Rehab camp

I decided about a month beforehand that I wanted to go to Rehab camp. I asked Florina if she knew anything about it and she half encouraged me, half tried to scare me out of it. The deciding factor that I could handle it was that I wasn't afraid to drink the Bucuresti water. I don't exactly know how that qualified me, but it did. When I got to camp, I found out that the sleeping arrangements were as follows; Four single beds, Ariana (a CTL worker), Marylin (an American volunteer I have spent the last 3 months with), Kitty (Romanian translator, very nice), me, a terribly cute autistic six year old Alexandra, and a terrible spoiled but otherwise completely normal 2 1/2 year old Georgiana. It was very hard to share a room with these kids, cute as they are, but well worth it as two other kids may have not been able to go if we had not. Along with and amble number of caretakers, there was a British team there to put on a program for the kids. This week we were a 'tribe' and we were all broken into little groups named after animals. We made masks like our animals and danced like our animals. At the end of the week, we put it all together and had a big festival. The kids really loved it, but I was even more surprised that it was pulled of, we had no accidents with scissors or plastic bags or the river next door, however we did have quiet a few accidents involving wet pants. It was a draining week, but the highlights of the week were more than worth it. I was sharing a bed with Ariana and Alexandra, I kept my alarm clock under my pillow for lack of a bed stand and also to protect it from cute little six-year-old fingers. There was a faint ticking that could be heard with my head on my pillow. On the first morning, I woke up and Alex was laying there, two inches away from my face, eyes wide open, listening to my pillow. It was hilarious and heart warming. Another highlight was with Georgi. Georgiana had a hole in her heart when she was born. She was sickly and her mother dropped her off at the disabilities orphanage. However, the whole has since healed and Georgi is now a completely normal little girls surrounded by disabled children and the caretakers. She is spoiled rotten as the caretakers never punish her or say no. The adults in our cabin took it upon ourselves to treat Georgi like we would a normal girls her age. We employed "the door". Whenever Georgi misbehaved she would sit at the door for a certain number of ten counts, depending on the severity of her crime and how she behaved at the door. For the first few days, it was very hard. We got spit at, hit, and even shown the finger... yes, the finger from a two year old, never thought I would see the day. But as the week went on, Georgi started to listen to us. We didn't have to take her to the door every time she was told no. She started to behave. We were so happy that our labor wasn't completely in vain. Now Georgi is at the Black Sea with the children and will probably come back as spoiled as before, but she was a normal little girl for a few days, and we have to pray that that will count for something. Georgi is a special little girl and it hurts to hear her story. She is stuck at that orphanage because her mother hasn't signed the papers needed for her to be moved or adopted. She is already picking up really bad habits like rocking and biting herself. I would like everyone who reads this to pray that Georgi's mother would be found and would sign the papers so that she could be adopted by a nice family who would love her and discipline her.

Now because it took me so long to finish this blog, I have another week to catch up on. I went to rehab Monday through Wednesday morning. On Monday afternoon I went straight home. On Tuesday afternoon I went to a park with the younger boys from number seven and on Wednesday I went to Chitila and we watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I am so glad that I went to these places. I love Rehab so much, but I had forgotten how much I love those kids too. It was so cute (and frustrating) that after I told them I knew Romanian, they still tried to communicate with gestures and pointing. On Thursday I stayed at the center and helped Mada give English lessons to little kids. In the afternoon, some teenage girls came and we cooked together and I helped an mother of a boy with cerebral palsy create an email address so she could contact a doctor about possible surgery for her son. Friday I went to a pool with some children from the family program. We had a lot of fun trying to teach them to swim! :/ It was also very amusing to get told by one of the employees that I wasn't allowed in the water because I wasn't dressed in a swimsuit. I was wearing board shorts and a tankini top. (P.S. Everyone in Romania and Europe in general wears bikinis... not always a pretty sight). On Saturday I went to Rehab and said my goodbyes to the children who were there. They don't get back from the Sea until Monday afternoon, so I won't get to see them. It was really hard to walk down those steps for the last time for a long while. I feel so needed there. I know that this isn't my last trip in Romania. I want to come back here in two years for another summer and then for a long stay after college. Whatever God's will is, I pray He will make it known. But for now, I am leaving Romania on Tuesday in the early morning, and it is hard.