day 33

branch picnic day!!!!
full of icky pizza... tricky branch presidents... gypsies.... and best of all ultimate frisbee.
i never thought i would be so happy to throw a frisbee around, but it has been a long time since i have played any sports and it was really fun... even though we played in a field of stinging nettle, and my legs have never itched so bad... tennis shoes would have been a good idea to bring. i am going to go find some this week.

also we went and saw indiana jones tonight.. i actually really liked it.. but the aliens were a little too scary for me

day 32

it is 8:00 friday night, and i am in my bed, elisa is already alseep next to me. i never realized how tiring kids are. every night we all come home exhausted, but so so happy. i love laying together in our sleeping room talking about our kids. it is true, you really do come to love those you serve... having trouble loving someone? go make their bed.

anyways, high for the day: we had marius' aunt walk home from the hospital with us today, and we had her over for dinner. no we don't have any furniture, but she was more than grateful to join us on the floor as we ate a yummy dinner elyse prepared. she is amazing. she moved to the us and has been working there as a cna for 18 years, but after her sister died in the fire she felt like she needed to come take care of her nephew. she has been here for months and i can't even describe the sacrifices she has made her marius. we love her. she is inspiring. she also makes me miss all my aunts! thanks for the love and support!
low for the day: so i was in the icu with elisa and we were putting lotion on this boy that has been there for years, and hopefully not too much longer. his little arms are about as thick as two of my fingers. his eyes were open, but not moving. he looked like something straight out of a holocaust photo. anyways, i was trying to sing him a song, but my genes got the best of me. elisa was gone by then, so i went outside his door and sat down. before i knew it there was a group of nurses around me asking a million questions. i really just wanted to be alone so i ignored them. they took my quietness as a sign to try and left me up onto a bed. so i laid on the bed and let them take my vitals and elisa came and got me and we left. this weak stomach thing is not working for me, but will not stop me.

“The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

day 31

i have set a new goal: every evening i am going to go out exploring.

this will encourage me to get my cultural proofs done and not just stay home and read.

today started off wonderfully talking to everyone on skypie skype.

thanks again josh for opening up your apartment for a 121 social.

so vladdy got a walker today! he doesn't really like it, but he just needs to get used to it, and elisa and i burnt some lovely mixes to listen to at work, and the kids and workers like them.

i went to the post office today to send a packie package.

this afternoon at the apartments the girls taught us how to play a new game. it involves having someone pretend to be asleep on the couch and then one person running up and hitting them, and they have to try and guess who it was that smacked them... typically romanian. down by the banks was too boring for them.

o, and i also came up with a great idea for my primary kids, and for the older kids in the apartments. I am going to write up little lessons on different virtues such as honesty, or patience, and draw pictures to go along with them and have the elders translate them for me. that way i can do something meaningful with the kids, other than just play hit the sleeping person for two hours. also, the elders keep bugging us because they are supposed to be doing service for us, so this will keep them satisfied for a while.

day 30

- snuck backstage of a political campaign sponsored concert
- met the mayor of iasi
- got invited by the keyboardist of the MTV european music awards best romanian act, VOLTAJ, to go clubbing with them (we said okay, and found out all the details... but alas we are sitting at home instead)
- took a photo with the rolling stones of romania, holograf's lead singer
- how? well, we know what we like

p.s. i guess i am now the official district cna? one of the soras got bit by a dog and the mission doctor is sending her back to iasi with a series of shots that i get to administer... reminds me of african airport restrooms

the crew

here you go mom:

mary, mackenzie, whitney, me, elisa, melissa, mindy, elyse, annie

note... i am kinda slouching / bending my knees? but yes i am still the shortest

...

p.s. the song mexico by jump, little children = probably the best song ever written

p.p.s. future chandelle 885 - be ready for some super domestication skills...
p.p.p.s yesterday on memorial day, i had a moment of silence for alex the coug... yes he is broken and i am not there to use my car safety skills to fix him
p.p.p.p.s i am typing in the dark and you will not believe how many bugs keep flying into my lit screen - yuck
p.p.p.p.p.s. vlad was super responsive today and we really connected - he is starting to favor me over everyone else, which i love, but i hope the workers don't get mad
p.p.p.p.p.p.s. my nursing application is officially turned in = i no longer have any control over it, which scares me so so much. prayers, prayers, prayers
ALSO: look how cute my lil sister is!!! i miss her tons and wish i was there to embarrass her in front of her prom date... but isn't she a doll?

