Day 5

This morning started the same. We went to the clinic, fed the kids, and took them outside. The difference was that Nicoletta took Big Andreea this morning, fed her, and did her exercises with her. I tried to feed Ema-Elena, but she wasn’t having any of it. Cristi did very well with his bottle this morning, he hardly made a mess at all.

Mara, a Romanian university student, spends some days volunteering at the clinic during the summer, so she was here today. Her English is very good, and she translated for us when we had questions for the aides. We also talked about differences in child discipline between the US and Romania, both in the home and at school. Sami, who just turned four last week, is having a hard time understanding that it isn’t nice to hit, pull hair, or throw toys at people, and that is what spurred the conversation.

Two inspectors, I think from the Ministry of Health, came in to check out the facility today, and I guess the aides were scrambling around as they came in, trying to get things together. The inspectors were only there for a short time, however, just to see the clinic building/equipment. It had little to do with the children, this time.

Snack today was yogurt (saved from breakfast at the hotel) and, for some kids, applesauce. I had the task of feeding Sami his applesauce—a task that was 100 times easier than feeding it to Andreea! He took bite after bite, only making a tiny mess (and protesting when I tried to clean him up), and he was so hungry when the applesauce was gone, I fed him the leftovers from another child’s yogurt. He’s a growing boy!

I assumed Nicoletta would bring Andreea outside when she was finished, but I assumed wrongly and found out later that she had spent half the morning inside with the kids who weren’t able to come out. Luckily, she was with Eve, who is very good with her, but I did go in to bring her out myself.

It’s hard to find a comfortable position for Big Andreea. She doesn’t like to lie on her back, though if she’s in her rocking chair, she’ll tolerate it. She likes to be held, but she’s so big, I can’t hold her all the time. She likes to lie on the Boppy pillow for “tummy time” (after the initial few seconds when she’s getting used to it), but I don’t want to leave her in that position for too long because she mostly keeps her face down and doesn’t really get much interaction with anyone that way. So today, I put her in a stroller and took her for a walk around the hospital grounds, along with Colleen, who pushed Gabriela in another stroller. Andreea was quite content to lie in the stroller as I pushed her along, watching the trees and flowers and people. She didn’t even mind the bumps!

After the noontime diaper changes, it was time for soup. The younger kids get it from a bottle (the chicken and stuff is all pureed), and the older kids (well, those who can eat from a spoon) get it from the bowl. I was all set to feed Andreea in the mobile playroom (lots more space in there!) but when the aide came in with her bottle, she handed it to Nicoletta, who decided she was going to feed Andreea. And my goodness, that little girl sucked that soup down in less than two minutes!

Maiastra was hanging out in the playroom with us, but she seemed to want to be by herself. If I looked at her, she shook her head, which I took to mean “leave me alone.” If I gave her a toy, she’d push it away. One thing I know she likes is to look into mirrors, so when I was sitting in front of a wall-mounted toy with mirrors on it and she stood in front of me—staring and smiling—I thought that was what she was looking at. But then I realized she was looking towards my face. She was looking at my glasses! What’s up with these kids and my glasses? They all want them.

I was then charged with feeding soup from a bowl to Ionela, but she only wanted Erin, so I fed Mihaela instead. She was a good eater, too, and seemed to enjoy the soup. Towards the end of the bowl, she started fidgeting with a toy, but it didn’t really distract her from her food, so she ended up finishing the whole bowl.

Afterwards, it was time to put her down for a nap—and she did NOT like that idea. I cuddled her a bit before putting her into her crib, and when she began to cry, I found a toy that made bell-like noises and dangled it in front of her for a few seconds, which calmed her down enough for me to give her a kiss and leave.

This afternoon was much like the past two. Some people took their kids outside after bottle time, and some stayed inside. The older kids had preschool, and Big Andreea was there, so I floated between the nonmobile playroom and outside. I don’t recall any particularly exciting or cute happenings, but if I think of anything, I’ll post it.

I was set to stay until 6:30 this evening, and while the 4-5:30 shift was okay, 5:30-6:30 was just exhausting. The kids had their “dinner” at about 6:00, and the bottles were so hot! We had to run them under water to cool them down. Meanwhile, some kids were screaming and crying because they were hungry or wanted to be held. I fed Daniela, but I think the milk was coming out of the bottle too fast. So I tried to give her only a tiny bit at a time, to give her a chance to actually swallow it, but it kept dribbling out, so I don’t know how much she actually consumed, poor kid.

