BABIES!!

Hello,

So I havn't posted anything yet because I was to busy working with the BABIES TODAY!!! My tests came back negative so I got to go hold babies!!!! YAY!!! I'm so happy and thankful, its been a long wait but well worth it. My days will be full now. I am posting pictures from today on my photo album. Thank you everyone for your support!

Heather

the waiting

In about 12 hours I'll know the inital result from my medical tests. I am trusting that they will come back negative but my stomach is in knots as I wait to see. Really, if the results come back positive its another two weeks of waiting and I don't know what that will mean. But I'm believing I am healthy and will be able to start in the morning. My next post will be the results...

Medical Tests, Monday Morning

Hi everyone,

It's been an interesting week, not really knowing what my role is and not being where I wanted so badly to be. Tuesday I went to "the weekend" water park with the camp group. Wednesday I went out to camp and helped organize some things. Thursday I went to "the weekend" again with the Casa kids (these are the kids that are in Livada run group homes) and got a MAJOR sunburn, it still hurts. Friday I spent some time helping one of the staff organize activities for the Casa's to do this summer and then I got to go buy strollers! Today is a day off, it is Targu Mures days this weekend so there are activities and festivities. Then Monday morning at 7am I go to get my medical tests again. I am trusting that the tests will come back negative and I can start at the baby hospital on Tuesday. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and support!

Heather

Always a Dog Barking

Hello,

So I was sitting out on our porch tonight looking at the city and realized that I don't think there has been a moment when I have not heard a dog barking, there is always a dog barking. Romania has a lot of stray dogs so they bark a lot. I'm doing better with the whole sickness thing today. I was pretty emotional yesturday but I made it through. Today I went to "the weekend" which is the water park of TM. There are five pools and all sorts of sports things and very interesting people. The camp kids will go to the weekend every tuesday. It was actually a good day. One of the staff members here has a baby that is five months old and I got to take her swimming for the first time today! She had SO much fun kicking and splashing! I only stayed a half day till about 1pm. Then I got home and realized how TIRED I was, I was able to take a nap and then we went to Selgros (Romanian Sams Club). I'm set now for food for a while. The rest of this week....is not yet scheduled. I may go out to camp tomorrow and help with some organizing but I'm also going to make sure I take it easy and get healthy so I can hold those babies again. Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement, it means the world to me.

Heather

Bad News

Today didn't start out well. I was waiting at the bus stop to go to the baby hospital and I called the staff person that was to meet me. She said she would be there in 2 minutes and had bad news. She said that one of my medical tests came back positive and that I would need to start treatment and then get a new test on Monday and not be able to be at the baby hospital till Wednesday, a WEEK and a HALF from now. Needless to say, that about crushed me, I've already waited a week for the tests to come back and now to find this out! I'm so disappointed, discouraged and mad. I didn't come all the way to Romania to be sick, I came to Romania to be with the babies and now I can't be there for AT LEAST a week and a half. I just looked up what my "diagnosis" is and I have a staph infection, or I am a carrier of the staph bacteria. Now I've had this sinus/ear pain that I keep claiming is unrelated but really, it might be, maybe it has been my insistance that I am not sick that is keeping me out for another week. In any case I have to wait...again...I've started an antibiotic that should clear it up by Monday. That's what I know...so basically, I've had better days...

Baby Hospital!

I begin at the baby hospital tomorrow!!! YAY!! I'm so excited! I'll try and get some pictures of these beautiful babies so you can see who I'm working with. I will leave each morning about 8am and get to Ludus at 10am, we will be there till noon and then will travel back to TM for the afternoon. At 4pm we will travel back to Ludus to be there from 5-7pm and then we will again travel home. So basically I will be traveling a ton and will have about 4 hours a day at the baby hospital. Later this week I will be able to buy strollers and walkers and will bring them to the Baby Hospital. I'm very excited! I'll post more pictures as soon as I have a chance. Thanks everyone!