day 28

vaca

what i smushed with my hands yesterday to make burgers...

where romanians must not get their milk from, because it sure doesn't taste like it...

what dad wanted to purchase to add to the scott farm as food storage...

a page in these animal books that a girl named ashley made for elisa to bring...

vlad's new favorite book... thanks ashley!

story of the day:
the cafeteria at the orphanage is one full of harsh workers and not so cooperative children. there is often yelling comes from both sides, so meal times are not fun... today as i was walking past vlad and alex both saw me and their faces lit up.. vladdy did his little leg shaking thing and waved his arms.. alex smiled and rocked his head... anyways, for the next ten minutes we played a game called, don't let the workers see whitney make funny faces and do silly dances through the window... it was really entertaining and it made me happy to see them laugh.

day 27

that's what i love about sundays

free time to talk to the family

day 26

IASI: MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME!

today was a joyous one... elisa and i went exploring and picture taking this morning, and that was a lot of fun. here are a few photos... i am not going to post them all on one entry this time. i am going to save some for really boring days when i have nothing to type. p.s. i have been a little hesitant about bringing my nice camera out in public, but it really wasn't as big of a deal as i thought, so i am excited to take more.

o and hoopyah for iasi being 600 years old! we went out for an evening stroll and ran into this big party thing in front of the national theatre... i saw a guy that comes to outreach sometimes and asked him what was going on, he said come here, and lead us to prime reserved seats in front of the stage where we watched some great romanian musical acts (elyse got some entertaining footage and will post it on her blog later - p.s her and i just had a debate about the spelling of that word, she was right, it does not start with ph like photo). we got these cute white flags to wave and elyse was even given a pretty red rose from the boy we don't know the name of and unfortunately we had to be in by dark, so we couldn't stay to meet the olympic gymnast that everyone was so excited about, but we did yoga again tonight so everyone is happily relaxed and ready to go to bed. and that was one terrible run-on sentence.

(click to enlarge)

p.s. it is really bugging me that those two vertical photos are not centered... i can not, for the life of me, figure out how to fix it.. ky... rique.. any ideas?

day 25

once upon a time, there was this little burnt gypsie boy who decided to steal from the sweet american girls who came to visit him... he stole some cards and this little black bottle thing... knowing that he would get in trouble, the little boy waited for the girls to go home and sneaked into a bathroom to play with his new toys...

little did he know that the black bottle was full of mace and he sprayed himself in the face... it hurt him really bad... everyone was confused because they didn't know what this poison was that he claimed the americans gave him... the nurses and doctors were mad at the americans and banished them from their kingdom...

along came mario, the magical, who went to the hospital and atoned for the american girls mistake of being nice to little gypsie boys...

the americans were not completely off the hook though, they have to wait until the following monday and come to the hospital with backpacks full of chocolates to give to the upset faculty before they are allowed to take care of any babies...

the end.

. . .

today was a great day.
we walked to work in the pouring rain, and were more than drenched by the time we got there.
the workers were super nice today and even brought out a blow dryer to dry our hair so "we didn't get sick".
vladdy was in a great mood, and ghiorcel was as adorable as ever.
the other whitney is working on woo-ing the physical therapist into getting us photos, and so far so good. o and we are bribing him - if he comes to church with us, we will have a picnic with him.
we had a really fun time spending an hour together creating a list of predictions for the future lives of us nine. (this is what happens when we can't go to the hospital in the afternoons).
we gave up on our romanian budget this week, and will try again later.
elyse and mindy are singing "he loves me, he loves you not!" right this second in the back room.
and i am spending my friday night, once more watching chick flicks on our wonderful movie futon.

but here is my quote of the week:

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
~ R. W. Emerson

day 24

so something happened yesterday at the hospital that may have suspended us from working there for a while... no worries, everyone is okay, well a little gypsie thief of a boy has some red eyes, but everyone else is fine... anyways i will let you know more when i know i can talk about it

today was a continuation of the bad luck we started yesterday.. we showed up on grinch day at the orphanage.. no joke every single worker was ruder than ever and just plain grumpy... we survived that and elyse, mindy and i went to dachia to the apartments.. the third floor of kids was great, except they had just woken up all the kiddos, so they were not in the best of moods.. next we went to the seventh floor apartment and the worker there was more onery than the ones at the orphanage, so we were so excited to get out of there...

we climbed onto the number six tram and were enjoying the ride home, then we noticed that we were the only three left on the tram, and that it was stopped in the middle of the road.. we weren't sure what was going on so we just got off... and where were we? right in front of the only mcdonalds in iasi!!! so therefore we got soft serve sundays and started walking! if anyone knows me, they know how hard going 24 days with out soft serve has been, so i was more than happy that the tram broke down and we were over an hour and a half late getting home...

tender mercy = broken tram

o, also... last night we decided to bring sora genovieva flowers and a card for her dinner on sunday, the one that made us sick... and she invites us in for deja vu dinner part two... but it was rotten. worse than the first time.

note to self: if you have to go to a romanian's house to bring them something, drop it off at the door and run.. do not go inside.

also, i am running low on the photography front, but i have designated saturday morning to exploring and taking some lovely photos of my home away from home, aka iasi

day 23

buna! it is whitney's wednesday! which means my lucky roommates get to eat my scrumptious dinners. and even better, i only had about 15 lei left to buy the ingredients with this morning.

i went to the piata and got lots of cheap veggies and put them in a pot with a beef bouillon cube and am making pot roast... i was going to do hawaiian haystacks, but canned fruits were way too expensive.. next week.. thanks for the suggestions though.

the orphanage was much better today... the same worker was there and i just avoided her. there was one scary moment when vlad saw the same bottle and started heading towards it.. i snuck over and grabbed it and ran away with it and him, so the worker wouldn't see.. come to find out, he was just interested in looking at it.. he was fascinated by looking at the water inside of it... we sat on a bench for a few minutes, watching the water splash in the bottle, then busted! out comes the grinch and takes it from him and seriously gives him a piece of trash to play with... of course he cries and i run away with him again before he gets tied down again... i was able to calm him down with some bubbles.. i decided that i am going to make him a water toy.. like fill an empty water bottle with water and beads? or anything fun i can find and duck tape it and write vlad really big on it and give it to him...

so yeah, i am having a hard time being motivated to get all my course work done so i came up with a system: every time i finish a culture proof i can get a gogosi! what is a gogosi? goodness. (note the period). mackenzie and i decided we are going to open a gogosi stand across from j-dawgs... it will be good..



alright well. i don't have much more to say, so i will leave you with this picture of us at dinner on sunday...
we were still smiling because that was only the first course.. and were oblivious to what was coming..

o and ali, yes i am wearing your skirt... i can't remember if i asked you if i could bring it.. so thank you! and i can't wait to see some pictures of prom

cu mult drag.

p.s. thanks for the support everyone! really, multumesc foarte mult!!!

p.p.s mom and dad: the best time for me to skype is my mornings, your nights.. i am finally on a set schedule and wake up before the other girls, so like 7-8:30 my time, which i think is tenish yours...

p.p.p.s can someone please e-mail me the banana cake recipe including the frosting.. i had this genius idea to freeze bananas and try and eat them frozen, when i am dieing in the heat... anyways i would also like to make banana cake... to eat with my frozen bananas and banana juice... nope, nothing odd going on over here.

day 22

today was probably my hardest so far.

there is a worker at the orphanage that is really rough with the kids. she is very physically and verbally assertive with them.

remember vlad? my sweetheart that i wish i could keep? well i was working with him on his walking and he was actually doing pretty well until he saw a baby bottle of water on a table. i knew they would be mad if i gave it to him so i was carrying him over to the shelf of toys to distract him, but that worker saw and got the bottle and tried to feed it to him. since vlad has lived at home most of his life, he is very capable of feeding himself, so he didn't want the worker to feed him, and he turned his head away from her and the bottle.

at this point, you would think that any normal person would either give the bottle to him to feed himself, or just not let him have any.