Before the shift was over, Daniela was almost asleep so I decided to take her in to her crib. I rocked her a little longer, to make sure she was really asleep before I put her in the crib, and as I did that, Maria (who shares the isolation room with Daniela) started crying. I couldn’t do anything for her (because I had Daniela in my arms, plus I can’t really pick Maria up or anything) so I just touched her and talked to her a little until the nurse heard her crying and came in to soothe her. Then I just turned away with Daniela and had to cry a little, myself. After the first two “hey, I’m playing with the babies, and they’re so cute and sweet and cuddly!” days, the emotional reality of the whole situation has finally started to hit me. It’s possible that something incredibly heartbreaking could happen while I’m here. If it does, how will I handle it? WILL I be able to handle it?

On a slightly better note, I learned today that Paula—who I mentioned yesterday was taken to the hospital—is only away for routine tests with a neurologist, which she apparently has done every so often. So she should be back next week.

We returned to the hotel in time for dinner, which was…I don’t know what. I didn’t have much of an appetite so I just picked at it. Then the dessert came out. It was a fried doughnut with sour cream and cherries, I guess. So ridiculously unhealthy, and kinda’ yummy.


Sad news: One of the stray dogs (I believe it was the one pictured above) that hangs out around the clinic was hit by a car. It (I don’t know if it was male or female) was lying on the ground behind the car (or maybe it was the ambulance?), just snoozing, when the vehicle backed out. We heard a loud “yelp!” and the other men over there yelled at the driver to stop. The dog got up after a little while, after some encouragement from the men, but it was hobbling on three legs; the hind leg was just hanging as the dog tried to “shake it off.” But apparently they “put down” injured strays here, and when we were leaving the clinic for lunch, the poor dog was nowhere to be found. Hopefully he just escaped and went to lick his wounds.

Sad news #2: My fellow volunteer (and my roommate) Amy J. was bitten by a vampire today. The accused is named Marius, and this is a picture of him:

Now really, does that look like a mean, human-biting vampire to you? Come on. Apparently it was a pretty good bite, though, even of it didn’t break the skin. Marius has been deemed innocent of this assault, by reason of teething.

Now, for some more pictures:
Cristi, sitting forlornly at the door after (adult) Mihaela left the room. She had been singing Romanian songs to him.
Terri and Daniela
Mihaela, looking deep in thought
Ionela and yet another adorable dress
Cristi
A great picture of Ema-Elena, you can see just how gorgeous she is
Cristi and Ion enjoyed bouncing their heads off of the exercise ball as Gabi used it.
Andrei
Gabriela on the exercise ball
Gabriela
Nicole pushing Maiastra on the big swing
Lea-Celine getting a manicure
Little Andreea
Alina
Maiastra in Mihaela's car
And I didn't take a whole lot of pictures today, so I'm supplementing with some videos!


Lea-Celine blowing kisses

Ion

Maiastra

Day 4

This morning, we took the kids outside immediately after they had their 9am bottles. Unfortunately, only one corner of the playground area was shady, but we were able to squeeze two blankets into that area. Dan brought out some bouncy chairs, while others grabbed Boppy pillows and such so that the kids could spend the whole morning comfortably outside.

I did some work with Andreea off and on throughout the morning. I stretched her arms and legs and helped her do some bicycle movements with her legs, and she lay on her stomach/chest on the Boppy pillow for a while, which she loved again. She seems to be a lot more comfortable in that position than lying on her back in a bouncy/rocking chair, and it helps her to practice muscle control in her neck by forcing her to lift her head up if she wants to see things. Something else I’ve done while she’s in this position is placed her hands under her shoulders, so she can push herself up a little.

Of course, I played with the other kids, too! Lea-Celine was pretty cranky this morning. In fact, a lot of the kids were cranky today. Some are teething, and others just aren’t feeling well in general. I snuggled a bit with Petre, and I played with Alina, who is so easy to pick up and swing around, due to her size. She kept trying to steal my glasses and would be very sneaky about it. I bring my face close to hers, so our noses are touching, and she’ll just stare at me for a few seconds…then, all of a sudden, I see a hand out of the corner of my eye, grabbing my glasses!

