02-05-2016

The past few days were exhausting but it was fun. We planned, prepared and evaluated lessons until at least 22:00. For the first group we had a theme body parts, mixed with Easter, because today it is Easter in Romania. For the second group we gave lessons in the theme body parts and appearance. For the last group we gave lessons in the theme jobs. One day we taught every group 2 hours. This was too much for the children, they were exhausted, despite all the visual support and tpr (total physical response). Quite logical considering it is two hours of lesson activities in another language than their mother tongue. One hour a day is more than enough. For the rest we organize activities like outdoor games, painting or yoga.
One of the days we went to the supermarket to go shopping for food. The supermarket is very big. The inside of the supermarket looks like a traffic jam. You couldn’t stop because there were so many people in the store. We were converting the currencies while walking in the store. For example herbs are 10 cents. The Euro has more value than the Lei that is why everything is so cheap. When we walked back to the cars with three shopping carts of food and drinks, there were three children who begged us for money. The children of the orphanage said they were gypsies. It broke our hearts to see that children of such a young age have to spend their days like this, while peers spend their days playing.
This weekend it is Easter in Romania. In the region where we are staying, people are quite religious, they are Orthodox. On almost every house in the village Cornatel you see a cross. Before the children start with eating, they sing a prayer. Some children make the sign of the cross when something happens that makes them feel uncomfortable. The children in the orphanage can choose whether they want to be Orthodox or not. The Romanians celebrate the beginning of Easter in the Church. So Saturday night we went to the church at 24:00. The entire village was there, so we didn’t all fit in the church. The first 15 minutes of the Mass we waited outside. Then the pastors (there were two) came outside and guided us around the church. There was an altar. The Mass continued. We couldn’t understand a word they said, but people around us made the sign of the cross a lot of times. The pastors were singing a lot. After half an hour, the most important part of the Mass was over. So we went home. The youngest children of the orphanage are 4 years old, they were exhausted. The entire Mass takes 3 hours they told us, that means the Mass ends at 03:00 in the morning. It was very interesting to see a ritual of a different culture.
In the last couple of days we had a conflict with two of the children. We saw that they handle conflicts different than we are used to. They walk away from us and ignore us after the conflict. After a while they show their regret and start making it up to us. They don’t want to talk about it. In the Netherlands we are used to discuss everything with the children.