she took vlad from me and told me to go get his chair. she tied him into his chair and told me to do something, but i was too focused on his screaming to comprehend what she asked so i said "nu stiu" - i dont know. she grabbed elisa and made her hold his hands down while she squeezed his face and squirted the water into his mouth. of course he was scared and confused and now choking because he was crying so hard...

i didn't know what to do, elisa kept looking at me and repeating, "i'm so sorry". i couldn't stay. my poor little vladdy. i should have done something.

sad day

help requested

so i am on a romanian's budget this week: 25 lei (roughly 12 usd)

i am in charge of dinner wednesday night

i need something that is easy to make, and cheap, and common enough to even be found in romania.... even better at the piata (outdoor veggie market)

can't do:
pizza, french toast, curry, pesto pasta, or anything with chicken...

any ideas?

p.s. today was a great day! i started off a little sick from sora gene's dinner but am okay now, and life is good!

p.p.s. i don't want to brag, but i just need to say that i owned romanian today! i dunno what happened, but there was a click and i was speaking and understanding so much more today than ever... it was weird and i am even thinking in it a little bit, which takes me by surprise... i am no where near fluent... not even close, but it comes to show how real prayer is... booyah!

day 20

Tradition has it, that sunday meals in iasi are made together as an apartment, alternating each week between the meal and the dessert, with the girls from scala.

Today, we had the dessert - today i was in charge of making it. it was a fruit pizza and it was yummy. we all ate a lot; annie's chicken, broccoli, and french fries, and my pizza.

This was a mistake.

Why?

Well little did we know that today sora genovieva was in charge of cooking for the district, and little did we know that she planned on having us join the missionaries... until we got a call from them, inviting us to her house. we had just finished eating our little hearts out at scala and decided that all nine of us should go because if she were to offer food, it would have to be small portions because there were so many of us.

Upon arrival, we thought we were okay because when we got there, she made the elders leave to go buy some more bread... (yes it is sunday here, but we like to roll with the punches)

We were wrong.

I have never felt so full in my life... no joke i was gagging on course three - and not because it was yucky, because it was foarte buna, but i just could not swallow... elder mielke was our coach talking to us about different experiences he has had with romanian women and food and how we just need to eat it. yikes. (it is moments like this that we are glad other people can not understand what we are saying - or that we have a cunning elder that translated our, "come on girls, this odd meatball thing with chunks in is not that bad tasting." or "i think i am going to puke" into, "they love your food and are so appreciative")

All the while, sora geneoviva (pictured right, with her son) was running around refilling our bowls and bringing out the next round. she was moving so quick she spilled a whole bowl of beans on melissa's shoulder... at the same time, her handicapped son (who we love) ionuts was listening to romanian techno music really loud and playing an intense game of tic tac toe with elder barclay...

O, and did i mention, that it was about a bijillion degrees, well more like 85 with 60% humidity... o, and that she was feeding us really hot soups and this beans in gravy stuff, and some sort of meatball in gravy stuff?

True story.

I feel like i will never be able to eat again.

But, when all is said and done: it was a really funny experience and definitely one that we will laugh over for a while. and most importantly, sora genovieva is amazing, and so sweet to have made that for us and opened her cute little apartment to us. i am sewing her a card right and we are going to bring her one of those framed jesus pictures with flowers tomorrow to thank her.

Sundays are still my favorite days.

also

some photos i just snatched from mindy my love

we like each other































This is for kimmy, because i felt guilty for sleeping on a bunk bed without her underneath...
























p.s. song of the day: you got me by tristan prettyman

please go to

http://meeinromania.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-we-love-romania.html

to find out why we love romania

multumesc

ATTN: OTHER INTERNS

"Please share this with all of the girls there and let them know that Maricica has been so impressed with your energy and your kindness and she tried to say the best in english she could that you just glowed. People notice it, it is real!! Please remember that! You are a gift there, each one of you. Thanks for your sacrifices."

