Week 6 at camp

To keep from going on too long like I've been doing, I will start this right away.

The team leaders for Romania (Romuhneeah):

Me - amazing, obviously

Ioana - already on my team once and of the two volunteers I got closest too. She did really well that week and it was awesome to have her on the team.

Melissa - from Florida who had a daughter on the team from Florida who was in 8th grade. Was great to have because she mothered all of the kids and had a silent wisdom that I lack completely.

Loredana - a 19 yr old volunteer who had worked with the Reghin kids before and knew how to deal with their behavior.

The kids:

Sandor(19) and Imola(22) - a couple. Sandor lives at Reghin and Imola lives in town but she used to live at the orphanage at Reghin. They were high functioning and social and took care of the rest of team because they were like a family and were so great. Both of them were amazing to have

Violeta (17?) - Violeta caught my attention from the moment we got to Reghin. She burst into tears of fear or sadness three times in the couple of hours we were at the orphanage. She doesn't know what age she is. Her Romanian is broken and its hard for the translators to understand her language or her logic. I pray for her future as well as Rodica who is on the team because for the most part they will not be welcomed outside of the orphanage and may end up in an insane asylum if nobody take them in and if they don't make it on the streets. It broke my heart to hear that many of those kids do end up in state psych wards.

Rodica (22) - Rodica obviously had special needs. she was very sweet and had a decent temper for the most part, but she would snap and try to punch other people if she didn't get her way. she had to go to the doctor a lot and didn't like to participate in the games for our team. she wasn't very animated the whole week so i didn't think that she wanted to be there. but on friday i saw her cry when the bus left

Iosif (11) - cute boy who has a horrible history of abuse from his father. he and his brother petre were pretty much inseperable during the week and when they got together they caused some mayhem. it was hard to keep track of Iosif, but he did get competitive for us. I learned that sometimes you have to look past initial impressions of a behavior and realize that sometimes kids aren't being annoying because they are trying to be annoying. melissa mothered this kid all week and he really responded to her motherly love and her cuddling. that was pretty great.

Alin (14) - young boy who was silent for the most part. he opened up as the week went on and had a good time. he'll be the boy with the yogurt on his face and the huge smiles when i put pictures up. he was good for us and was pretty easy to make excited. it makes me both happy and sad to see kids like Alin at camp who really buy into the whole camp thing and just love their week.

Our team got 2nd place! It was pretty neat. While we went into the week with the mentality that it would be the hardest week because the kids were special needs, it ended up not being the hardest week. I would be lying if I said it was the most rewarding week, but it was a good time.

There was one girl, Simona, who was nonverbal. She didn't speak. But right when she got off the bus at camp and I touched her back, and she smiled, I knew that this girl was special. I spent some time with her when I got the chance and it was good to see her smile.

At camp we had the Florida team who was made up mostly of 18 and 17 yr olds. Those kids really stepped up and worked with the kids from Reghin, most of whom were older than the Florida teens. The Florida team blew us all away with how hard working they were and how ready they were to play with the kids. They did spend time with the Romanian volunteers as well which is good because they are slightly older than the volunteers and are good Christian role models.

Reghin was great. At the end of the week we didn't get to go to the Weekend because of some behavior problems throughout the week and concern for safety among other concerns about the pool. It was a sad end to camp. I miss it and wish I could hike up the hill at night to look at the stars. I'll miss Imri and his boy, Csabi. I'll miss lining up and cheering our team's name loudly. I'll miss singing those songs with Ovi and I'll miss the volunteers. Hanging out with them was a joy and something I liked to do. I will type a separate blog about leaving Romania and coming home. I'll miss Vetca and the beautiful surroundings.