Days 12 & 13

The week is starting to wind down, and pretty soon, I’ll be the only volunteer at the clinic for a week. I’ve spent much of the past two days in the isolation room, helping Robin to NOT go stir-crazy. Cristi, Paula, and Roxana have been in isolation for most/all of the time we’ve been here, and Andreea (Roxana’s twin) is in there now, as well. So I’ve spent a good bit of time in that room, as well as going between all the other rooms (especially Raul’s, as I think Robin and I may be the only volunteers who visit him).

Oh, before I forget, I had said that Alexandra was going to Iasi for scans, and I guess it is assumed that they will go ahead and do surgery. She may be gone for a month or so, which means I probably won’t see her before I leave. Sad. :-(

Yesterday, the pair of Jeans (haha) stayed in the bedroom with Daria, Ionut, Maria, and Gabriella instead of taking the first three to the nonmobile playroom (Gabi, having just returned from the hospital, is in a form of isolation for a while…which doesn’t make much sense, as they put her in a room with healthy kids who might get sick if she has anything). The Jeans did some work with Gabi on standing, something she might do for a couple seconds when she doesn’t realize it (such as when she wants to be picked up from her crib) but that she hates doing when she’s being MADE to and realizes it’s work. Gabi stood on the floor, holding onto the edge of the cribs. I got the cutest picture when she was standing at Maria’s crib, which held both Maria and Daria! Gabi was also introduced to the beach ball, which we sometimes use as an exercise ball, and explored it with kisses. She did the same with Mihaela’s skirt.

Some big news from today and yesterday (that’s not really that huge, but noteworthy):

*Little Miss Paula, who is severely autistic, allowed me to kiss her hand.

*Cristi looks like Charlie Chaplin with his indigo/violet moustache, and the snowman narrator from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer when he smiles. He also stood up in his crib, all by himself, and stayed standing for about five minutes.

*Roxana (whom I’ve nicknamed Roxie) has discovered her shadow, and she loves to sit in front of the fan.

*Andreea (twin) was Little Miss Crankypants today and demanded to be held almost every single moment. I didn’t indulge her every time, as I don’t want her to be spoiled, but I did get several cuddles in. I’m trying to teach her not to hit, too. When she’s excited, she kind of slaps her hands on my arms and chest. It hurts. So I’m trying to get her to NOT do that.

*Daria got to play with the big kids today when we went to visit the mobile playroom. Big Andreea gave her a kiss, and Petre tried to pet her hair gently, saying “mai mai” (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, but it's an equivalent of “be nice”). Unfortunately, Petre didn’t know his own strength and, therefore, wasn’t particularly gentle, but Daria didn’t mind. I thought it was adorable, how interested Petre was in the baby. He walked over to us, tentatively, with a huge smile on his face.

*Maria-Cleopatra seemed to be having a conversation with some angels today. I was on the other side of the room, feeding Daria, and Maria was just babbling and cooing up a storm. Love it. She has come so far in the last year. Last summer, everyone thought it was just a matter of time until she was going to pass away; we didn’t know if she knew we were there with her, if her rare smiles were reflex, or what. Now we know how to make her smile and laugh out loud, and she is a recognized presence in the room—not because of her disability but because of her personality.

*Raul…let out a huge burp today. It was the loudest belch I’ve ever heard from anyone under the age of 5. Completely random incident, as he was just sitting on the changing table, looking out the window. I’m a bit immature, but it was kind of hilarious.

*Ion practiced eating with a spoon yesterday morning. He’s very good at the motion of bringing the spoon from the bowl to his mouth, but he hasn’t quite gotten the hang of scooping up the food to actually put INTO his mouth. So I let him hold the spoon, but I held it with him—very lightly—to help with the scooping.

*The toddlers who were in isolation (Ion, Petre, Lea-Celine, and Andreea) have recovered and are free, in case you didn’t get that from my note about Daria!

*Alina, Mihaela and Daniela are all over the place. Enough said.

*Ionut is an angel and I love to cuddle him. He has been working on head control, mostly. As a side note, I’m surprised that he doesn’t bite. He has a full set of baby teeth (which he grinds a lot), but when I hold him with his head on my shoulder, he just sucks on my shirt or my arm. He never bites.

*Marius is doing great at practicing walking! I expect that he’ll be walking completely on his own within the next week or two, as long as he gets to practice (which might be hard next week, but I’ll try!)

*My glasses were grabbed off of my face a grand total of three times today. They only got to them because I was holding Daria, though. They usually can’t get them otherwise; I’m too quick for them.

Our dinner in Barlad was postponed until tomorrow. Five volunteers (four from the clinic) will be leaving on Saturday. I’m nervous about being there on my own next week, but I’ll try to make the best of it.