this is from team marius...
maricica is his aunt

days 17 & 18

so since we are now on a set schedule, these posts may begin to get a little repetitive... so i will do my best to keep them lively

actually i am going to lay it all out right now because people keep asking me what i am doing here, so break it down now:

monday through friday 9:00 - 12:00: i work in the mickey mouse rooms of section two orphanage
we split up the kids in each room, so i have three kids in both rooms. i spend a half hour with each child working towards specific developmental goals that i have made for each one. o and we play, and laugh and have fun too :)

room one = ana maria, christina, and iliuta... all three of them are super low functioning and are often ignored by the careworkers, and sadly, by the past byu girls - they admitted it in their end of the semester write ups... but don't worry, they will be well played with this summer... none of them can talk, but they can all laugh and smile and cry, so my goals with them are simple: make sure ana maria smiles at least six times each session, or for christina, i am going to help strengthen her muscles enough so she can sit upright for an extended period of time, maybe five minutes? she's at about 30 seconds right now... anyways, that's that about those little angels... i am sure i will write more as time goes on

o and iliuta has the best laugh! he loves it when i hold him in my arms like superman and have him fly around the room... unfortunately, he is too big, and my arms are too weak to do that for an extended amount of time, but i'll get stronger

room two: this room is full of spitfire toddlers... so fun! i am over vlad, florina, and ghiorcel. i think i have mentioned that vlad has a mom.. she has an interesting story, she went out of the country and came back to her husband cheating on her so she left him and started working... vlad has a twin sister that is totally normal, but she brought vlad to section 2 because she couldn't support him. he's only been there a few months and is still adjusting. he has the prettiest eyes that light up when you talk to him... o if i could take one home it would be him... he's the one that i am going to teach how to walk... whitney and i worked with him yesterday and he seemed to have lots of fun walking between us and getting hugs and kisses every time he walked to one of us... florina is a little mystery, no one knows what's wrong with her, but we do know she loves bubbles, and being touched.. she has awesome curly hair and freckles... and last but not least, ghiorcel! he is two and just learned to walk, so he is obsessed with walking around everywhere! he hasn't really figured out the balance thing so he walks with his head tilted in the direction he wants to go and his feet try and follow, needless to say, i say opa asa alot to him, meaning oopsie daisy (remember how you were going to start saying that josh?)... he is cute, but definitely hard to please... he will not pretend he is happy, so when he smiles or laughs i know that it is sincere, which makes all the running around and wrestling worth it..

okay so that is the orphanage

on tuesday thursday evenings, 3:30-6: elyse and i go to the dacia apartments: they are run by the same people as section 2, but they live in normal bloc apartments... they are pretty far away so we have to ride the tram... there are two of them, and they are super fun... the caretakers there are amazing, so so sweet. the seventh floor has two "normal" girls who are really fun because we can talk with them and joke with them... we taught them how to play duck, duck, goose, which was quite the accomplishment because it was taught like charades... the first time we tried to play, i goosed elyse and she got up to chase me, and all of the kids followed, and the caretaker yelled at us from the other room, whoops... it was really fun, i am excited to be working with them

monday, wednesday, friday 2:00-5:00: st. maria's children's hospital. every monday we go to all the nurses and ask them where the babies without moms are and they show us, and we go and play with them, and change them and try and get them to fall back asleep before we have to move on to the next baby...

p.s. my rocking skills are going to be worth at least five stars by the time i get home... they have already improved immensely.

this piture is of the whitneys with alex.. he is ten and is so happy even though he is totally aware of his mom abandoning him... there is another boy in his room that speaks english so he translates for us and in return we bring him lord of the ring books in romanian...

um marius update: we have been spending three hours with him everyday, at first we were rotating through but he requested that the same two girls come everyday, understandable, anyways because of the apartment situation and other things, i am not one of those girls, but i know that melissa is really involved, so are mindy, and elisa... and i live with all three of them, so i hear a lot about him... we are keeping in contact with the team on that website i posted earlier, and we are trying our best to prepare him for surgery and for living in america - even though more complications have come up and it may be taking longer than everyone thought to get him there...

my blue baby has a name! georghitz! i was holding him yesterday, friday, because it is saturday morning for me now.. and there was a new lady in the room with him who told me that she was friends with him mom... ooo that made me so mad! i asked her where his mom was and she said at home, not far from there.. i asked why she doesn't come visit her baby and all she said was because she was crazy? huh? ugh... it really hit home to me then, and made me so frustrated... they don't understand the mistake they are making... i am not very good at explaining emotions, so i'm not going to try, but it was definitely a downer, but at the same time, made me really excited to be a mom one day (no day soon) and cherish my kids, and know how precious and special they are... haha that sounds really mfhd-y of me, but it is true...