Ema-Elena is teething, as well, but when Terri handed her over to me for a little while this morning while she (Terri) went somewhere else, she (Ema) started to cry, and I knew it was because she’s so comfortable with Terri, stiff muscles and all. Terri knows how to hold her in the most comfortable position, I think. I feel different to her, and I sound different, so even if she can’t see properly, she can tell the difference. Even after Terri came back and sat down, I kept trying to soothe Ema, standing up and rocking her, talking to her, stroking her hair, but finally I had to hand her back over because her crying was about to make me cry. It was heartbreaking.

Nicole brought Maria out this morning in a stroller. I went over to visit at one point, and she was asleep, like she always seems to be whenever I see her. So I just patted her tummy a little and touched her hand, very lightly so I wouldn’t wake her.

This afternoon was better. Some of the kids (Lea-Celine included) were in much better moods. When I took Big Andreea out of her crib and put her in her rocking chair for feeding, she was all-smiles, after I fed her and was massaging her arms and legs. I brought out a toy—one of those toys with the little arm/flap things that have different textures on them—and I pressed the “arms” that rustle and make noise against her fingers, her cheek, etc. Then I put the toy in her hand and brought it up to her face, and she just turned her head and let it rest by her cheek, feeling the rustling and giving me the biggest grin.

Oh! Semi-big news, I think. Big Andreea tends to drink her bottles down quickly and make a bit of a mess, but this afternoon, she drank it slowly and didn’t spill a drop! At snack time this morning, however, I fed her a jar of applesauce, and because of her tongue-thrusting problem, it was a chore. It took forever to feed her (and she didn’t even finish the entire thing), plus there was a mess all over her face, neck, and shirt, so I had to change her shirt when we went in.

This afternoon was spent outside again. We’ve been blessed with amazing weather—not too hot, but sunny, and not cold, either. I worked with Big Andreea’s muscles some more—stretching, bicycling, and massaging her back—and she played a good bit with Eve, who is great with her. I spent some time with the other kids, including Alina, Lea-Celine, Cristi, Marius, Mihaela, etc.

Maiastra, of course, began to cry when she saw Mihaela’s car and thought she wasn’t allowed in it, but Mihaela had left her key so we put her (Maiastra) in the car with the doors open. Ana-Maria visited us outside today, as well, and was pretty calm. I also saw quite a bit of Ionela, who loves to put toys to her ear like a phone and say “ello?” It’s the cutest thing. Terri also laid Ema-Elena down so that her head was in Ionela’s lap, and Ionela was very gentle as she petted Ema’s hair.

When Nicole went to bring Maria (and her stroller) up into the clinic at the end of the afternoon, I helped her lift it and gave Maria (who was awake!) a little tickle on her belly and said, "Pa pa!" ("Bye bye!")

Good news! Gabriela started to crawl a bit today! And Alexandra, who has been having a rough time eating (I guess she refused to eat a lot), ate her yogurt/applesauce/whatever it was today! I think Susan mentioned that she thinks Alex just needed something a little sweet on her food.

Bad news. Paula was taken to the hospital today because she has chronic ear infections and was screaming up a storm today. I hope all is well with her.

This evening, we went to the Alona restaurant in Barlad, where we had chicken salad, stuffed grape leaves, stuffed cabbage, chicken cordon bleu, chicken “schnitzel,” and polenta with a sauce made of sour cream, chicken, and mushrooms. Dessert was some kind of cake with mousse in the middle layers. The best part of the meal, though, was the homemade, fresh-out-of-the-oven bread with sunflower seeds on top. Yum!

After dinner, we went to the grocery store, where I bought some Cheerios, croissants, Nutella, and digestive cookies to keep in my room for “emergencies.”

Now on to what I know you're all REALLY looking forward to: pictures! I didn't take many this morning, but I left my camera out for others to take some...which is why (thanks mainly to Amy J.) I ended up with 54 pictures just from the morning shift!

