Tutova Baby Adventures: It's gloomy out

This was supposed to have been up yesterday, sorry...We had been hearing for two days that the Minister of Health would be visiting the clinic. You could feel the tension in the air as the aides busily cleaned and re-cleaned every window, wiped down and re-wiped every windowsill, and mopped the floor over and over again. We got news in the morning that they would definitely be dropping by at some point today and the kids seemed to sense that there was something going on as they were definitely not themselves. Two ladies did come by apparently, but we were at lunch listening to a first hand account of what life was like growing up in a communist Romania from one of our country managers Dan. When we returned to the clinic, we were greeted by a very relieved group of staff, and they happily posed for a group shot.

Dan gave us a wonderful gift today when he shared about his childhood in communist Romania and early adulthood in the military. It is amazing to hear about the food rations that they had, sometimes waiting in line for 24 hours for something like 2 lbs of meat/person/month, 1 L of sunflower oil/month, half a loaf of bread/day, and being able to watch only 2 hrs/day of T.V.. One of those hours was used for government news, and the rest divided up between cartoons and movies that were broadcast in a series. He talked of having a happy childhood, reading a lot as they were allowed books from their public library. It is inspiring how one's spirit, even in undesirable and dire circumstances, can shine bright and full of hope. Democracy was obtained, but still a very long way to go...we also heard today that the closure of the hospital, along with 178 others, was likely to happen, with no plans that we have heard regarding the future of the children. Our hearts sank and continue to sink with this news, as we try to brainstorm and see what we could do to help.

Filled with helplessness and great concern as to where the children we have grown to love will go, we continued our work with the adorables, here are a few snapshots of my day.