i often find myself thinking, what am i doing here? so far away from everyone i know and love... or i question my motivation behind signing up and paying so much money to come walk around a dirty unfamiliar city, getting weird looks, cat-called at, or yelled at in the hot humid smelly air? but when i think about being only person to hug and kiss the babies at the hospital, or when i make one of my kids snort from laughter, i remember why. one of my favorite talks is "forget yourself" by president hinckley. i am going to make that my personal theme of this summer.

all right on another note, but kind of similar: thursday night we were set apart by elder mielke... what an awesome experience that was... president popovici called mielke and made him come give us blessings in english, because president popovici wanted us to understand what what being said... so they had all of us come into a room and he set each of us apart, and it was really cool how different each blessing was from another... i think that you can learn a lot about a person from listening to their blessings, anyways... it was really motivating and definitely a testimony builder... the things he said were not from him... poor guy, i know he was nervous, but i am soo grateful that he is worthy enough to use his priesthood to bless us... how lucky are we???? fuerte mult!

friday night was our rs activity! o wow... i don't think i could even describe what happened... here is a blow by blow: there was a fashion show of homemade clothes they were teaching how to make - sooo immodest by the way, but so funny... umm a talent show: soras reciting poems, doing kick boxing, mindy and elyse having a gogosi eating race... and then we had a dance contest.. they turned on music and said now you all dance and we will judge who is the best dancer?! what?! so we danced and danced and danced for what felt like forever. at one point we were all doing the macarana, and the elders were in the hall laughing... great! i heart romania



after the activity we all came back to our apartment and had a sleepover, whats four more people in our beds? i slept fine, but woke up to girls all over the place because they weren't "comfortable sleeping that close to that many people", understandable. good thing i can sleep anywhere especially if the newsies is on, sorry dirty, ten minutes is all i can stay awake for... it was a fun night though


now it is saturday morning and we have discovered that our hot water heater is broken... i might be taking cold showers after all... bummer deal

well.. i need to get going, have lots more to do today! hope you are all sleeping well and having better dreams than i have been lately...

cu mult drag!!!

p.s. did i mention that one of the soras has a handicapped son, who is in his late twenties, and is super functional, but she brought him to our rs activity and he was the model for the mini skirts and belly shirts they taught us to make!!! hilarious!

p.p.s check out sister ashby's blog, the mission president's wife: we are celebrities! http://light-stones.blogspot.com/2008/05/couples-conference-in-brasov.html

german proverb

the oldest trees often bear the sweetest fruits

days 15 & 16

i am alive, but very tired...

everything is going well and we have been very busy...

at the hospital, we got little miss grumpy grump to laugh today, and my little blue baby seems less congested and less blue, and i actually was able to get him to fall asleep before i had to leave him (he is the baby in the picture above)... o and we figured out grump's name!! georgiana!

the orphanage is getting better each day.. i've figured it out that i have a half hour with each kid... i got yelled at twice today by the workers, which isn't the best, but at least i know they know my name: "oooo-eee-ton-knee.... mumble jumble radda badda" point at me and give a dirty look = stop doing whatever you are doing...

so one of my boys name is vlad... and he is adorable! he has a mom, i met her yesterday. anyways she had an emergency c-section when he and his twin sister were born and something happened to his neck? i haven't read his charts yet, they are in the scala apartment... anyways, he can't talk, well i think he can, but he just doesn't, and he crawls a lot, but should be walking.. so my goal with him is to get him to walk... today i took him afara, outside, and we worked on standing... he can stand and even walk, but he depends on me for balance.. kinda like when i try to skateboard... i need ali there to lean on or i'll fall flat on my face.. so we walked around a lot and he got tired so we sat down but then i got yelled at, so i just carried him... he is a doll face, and i wish i could take a picture... i'll work on that

the branch does this thing called outreach every wednesday and thursday nights, where they open up the church for anyone to come and play games and eat popcorn.. we were not excited, but fulfilled our obligation and went, and it was actually really fun... surprisingly, there were more than just us byu girls and the elders, but there were about 5 romanians... we played skip-bo and then i taught them egyption ratscrew (p.s. i hate that name), and i jumped in on a round of phase 10 with the elders... they had rummikub, but i didn't see it till we were leaving... next time. i can't go tomorrow because i'll be working at the apartments until late so next week...