Trevor and Petre
Poor little Petre in a pink, flowery outfit. I think the aides just dress the kids in whatever is available/convenient. We change them when we can get away with it.
Andrei
Marius
Sami
Ionela
Andrei in the hat that matched Ionela's dress
Cristi
Trevor, being...Trevor? I promised Amy J. I'd post this pic.
Alex, studying a book. She's very intent when she does this.
Delta and Daniela
Maria
Maiastra
Alina, handing me a toy
Ion
Andreea and the biggest grin I could catch with my camera
Alina, nearly successful in her quest of grabbing my glasses. But I caught her!
Lea-Celine. She's such a precious little girl, and soooooo adorable. Terri finds it hard to get a good picture of her, though, and I think it's because a lot of her charm comes from her smile and her teeth, which she (from what I've seen) keeps hidden when photos are being taken. But this is a good one!
Ema-Elena, what a gorgeous girl.
Ionela, being gentle with Ema-Elena
Mihaela in an adorable dress
Lea-Celine with (adult) Mihaela's plum
Erin and Ana-Maria
Eve playing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" with Ana-Maria

Day 3

Today, we got up and had breakfast at 8:00am. Breakfast was basically the same as yesterday, only with yogurt and an apple. Those of use who didn’t eat the yogurt gave it to Terri, who collects them for the kids at the clinic. We got to the clinic at 9, in time for their milk bottles. I fed Andreea, who is a very quick eater! But most of the kids are, really.

I held Andreea a lot today. I hadn’t made it through her journal completely last night, so I wasn’t really that up-to-date on her conditions and her abilities, so I decided to mostly take it easy today. I did massage her legs, arms and feet, and I tried some stretches and exercises with her, but she wasn’t happy with that, and while I know it’s good for her, I was afraid that her crying meant that it hurts, not just that it’s uncomfortable or something she doesn’t want to do.

In between holding and working with Andreea, I did get to visit and play with a lot of the other kids, mostly the younger ones. The rooms at the clinic are so tiny (especially the non-mobile playroom) and we had a ton of people/babies crammed in, though there were some who went outside this morning.

Around 10:30, the kids had their morning snack of yogurt! An aide, Nicoletta, seems to be very fond of Andreea and came to get her at snacktime, so I rocked Petre, who was falling asleep at that point, and after snack, Lila couldn’t get Little Andreea to sleep, so I stood and rocked with her a bit…and wouldn’t you know it, she went to sleep for me! :-) At 12:00pm, the aides came to change the kids’ diapers, and then we fed them their soup bottles and put them in their cribs for naptime.

Lunch today was a pizza with mushrooms, black olives, and red peppers. I did my “daily food adventure” thing and tried a bite, but quickly decided that wasn’t going to happen again. So I scraped off as much of the “extras” as I could (which was hard, as there were mushroom bits hidden under the cheese) and ended up eating only two pieces.

After lunch and a bit of free time, we met with Mihaela and went over to the hospital for our tour. (I lugged my 40 pound suitcase full of donations over at this time, and let me tell you, it was difficult.) Unfortunately, Dr. Delia was unable to give us the tour today, so Mihaela walked us through the hospital and told us a brief history of it.

Then we went back to the clinic for the 3:00 feeding, and after that, we took the kids outside until around 4:00. There were two blankets spread out in the shade on the playground, and the kids love it out there. Big Andreea didn’t particularly care for lying on the blanket today, so I had to hold her quite a bit.

At 4:00, Susan and Colleen decided to stay at the clinic until 5:30, when the next shift started. While they stayed, the rest of us returned to the hotel to figure out who would take which shifts from now on. I decided to stay through the afternoon to 6:30 starting on Wednesday, so I went over at 5:30 today.

When the 5:30 team arrived at the clinic, we scooped up the kids and took them back outside, where they had their bottles and got to play quite a bit. I brought a Boppy pillow out for Big Andreea and lay her on/in it, on her back so that I could massage and stretch her legs a bit more this evening. I had also brought my little handheld fan, and I remembered from reading her journal that she likes when someone blows gently on her forehead. Since I had a mask on, I couldn’t do that, so I turned my fan on and she LOVED it. If she would start fussing, I’d blow the fan on her a little, and she’d stop immediately. Of course, I couldn’t do that the whole time, and I couldn’t HOLD her the whole time, so eventually I turned her over onto her belly/chest on the Boppy pillow, and while she fussed a little at first, she was happy with it after a minute.

Lea-Celine and Ionela also loved my fan and kept trying to grab at it. I would let it blow on them, but I had to take their hands away and say “Nu, nu” (“No, no”) several times.

We had some nice background music while we were outside; apparently Maiastra loves cars and music, so Mihaela drove her car over and let Maiastra sit in it with the radio on. She had a blast! I haven’t gotten to interact that much with Maiastra yet, but she has such personality in her face and her mannerisms, I can tell that already.

