Lupsa (First Day)

I am sitting here ready to read in bed after getting situated in the orphanage when I just realized that I hadn’t done my blog post yet. Whoops, especially since there is no wireless internet in the orphanage and I’ll have to post this in the morning when I go back to the house.

Let me start off today’s post with something terrible. I know that’s not a great way to begin but I’d rather get it out of the way now and then be able to end with the good stuff. If you don’t want to read about the abuse I witness today, skip to the next paragraph. It was towards the end of the day today in Lupsa (prob. around 4:30 or so) and the group left the feeding center to walk around the little village there. I stayed back to keep making some bracelets with the kids since there were only like 4 of them and they were older and well behaved. About 5 minutes after the group left for their walk, a man holding a long, narrow stick comes barreling through the feeding center door yelling at one of the girls sitting next to me (the girl was prob. 14./15 years old). Immediately, I knew what was going to happen. He came over to the end of the table, yelled at the girl some more, and after she dropped everything (like left the bracelet she was working on; didn’t even bother to put it in her pocket or anything) and took a few steps away from the table, the man (who I assumed was her dad) hit her back with the stick. All of us in the room kind of had our heads down (as did the girl who started crying on her way out), as if we knew that it was not our place to interfere. As they walked the rest of the way out, he hit her twice more on the back of her thighs and her back again. You could hear the crying and yelling for a few minutes after they left and I had to fight back the vomit and the tears myself from witnessing that. Abuse like that happens everywhere and I know that. But seeing it first hand and knowing that 1) it’s not your business and 2) culturally, things might be different here in regards to behavior like that, torn up a little piece of me inside. I had that kind of feeling of “let me just take this girl home with me” because you can just see the damage that does (and has prob. done) to her and how  it will affect her in the future. This incident was one of those experiences where the memory of it will be seared in my head forever and it reinforces any and all of the work I do in places like this. Even if we only see the kids for a day, they are getting love, compassion, respect, and unconditional care from us for just that little bit of time. You never know how that tiny effort will influence their lives and that makes everything worth it (always and without a doubt). So if anyone reading this ever wonders why I do what I do and why I do it in places like this, that’s why. It’s to touch a life for even just a handful of hours; to show these kids that there is more out there, that there is something or someone good in the world. To give just a little bit of hope where it’s needed the most…

Ok, I know that was tough and it’s time to move on and summarize the day, so let’s backtrack. I got up early this morning, realized no one was up yet, hung out in the hotel room for a bit and then went down for breakfast around 8:30. We sat in the outside patio area (that was apparently open to the public and popular with some locals) and ordered either menu item #1-5 or the continental breakfast. I got the continental breakfast which looked like this (I forgot “fried” eggs are really boiled eggs):

We left around 9:45, had an orientation (i.e., this is what Manna does and how they work in the world) meeting at the house, then emptied all the toy bags and tried to organize and divide them some,  and finally we left for Lupsa around 11:15. It was about an hour drive and when we got there, the younger kids were just starting to eat so we helped serve the food and then played with them afterwards. The teen boys on the trip had a great time with all the sports equipment (playing Frisbee, football, and soccer) outside while the rest of us did coloring and bead bracelets inside. I spent a lot of my time outside face painting (or trying to) where we were drawing dogs, cat faces, fish, hearts, flowers, and a bunch of other random stuff all over the kids’ arms. After the younger group left, the older group of kids came but there were only a handful for some reason. They ate and then we started doing more of the friendship bracelets and bead bracelets with them. In the afternoon, the group went on the aforementioned walk while I stayed back to play and clean up some and then we left around 5:30. On the way back to the house, we stopped by the church that is being built by the orphanage and met the kids from the orphanage who walked over to say hi while we checked out the construction. After being there for a bit, we went back to the house for dinner and relaxation. We hung around for a bit talking and some of the guys went outside to play or learn how to play hacky sack and then around 10:30, the all left to go back to the hotel and Cathy, Jerry and I walked over to move me into the orphanage. Now, it’s about 11:15 pm and I’ve gotten all settled in. I have my own room, bathroom, and a self in the closet and here are a few pictures:

It’s about a billion degrees in here so I propped the windows open and just realized that is letting mosquitos in. So, haven’t decided which I’d rather wake up to yet… mosquito bites from open windows or sweat from closed windows! Fortunately, those three years without A/C in Virginia toughened me up so a lack of air is nothing I can’t handle! I’ll prob. read for a little bit and then pass out. Tomorrow, I’m heading over to the house before 9:00 so I can eat breakfast there and then I’ll prob. walk to the Carrefour around the corner (like a Walmart) to pick up some water and whatever else I might need (or really, whatever else I can afford since I haven’t exchanged money yet and don’t have much left)! As a group, we’ll collect money and exchange it all at once tomorrow afternoon. Once the group comes to the house around 10:45, we’ll have another little meeting and then head to Rogova. I am so ridiculously excited to go back and I think I’ve gotten everyone else pretty hyped up too! We have more space to run and play outside so we’re all dressing in like workout clothes tomorrow since we’ll prob. all be running around! When we leave Rogova, the plan is to come back and hang out at the orphanage (as a group) with the 7 kids here for a bit. That’s pretty much all for now. Having a great time and I’m so excited that I’m staying longer. The kids at the orphanage will get their break from school on the 22^nd and after that, it will be busy and fun. Cathy wants to plan a hike or some type of outing like that for later so that we can give the house mother a break. All I said was, “Great! Put me to work!” So for now, noapte bunâ (goodnight)!

P.S. I just got up to close the windows because a mosquito kept buzzing in my ear (I got the sucker eventually) and I realized they have screens. There’s still one more mosquito that is fast and loud that I just can’t get yet….

P.P.S. The half-finished bracelet that girl who I mentioned earlier didn’t finish? I immediately tied it up and attached it to my wrist. One small, concrete way to remember what happened, as well as my purpose.