Sfânta Maria

We were finally able to start the hospital today!!!!! We have been waiting a long time to go and now we finally can. The kids at the orphanage were so nebun (crazy) today! They were very loud today and had so much energy. They also cried a ton today too. The kids cried over little stuff when normally they don't. It made me wonder how they slept last night. Maybe they were all just really tired. Anyways, the kids found something new today to play with, a brush. Teo was insistent on brushing everyones hair. Florin just wanted to brush my hair. My hair was different from theirs because it was back in a pony. That didn't stop them from starting at the top and trying to brush all the way down. They ended up pulling most of my hair out of my ponytail as they were trying to brush it. Good thing I love those kids!

The Hospital: Spitalul Clinic De Urgență Pentru Copii "Sfânta Maria"
The inside of the hospital was not what I was expecting. It does not look like a hospital. It is very run down and kind of looks like it is falling apart. Some of the windows have cracks and small pieces broken off, so it is chilly going up and down the stairs to different floors. It is also dirty. Each floor has 2 doors off to the side. Each of those doors will take you down a hall way in a different direction.  These 2 doors on each floor lead you to all the children. Once you go through the doors than everything seems like a hospital but the rest of the building is not even close to looking like a hospital. Their public health is just surprising.

When we go to the hospital we start on floor 2. We find a nurse to ask them "aveti copii făra mama?" We are asking the nurse if there are any children on this floor that don't have a mom. If there are some children then she will take them to us. We play and hold the children that don't have moms. We repeat this for all 8 floors. We work in the hospital 2-5pm every other day, not including saturdays and sundays. The other days we go to the clinic from 2-5pm. We haven't started the clinic yet so right now we are just going to the hospital. Once we start the clinic than we will split up and go 2 to the hospital and 2 to the clinic. Then the next day we switch.

Everything at the hospital just surprised me. At the hospital there is probably about 5 or 4 patients to a room and the rooms are very small. I feel like they don't have it organized, maybe they do. In a room there could be older children, teenagers, or babies. They don't do the rooms by age. The kids in diapers probably have the same diaper on for a long time. We go to hold the children that don't have moms and just find their diapers so full. Who knows the last time their diaper was changed! I feel like the children have just been laying in their waste. It just made me so sad to see the conditions that these children were in. Every time we would stop and hold a child in the hospital we would leave a couple extra diapers in their crib so the nurses could change the diaper later. Oh and I guess breast feeding in the open is very okay here. The moms did not cover up and they breast feed everywhere in the hospital like it is no big deal. They are not shy at all.

The children in the hospital and orphanage know who we are. The scrubs that we wear to both places have a Y on them. I think every child that I have played with and held since being in Romania has always touched the Y. They know us. At the hospital as soon as we would put our hands out to hold them they would get really excited and not even hesitate to go into our arms. Chelsea recognized almost all the children that we saw today in the hospital. Hearing her say that broke my heart. Chelsea has been gone over five months. These children were still in the hospital with no family. Chelsea thinks that sometimes they just keep the children there if they have no other place to take them to once they are better. Most of the time these children aren't even interacted with. The BYU girls that come to the hospital are a good example though. Some of the moms of other children in the same room as a child without a mom will change the babies diaper or play with the child. They see us playing with the children and some moms continue doing so after we leave.

One of the children I saw in the hospital was so small. I was scared to even touch her! She just looked so fragile. I didn't pick her up because both of her legs were wrapped up. It was like a cast on both of her legs but it wasn't hard. There was the cutest little boy that I played with. Every time we would touch him or acknowledge him he would get this huge smile on his face. There was another little boy, Andre, who had these snoopy pajamas on. He loved to be held. He didn't want to color or play. He just wanted to be held. It was so sad hearing him cry when we put him back in his crib and moved on to the next floor. I also got to feed a little girl, Andrea. She seemed very fragile too. She seemed older but she had a very hard time supporting her head. I had to be very careful when holding her. The hospital will be a great experience, even though I know it will be hard and sad at times.