The New Hotel

My previous team was the last team to stay in Barlad. GV's has now moved all teams to the Hotel Raluca in Tutova. Later I will list all the pros and the cons.. Right now for me the largest pro is the fact that we are spending more time with the babies and are able to walk over and visit after dinner!


The rooms are a nice size for 2 people. The messy side is mine and the neat side is my room mate Mariah's! LOL Anyone who knows me could have figured that one out!



This is the view from the back of the hotel.. it is truly on a beautiful piece of land and staying here gives you a good feel for the Romanian countryside!

Swine Flu in Romania!? ICK!!

This afternoon after lunch we went to the hospital to meet Dr. Delia and tour the main hospital in Tutova. Near the end of our visit she told us that she would like us to wear masks each day at the clinic due to the recent swine flu incident with volunteers. I had no idea what she was talking about but was so upset to wear the mask!! In December we had to wear masks when in the Isolation Room and it made everything so stuffy you felt like you could barely breathe! It is already so hot in the clinic -- none of us were very happy but we are all complying because we want to do what ever is best for the children!
When I got home from my rotation tonight (more on that later) I looked for the incident she was talking about online.. yepo, it is true on FRIDAY this story came out about volunteers from Great Britian who are now in isolation with swine flu!!! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/03/british-teenagers-romania-swine-flu-hospital
So much for begging not to wear a mask!! Hopefully after a week the nurses will see that we are not ill and are showing no symptoms of swine flu and will allow us to stop wearing the masks! One can only hope!! And pray!!
Prayers for the health of the volunteers and the babies would be most appreciated!!

Journey to Romania

Whew.. what a journey.. no fire trucks awaiting my arrival like last time but eventful nevertheless! Trish, Hannah, and Emily helped me get my luggage (2 49.5 pound checked bags and 1 30+ pound carry on PLUS my backpack with laptop, camera, etc.) into McGhee Tyson Airport around 1pm on Friday. We had to move just a few things around in the checked baggage and stick some things into my carry on to make the weight limit but we did it! I then had a 2 hour wait in the smallest airport in America (not sure if it is really the smallest but it sure feels like it when you have 2 hours to spare)!
The flight itself was uneventful.. I landed in Detroit on time and had exactly 1 hour to get off the plane, find the new gate, get on the new plane, and take-off! When I saw that I had an hour I thought it would be fine -- wasn;t thinking about the fact that you normally board at least 30 minutes before the take off time that is printed on the ticket! Of course we landed at one end of the Detroit Metro airport and my flight to Amsterdam was boarding at the other end of the airport! LOL But I made it fine... I finally made it to the gate after half-running only to find a HUGE line of people AND TSA doing a spot check by pulling people out of line!! LOL I just sat down and waited for the line to go down and watched the TSA officers search people's bags and bodies.
The flight to Amsterdam was long... long... long... we left Detroit around 7pm (too early to sleep) and there were too many distractions on the plane to read (can you believe I couldn't read?!). I tried to watch 3 different movies -- Duplicity (too slow of a start), The Reader (too lovey dovey), Benjamin Button (I was just too distracted -- the man across the aisle from me smelled horribly of body odor and talked the whole time!)... finally I watched a 30 minute segment of Law and Order LOL... tried to read... ate dinner (nasty chicken, potatoes, and green beans -- US AIR has FABULOUS food compared to Northwest!!). Tried to read again... tried to play a game.. I was so antsy, had a headache, then my stomach started hurting.. not sure if it was stress or what but I just couldn't get settled -- no sleep on this portion of the journey! Landed in Amsterdam around 12am EST... once again I had one hour exactly until the plane left... basically 30 minutes to board. This was my first experience in the Amsterdam airport and I must say I was NOT impressed... it is HUGE and there were people EVERYWHERE.. lots of trash falling out of trashcans... Frankfort and Zurich were both so much nicer! Once again I finally made it to the gate after full out running only to find an ever HUGER (yes I know that isn't a word) line of people AND find a security check in place here also. Finally I was on an over-stuffed plane heading to Bucharest (still not sure how so many people are going to same places I am going LOL)!
So there I was on this HOT plane filled with people feeling horribly sick to my stomach and trying to figure out how on earth I was going to get my 300 pound luggage onto the train once I arrived in Romania. Having had no sleep for almost 24 hours!! Those of you who know me know that I need at least 9 hours a night to function.. 10 hours to actually be nice to other people! :-)
Finally arrived in Bucharest... the nice man at Passport Control didn;t even speak to me - just looked at my passport and stamped it (which was wonderful! I always feel guilty (for no reason) when I talk to Passport Control LOL). Two nice gentlemen were passing out luggage carts as I got to the baggage claim -- my bags popped right out with only one looking a little worse for the wear... I loaded them on the luggage cart and headed out to meet Dan, Mihaela's husband and our team leader for this 3 weeks. Turns out I was one of the last volunteers to arrive so we only had to wait about 45 minutes for the others to arrive. Dan had hired a large tour bus to bring us to Tutova so I worried about the train for nothing and one of the lovely volunteers gave me Advil since mine was in the bottom of one of my bags and I didn't want to empty the bag to get the meds!
We loaded our luggage on the bus and headed for Tutova. I was able to sleep for about 20 minutes before we stopped at McDonald's for dinner. After a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke light I almost felt like my old self again! LOL .. Okay not really! We made it to Tutova around 9pm local time -- which is 2 pm EST.. I think the not sleeping for 24+ hours worked out well because when I went to bed at 10:15 local time I was able to sleep through the night and am already acclimated to Romanian time.. I have felt great today!
We are a team of 19.. we think we are team number 137 (Dan is going to double check and let us know). Two members of our team got sick on arrival (stomach virus we think).. they are staying overnight in Bucharest and will hopefully be here by tomorrow night. we are a mixed group but all American -- our youngest member is 16 years old and our oldest -- well who knows?? one member mentioned her 61st birthday is this month! So we have a large age range. Today we did our team building exercises and got to know one another a little better. I think it is going to be an interesting team!
This morning after breakfast 2 previous volunteers and I snuck over to the clinic to see the babies for a while!! It was great! We had all of the babies in the non-mobile playroom! LOL Of course Ema-Elena is the first baby I visited -- she was in her crib crying.. she was soaked with sweat (she is a hot blooded little baby!! LOL)... Unfortunately she didn't stop crying when I picked her up.. I spent most of my time this morning holding her and trying to visit with the other babies at the same time... I have some of those lightweight dresses in the clothing I brought so I am going to try my best to get her dressed in those as much as possible!
We came back to the hotel for lunch and more meetings THEN we got to go back and see the babies again!! YIPEE!! Ema was like a different baby... very relaxed and didn't cry at all! How weird is that?! I am hoping that it is the seizure medicine that she is taking now (maybe they give it to her around noon?!?).. at any rate she was a much happier baby this afternoon! I haven't taken any pictures of the babies yet.. shocking I know! Not sure if I will get pictures tomorrow or not.. trying to take it slow and enjoy rather than shooting pics constantly... don't worry though you know I will be sending you guys tons of pics!! :-)
Take care.. more baby updates tomorrow!!

