Grow Through What You Go Through: Sep 3rd

I can’t believe how fast the weeks are flying by!! Working with these kids is so fun and I am already learning so much from them! It’s amazing how much I’m learning considering I can’t really speak the language and verbally communicate with the kids.

The orphanage that I am working in is specifically for children with disabilities. Some of the common disabilities are attachment disorder, autism, blindness, brain paralysis, cerebral palsy, deafness, down syndrome, epilepsy, fetal alcohol syndrome, muscular atrophy, speech disorders and others. Some of the children have more severe cases than others and the ages right now very from infant to 10 years old. Depending on their disability and age they are placed in rooms that will best accommodate their needs. The children at the orphanage have more severe disabilities and need more doctor/nurse attention, whereas the kids in the apartments are given a more 'homelike' feel so that if they are placed into a foster family its not as big as a change. With several of the kids already having attachment disorders because they are not with their parents, it is not fair to them if we, as volunteers, are always switching between rooms. So this week we were assigned our permanent rooms for the rest of the semester!! I am working in the apartments and I absolutely love all the kiddos!

On Monday they had not bought our bus passes yet, so we were not able to go out to the apartments, so we just doubled up in some of the rooms in the orphanage! I got lucky enough to double up with one of my roommates who is working in the room with all the infants and babies! We spent most of the time outside because it was a really nice day. In the infant room there are babies and then there are a few children who are older but have disabilities where they still need feeding tubes and can’t move on their own. For the first few hours outside I walked around with one of the older kids in a stroller. It was so cute because as I walked around the courtyard behind the orphanage some of the kids from other groups who were a little older would come ‘help’ me push the stroller! As I was walking around with a child in the stroller another little kid, who was about 4 or 5, came up to walk with me. We walked passed one of those trees that have the helicopter seeds on it and as we passed a branch I hit the tree and several of the seeds spiraled to the ground. The little boy that was walking with me found this so fascinating and funny. So, for the next 10-15 min we stood by that tree and hit the branches to make the seeds fall. He would laugh every single time it was so cute!!

While we were outside with several of the newborn babies the caregivers came out with bottles to feed them. I was able to hold this little baby and feed her the bottle and, oh my goodness! She was so darn cute!! The rest of the time we had there I took care of the same baby I bottle fed! When we went back inside it was about 11:30 and only had 30 min left till we had to leave so we were trying to put the babies down for their naps. I stood by this little girls’ bed and was able to rock her to sleep! She was so precious, and I just wish I could have held her forever! I also wish I could be in more than one place at once so that I could work in the baby room this whole semester as well as the apartments.

Tuesday was my first day working in my assigned room! The apartment I am working in has a group of kids with several different disabilities. That first day it was pretty hard to work with them because they were not completely comfortable and familiar with us yet and with their disabilities it is hard to do a large group activity with all of them. Although it was kind of chaotic I was still able to have fun playing with some of the children and the speech therapist that was there told us they we did really well, especially for our first day. Tuesday afternoon I was not planning on going back to the apartments but my friend Sierra that worked in one of the other apartments needed someone to go with her because her buddy Nicole was sick, and she didn’t want to travel by herself, so I went with her. This apartment was one of the ones I really wanted to work in because it has a little boy with down syndrome that I fell in love with the moment I saw him! I was so happy that I was able to work with them even if it was just for one afternoon. It is crazy the amount of love I feel for this little boy! We went to a park near the apartments while we were there and as we were there one of the little boys, we will name him josh, wanted to go down the slide but was too nervous to go by himself. So, he asked me to go down with him, the embarrassing thing is I did not fit it the slide, so I had to sit sideways to be able to fit. And Josh just wanted to keep going down it over and over again. The playground we were on was pretty old and the steps up to the slide were wood. This being said, I was very careful each time up walked up these wooden stairs. BUT with my luck, as we were getting ready to go, the little down syndrome boy did not want to go down the slide, so I reached up to grab him from the stairs part of the slide and as I leaned forward I broke off half of the wooden stair… haha luckily the worker there thought it was funny and so nobody got mad at me! hahaha

On Wednesday we went to the apartments from 9 – 12 and then again from 4 – 6 (we go back in the afternoons MWF). In the morning I was getting kind of frustrated because I really wanted to connect with the kids right away, but they had really short attention spans and I was not able to speak to them, so it was hard to ask them what they wanted when they would get upset. As I was feeling frustrated for not knowing the language and not being able to verbally communicate with the kids one of the little boys came up to me and gave me a great big hug! This was just what I needed and what he needed as well. Ever since then he will come up to me at random times throughout the day to give me a great big hug! I love it!!

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is dance to music and it is their favorite too because I spin them around. Even though it is a big workout for me I love it because the kids are so happy and are always laughing when we dance, and it reminds me of when I was a kid and my dad would dance with me!!

Thursday nights the missionaries hold a game night for the younger members of the ward and so some of the girls and I went. It was lots of fun because we were able to meet other Romanians our age and we played several games, learned the hula dance to the Moana song from one of the sister missionaries that use to work at the Polynesian Culture Center in Hawaii, and had pizza and some really good donuts! It was lots of fun!

There are different caregivers or ‘educators’ as the orphanage calls them, that work in the apartments, so it is not always the same lady each day that we work with. Luckily all of the educators that have been in my apartment so far are super nice and try their best to communicate with us!

On Friday, the educator was super fun and did a lot of fun dances and activities with the kids. For snack she gave all the kids Twix bars. At first I thought that was a funny snack to just eat Twix bars but then I remembered what the speech therapist said, and it was actually very helpful for the kids! The Twix bars were in the fridge and so they colder and harder to chew. As the kids took bites of the candy bar they really had to use their mouth muscles to chew it up and eat it. As a child eats more solid foods it helps strengthen the mouth muscles that also help with speaking. And then the educator also gave me and Nicole Twix too. (there are two Nicole’s and this Nicole will be the other girl working with me in the apartment for the rest of the semester).

Living in the city means there are a lot of small shops on the streets selling food. Right next to our apartment are several gelato, pretzel, and pastry shops! This is so dangerous for me!! I have had way too many sweets since I have been here and have been wanting to work out more. So, Friday morning I went on a run with some of the girls from my group and then afterwards did a small leg workout in my room and it felt so nice! I am just nervous for when it gets cold and snowy and slushy outside and I can’t run anymore! Haha.

The week was so much fun, and I am so excited to work more with the kids from my apartment and learn more of their language!