Alexandra came over to our blanket at one point and just sat down at the edge, then lay down and stared across the playground. At home, when I worked at the YMCA or while watching Savannah, seeing a kid sit silently and still would have been a blessing. Here, it’s just sad because you know they’ve had to learn how to content themselves. Alex did let me hold her hand and stroke her hair for a little while. She’s a big book-lover, so I hope she enjoys the new books I brought.

Dinner tonight: some kind of chicken, and a side of rice. The chicken was all right, but I didn’t eat a lot of it. The rice was soooo creamy and yummy, though! Dessert was crepes, and when the waiter brought them out, we thought they were blueberry. Nope. Prune. Ugh.

Tomorrow is a “short” day, meaning no evening shifts. Instead, we will venture out to Barlad, about 20 minutes away, where we can explore the town (apparently not that exciting) and go to dinner. I hope to buy some postcards, extra water (I’ve been going through quite a lot of water—which, thankfully, keeps me from buying anything else to drink, i.e. soda), and a little bit of supplemental food to go along with my granola bars.

Daniela
Marius
Terri & Ema-Elena, who has spastic cerebral palsy, cataracts in both eyes, and epilepsy
Big Andreea
Susan walking with Alexandra, who is a 6 year old with brittle bone disease
Andrei
Ion
Lila feeding Little Andreea some yogurt
Me and Petre
Nicole and Maria, who turned 1 year old yesterday. She has hydrocephalus and because her brain is so small, they can't put a shunt in to drain the fluid. Unfortunately, as a result, there is nothing to be done, so she was brought back to Tutova to spend her remaining days (however many they may be) at the clinic.
Alina (aka ThumbAlina) is 2 years old and weighs about 10 pounds. One of the most pleasant little girls I've ever met. It's so easy to make her smile!
Ionela and Lea-Celine passing a toy back and forth
Sami
From bottom left: Big Andreea, Amy D. with Ema-Elena, Lea-Celine, Becky with Little Andreea, Alina, Amy J., and Alexandra
Alexandra
The cribs the clinic used to have for the kids. Thankfully, GV was able to buy new cribs five years ago that are less cage-like.
Me and Ema-Elena
Cristi gives a special "Buna!" ("Hi!") to Miss Sarah. ;-)
Maiastra, playing in Mihaela's car with the radio on

Day 2

I slept very well last night, despite the loud, exciting wedding reception that was going on. I did wake up a couple times through the night, mostly after 6:00 when the sun was up and shining through the thin, light curtains.

Today’s breakfast was muesli (I think?) with dried fruit in it, plus bread, jam, tomato, and what I think was a pickle with some kind of dill spread on it. After breakfast, we waited for Mihaela to come for orientation, at which time we went over (throughout the day) team goals, a crash course in the Romanian language, schedules, and Global Volunteers policies.

We also went to the clinic for half an hour, to visit the children and help with their afternoon feedings. I fed Ion (pronounced ee-wan) and played with him until he was taken to have his diaper changed and to be put back into his crib. Then I held “Big” Andreea (there are two Andreea’s), who has cerebral paralysis and was just laying in a bouncy chair. She is, indeed, a big, solid girl—-almost four years old-—and, because she is very stiff, she was difficult to pick up. But I held her and talked to her, getting a couple smiles out of her before it was her turn for a diaper change.

Lunch happened in the midst of orientation, and it was a cucumber and tomato salad (guess what, I ate a few slices of tomato! My adventure for the day, as I don’t care for tomatoes at all…), soup with (I think) couscous, potatoes, carrots, and onions, then an entrée of chicken and mashed potatoes. Yummy! I didn’t finish all of the chicken, though, and I took my leftovers (and a couple other people’s) out to the Mama-dog who hangs out at the clinic and desperately needs to gain weight.

Dinner tonight was pasta with mushroom sauce; my adventure quota for the day had been filled already, so I scraped off the mushrooms. Then dessert was ice cream. Soooo good.

After dinner, we talked a bit about journals/Messages of the Day and signed up for dates for those. We also discussed the possibilities of weekend trips and how to arrange those. Ten of us are going to Transylvania this weekend, and Amy D. and I briefly talked about the possibility of going to the Black Sea next weekend, so we’re going to look into that.

