So I know I'm so bad at remember to write on this. I left the shelter last night with the feeling that I had forgotten to do something and then I remembered that I forgot to write on here! At least I'm remembering now....some of the pictures I had hoped to put up are on Mihaela's camera (the director of the shelter) and it's out of batteries, so I'll add those when I can. I have some really cute ones to add though, so those should be fun to look at. What I was meaning to add about the meeting I went to in the American embassay which is in a cute old building is that it showed me how uncooperative the Romanian government is about helping out these kids. The meeting was for about a hundred non profits working with kids around the country and discussion what we would lobby for next, but unfortunately the government has this idea that if they promote families and make laws that prevent families even under the worst circumstances from losing rights then families will magically get better again. So parents in this country no matter what they're doing to or with their kids have all the rights. Even Romanians never mind foreigners have an impossible time trying to adopt kids and if they succeed the natural parents can claim the right to their child at any point and take him or her back so they barely do adopt. The parents of these kids are having their kids raised and set on track for a good life and obviously we do it for the kids and aren't going to stop and although you'd like to see these kids be able to have families and a normal life with them, it's not going to happen with these parents, so it's so incredibly frustrating when they come sometimes and cause such emotional rollercoasters for these kids and sit on the front steps smoking cigarettes. I just want to scream at them that here we are raising your kids for you because you weren't capable of it, we've helped you get a room to rent and helped you find a job and you have the nerve to come and visit your kids and sit on the steps and smoke cigarettes. Instead of spending your money on cigarettes which are expensive here, you should be trying to organize your life so you can take care of your kids again, not that I want any of these kids to leave. It's just such a frustrating thing to see and I know that some of these kids are going to feel like when they are set up and living a normal life they are going to feel like they should help their parents when their parents owe them, not the other way around. Oh, I could clearly talk about the situation forever and I know it's not 100 percent the parents fault because at one point they were street children and it's a old cycle, but the fact that the government won't take away their rights to the kids unless they straighten up or wouldn't even take away their rights as a parent when their kids were living in the sewers with them sniffing shoe glue makes me so angry. We had to get the parents to agree to let us take their kids out of the sewers which is harder than you may think because the parents want the kids to beg because children make more money begger. Unbelievable, when will this government figure out that they have a serious problem that they need to pass laws to help fix...anyway, on to some cute kids now that I've bored you with the political problems in this country...
So this week I've had tons of administrative paperwork to do. I'm setting up a sponsorship program for these kids, I have a few volunteers starting next week that I'm in charge of and I'm trying to get a newsletter out and I'm still doing arts and crafts with the kids and teaching English lessons, so that would be why I have been to busy and haven't been able to write as much as I wanted to. Yesterday I felt like I celebrated passover, it was great. I had chicken soup with matzah balls! haha, I loved it. And there was lots of parsley in it so I felt like I was having my own little sedar. Well, not exactly, but matzah ball soup was definitely a nice comfort food to come across over here, it's that eastern european influence!Today the kids finish school and so they get diplomas for it, so that's exciting for them, but somewhat frightening for us since they starting tomorrow are home all day everyday!! We're busy coming up with projects and activities to keep them busy!
This is Cornelia smiling for the camera. She is 13 and thinks she's 20. Although she's so sweet looking and she is nice and sweet, she is the most difficult kid in the house. She has an older sister who she gets jealous because she gets to do more since she's older and has a hard time dealing with that. She's the typical teenager, sassy and at times a real pain! But she can be lots of fun and has a really fun sense of fashion and is incredibly good at drawing.
This is Elena, Ionut and Ana's older sister, she just turned 9. She's so pretty and the whole family is really smart, in fact she just came in here with her diploma that said she did very well this year! I remember the first time I was in Romania 5 years ago I visited her on the street when she was 4 and Ana was a few months old and Ionut was a baby. I remember the trip vividly and somewhere at home I have pictures from the visit. She was living with her mom then in a "house" I think I describe the living situation in a previous blog, it's so nice to see them doing so well.
You all already know and I'm sure love Ana by now...so who doesn't want to see more pictures of this cutie!
Ronaldo playing some Skip-Bo, I LOVED this game when I was little, so it was definitely exciting to be able to teach it to them and have them like it!
This is Catalin reading, he's also reading Harry Potter and loves it. Everyday he shows me what page he's on, so cute.
This is Dana...I'm never quite sure what she's drawing, but I bet it's pretty cute. One time she drew something and she said it was an apple and then a couple minutes later she said no that's you...trust me, that wasn't a translation problem, I understood exactly what she said...first este mur....it's an apple...then a couple minutes later I asked her what something else was and she goes este mine "it's me" and then points right the supposed apple and goes si asta este tine "and that's you". I don't think I look much like an apple, but maybe it was her artistic interpretation! Or maybe she's just 5...haha, but yeah as you can see she's adorable. Especially since a lot of the time she has a cute little pony tail sticking straight up on top of her head!
So I was in the middle of writing this blog this morning and now it's 5:00!! I got interrupted so many times, I taught English lessons for 3 hours to some of the kids, so that took a lot of time and then do some other work so I kept getting so distracted! Finally I'm back at it, so hopefully I'll be able to finish this without getting interrupted again.
This is Ionut, the oldest kid in the house, Dorin whose 17 (I'll explain sometime what will happen with him over the next few years), and Elena with one of the staff members, Demarius, hanging out in the classroom.
This is Cassie (Cassandra, Cassie for short). She's ten and one of the sweetest and most fun kids in the house. She's always giggling, laughing and smiling.
This is kind of a goofy picture of Kinder, her actually name is Florina, but she's never called that, she's always called Kinder after the candy! I wanted to post a picture of her because she's one of the main kids that I work on English with daily. She's trying so hard to learn and has this adorable high pitch squeaky voice (not the really annoying kind), so working with her is so much fun!
This is Alex one of the older boys. His English is one of the best in the house, I can actually have a pretty good conversation with him and Dorin in English, so that can definitely be nice at times when I'm frustrated with my Romanian.
This is Nico Mic (Little Nicoletta) coloring in a beautiful drawing that one of the staff members did of the little mermaid to hang on the wall!
This is one of the posters we made to hang on the wall. I'm not sure how well you can see it, but there are two dinnosaurs and a monkey on a tree that are made of foam. My mom and I brought these really cute kits where they give you all the shapes and materials you need to make cute little foam animals, it was definitely a big hit. A bunch of us worked hard on this poster, isn't the sun pretty?? I did that part :)
And for now, last, but not least, this is a picture of Ana holding up a really cute genie poster that one of the staff members drew and the kids colored in. There are two more really really cute posters using more foam anmials, but the pictures of them are on the camera that's out of batteries so I'll add those later, our walls look so much prettier now! Well I have lots of paperwork to go and do, but I'll try to not forget about writing on the blog!! I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying American food, I'm very jealous!
posted by Jen @ 11:43 AM
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