i made dinner again tonight... pesto pasta, garlic bread and veggies.. i've never minced garlic before.. it was kind of fun...

well, my eyes are drooping, and i still have some reading to do tonight...

hope all is well with everyone! send an email if you get a chance.. and carly, don't act like you and johnny didn't get my fb message!!!

cu mult drag!

p.s. this is a photo of what kimmy and i would look like if we grew up in iasi...

day 14

yes i skipped day 13,

i decided trying to capture every moment of everyday was impossible, so now i will write as much as possible....

today was a great day! it was my first full day of work... orphanage from nine to noon, language lessons, and the hospital from two to five... what a wonderful life! what a tiring life!

so i was assigned to work in mickey mouse with whitney a and elisa... there are a lot of kids in that section and many are too heavy to be lifted alone - thus there are three of us..

high: one of my cerebral palsy boys is the cutest little stinker i have ever seen!! o and chels, he is a red head... but o so adorable! he along with another amazing boy are completely there intellectually, but because of cp, they can't control anything but their eyes, mouth - kinda, and neck - kinda... anyways, if the language wasn't a barrier enough, i know that it is going to be difficult working with them, but there is always a way.

pause: elyse is reading the list of odd things that have become the norm to us iasi girls and they are funny and very distracting

okay, so the orphanage is going to be great. i am a little frustrated with my lack of romanian to use to talk to the other workers, and the kids, but that will get better the more i work on it.


the hospital was also great today...

o did i mention it was hot today!?!? yes, while it was snowing in utah... it was actually warm in iasi... odd

okay, so annie had never been to the hospital, so i was lucky one to show her around... it was fun, she's way cute... and we found a new baby!! and he's just like the grump, but happy! the grump in the nick name we gave the baby in my mothers day post because she tries so hard not to smile.. it is really funny though because she will smile for a second but when she sees us seeing her smile she pouts... o but she is a cuddler! we got in trouble by the nurses for holding her too much... they say she cries when we leave. we understand

after the hospital we came home for dinner before fhe and something wonderful happened...

skype.

nothing better then seeing the smiling face of someone you miss!

elyse and i did the lesson for fhe.. it was great since we accidentally started a half hour early and no one but us girls were there...

back home for quantum leap, and homework.

acel este tot.

cu mult drag,

p.s. so our washer has a tube that drains into the back of our tub.. and tonight when i was crouching in my tub - because we have clothes hanging everywhere, holding the sprayer thing, trying not to get water everywhere because we don't have a shower curtain, a cold rush of blue scrub colored water rushed all over me scaring the bageezees out of me, making me laugh out loud... and making all my room mates laugh out loud as well because when the washer is on, it has to be plugged in and the closest plug is in the hall... therefore, the bathroom door can not shut...

again, i heart romania, and at least the plumber came today, so we no longer have to use the tub to do our dishes in

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!

here is a little something something for my mommy, can't wait to talk to you in a few hours!

we could hardly get this little grump grump to smile, but she sure loved the pinwheels you got for lads like her! thanks momma!

days 11 & 12

so on the night of day 10, we were taking an overnight train ride back to iasi and the mean train man who we nicknamed porkchop, took lots of monies from elisa and i and that was really not fun.

we got into iasi around 8:30 the next morning and had enough time to drop our stuff off at home and meet up with mario at the bus stop to go meet the kids.. we were all really sleepy, stinky, and i was still bitter about the night before, so it wasn’t the best time for first impressions, but we did the best we could. the orphanage was a lot nicer than i thought it was going to be. we got a tour of each room and we will find out later who we are specifically working with. we will find out sunday and start work on monday.