Items from Shopping Yesterday (using donations)!

All the shoes from Walmart.. they look big in this pic but they are anywhere from 3 - 5 little kids ($10 + tax)

Babies R Us purchases: soft bowling ball set and shape toy approx. $30 including tax (I am going to teach the Mobiles to play if it kills me! LOL I want them to start learning that toys are things you can play with not just throw!! LOL So at least bowling has a cause and effect that they can see immediately!) The book Gallop! ($12.95 + tax) is the coolest book I have ever seen -- I bought it specifically with Alexandra (6yo w/ brittle bone disease and dwarfism) in mind. She loves to read and I think this will fascinate her! The book ($6.99 + tax)below it is a soft baby book that you can insert pictures into -- I will print out pictures from December and add them to the book. Since I bought every bottle liner I could find I thought I should throw in some nipples also! ($3.99 + tax per pack). The 2 teething rings ($1.99 + tax each) will be easier for the babies to hold instead of the chunkier teething rings they already have.

Six.. yes 6 of the pink outfits with butterflies -- t-shirt and shorts together 74 cents for each outfit!! Woo hoo gotta love 75% off sales!! The little fishie outfit was too cute to pass up ($3.49) and the clinic tends to need newborn size when they get itty bitty new babies in who are malnourished. Also in this pic the temporal artery thermometer I wanted to buy -- a steal at Target for $34.99 + tax!! They only had one in stock -- the same exact thermometer is $49.99 at Walgreens!!

All the boxes of original liners we were able to find in Knoxville!! LOL Approximately $5.50 a box

All the Target brand drop-in liners we found at the first Target. The problem is going to be that the boxes are HUGE!! So I also bought this tote.. my thinking was this: when we take them out of the boxes they have the potential to become unsanitary during both the flight AND during storage in the clinic -- so if I put them in ziploc baggies and then put them in the tote then the clinic can store them in the tote forever :-)

Okay I am a sucker for baby clothes... The clothes above I bought for some of the smaller girls -- yes, Ema-Elena will probably be the first to wear them all! :-) The rattle is a fairly soft one that I hope big Andreea can hold without dropping or bonking herself on the head too much! About $35 for all at Babies R Us.

The clothes above have a specific purpose!! LOL When I emailed Mihaela about needs for the clinic she said the bottle liners, of course, but she also said a couple of the older girls (Ana Maria and Miastra) needed clothing. They are bigger than any of the other children so the clothes that fit all the others are too small for them. So the shorts outfits on the left are for Ana-Maria ($5 each at Walmart) and the shorts outfits on the right are for Miastra ($5 each at Walmart).. the 2 cute onesies at the bottom were on clearance at Kohl's for $2.50 each.

