age – atleast I think – where she should be walking. I just held her hand and we walked around in circles around the room and back and forth between the beds. Right now, because there are 2 cribs and 2 hospital beds and a small stand in the room, there is only about 5 feet of floor space left. Nonetheless, we walked around and around and she loved it. I went to pick her up to put her back on the bed and she was not a happy camper and got so frustrated! She’s a little pill when it comes to sharing – which is to be expected at that age. So, to calm her down, I took her out into the hallway and we walked back and forth for a while and I sang songs to her. . As I sang to her down the hall, she just sang right along with me and moved her arms up and down and giggled. For me, that was the highlight of my day.
It was as if she was a completely different girl than the sad, teary eyed one we had met a few days ago. The first day when we left, she sobbed and sobbed, but the only thing she could manage to get out was a desperate wheeze and big alligator tears. She has opened up to us finally. Today when I came in, she stood right up smiled and held her arms out for me to get her out. 3 hours a day may not be a lot for me, but for this girl, it’s the world. Yes, she is a handful and is always wanting everyone else’s toys and wants the attention all the time, but who isn’t? oh how I love this girl.
It's hard to think that one of these days we will go back to the hospital and these kids will be gone and I will probably never see them again. I'm not even sure where they go - if there are other orphanages somewhere around? For now, I have to enjoy the time I get to spend with their smiling faces everyday and the joy that they bring to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment