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| Breakfast of champions |
In the morning Kim and Ivonne started washing doors in preparation for caulking and painting while the rest of us were scraping and sanding door frames - pretty much the same thing as the door work but we weren't bent over all the time, and since it was more or less solitary work I pulled my Sansa Clip+ out and listened to music. Always a good time with music in my ear.
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| Lunch on Monday |
In the afternoon Ivonne, Kim, and Kelsie traveled with a couple of ladies to a hospital and hospice, or at least they were supposed to do that. I'll let Kim elaborate.
Back at the ranch - the men worked.
Doors.
Ed, the boys, and I were also blessed to have an afternoon break with the college students. Lemonade. Very nice. One can tell that everyone gets along well.
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| Afternoon break with the students |
After supper some of us went back out and walked to the local mall and also grabbed some pastries on the way back. I'll leave that for Kim also.
Lunch break is over.
I hear a door calling my name ....
Randy
Randy covered most of the days activities in a nutshell. However, I do have a few things to add to his comments.
Kelsie, Ivonne and I were invited to go visit one of the hospice houses that Emanuel Baptist Church owns and operates. Unfortunately, we arrived too late and weren't able to do that part of our afternoon visit. However, we did go with our new friends Dairia and Tabita, two sisters here at the University. They spoke very good English and were extremely entertaining. Dairia actually spent 3 months last summer in Texas at a hospital there to do some training. Her English was very, very good - the best we've encountered here besides the other American group we ran into at the mall. :)
Dairia asked us if it would be ok if we took the tram to the hospital where she volunteered. We all three agreed and thought that it would be a really good way to encounter the true "spirit" of Oradea. Well, let me just tell you, we encountered something, but I'm not sure it was a spirit. It stunk in the tram; it was lined with one horizontal row of metal seats and it was DIRTY. Biggest thing we took from the tram ride of 45 minutes was the SMELL. Oh my goodness they stink like body odor and the brakes squeak badly at every stop. Anyway, it was an adventure. We also discovered that there is NO dress code.....a beggar came up to us wearing only a shirt and pants ( not matching of course) and no shoes. His poor feet looked like he had set them in wet concrete, it was really pitiful.
We exited the tram about a 7-10 minute walk away from the hospital and proceeded towards the children's hospital. Another adventure awaited us there. The hospital has a gate that is guarded all the time, not by an armed guard, but a security-type guard. He needed to know how many of us there were and what we were doing there. Dairia explained we were with her, what she was doing and we were allowed to go in with her. Once inside the lobby of the hospital, another "security guard" greeted us. Dairia did all of the talking in Romanian and looked like they were arguing over something, but she won the 'argument' and came back to our group. Basically, the man was attempting to scam us by making us purchase sanitary slip-ons for our shoes. What most visitors don't realize is that if they are necessary, the nurses on the hospital floor give them to you to wear. No need to buy them, EVER. What a crafty one he was!!!
The elevator ride was, well, another adventure to say the least. The elevators in Romania are more like phone booths than elevators. We needed to get to the 8th floor, so we really wanted to ride the elevator, not climb the stairs. Long story short, we split into two groups and finally all 5 of us made it to floor 8. Wow, what a difficult time just trying to get there! :)
We were going to visit the children that were "acute" patients. Just sick, not dying patients. That was good with me, I wasn't sure I could handle visiting very sick cancer patients that were also kids. It was a nice call for me and I was relieved. Ivonne and I stayed with Dairia on the boys wing. Each floor of the hospital is separated and have boys on one side, girls on the other. Kelsie went with the girls side with Tabita. I was blessed by 5 little boys ranging in age from 3-15 approximately. Ivonne and I helped as best we could with 3 separate crafts for them to do. The boys loved being able to have a time just for them and they enjoyed hearing us Americans talk and trying to communicate with us by hand signals and gestures. It was a great time. I love children and I love working with them. Really felt good to do some "heart" work rather than physical work on this particular day.
I do have to say, however, the conditions of the hospital were very disturbing. The 8th floor was brand new, we were told. It is true, the paint was new and the cononstruction looked relatively fresh, but oh my! I never saw hand sanitizer, alcohol, or anything that looked halfway sterile. The dining room where we held our craft session had a floor that I stuck to every time I moved. But, the worst thing I saw was the baby bottles. They were very old fashioned bottles with a big nipple, full of milk and sitting out on a table. Those bottles sat there the entire time we were at the hospital, at least an hour. I kept thinking, why aren't those in the refrigerator??? Can I put them in a fridge? But, apparently they sit out the entire time. Just so different here than in the states. The standard of healthcare is obviously lower than what I'm used to at home.
I have to admit, I actually had difficulty sleeping last night thinking about what would happen if one of the kids or myself got sick while we were here. I know I'm not supposed to worry and all of that stuff, but still, when you see things first hand, you can't help but think about those kind of things. Praise God we are all well and healthy to this point. :)
The guys were expecting us home by 5:30 and we realized we were still doing crafts with the kids at 5. It was a 45 minute tram ride back, (PLEASE, NO MORE TRAM), and we had no way to contact our men. So, Dairai said we COULD take a taxi, but she had no more money. Ivonne said she would GLADLY pay the 16 lei to get us back on time and not have to ride the tram again. That equates to around $5 US, so honestly, not a bad deal. We got back at about 5:55 and went to supper with the guys.
After dinner, we met with Dairai and Tabita again and they walked with us to the mall. I was wanting to find some Romanian made tablecloths like I had bought here 10 years ago, and she thought she knew of a place to take us. So, we made the journey on foot to the mall about 10-15 minutes from the University. No tablecloths, but Ivonne picked up a beautiful plate and the highlight was on the trip back.
Dustin has been craving a sweet, moist chocolate cake, so we asked Dairia if she knew of a place we could get something similar to American cake. Yes, indeed, she knew of a place and would take us there. Obviously, it was the best, least-expensive bakery in the area because it stayed BUSY the entire time we were there. We brought home cake for Dustin, Kelsie and Daniel, and the adults all got a turnover-type fruit pastry that was absolutely DELICIOUS. They had just come out of the oven and we bought one of each, a plum and apricot. YUM!!! My tummy is rumbling right now thinking about how good they were. I could put away another one or two if I could get my man to walk over and get me one! (He's snoozing on the couch at the moment, so I think I'm out of luck. ) Great find, great buy, and happy tummy.
Well, it wasn't American chocolate cake, but it was about the sweetest think Dustin had since we left American airspace. It was enjoyed by all!!! A big huge thanks to the sisters for an awesome day!!!
That was about it for Monday. Randy and Daniel did play volleyball with a group of students, that was interesting to watch!!! They had fun and the Romanians allow using your feet for digs. Hmmmm....
Until Tuesday....
Kim
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