When I got up at 6am Romanian time the sky was still dark. At 8 am when we left our room for breakfast the sky was a tad bit lighter but no sun peeking though… light snow but nothing really sticking to the ground. After a breakfast of cereal and an egg with cheese on top, we left for the clinic. (Trish asked in an email how the food was and it is really good. Some things have been delicious and others have been filling if not very flavorful. Last night was the first night that we had truly Romanian food and it was unbelievably good...although it was also extremely salty. More about that in a moment... I am trying to go in chronological order LOL)
Upon arrival at the clinic the front drive-through gate was lock and frozen shut. LOL It is a large gate similar to something you would see at a large estate. Apparently an inspector came to visit the director of the hospital and drove through the open gate and wandered around the campus for quite some time before locating the director’s office. The inspector “advised” the hospital to put a lock on the gate. Although Romania is no longer a Communist state apparently you still don’t mess with government officials...and you follow through on their advice.
We exited the van and walked through the small front guard house. Apparently Tutova Clinic used to be a private home and was donated by the family and converted into a hospital. That being said get images of American hospitals out of your head and imagine a small, very small mansion being turned into a small, small 2 room hospital. We walked along a tiled pathway to the failure to thrive clinic.
ASIDE: I wasn’t aware that the hospital is actually a small campus of buildings. There is the main hospital building which houses an emergency room (literally one room), a laboratory (again literally one room with several pieces of equipment), a female ward (which is actually 1 room with several beds for women only), a male ward (which is a room next door to the female ward again with several beds.. think of the Forrest Gump hospital scene when he was shot in the “buttocks”), another room for males with about 4 beds, a small lounge area, and a kitchen. 
The failure to thrive clinic is a pastel green color on the outside and very pleasant on the inside. As we walked inside we were greeted by several aides who had gathered to welcome us. The entry way is quite roomy but not hardly big enough for all of us to unbundle and switch from outdoor shoes to slippers. (They ask that anyone entering wear indoor slippers in order to prevent dirt from being tracked into the clinic.) There is a Christmas tree located in the entry way and Mihaela informed us that they do have a Christmas celebration with the children. To the left of the entry way there is a small preschool classroom. Each afternoon a teacher (paid for with funds taken from the volunteer fees)comes in to work with the older children on basic academic skills – identifying shapes, colors, etc. To the right of the entry way is a small nurse’s office and behind the nurse’s office is an even smaller Isolation Room. The Isolation Room is mainly used for new arrivals. They keep the children there for 2-3 weeks in order to evaluate them and make sure they are disease free.
As you pass through the entry way doors you enter a long hallway. If you walk to your right you will pass 4 bedrooms filled with cribs, a large sink/bathtub, and a hand washing sink, farther down the hallway is a guest toilet and a small janitorial closet. If you walk to the left you will encounter 2 playrooms (one for non-mobiles & one for mobiles), a storage closet, and at the end of the hall the wonderful kitchen. If you exit outside the kitchen you can enter another small room which houses the laundry facility. After lunch Mihaela took us there to show us some of the impact Global Volunteers has had on the clinic. First we were shown a beautiful industrial size washer, spinner, and dryer – beautiful seems a strange word for a washing machine UNTIL you think about the number of cloth diapers and outfits the clinic goes through daily! Then beautiful seems like it fits!! Next she showed us the monstrous old washing machine and spinner.. oh my gosh… I have NEVER seen anything like it before!! 
So, first we took off our shoes and changed into our slippers and it was time to go get babies. We walked into their bedrooms and picked them up from their cribs. Oh my gosh…I cannot begin to describe how sweet it was to see these sweet babies smiling up at us waiting to be rescued! By the time we arrive each morning they have already had 2 bottles in their crib (a recent change in the feeding schedule) so they are ready to hop up and play. We take the babies down the hall to the designated playrooms.
ASIDE: The playrooms are fabulous! This summer the clinic underwent renovations (again using funds from volunteers) and the playrooms were updated with new walls (Mihaela called them paneling but it is more of a slick, tile looking paneling that goes half way up the wall so as not to cover the beautiful murals. In the mobile room they attached a large child safe mirror to the wall and 2 different tactile wall toys. I don’t have pictures of these yet but they are FABULOUS! The non-mobile playroom is a lot smaller than it seems from pictures – maybe 12x12 if that large.)
Then we spend the morning playing with them and exercising their bodies. Around 10am there is a yogurt snack, at 12 there is a bottle and then it is naptime. When the babies go down for nap we leave and walk to the main hospital kitchen for our lunch. After lunch on Day 1 we met with Dr. Delia, the director of the hospital. She took us on a tour of the hospital and let us know how grateful she was for Global Volunteers. She showed us several machines that Global Volunteers had purchased for the hospital using volunteer fees. She also let us know that they have wonderful thermometers that she cannot use because she is out of the disposable covers. (She is going to show us the exact type of cover she needs so we can send some.) They also have a fabulous.. oh, blood machine.. like you would use to check blood sugar BUT again they have no strips. She was a beautiful elegant lady who truly loves what she does! She was so excited to show us the new birthing table in the ER… she said the old one was from the Stone Ages! You can tell she loves her work. After leaving Dr. Delia and viewing the monster washing machine we went back to the clinic and met with the social worker Ramona (a new requirement for the clinic) and several aides for an English/Romanian lesson. I had to bring my cheat sheet (a paper on which I had written each phrase phonetically in order to help me with pronunciation). We introduced ourselves to them in Romanian and they introduced themselves to us in Romanian with Mihaela acting as interpreter. Lots of laughs all around.. Ramona actually speaks English fairly well and 2 of our volunteers speak some Romanian. After our lesson we checked to see which babies were awake and got them out of their cribs for more playtime. At 3pm we have another bottle feeding then it is diaper change time and off to bed.
The first day was wonderful! I know I didn’t give you much info about the individual kids but I will I promise. I am writing late and just wanted you to have a basic idea of the surroundings and routines before telling you my thoughts on the children! I love you guys -- bunches in case you haven't notice because it is 2am my time and I am updating my blog instead of sleeping! LOL
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