Fun with the little ones

For the past three weeks we have started visiting a new Orphanage, which has young children from about 3-10 years of age. It has been great fun getting to know these children and playing with them. We have taken many fun things to play with including balls, balloons, bubbles and a parachute and each time have started our time there with a craft. The kids have loved this and each time I have been reminded of just how much we have and how little they have. When giving out foam shapes or pipe cleaners etc. for the crafts they all crowd round to the extent that you cannot move and stick their hand out at you shouting “I want one” or “give me one” over and over, often pretending they didn’t get anything so that they can get more. It is definitely survival of the fittest and truly makes me grateful for everything I have.

Graduation

This month also saw the end of our Transition House Programmes. We celebrated the Graduation ceremony on Sunday 13th June. Our staff, previous years graduates and the team that was here at the time, spent the afternoon enjoying a meal together and having fun in the pool after the ceremony, where this years graduates each made a small speech about how the programme had transformed their lives and were given certificates. Well done to them all.

Prizegiving and Carnival at the orphanage

On June 10th the kids at P orphanage celebrated their progress and achievement at their annual prizegiving. Many of the kids gained certificates for their work throughout the year Some classes performed skits, some of the older girls dressed up and showed us their skills at Indian dance and our dance class also performed their dance to “Tears of the Saints” by Leeland. In the afternoon, we held a “Princess and Hero Carnival” as a fitting end to our heroes programme this year. We taught the children the following characteristics of heroes – courage, selflessness, perseverance, loyalty, kindness, obedience, humility and integrity through various “heroes” some sports, some biblical, some historical, some fictional / Disney. The Carnival was a lot of fun and the kids all dressed up as Superman, Sportsmen, Princesses etc. and had the opportunity to win prizes by taking part in 8 different activities – one for each of the characteristics including races, challenges and crafts. They entered through a human tunnel of bubbles to “Superman” music and did a lap of honour before attempting the different activities. It was a wonderful end to this years hardwork.

Scotland trip May 2010

At the end of April, I took my 5 American missionary friends to visit Scotland for 4 days. We had a great time visiting Edinburgh and the Castle, buying Scottish souvenirs in the Royal mile, taking the Glasgow City Bus Tour (the first time for me – I learned a lot too), shopping in Argyle Street and a day trip to Loch Lomond and Inverary Castle. The Americans even learned some new Scottish vocabulary and apparently, Glaswegian is more difficult to learn than Romanian!! Lots of fun, fellowship and food with these friends and some in my church, who very kindly showed us true Scottish hospitality. Thank you all for a wonderful trip.

reward trips

This Month we took some of our kids at the Orphanage on special reward trips. The first trip was for the “little monkeys” music class. We took them to a puppet show of “Pinocchio”. Along with the puppets, grown up actors and actresses, danced and sang, bringing the story to life. The kids were spellbound. Afterwards we took those kids and the kids who had earned all their points in class to Macdonalds for lunch and then to the park. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was amazing to see some of the smaller kids who were scared to cross the rope bridge even with help at the start of the visit, confidently run across it by themselves by the end of the trip. Later on in the month, we took the kids in the Art class to visit Cotroceni Palace and Museum. This is the residence of Romania’s President. We had a guided tour and the children were really interested in what they saw and heard even asking the guide questions. After the tour we had a picnic lunch at the Botanical Gardens. They children took great delight in feeding the fish there, I am just glad they didn’t fall in!!

Special days during Easter Holidays

During the Easter week holiday, we had special classes / projects for the orphanage kids at the Girls Transition House. We took the kids involved in the music classes on Monday and Tuesday mornings. With the older kids we did a project on music which tells a story and with the younger kids, we did a project on the Carnival of the Animals and then took them to the Zoo on the Wednesday afternoon. They had such fun chasing the tiger (the tiger was inside the cage and the kids outside!), squealing at the snakes and teasing the monkeys. I was led by “my little Alina”, between the reptiles and the tropical fish over and over again, each time as if it was her first time seeing them. She was so excited, she couldn’t take it all in. The trip was finished off with some ice cream!

Easter

Last week was Easter in Romania. After church on the Sunday, most of the graduates, our current girls, a small team from America and the Heart to Heart staff celebrated at the Team House. We had a meal together and an Easter egg hunt in the garden of the Team House. On Easter morning before church, the staff hid loads of eggs, some painted, real eggs, some small plastic ones filled fill sweets and some small plastic ones filled with tasks which, if completed they would receive points for. The points could be redeemed at the “h2h store” for items such as bedding, toiletries etc. These graduates are in their 20’s and a few even early 30’s, although you would have though they were teenagers. The competition was so strong and the cheating, well……. I have to say as they returned the real eggs to me – I went around hiding them again!!