Furlough in Scotland

I have been back now in Romania for nearly 2 weeks, after being home in Scotland for a month on furlough. The first Sunday back, I had an evening at my church, to which other local churches were invited and I spoke about my work and experiences here in Romania. I also spoke on my friends radio show on Revival fm and wrote articles for church and community magazines. As well as “the business” side of things, I had fun spending time with my family and friends. I think I gained about half a stone eating out and having coffees and cakes, but I am sure I will lose it again running about with the kids here in the spring/ summer. I missed all the kids and babies here and was really excited to see them. The kids at both orphanages were excited too and I received lots of hugs and kisses from them on my return. They worked hard learning their instruments while I was away and I am so proud of them all. I am now looking forward to seeing their progress over the next few months.

IT'S CHRISTMAS! Time for parties, celebrations and concerts!! That has certainly been the case here in Romania, the kids have been having fun making santa beards from cream and puffs, playing games, learning about the real meaning of Christmas and eating sweets etc.
It was also fun to see the excitement from the kids as they performed for the first time at the school celebration. They were so nervous and were really serious and took great pride in giving their best performance. I am so proud of them all.

More Music Fun

We are now into our 6th week of the music programme in our new orphanage. Here is an update in pictures.

Musical statues!

Beginning to sound and look like a choir

Learning about rhythm

Learning about musical instruments

Learning about percussion instruments

Practicing handbells for our Christmas performance.

After the first few weeks of instrumental lessons, we finally started the band this week. The kids were all so excited and turned up early to set up and begin. It’s early days, but I’m sure that the band will be ready to make their debut performance at Christmas.

Sleepover

Last Friday some of our girls graduates came to the teamhouse for a sleepover. After wonderful Lasagne and rather interesting looking popcorn balls, we had fun together plucking eyebrows, doing nails, getting new clothes from "The Pipera Store" playing bunco and watching a film. Great times!

New Shoes

As the weather changes here in Romania, it is time to bring out the warmer clothing and indeed shoes. In our last team, there was a young boy (himself adopted from Romania, although now living in America), who raised over $5000 to buy shoes for some of the orphans in Romania. This team and staff visited several orphanages we work in here in Bucharest and in other parts of Romania to deliver shoes to around 300 orphans. It was fun to see their reactions while trying on different styles. Thanks team and in particular Andrei!

Music Fun

It's that time of year again. Our programmes have started at the orphanages. This year we have added a band programme to our already exisiting music programme at one orphanage and have started a music programme at a second orphanage. It is so amazing to see the kids enthusiasm and progress and how seriously they have taken learning music so far. I cant wait to see how much they progress this year.