Andreea & Robin have a chat

Roxie discovers her shadow

Cristi snores

Paula

Lea-Celine

Raul gets a visit from an angel bear

Ionut

Party at Maria's crib

Day 11

I woke up this morning congested and with the continued stomachache. I’m convinced that I will not be healthy at all this summer. Took the morning off, had some Sudafed, and went back to bed. Woke up feeling a little better, but still planned to wear my mask at the clinic all afternoon, just in case.

The worst part about taking this morning off? Maiastra visited the clinic with a social worker and a child protection worker. I’m told that she is doing well, friendly, and very interactive. And she can eat by herself now! I’m so sad that I missed her.

Alex had already left this morning before the team got there. She went to Iasi for tests, scans, etc. She has brittle bone disease and has a rod in her thigh/hip area that has been shifting. They might need to do surgery to replace it or something. If she has the surgery, I don’t know if she’ll be back before I leave next month. We’ll see, I guess.

As soon as it was time to leave for the afternoon clinic, the rain and thunder I’ve been anticipating for the last week started. Mihaela drove us over in two trips, and guess who we found at the clinic? Gabriella! She is back from Iasi and seems to be content. It’s amazing how much she has changed since last summer. Now she is more curious and active, though she still can’t walk. She “sees” with her mouth, so as I held her, she “kissed” my shoulder, nose, eye, and hair in order to explore me. She’s a sweetheart, and I’m excited to spend more time with her this summer.

I spent the afternoon between Raul, Gabriella, and the nonmobile room. The carpet was taken out of the mobile playroom, so we had Marius, Daniela, and Alina in the nonmobile room. Alina was fairly calm-—for her, anyway (although she did bite me). She did grab at my glasses several times. She loved it when I would flip her upside down and in somersaults; it’s so easy to do because she’s so light. Daniela was having a rough afternoon, as she kept screaming and crying. She calmed down about halfway through the shift, though.

We went to Alona for dinner tonight, and Mihaela ordered me plain grilled chicken with a side of potatoes, to see if it helps my stomach at all. She thinks I should stay away from sauces for a while. These stomachaches happen at home, too, although they’ve been quite frequent since I got here. I can’t avoid much more food because I eat little enough as it is.

Because of the congestion and such I’ve been having, I’m anticipating a possible sinus infection, and I got an antibiotic, just in case. You can get Zithromax here without a prescription, although it’s only three pills instead of the seven (or eight?) we get at home.

At my mom’s insistence, I picked up some citrus at the grocery store—but there were only a couple good-looking oranges. I also got bananas, yogurt, and a bar of Milka chocolate, which I think I will be giving up for a while (after tonight) because I did not come here with the intention of eating a lot of chocolate. Oh, and I figured out how to use the produce scale at Interex! If nobody is at the counter, you put your fruit on, press the 4-digit number code, hit enter, and you get a sticker to put on the produce bag.

Daria

Alina

Gabi & Me

Andreea & Me

Paula

Maria

Days 9 & 10

As it turns out, the students only come to volunteer at the clinic on Saturdays. Genie went over Sunday morning by herself and stayed until lunchtime, and then I went over with her at about 4:00. The staff seemed to be doing a lot of cleaning, so we took a group of kids into the nonmobile playroom for about two hours. Celine was out of isolation! Mihaela is about fourteen handfuls and, of course, kept trying to climb up the walls and escape. She can now scale the door and turn the handle to open it. Before you know it, she could be halfway down the hall!

The weekend trippers got back Sunday evening, and Anna (my roommate from last week) stopped by to say hi. I’m gonna’ miss her! And then when I went to leave my room Monday morning, she and her family had left presents for me. It was like Christmas in July! I got three jars of peanut butter, a bag of trail mix, Ritz crackers, a book (one that’s actually on my “list of books I want to read”—-score!), and an umbrella.

Some highlights from Monday:

*The big kids (Lea-Celine, Ion, Petre, Andreea) moved to toddler beds! I got a peek as I walked past the room (it had been full of cribs but I guess they converted over the weekend) and it’s ridiculous how excited I was. It was so cute. They had a few aides in there, trying to get the kids to calm down, stay in their beds, and go to sleep. I wanted to sneak a picture, but Coca saw me and shut the door, laughing. I later asked Ramona how it went, and she said it was rough, of course, since it was the first time. But they’ll get used to it.

*Speaking of Celine, she was back in isolation Monday? I mean, with the other isolated kids. I was pretty confused.

*Robin got Paula to laugh! Like, REAL laughing. I wish I could have witnessed it.

*Daria had tummy time on a boppy pillow and played her piano, and Ionut had tummy time on the exercise ball!

