babies

Romania is very much still a developing country, although it is now part of the European Union and is striving to become more progressive and modern, poverty is still a big problem in Romania. Because of poverty and the residual communist mentality that institutionalizing children is fine and normal, Romania has many, many orphans and abandoned children. After visiting an orphanage and seeing the horrible conditions that they grow up in, I really feel that there is nothing worse for a child than to be abandoned and to have to grow up in an institution. Most of them have severe developmental issues stemming from the fact that they have never had the chance to bond with anyone in their life time. The state-run orphanages are run-down and dirty. There often isn't enough money for basic items. The children are unfortunately heavily targeted by human-trafficking. It's a sad place. Thankfully there are people who go in and do their best to work with these children. I originally thought that  I would also be involved in this sort of ministry as well, but I have to confess that it completely overwhelmed me, and I didn't think I would be able to handle it.

However, God gave me another ministry to work in.  I've recently started volunteering at a baby hospital for a couple hours each week after school. It isn't easy either, but I am so thankful to be able to have at least a small impact in the lives of Romanian children.

In Romania, children are not allowed to be put into orphanages until they reach the age of two. Since there is very little foster care available in Romania, that means that most babies are left to live their first two years in the hospital.  In the hospital there are usually about three nurses to thirty babies, so not much interaction takes place. The babies are simply left to lay in their cribs all day. I am currently volunteering with an organization that goes into these hospitals and assists the nurses in caring for the babies.

About two days a week, after school, I take the metro to the opposite side of of the city. I enter the hospital from the back entrance, climb up two flights of stairs, past the stray dog that apparently lives in the stairwell, and into the abandoned baby ward. Every baby has a different story. Some of them were simply left at the hospital, some of them were found abandoned on street corners, and some of them have health problems that their parents didn't feel they could care for. There are about four rooms of cribs with about six babies in each room. The number is always changing. Volunteers are allowed in every room except the newborn room. The walls are covered in bright, albeit slightly strange, paintings of Disney characters and large orthodox icons. I usually just pick a room for the day and try to take turns holding each baby, playing with them, trying to make them laugh, and praying for each baby. At supper time we give them a bottle (that looks like it's been in use since1910) and prop it up in their cribs with a pillow so they can eat. Then I change each of them and put them to bed for the night. The Romanian nurses are often sitting in another room, smoking and watching TV during this time. It's just a job to them, and they don't put more than minimal effort into it. This is not true for all of the nurses, but definitely for some. Sometimes I cry when I leave for the night. Each child deserves to have someone to care for them all the time and love them, but I am glad I can at least put a smile on their face.

Getting into a Routine

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for me, but I do feel like I am finally starting to settle into a routine. I am obviously at school teaching everyday, and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have started going to a baby hospital and spending a couple hours playing with abandoned babies. (More on that later.) On Fridays I attend an evening Bible study, and there are usually other events that pop up to fill in the rest of my week. For example, I had the opportunity to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving a couple weekends ago with a Canadian missionary couple who live in another part of Romania.
Even though my days are settling into a routine, living in Romania is never routine. So, here are a few random things that have happened to me, or that I have observed.

1.  I have now lived in Romania a little over two months and I have already seen two dead bodies laying in open coffins. The first was on the street while I was walking to school, and the second was inside a bread truck that I was walking past. I may not be buying bread from that company again...
2.  A couple weeks ago I woke up to my bed shaking, and realized that I was experiencing an earthquake. 
3. I have learned that I must pay my electricity bill to a robot inside of a bank.
4.  I possibly broke or seriously injured my hand by banging my hand against the stair railing at school. It's been almost three weeks, and it is finally starting to feel better. It's just been a bit of a struggle since I can't not use my right hand. 

Here is a picture from one of my first graders. It apparently depicts his family, who all have smelly feet.

This is my life in Romania right now. I definitely am starting to feel more comfortable in my surroundings, and enjoy observing the random oddities of Romania. 

The commute

This week, I thought I would write about how I get to and from school everyday. I don't take pictures while commuting, because that is odd and I don't have time for that. However, I did do a quick search on the internet and found some pictures that I think will give you a pretty good idea of what traveling by public transportation in Bucharest is like. 

Since I am supposed to be at school by 7:45 every morning, I try to leave as close to 7am as possible. I begin by walking about five minutes from my apartment, past the flower sellers and down to my metro stop.

I go two stops on this line, and then switch at the main metro station in Bucharest. It looks something like this in the mornings.

Then I get on the other line and travel for another two stops.

Here I leave the subway system.

I catch a tram at this point. I couldn't find a picture for my tram stop...so if you feel like messing around with google steet view, you can see that my tram stop is about a two foot wide slab of cement in the middle of a fairly busy street. It's kind of an exciting place to be.

I take the tram three stops and then walk about another 5 minutes to get to school. Believe it or not this is the fastest way to get to school.

In the afternoons, I have found an easier way to get home. I simply take the bus from the school to the end of the line. It drops me off at another metro station, and from there it is only three stops to home. 

I tried taking this route to school and found that the bus does not get through morning traffic like trams and metros do. So there is your quick lesson for the day on Romanian public transportation.

The Mountains

Anyone who has lived in a large city for an extended amount of time knows that a trip to the countryside to  breathe fresh air and have some open space around you is much needed from time to time. Thankfully I had a chance to do just that this past weekend along with approximately 35  high schoolers and seven other adults. We took a bus four hours away from the city and into the refreshing beauty of nature for the annual secondary retreat.