Finally.. you all know how I am about books!! :-) I got about 25 of the books below at the Dollar Zone in Target!! YIPEE!!! Several of them are copies of the same book but that way the pre-school teacher can put them up until a book is destroyed then bring out another copy! At a dollar a book for board books there was no way to pass this one up!!

Donations, donations, donations...

My dear past team member Evan sent me a HUGE box of stuff to bring over to the babies.. all the cute clothes above AND the sweet sunhats, socks, bibs, and neck monkey thingie (this will hopefully be used for big Andreea who needs help holding her head up in her rocking chair).

Then my new friend and former volunteer, Caroline, sent the cute outfits above for the babies!

My mom and sisters donated the clothes above from things my nieces have long outgrown -- it will be sweet seeing the babies using things my nieces looked so cute in!!

THEN a friend of an old school friend, Cindi in AZ, knitted these sweet hats for the babies!! Aren't they precious?!? They'll be even cuter next week when you see them on the babies!! LOL

These are gonna be the best dressed kids in Romania!! :-)

The Last Meal...

The besties (left then counterclockwise): Sharon, Trish, me, Hannah, Tonja, Emily

Okay, not really my last meal in the States... last week my friend Tonja called and said we had to go out for lunch since I would be missing all my eating out in the USA for the next 5 weeks. This picture represents one of my most favorite foods in the world -- poker chips (fried pickles) from the Blue Moose in Pigeon Forge. Today Trish, Tonja, Sharon, Hannah, Emily, and I had lunch there -- yum, yum!

36 hours until I leave for the airport!!

YIPEE!!
LOL I am so excited and cannot wait to get back to those babies!!

On June 3rd I spoke at the Pigeon Forge Rotary meeting about my past and upcoming trip with Global Volunteers to Romania. Shortly thereafter a friend, who happens to be a Rotary member, called and told me their International Committee would like to make a donation! I had to contact the committee chair and explained a little bit more the types of things I would do with donated money (purchase medicine, wipes, diapers, yogurt, anything the clinic staff and Dr. Delia say that the clinic needs). After playing phone tag for a couple of weeks due to my trip with Emily and the committee chair's trip with his family I finally found out that they had decided to donate $700!! YIPEE again!!
This morning I went back to the PF Rotary meeting and thanked them for their donation and gave them a mini update about things I have learned since my last presentation (i.e., Playtex bottle liners not being sold in Romania). They were very supportive and a couple of members even suggested I spend the entire amount on the airline's extra luggage fee and fill an additional suitcase with bottle liners!
I didn't go to quite that extreme -- I think! LOL However, as soon as the meeting was over I met my sister, Trish, my niece, Hannah, and Emily for a whirlwind ride to Knoxville. Emily had a dentist/orthodontist appointment then we hit the stores!! LOL We bought EVERY box of the Target brand of bottle liners at the West Town Target. Then headed to Babies R Us and bought EVERY box of the original - pull down the sides bottle liners. Then we hit Walmart at Turkey Creek -- they didn't have ANY of the original liners but they had the most precious baby crocs on clearance for $1 each so I bought all of those they had. Then we hit Target at Turkey Creek for more liners. Checked a BIG LOTS for original liners -- no luck... Then Trish ran into Burlington Coat Factory's Baby Depot to see if maybe they would have liners -- SUCCESS!! She grabbed 6 boxes there for less than we had paid anywhere! One last stop at Walgreens on Northshore before heading back to Pigeon Forge.. no luck -- you have no idea how hard it is to find the original baby bottle liners!! We have definitely become a society of convenience!!! How hard is it to pull down the sides of the bag over the outside of the bottle?!
So, all in all, I spent about $400 today on items to take with me to Romania. Some clothing for some of the older babies/children, a couple of cute toys we were unable to pass up, books -- you guys know how I feel about books!! I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them but tonight I just want to fall into bed and turn the lights off!! Not sure how I am going to fit everything in my suitcase and I think Mihaela or Dan will have to help me (and all my crazy luggage) get on the train in Bucharest but I had so much fun today/tonight the exhaustion is worth it!!

One last thing before I head to bed... I am sure some of you are thinking why did she buy all this stuff here to cart over there?!? On my last trip I wanted money to take with me to purchase items the clinic needed -- and that worked out great UNTIL we spent an entire day wandering around Barlad looking for all the things they requested and finding very little!! There is no Walmart in Romania -- Well not in any part of Romania I visited anyway!! LOL If you need something for your kitchen -- you go to the little kitchen store. If you need contact solution, you go to the optometry store (yes, I ran out while in Romania!!). If you need baby bottle nipples you go to the pharmacy (and they don't have 500 nipples like Walmart they might have 10.. so you walk across town to another pharmacy and buy 10 more there and repeat until you have located the 35 or so the clinic needs!!! LOL Again experience speaking!). I am so excited though to take the remaining money and help the clinic out with day to day needs like YUMMY YOGURT!! :-)

Thank you Rotary for voting to make a donation - I promise I'll bring back lots of pictures!! (No comments from the peanut gallery ;-p )