Day One - A Big Reunion

After some well earned rest the team settled in and got to meet the rest of the kids at Ana’s House.  I caught up with the kids up at the “Big house”, or Ana’s House.  I was wondering if a few of the kids would remember me, mainly Cristina and Marian.  I met the two of them in 2001 on my first mission trip to Arad when they were still in the orphanage.  Marian would have been about 18 months old during that time.  His sister Cristina would have just turned three.  A little over a year later they came to live at the House of Hope and have been under the care of the foundation ever since then.  “Hey, Marian”I said to him as he took breakfast this Friday morning, “do you remember me?”
“Da”, came his reply, indicating that he did.  Marian has a low level learning disability and his sister Cristina has some learning disability as well but to a greater degree.  So I wasn’t sure if Marian truly did remember me or was just saying so.  After I went into the kitchen, Doina, an original staff member from 1999, asked him if he did really remember me.  “Yes”, he said, “he used to throw me up and twirl me in the air!”

A few days later we were all sitting around the kitchen table talking.  I told Marian about the first time I ever met him when he was in the orphanage and a little bit of our history together.  Once we had moved to Romania in 2003 it took a few months for him to warm up to me.  There were some funny stories along the way and as I told him all about it he laughed and laughed at the table.  There’s nothing like telling a story to a kid in Romanian and then translating back into English for the guests at the table.  You get to laugh twice as much and twice as long! 

Marian's eleventh birthday party

We were able to celebrate Marians birthday party on the 11th of September.  He turned eleven years old.  The great thing about having twenty kids is that when you visit the chances are very good that someone is going to have a birthday and you can join in the big celebration! 

Lisa, Paula and Cristina take me for a walk

Later in the morning I took a walk with Marian’s sister Cristina, Paula and Lisa up to the kindergarten where Paula used to attend and Lisa currently goes to school.  How refreshing it was to just stroll with these three girls and have them tell me all about their lives.

In the afternoon all of the kids and friends came by for a big cookout.  We had 50 people in total.  It was a classic meal of mici, chicken and french fries cooked on a disc, bread and plenty of soda which is always a big treat for the kids.  The volleyball net was set up and it became clearly obvious that the children are playing volleyball on a daily basis.  Anybody on the receiving end of Mircea’s service was in for some challenging returns.  On a side note I commented to Roni one day driving down the street about the new ping pong tables set up in many of the city parks.  I asked if the kids and specifically Mircea played ping pong at all.  “Sure” he said “again you can get a beating from him!”.  So you can see how effective he was at bringing it in a big way on the volleyball field! 

The kids love board games and card games of all sorts.  They had a game called Tick, Tack Bumm!! or Pass The Bomb which involved cards with two or three letters and a plastic bomb.  You push the button on the bomb and have to make a word using the letters shown on a displayed card.  Once you have a word you pass the bomb.  The whole time it ticks and if it explodes while you hold it you receive the card.  Receive three cards and the group decides on a punishment for you.  I had a couple of interesting punishments of which one I’ve posted here.  I’m singing Happy Birthday in Romanian. 

It was great first day for the kids and the team.  It's amazing how the children just open their hearts to the world when teams come.  Over the years the activities have changed as they have grown and matured but they love to interact and relate to people.  As Pam and I always discovered when we lived with these kids for two and a half years the children enjoy nothing more than spending time with people.  It reminded me of when we had difficult days in Romania we only needed to go play with a kid to remember the purpose of why we had come to Romania.