We stayed at a retreat center near the tourist city of Bran. This city is famous for being the setting of Bram Stoker's book Dracula. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to explore the town, but I didn't feel like I missed out on too much! On Friday we spent basically the whole day rock climbing and hiking with the kids. I definitely got my exercise in, and the scenery was incredible.

I know it's a lot of pictures, but I thought it was too beautiful not to show you ;)

The retreat was a lot of fun for me, as well as the kids as far as I could tell. We enjoyed being in the mountains, having fun together, and listening to some great speakers. Unfortunately late Friday night and early Saturday morning about half of the group, including me, started feeling the effects of some sort of food or water poisoning, and by Saturday afternoon it was time to return to the city. Riding a bus through the mountains with a load full of sick kids is not fun, but we made it! By the time we got back to Bucharest, pretty much anyone who hadn't gotten sick yet did. So, Monday ended up being a no-school day for all of the secondary students as we were all still recovering. I hope I get a chance to visit this area again...but next time without getting sick.

To the Black Sea and back

Last weekend I decided it was time for some exploring. Thankfully I found someone who was willing to be my adventure buddy. (She is also with ABWE in Bucharest.) We headed out to a place I have wanted to visit for a long time...the Black Sea. We caught the 7:52 train out of Bucharest and spent 2:45 hours watching the Romanian countryside go by. We got out at Constanta, a Romanian Black Sea port with the intention of finding a beach and relaxing the day away.

We had been told that we could simply catch a taxi at the train station and ask them to take us to the nearest beach. However, once we got there the taxi drivers seemed a bit too aggressive, which is not usually a good sign. So we decided to walk a bit first and see if we could find the sea on our own. As soon as we walked out of the train station, we saw this...a harbor. Obviously we couldn't go swimming here, but we figured if we headed in the direction of the sea we would eventually find it. 

Now it may have been a good idea to look at a map of the city before we came, or we could have checked our phones' GPS to see where we were, but we just didn't feel like it. So we wandered about 15 minutes and found some ancient Roman ruins.

Five minutes from here was the sea. It was that easy!

We spent the next couple hours relaxing on the beach and exploring a little bit. 

Yes, that is a mosque. Constanta is not that far from Turkey.

We caught the train back in the evening, and I enjoyed seeing a lot of shepherds with their sheep, goats, or cows while we road by. It was a fun excursion, although I am still peeling from the sunburn a week later. 

I am a teacher

Since I have already completed two and a half weeks of teaching, I guess it is about time to show you my school. As a first year teacher, and not having textbooks for all of my classes, it has been a big adjustment for me, and I have a lot of prep work. However, I am enjoying teaching, and I am sure it will only get better, as I become more comfortable in my role. So without further ado...here is Bucharest Christian Academy.

BCA is currently building a new school, so this particular building is just temporary. It has three floors and on the bottom floor are the offices, library, computer lab, and lunch room. On the second floor are the elementary classes, and on the third floor are the high school classes. Some of the classrooms are a bit cramped, but all in all this building is meeting the needs of the school quite well.



Here is the ESL room. I teach ESL grammar on Tuesdays and Fridays, and ESL reading everyday.
We have seven students in the ESL program this year from Korea and China, and they range in age from 12-24 years old. They are all pretty low beginners, but I am already starting to get more than just blank stares from them :)

My desk is in the hallway since we don't have a lot of room in the classroom.

Third period I teach study skills with the 7th and 8th graders. The textbook for this class keeps getting lost in the mail, so it's been interesting getting material together for them to do. In the afternoon, I tutor a third grade Chinese boy. I also teach 1st and 2cnd grade History three times a week, and tutor another 1st grader in ESL.  It's a lot of work, but I am really enjoying getting to know my students and the other teachers. Next week I am going along as a chaperon on a weekend retreat to the mountains with all the high school students, so I am sure I will have some interesting stories to report from that!

Observations, Adjustments, and Realizations

Observations

• Sewing needles, pens and tissues are readily available from peddlers on the trams.
• Anything can be sold on the side of the street, including baby bunnies.
• When walking in a busier area of town, it might be a good idea to have a tuba with you that you can play to let people know they are in your way.
• I saw a total of nine black people this past week.

Adjustments

• It takes 40 minutes, 2 subways, 1 tram, and some walking to get to school each day.
• I don't have textbooks for all the classes I teach.
• Simple things like buying food can be really intimidating when you don't have a clue what the cashier/vendor is saying to you. 
• I have students who are required to call me Miss Fessel...weird.
• The lock to my door is often stuck, so I need to figure an extra 5 minutes or so when going somewhere, just so I can get in and out of my apartment.

Realizations

• No matter how many different subway systems you've navigated before, you will have to spend some time getting lost and going in the wrong direction, before you've learned your way around.
• Romania and Poland are two different countries that, while more similar to each other than the US is to either, they will have different products in the grocery stores.
• No matter how many different countries you have visited or lived in, there is still a learning curve when moving to a new place. 

Conclusion: I wrote this about a week ago, when I was really getting discouraged about all the little things that I wasn't getting right away. It takes time to become accostumed to a new place, and I knew that in theory. I even knew that in practice....I had been through this before in Poland, but I still let it get to me. I really just missed the comfort of familiarity.
I have a lot of new things to get used to: a new job, a new country, a new language, a new roommate, etc. There really isn't one thing that is the same in my life right now as what my life was like a month ago. I am not writing all of this because it's easy to complain, it's easy  to get overwhelmed under the circumstances. However, God has been teaching me so much lately that I need to really depend on Him and His strength to get me through. Step by step and day by day I learn a little bit more and eventually my life here will become familiar. I am so blessed that God has chosen to bring me here to Romania, not only to use me as an ESL teacher, but also to teach me to trust in Him more fully.