*Alex decided to strip half of her clothes off, which I understand because it was hot. She refused to eat her afternoon bottle until Jean and Jean paired up, holding her down and squeezing the milk/cereal into her mouth. Jean would squeeze four times, and then Alex would swallow. The Jeans were making funny noises and faces, and Alex really got a kick out of it, so she was laughing by the end. At one point during the afternoon, I took a picture of her, and she craned her head around to see, so I showed her all of the pictures that were on the camera. Later, she handed me the camera and posed, no lie. We found out that she will be leaving for Iasi on Tuesday, to have her legs scanned and possibly have another surgery.

*We discovered that Maria-Cleopatra likes to have her head rubbed; there is video evidence of this on my Facebook page. And Robin held Maria and spent a good bit of time with her at the end of the afternoon. They are both special people, I’m glad they got a chance to connect. :-)

*Daria was lying on the floor with her legs in the air, holding onto her feet, and I told Jean that this was a yoga pose, called “Happy Baby.” Jean was surprised when I told her I could do it, so I demonstrated, and Jean took a picture of me, side by side with Daria, doing “Happy Baby.” It’s quite possibly one of my favorite pictures.

*I spent some time with Raul, put on a CD and sang The Sound of Music soundtrack for him. Don't judge. He loved it.

*Romanian doughnuts. Enough said.

Daria

Ionut & Jean

Andreea

Daniela & Mihaela

Alina

Robin & Maria

Hell yeah, Happy Baby!

Maria

Alex...At one point, she scurried over to the teddy bear and started cuddling with it, hugging it, etc, but when I picked my camera up for a picture, she stopped. Silly girl.

Flowers outside the hospital

Clouds!

Sunlight through the window

Romanian doughnut! Honestly, I could take the doughnut part or leave it, I just love the Nutella.

Day 8

I intended for today to be a lazy day, and it certainly was! I had forgotten to tell Adrian last night that I wouldn't be at breakfast t his morning, so I dragged my butt out of bed a little before 9am and then went to eat...then returned to bed from 9:30-1:30! And I've been in my room ever since. I'm the only one here, and I didn't want to to eat my meals alone. So today has been a day of much reading, blogging, video-uploading, chatting, cookie-eating and True Blood-watching.

Honestly, though, I feel kinda' uncomfortable here by myself. I think it's mostly because of what Anna (roommate) told me the other night...There were/are some guys stayi8ng at the hotel, except Thursday night (I think?) they were staying someplace out back because there were no rooms open? Anyway, they were apparently burning the stray dogs with cigarettes, and that made me absolutely sick. I'm pretty sure they've moved into the hotel, and that just makes me very uncomfortable. But then, everyone here today is a stranger to me, and it might not be any different if there weren't any dog abusers here.

The cleaning lady smiled at me when she saw me at breakfast this morning, and when I returned to my room, I had a new roll of TP in the bathroom. Score! haha It's the little things in life...like scratchy pink TP.

I'm not sure about this room, by the way. The air conditioner works, and that's great. The bed is bigger, and that's great. There's a refrigerator, and that's fantastic, even though everything that we were keeping in there was cleaned out before I moved in (that's NOT great). But I've already seen more bugs in this room, just today, than I've seen all week in the other room. This includes a multi-legged creepy crawly thing that I killed in the bathroom and a ginormous spider that is currently sitting on the floor under my shoe because I haven't thrown it away yet (really, I just don't want to see it again. Gross!)

So that's my update for today. Genie and Shirley have probably made it back from Iasi by now (I hope so!), and Genie and I plan to go to the clinic tomorrow, at least for a little while. I found out this week, though, that students come to volunteer and help out on the weekends. If they are there tomorrow, and there are enough of them to go around, then I'll probably just hang out with my buddy Raul.

Day 7 and Comments

Whoa, I feel like an idiot for seemingly ignoring all the comments that have been left in the past week. In actuality, I'm just used to getting email notifications when I get comments on my other blog, and I didn't realize that I didn't have notifications turned on for this one. So no, I haven't been ignoring your comments! I appreciate all of them! :-)

Yesterday morning, I spent a good bit of time with Raul because I knew I wouldn't be able to in the afternoon, when it would be just myself and Genie (everyone else was leaving either for the weekend trip or for their next destination). I asked Dan if there was any way I could get Raul out of his room, and Dan--taking that to mean "can I take him outside?"--responded that Raul is not allowed outside all summer, due to the mosquitos. Sad as it is, that makes sense. I'd still like to get him out of his room, though, even if we don't go outside.

Speaking of his room, I checked the temperature in there on Thursday and it was a stifling 77 degrees! Everything I've read on EB says to keep the child's environment cool, so I asked if we could bring a fan in, and Dan eventually found one for us. Raul, who had been a bit lethargic as soon as I got there, perked up a bit after that, and he was quite happy for the rest of the morning (except when I left to find a new CD to listen to). He smiled, sang, cooed, and grabbed my hand with the thumb that he had wiggled free from its dressing.