there was a branch activity on friday night. well they called it an activity but it was more like a fireside about missionary work and fellowshipping, put on by the missionaries. they tried to make this house out out of these big cookie cracker things for their object lesson, but it didn’t work and was kind of funny. there was a big polka concert going on outside of the cultural palace, but we were warned by an elder that if we went to it we would loose our salvation… so was walked through it and straight home after to spend our friday evening editing photos. o and dad called me this night and it was wonderful.

saturday: elisa took melissa and i to the hospital. it is a pretty far walk but we stopped at a covrigi stand half way, so it wasn’t too bad. when we got there we hiked up to the top floor and started going from nurse to nurse asking if there were any babies with out mamas.. at the hospitals here the nurses and doctors only pass meds and all of the caring, like changing diapers or giving baths, are done by the mothers, so when an orphan is brought to the hospital they don’t get changed – so it is our job to find them and fix them and love them for as long as we can until we have to hurry on to the next group of babies… that was the hardest part… finding this sick, precious, stinky baby… cleaning them up and holding them and then having to lay them back down, often crying to go take care of more… i wish we could have stayed longer but there was just not enough time for all of them… but that was just day one.. we have established a schedule to make sure that we get at least three people there everyday, including weekends. i am really excited about this, more than the orphanage… it will be hard, but i’ve learned that sometimes the hardest things are the most worth it.

it felt so good to finally be doing what i came here to do.. the past months of preparation are finally paying off now that the work has begun... our group motto is make it count... that's the plan - to make every second count, serve my little heart out and come home exhausted, with no regrets!!!

dad, remember that boy you showed me from the paper? we met him… he is such a happy boy for being so hurt… his family all died in a fire and he was severely burned al over his body.. like he doesn’t have a face, or fingers, and the skin on his legs are transparent, and it has been months.. so i was kind of bummed because we were in there with him for quite a while, and at first i was fine, but the more i looked at him, i started to feel a little sick… i was okay if i didn’t look at his face, but his sweet little eyes, just made me so sad, i had to leave.. i think i will need to keep exposing myself to him in small increments before i can really sit with him, prayers, prayers, prayers… anyways.. they are still working on getting all the paperwork done for him to go back to california for plastic surgery… he will be staying with a past byu girl after his surgery, i am not sure, but i think that might be in utah.. if it is, will you visit him? hopefully things move quickly so he’ll be gone before i get home… anyways.. we are going to have one of us sit with him everyday and read to him or play games with him until he leaves… his name is marius.

please go here: http://www.teammarius.org/node/22

so after the hospital, we went to the villa where president popovici met with each of us and interviewed us and gave us callings… it was a bit weird having an elder sit in on the interview and translate.. i was the first girl to go, and this was the first time that elder had ever done it and it was obvious that it was a little bit weird for him too… anyways, guess who is primary president? yes me. now guess how many kids there are? doua, which is 2, and they hardly come… i met their mom today, sunday, though and told her that i would love to teach her children if she brought them with her.. she said okay thank you, so we will see what that means… i also talked to the soras and they said that when we go on splits we can make sure that i get to go to their house to meet the kids and invite them to church… they are nine and four… and i am pretty sure the nine year old hasn’t been baptized, summer goal?, we will see… but i am really excited about that… not as excited as josh is about being on the music council, woop woop, maybe mr elg’s teachings will pay off when you sing solos and stuff for the good ole 121 family…

okay that is all for now!

cu mult drag!

p.s. our kitchen sink is broken, so our tub if full of dishes, which makes showering a bit difficult.. i heart romania!

p.p.s i miss the temple... will someone go for me please?

this is for kylie nixon from north ogdan

photos

(click to enlarge)

nine hour train ride through heaven:

euro-hair at it finest

my hubby and i better be this precious one day...

romania's proudest

before: papoa nich and i just chit-chatting and looking out the window

after: the iugurt bottle papoa nich gave me to hold the window open when he left = long story

brans castle: home of dracula

castelul peles

i forgot my journal and they wouldn't let me take photos inside..

brasov music festizal

those would be the jeans and sweater that i never want to see again

skinny street

the man in the graveyard:


this was the face he made when i told him to smile

he dragged us to this grave...

where he acted out the story of his brother's death

elisa gave him a candle

they blew out, but he said it was fine...

and kissed us all goodbye as we left, and told us to be careful...

such a good trip!