My First Visit to a Romanian Home

So, this morning I was sent on a mission to deliver blankets for someone to sew together for us. I had to come to the office and bag them up and then call a taxi and show him the address I was going to on my cell phone, upon arrival I was told to call a staff member to translate for us over the phone as this person did not speak any English and I know no Romanian (well I know enough to call a taxi). So I got to the office and had someone call the taxi for me, then I showed him the address and we were going the right direction and we were on this one road and there was no number 2, so I called a staff person and he called the taxi headquarters. We learned that we were not in the right place so we kept going, we then turned onto the street they lived on! We pulled up to number 2 and a lovely women and her daughter came out to greet me. I called the staff person to translate but we learned that the daughter knew enough to translate for us. We took the blankets inside and looked at them to see if she would be able to do it. She said yes and then asked if I could stay for coffee, this is a show of hospitality and if you have time you say yes so I stayed. Now for those of you that know me, I don't like coffee. I actually asked for water and they said they did not have any so I said coffee would be great. I was just hopeing at this point that I could finish it and not be ill. So the coffee came out and I put LOTS of sugar and cream in it and it actually wasn't that bad and I was able to finish it! I was so excited. I talked with the daughter and mother for a while and then said I had to go. It was a great visit and she said she will be able to get the blankets done by Monday afternoon. YAY!! It was a great visit! Even more though I want to learn Romanian so I can communicate with people here. At least I know enough to call a taxi and get to where I need to go. So thats my story for today. I havn't taken many pictures recently because I've just gotten used to life here and so it feels out of place to take pictures but I'll try and get some. I start at the baby hospital on Monday!! On Saturday I may be able to go shopping for baby things to take with us to the baby hospital! I love it here in Romania! Thats all I have to share today. Thanks!

Sights and Sounds

So I'm sitting up on our fourth floor using the internet and the windows are open and there is loud music outside, very authentic Romanian or Hungarian. And I was watching the sunset...these are the sights and sounds of Romania, a country I'm falling in love with. Today I worked again at the office on admin stuff for camp. I put together the copies for a game they will play at camp and matched blankets to sew together and wrote out some songs on large tagboard. Tomorrow I will be writing out more songs (like 10 to go, and they take a long time) and I may be sewing blankets together (because they are too small) depending on the status of a sewing machine. I truely love this country, we had three mentor kids come clean our house tonight and they were so great, they wanted to talk and practice their english and they were very good! Our house is now sparkling clean, its nice because it gets our house clean without the team having to put forth extra energy and it gives the mentor kids a job, which they need. A win. win! They will come once a week to clean. The team is again out at camp Vetca. They have been gone for about 12.5 hours now, another super long day, they are going to be so tired. I'm sure camp is coming together nicely though. Thats about all the news for tonight. Thanks!

Camp Vetca

Today we are off for another work day at Camp Vetca. We've all been working hard to get everything done yet there is still so much to do. Today we must get camp together as there is training tomorrow and another work day on Friday. Its really pretty amazing that camp was an empty field just three weeks ago and now there are bathrooms, showers, a two story kitchen building, 11 tents (5 more to put up). Its really amazing. If you look at the pictures you can see the progress thats been made. I also had some very interesting cultural experiences, two times I called for taxi's that didn't come and one time our landlord who speaks no english came over and insisted on calling for me. She was so sweet and did get a taxi called for me. I also learned that there are two different ways to say my street name, and if you say it wrong you don't get to my house. The fun of learning a new language! Alrighty, gotta run!

Heather

Internet at the House :)

Hi Everyone!!

We finally have internet at the house so I can stay up to date with everyone. I can't write much now because I need to rest but I'll write more as soon as I can. Also, my medical tests went well, I think everything should go through ok and it wasn't to scary. I should be able to start at the baby hospital on Monday! YAY!! I put new pictures on my photo album of camp that we've been setting up and some other things. I'll write more as soon as I can. Thanks!!

Heather

Made it to TM!

Hi Everyone!!!