Raul and Maria both got haircuts today--buzz cuts, to be exact. Raul is still as handsome as ever, while Maria--still gorgeous, of course--didn't have quite the quality cut that the little man did. Her hair was very uneven. I noticed that she had some mysterious spots on her head, right by and on her ear--blisters? Bug bites? Not entirely sure, but the aides had slathered the all-purpose blue tonic on it. It looked like one of the spots was kind of eating away at her ear; there was a little chunk taken out of it.

The "isolation kids" (Celine, Ion, Petre, and Andreea) escaped into the hallway in the morning and were having a hell of a good time! They were pushed in strollers, wearing their movie star shades, running around, etc. They seem to be feeling a LOT better.

Cristi, on the other hand, was moved to the more lethargic isolation room with Paula and Roxana. Paula has been running fevers upwards of 103 degrees, from what I've heard, so they've been dosing her with meds.

At lunch time, I asked Mihaela if I could move into Room #3 (single room with the refrigerator) at the hotel, as my roommate would be leaving. Mihaela asked the manager and he okay'ed it. So I'll be in this room until the next team arrives!

This afternoon, Genie and I went over to the clinic by ourselves, after saying goodbye to the rest of the team (most of whom have finished their volunteer stint). I went to the nonmobile room and found Roxana in there, crying in a bouncy seat, except that my mind blanked for a minute and I thought it was Andreea, because why would Roxana (who is supposed to be in isolation) be in the nonmobile playroom? That confusion lasted for a few minutes as I tried to communicate with one of the aides and figure out where, exactly, Roxana was REALLY supposed to be. I fed her and then put her back to bed in isolation, and she was NOT happy about it.

Then I went back to the nonmobile room with Ionut and Andreea, and the aide came in and gave me a bottle for only one of them. Andreea was fussier than Ionut, so I gave it to her. When I asked for a bottle for Ionut, the aide claimed she already gave me one, but I said no, that one was for Andreea. I'm sure she was just confused between the twins, like I had been earlier, but really--she watched me feed Roxana and put her in her crib, and then she saw me sitting in the nonmobile room with Andreea and Ionut. And she didn't need to get such an attitude about it, like it was my fault. But she was probably just as frustrated with the language barrier as I was.

I spent most of the afternoon in that room with Andreea, Ionut, and Daria, just hanging out, cuddling, and working on rolling over (Daria) and a little bit of standing (Andreea), among other things. Genie went to the mobile room with Alex, Alina, Mihaela, Daniela, and Marius. I felt bad about "neglecting" the other rooms, but when I went to check in, I saw that Malika, the preschool teacher, was in with Ion, Celine, Andreea, and Petre. I did manage to visit Maria, Roxana, and Cristi a bit (Paula was sleeping). And I peeked in on Raul before I left.

I had dinner with Shirley and Genie, but I didn't eat much (until dessert!). Shirley is one of the English teachers. She and Genie are taking a day trip to Iasi this weekend; I might go with Judy next weekend.


Daria & Ionut

Maria's new haircut

Daria grabs Sam's nose

Maggie & Andreea

Alex

Daria & Sam

Daniela walks down the hall with Genie

Days 5 & 6

(From Thursday)
Nothing out of the ordinary really happened yesterday or today. Kids were still in isolation. I wandered around and visited. Last night, a few minutes after I turned our air conditioner on, it shut off. I still managed to fall asleep but woke up around 3:30 because it was so hot. I figured out that the plug for the a/c wasn't in tight enough, so I pushed it in, and it came back on. Then I saw a light/sparks flashing inside the outlet, and there was a buzzing noise that sounded like a bug zapper. Yeah, I unplugged that thing again real quick. And then didn't get back to sleep until around 6:30.

I had a stomachache today, so I skipped lunch and slept until the afternoon shift. I spent most of the afternoon shift today with Raul and got a few smiles and noises out of him. I’m going to try to get him out of his room tomorrow; if not, I need to at least bring a fan in because it’s entirely too hot in there and that makes his blisters and stuff worse. He already has a rash on his face from sweating.

The isolation kids might be able to go outside tomorrow; yay!

To make up for my lack of detail for today and yesterday, here are lots of pictures. I wanted to post videos, but Blogger hasn't been cooperating with that lately. I'm considering a blog move to WordPress.

Petre Raul & Me Ion Petre & Lisa Cristi Ionut Andreea Ionut & Me Daria & Me Alina Daria Anna & Andreea Ion Daniela Andreea & Me Celine & Me Raul Andreea & Celine - I love it when they play together, rather than aggravate each other Sunset!