Day One

A long day here in Bucuresti. It all started at three in the morning where pretty much our entire team was awake but just silent and laying in bed. It took me two hours of listening to Sigur Ros until I finally made the effort to stumble down from my stiff upper bunk. I made my way through the kitchen trying to find something to eat even though I had no idea what anything was. A few other girls made it down and we ended up with some toast and blueberry jam. After this, through a rush of energy and a lack of sleep I started to go crazy releasing my energy. For those of you who really know me, you can only imagine.

We had a morning devotional with our team and the rest of the Romanian staff. We had some time to use until leaving for the orphanage so we went on a walk with Victor and Madalina (two staff members) through a sketchy amusement park that eventually led into a green and lake filled beautiful area. While here we asked them how to say thank you in Romanian so that when we returned we could thank Mama Maria (our cook and house keeper) for making lunch. They proceeded to tell us something that sounded somewhat like- mooska mesha (phonetically spelled). We return home and Dani of course walks up to Mama and puts her arm around her and says this... only to find out that the staff had lied to us and she had really said to Mama "Bite me" haha. Of course she understood this joke as I guess it has happened many times before.

After lunch we left for the girls orphanage. We took a bus and a subway and it was exciting because it was my first time on a subway. It was a different experience but I think very much needed. I did get a little motion sick but I hung in there. The orphanage we went to today had about 20 girls between 1st and 4th grade. Some were also mentally disabled. We came into the room and sat down and right away this little girl named Catalina came and sat down next to me and grabbed my hand. She looked about 9 years old and was mentally disabled. She pulled at my wrist to observe my watch which she spent about 20 minutes amused with. She rubbed it, smelled it, stared at it, and even kissed it. She put her head on my shoulder and you could tell that all she needed was a little bit of love and affection. But it was such a beautiful thing.

I would write more but there isnt much else to say for today and I just got called away to go to a debriefing meeting. I am not feeling so well so hopefully I will get over that soon. Just a bad tummy and head ache. I cant wait to go to sleep tonight...