Day 8 - Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Posted by Daphne Nicely on Thursday, June 9, 2011
Today Didi and I observed a 3 year old class as they rehearsed for their program. We also measured children (height, waist and pant length) in the aforementioned 3 year old class, a four year old and five year old class. This was done so that the Ladies of One Heart would have a good range of sizes in order to sew more school uniforms for Grace Christian School.
After lunch, Didi and I helped the children change into their pajamas for a two hour nap. I wish this was something that we did in schools in America.
We headed over to PC 3/4 after lunch and "hung out" with several of the young people until all those who would be going off campus with us were available. For many years I have wanted to have an opportunity to spend time with the young people in an informal setting oustide of the placement center -like a family- and this was our opportunity and grand experiment. We ended up being 14 in all (6 young women and 5 young men plus Dean, Didi and I). We started our trek and I asked if they did this often and they said that they never get to go anywhere as a group... only the small children do. We were to walk about 1.5 miles to a restaurant to get shawarma (similar to gyros). It was so hot! We stopped about halfway and bought soft drinks.
When we arrived at the restaurant we all flooded in and there wasn't enough room for all of us, so we had them make 14 shwarma to go. We walked acroos the street to the college (technical school) and ate in the ampitheatre. We had such an awesome time. I handed out baby wipes, hand sanitizer and napkinss and collected the trash afterwards. All of the young people seemed to be enjoying themselves and it gave us tremendous joy to open up our family to enable the young people to experience some semblance of normalcy.
We took a different route back to the placement center. We walked on the other side of the river and had the opporunity to introduce the young people to Randy and (Nurse) Tamara. They told them about their ministry and some of the projects they have coming up in the late summer, fall and beyond (i.e. establishing a community center with washing machines, shower facilites, clothing closet, food pantry, English classes, homework assistance, tutoring, life skills and employment opportunites - construction, gas station attendants, farm hands...) This was a very strategic introduction as they serve in the Mundial community, also know as the Brickyard, and it is just around the corner from the placement center. Last year I started inviting the young people to attend services at the Brickyard church because it is less formal and less intimidating than the very large Grace Baptist Church in city centre. At the Brickyard church they can just "come as they are". The young people were so excited, encouraged and hopeful for the opportunites that lay ahead.
We walked back to PC 3/4 in a down pour and were soaked by the time we got there.
Throughout the afternoon and into the evening the young people kept thanking me and telling me they had fun and asked if we could do it again sometime. I told them I'd love to but that I didn't have money to do it again this year. To my great pleasure they didn't care about the food. They just wanted to be together, as a family, outside, away from the placement center. These young people are some of our extended family here in Romania and we love them so dearly!
After lunch, Didi and I helped the children change into their pajamas for a two hour nap. I wish this was something that we did in schools in America.
We headed over to PC 3/4 after lunch and "hung out" with several of the young people until all those who would be going off campus with us were available. For many years I have wanted to have an opportunity to spend time with the young people in an informal setting oustide of the placement center -like a family- and this was our opportunity and grand experiment. We ended up being 14 in all (6 young women and 5 young men plus Dean, Didi and I). We started our trek and I asked if they did this often and they said that they never get to go anywhere as a group... only the small children do. We were to walk about 1.5 miles to a restaurant to get shawarma (similar to gyros). It was so hot! We stopped about halfway and bought soft drinks.
When we arrived at the restaurant we all flooded in and there wasn't enough room for all of us, so we had them make 14 shwarma to go. We walked acroos the street to the college (technical school) and ate in the ampitheatre. We had such an awesome time. I handed out baby wipes, hand sanitizer and napkinss and collected the trash afterwards. All of the young people seemed to be enjoying themselves and it gave us tremendous joy to open up our family to enable the young people to experience some semblance of normalcy.
We took a different route back to the placement center. We walked on the other side of the river and had the opporunity to introduce the young people to Randy and (Nurse) Tamara. They told them about their ministry and some of the projects they have coming up in the late summer, fall and beyond (i.e. establishing a community center with washing machines, shower facilites, clothing closet, food pantry, English classes, homework assistance, tutoring, life skills and employment opportunites - construction, gas station attendants, farm hands...) This was a very strategic introduction as they serve in the Mundial community, also know as the Brickyard, and it is just around the corner from the placement center. Last year I started inviting the young people to attend services at the Brickyard church because it is less formal and less intimidating than the very large Grace Baptist Church in city centre. At the Brickyard church they can just "come as they are". The young people were so excited, encouraged and hopeful for the opportunites that lay ahead.
We walked back to PC 3/4 in a down pour and were soaked by the time we got there.
Throughout the afternoon and into the evening the young people kept thanking me and telling me they had fun and asked if we could do it again sometime. I told them I'd love to but that I didn't have money to do it again this year. To my great pleasure they didn't care about the food. They just wanted to be together, as a family, outside, away from the placement center. These young people are some of our extended family here in Romania and we love them so dearly!