Finally, we got our child assignments. There are 15 volunteers at the clinic and 19 children, so each of us will focus on helping one or two specific children—-although we are not limited to caring for and playing with that particular child. All evening, I had been wondering if I really had a preference for a certain child or if I would just take whichever one needed me, and all evening, I had Big Andreea on my mind. So I chose to take her on, and since her journals weren’t in the stack Mihaela had, Terri took me over to the clinic to get them. I will spend the rest of this evening looking up cerebral paralysis and finding out little things I can do to help her development (exercises, etc), so if you have any ideas, please let me know.

No pictures today, as I didn't take my camera to the clinic. Someone did take a picture of me with Ion, but I don't know if/when I'll get a copy of that. Hopefully we'll all share pictures at the end.

Another thing: for the first week with the kids, volunteers are currently required to wear face masks, due to yet another outbreak of H1N1 (aka Swine Flu). Face masks + heat/humidity = no fun, but a necessary precaution to make sure none of the children are infected if any of the volunteers happen to be.

Pictures tomorrow, I hope! :)

Days 0 (departure, July 24) and 1 (arrival, July 25)

I won’t go through all the really boring stuff in detail. Left Pittsburgh, arrived in New York, and wasted time until Amy J. arrived at JFK; we had decided to find each other before our connecting flight. Almost as soon as she got there, I saw two other people with Global Volunteers t-shirts on—Carol and Stan, a retired couple who will be teaching English at the school in Barlad. Then we ran into two more people on our flight—Eve and Lila, a mother-daughter pair who went to Peru last year and decided to volunteer in Romania this summer. Also, unbeknownst to me at the time, I had had a pre-flight encounter with two other volunteers—Becca and Amy D., both of whom had volunteered in the clinic last summer—when I asked them about the wifi connection in the JFK airport.

Although the flight was fully booked, I ended up with an empty seat next to me, so Amy J. came to sit with me. I was in the row right behind the middle bathroom, which was nice because of the extra legroom, but not-so-nice because of the smell every time someone opened the bathroom door (as well as the discomfort of the tray tables that came out of the armrests).

We had anticipated a 10.5 hour flight from NYC to Bucharest, but we actually arrived almost an hour and a half early. The flight was boring—none of the inflight entertainment I had been looking forward to was on that particular flight. I didn’t sleep more than five minutes. Suffice it to say that by the time we arrived in Bucharest, we were all exhausted and couldn’t wait for a shower and bedtime.

Unfortunately, we had to wait quite a while for those things. We hung out in the “basement” of the airport until around 12:30, when Dan (country leader Mihaela’s husband) arrived to drop off departing volunteers and to pick up the arriving volunteers.

Amy D. and Becca
Stan
Carol and Amy J.

Once all the volunteers arrived (around 3:30) we all piled into a bus and headed for Tutova, via McDonald’s in Buzău for dinner. I slept about half an hour on that leg of the ride, and then maybe 1.5-2 hours on the second leg.

So now we’re at the hotel (I'm rooming with Amy J.), and there’s a lightning/wind storm going on. The power has flickered off and back on a couple times—along with the air conditioner, which beeps when that happens. Hopefully it won’t occur too often during the night.

Almost Time!

I'm leaving for Romania tomorrow morning. My flight from Pittsburgh leaves a little before 11am, and my connecting flight from New York leaves at 5. I'm scheduled to arrive in Bucharest around 3:30am EST, so 10:30 in Romania.

Still not done packing. Before I started this afternoon, I took a picture of the donations I collected, spread out on a blanket.

Looks like a lot, right? 2700 bottle liners, 6 boxes of wipes, 2 boxes of gloves, numerous toys and books and clothes....well, later on, I found another bag of donations I'd forgotten to lay out. I'm bringing over as much as I can, but I'm pretty sure there's no way I'll be able to fit everything into my extra suitcase. It'll be close, but I'll probably end up shipping another box of stuff when I get home.

Thanks to the following people, who have made donations since the last time I updated my "sponsor" list on my website:

From http://www.wishuponahero.com/ (an awesome website, by the way. Check it out.) : 4myson, rgsgirl, Sdm4628, kiwibaby, drainco

From the 30stm forum: J30STM, Morrigan, Mabo

If I've forgotten someone, I apologize, and my many thanks to you, as well. :-)

Off to finish packing. I'll update when I get to the hotel, at some point.