My team this week was even better than my team from last week, and I didn’t think it could get any better. I got to be on team France (Frantsa in Romanian) and got to have Renata on my team for the second week in a row. I saw how good she was with the kids during the first week, and was hoping I’d get to work with her again. So when I saw her name above mine I was certainly happy. I also got to work with Ioana who during the first week was an amazing translator and was a natural leader. She ended up being Camp Vetca’s volunteer of the week because she was so hard working. She was the leader of our team for a great portion of the week and made my jumping around and pumping the kids up much better. Also on my team were Zoe and Natalie, two Irish teenagers who I saw a change in over the week. At the end of the week they both had either big smiles or tears in their eyes from having to leave the kids.
We went to Zau to find out the kids who would be on our team this week and I was really excited because these are the kids that had no good shoes on our previous visit. Their shoes were absolutely awful and I do have a picture of their shoes. When we got to the orphanage this week for our preview day one of the ladies from the Irish team brought a big bag of soccer cleats off of the bus. I had prayed only a little for their shoes, but this lady really answered my prayer. Her son played soccer and kept all his old cleats and donated them to the orphans. Those shoes were such an amazing gift and just a testament to God’s awesome power.
My team of kids this week:
Maria – 15 – either had a crush on me or was just very nice.
Klara – 16 – quiet but had a good competitive spirit and looked after the little ones in my group
Cristina – 14 – at first uncooperative but then loved our team and was competitive. A side story about Cristina: Two years ago she was at camp with Livada from one orphanage and then the next week another girl came to camp who looked exactly like her from a different orphanage. The camp leaders put two and two together and found out that the two girls were twins and were separated at birth and then were reunited because of Livada.
Lidia – 12
Erika – 10 – both Lidia and Erika were quiet, competitive, and were good friends and were inseparable the whole week, which was a good thing.
Cristi – 12 – not an orphan. His mom worked for the Zau orphanage and he got to go to camp. His English was amazing and was a great help to me
Janos – 14 – kid who loved soccer and loved to win so much that sometimes he would even try and cheat to win. He was the oldest of 3 other orphans at Zau including Anti
Anti – 8 – looked like he was 5 or 6 and was kind of a pain during the week. He was so cute though and wanted to ride on my shoulders all week, which was fine until he got his brand new soccer cleats from the Irish team and then I got spike marks in my chest from every time I lifted him up.
Our team competed all week and lost some games and won some of the more important events like the messy game Olympics which consists of:
- Eating the chocolate covering from a plastic pie mold and consequently getting it all over your face.
- Dropping yogurt into a partner’s mouth who is on the ground and consequently getting it all over the partner’s face.
- fishing in slime for 3 toys with your toys
- eating the driest biscuits/crackers in Romania
- boiled egg roulette which means smashing an egg on a kids’ head
- baby food eating musical chairs
Another event that we kicked butt in was the commercial video competition. During the first week with UK we made a good video and it got 2nd place. This week we had to make a commercial from France to entice people to go to our country. We made it a love story and our slogan was “If you’re looking for love, come to France, there’s a better chance.” I played the hunchback of Notre Dame who fell in love. All of the groups had a common theme of cross-dressing and man-love. The kids loved it and our group tied for first place in the video. Then the exciting closing ceremony happened and our team got first place! It was so exciting to win this they one. Our kids loved winning and were ecstatic about being in first place. They wore the medals got all night and all day the next day and some of them even wore them on Saturday.
After the ceremony came prayer time, where we get to pray for all of the kids. The first week was okay, but I didn’t feel that great after praying for my kids. I thought about my kids and what I would pray for them too much. I thought about that time too much during the first week and didn’t have any good prayers. This week went so much better. I tried not to think about it and I prayed to God earlier that I would do a good job and that He would just speak through me. It went so well. I felt true and that God was asking me to pray specific things for specific kids and for my other Irish and Romanian team members. I saw changed in every single person on my team and I know that God sent me to Romania for a reason. Let’s just say that it was an emotional night.
Friday showed up and we took the kids to The Weekend (pronounced with a V). I was a little drained of energy walking to The Weekend and was not looking forward to looking our after little hyper kids, but what I saw right when I walked to the pool was two 50 year old guys who were certainly obese and certainly wearing thongs. They were hairy, naked, and best of all were playing an intense game of ping pong from which I couldn’t avert my eyes. I know I’ve been in Romania quite a while because I really wasn’t that surprised with the men in the thongs or the abundance of naked babies. I watched over Cristi and Janos. Cristi was easy because he’s a good kid, but Janos was a little bit of work because at one point he found another boy and was going to go smoke a cigarette until I stopped him. Halfway through the day I switched to watch over Anti who wouldn’t go in the pool and kept running away from and I had to send out a search party for this little kid at least 4 times. It really was a great day and I got to work on my awful tan. Although, because the Irish people were there I didn’t feel so self-conscious about being white.
Friday was the 4th of July. Normally I could care less about Independence Day but because I’m in another country we sang an acapella version of the Star-Spangled Banner. All of us felt excused to act like obnoxious Americans. We went out to the Irish Pub again with the Irish people and had a great time. They really are great people.
The next day I volunteered to go back to the baby hospital and to Zau, the orphanage where our kids from this week came from. It was great because I got to spend time with the Irish team and with some of the volunteers like Renata and Andreea. The baby hospital was another amazing experience. The same babies were there and I spent a lot of time taking pictures and also singing to the same blind girl that was there last time. She was very happy when I tickled her and sang to her. I sang Freebird, the University of Illinois school song, the Sigma Pi Fireside song, Hosanna, and her personal favorite, American Pie. I started to cry and pray for this girl who just needed love and affection to make her happy. I am so selfish to need so many other things. All she needs in this world is a voice and a hand. It was so hard to leave her because she and the other babies started to cry when we left. I took plenty of pictures and will make sure to post them as soon as I can. While we were in the town with the baby hospital we got some lunch and saw three wedding parties walk past. It was neat to see Romanian wedding custom. Today I went to a wedding and it was pretty different but also somewhat the same. It was nice to be reminded that I too am also getting married soon.
We got to the Zau house and we had a rock star’s entrance. The kids swarmed our bus and gave us all great big hugs. One girl in particular, Erika, ran up to me with her arms wide open. That moment was so touching. I’ll never forget her face. It was so nice to see that she didn’t forget me and that she wanted a big hug from someone she can’t even understand. I spun her around and had to stop myself from crying for the second time in the day. It was hard leaving those kids for the second time, and knowing that I can’t take them back to American with me. Everyone on the bus was a bit blurry eyed on the drive home. A sad end to an amazing week.
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