I made it to TM (Tirgu Mures) on Thursday afternoon and its been a whirlwind of activities since I've been here. Thursday night we went to our intern house and set-up and then had dinner at Kelly's house (she's a Livada Staff Member). Friday we had orientation at the Livada office and then a tour of town with Bruce (the founder of Livada). Later we went to real (a store like a super target) and then to Bruce's house for dinner. Today, Saturday we got to go visit the orphanage in Ludus and the BABY HOSPITAL were I'll be spending my summer. It was super fun to finally see it and hold the babies!! There are about 6 orphan babies at the hospital and three there with their mothers. There are also about 6 toddlers there too. It's going to be amazing, I'm so excited to be here! The travel wasn't even that bad, once I had a shower and a good night's sleep I was doing just fine. Everyone's excited that we're here to help them out. Tomorrow we'll be going out to Camp Vecta where they will hold the summer camp this year and help set-up tents, we have to set-up 16 tents and they each take 8-10 people 2-3 hours to set-up. We will be setting-up at camp all week. On Monday I have to go get my medical tests at 7am in order to be able to work at the baby hospital and then I'll have a Baby Hospital orientation. I think that brings everyone up to date. I have new pictures on the photo album site of the town and house. I'll talk to you all later! Miss you!

Heather

Atlanta - Boston - Paris and NOT DONE YET

HI!!!

This isn't going to be a long post because I don't have the stamina to be awake and coherient right now but I wanted to SAY HI because it has been days and days since I've written. We didn't have internet access at our lake house but the lake house was AMAZING, it was on the beautiful Lake Hartwell on the South Carolina/Georgia border. We were able to go sit on the dock and enjoy just being outside. The weather even coroporated, cool in the morning/night and warm in the afternoon but not to warm, pretty perfect. Our team is great! We had a fun time getting to know each other and learning about what we will be doing in Romania. It turns out I am the ONLY intern that has not been to Romania before! Crazy! Then on Wednesday morning at 3am we took off for the airport, the team departed at 6:45am for New York and I waited around till my flight at 11am for Boston, I flew to Boston then onto Paris where I am now writing this. I've got two more flights to go, first to Budapest where I'll reunite with my team and then to Romania! I've got some pictures from training and from my flight on my picture page. I got to watch the sunrise from the plane and it was amazing! So that's what I've got to share right now. I hope this finds all of you well!

off to the airport....leaving on a jet plane

So I'm off to the airport in 20 minutes!! YAY the day is here and I'm off to the airport for training! I'm not sure when I'll have internet again but keep checking in here and I'll write when I can. Thank you everyone for your support! I would not be able to do this without your support!

Flight Itinerary...for those interested in such things...

Here is my itinerary for those who've been asking. 13 hours till my flight departs!


A SU 03JUN LV MINNEAPOLS/STPAUL 1015A NORTHWEST NW1426
AR ATLANTA 143P 0STOP D95

A WE 06JUN LV ATLANTA 1100A AIRTRAN AIR FL268
AR BOSTON 138P 0STOP 73G

A WE 06JUN LV BOSTON 535P AIR FRANCE AF337
07JUN AR PARIS/DEGAULLE 615A 0STOP 744

A TH 07JUN LV PARIS/DEGAULLE 850A AIR FRANCE AF2794
AR BUDAPEST 1100A

A TH 07JUN LV BUDAPEST 110P MALEV MA890
AR TIRGUE MURES 305P

A MO 20AUG LV ATHENS GREECE 710P AIR FRANCE AF1833
AR PARIS/DEGAULLE 940P

A TU 21AUG LV PARIS/DEGAULLE 150P AIR FRANCE AF388
AR ATLANTA 500P

A TU 21AUG LV ATLANTA 815P AIR FRANCE AF8610
AR MINNEAPOLS/STPAUL 955P

down to 50 pounds!

Three hours later....after sleeping a bit I'm down to a 50 pound suitcase!! YAY!!! That was a lot of hard work but I feel like most of my stuff is done now and I've got stuff the rest of the day, so thats a good thing...wow, what a relief to have everything pretty much done!

65 pounds and 36 pounds

So after re-pack number....um I think 6, I lost track...the bags are closed minus many things I planned on brining except that my suitcase weighs 65 pounds and my other bag weighs 35 pounds...still to much stuff...so I think the re-packs will continue tomorrow...its hard to leave stuff here, I like my stuff but I just need to simplify. Alrighty...off to do something...

36 Hours

so I've been held up in my house for hours trying to get everything to fit in my suitcase. I'm about to start attempt 3 at getting everything in and I'm going to try a new suitcase, slightly bigger, and I've taken out a lot of clothes. So we'll see, its tiring me out though, plus I havn't been sleeping because there is so much to do. It's becoming so real, I'm going to be gone for a long time but it is going to be amazing.