I’m feeling much better and have had an exciting week. On Sunday I went to a second hand market. It was enormous and secreted away beyond the railroad tracks. I had to cross over a large overpass to get to it. Clothing is shipped from the UK and Europe and then given to be to sell here. I bought a couple tops for $4 ea.

I also visited the longest cemetery in Europe which is just up the road from my house. Over 200,000 people are buried in the cemetery and it is half a mile long. I like the cemeteries here because all of the gravestones have pictures on them. They also have table and benches on top of a lot of the gravestones so that families can have a picnic there on special days.

As I was walking through central park the other day, a very stern looking police officer was standing over a tiny boy who the police officer had just forced out of the fountain. I had seen the little boy in the park often. He was part of a Roma family who often came up to us asking for money. For a lot of Roma, asking for money is a way of life in Moldova and around Europe.

I also wanted to spend some time talking about the caregivers at the orphanage. I’m now able to carry on simple conversations with them. I was talking to a caregiver named Lilia the other day. She said she lives in a village far from the orphanage and has two grown children. She had been working at the orphanage for four years. When I asked her if it was okay, she said yes but also difficult. She works 12 hour shifts every other day, which is what most of the caregivers do. They take turns working 24 hour shifts. One caregiver and one nurse must spend the night with the children. They sleep in the rooms with the children. I didn’t ask her how much she gets paid, but I know it is very little. The caregivers working in my group are very nice and love on the babies when they can. Despite this, the babies spend most of their time on their backs in cots or cribs. I bring the caregivers cookies once in a while, along with diapers for the children. If the caregivers are happy they’ll pass it on to the kids. The caregivers have pretty difficult lives and if I can make it a little easier by letting them know I appreciate the hard work they do all the better. In my room, there are now 19 babies for 4 caregivers. Feeding time is a madhouse and we’re scrambling to pick up a crying child to feed. Three new babies came this week, all of them born premature and abandoned at the hospital.
Ana is five months old and is the size of a newborn.

Vlad is also five months old, a bit bigger but his body is very rigid. He clearer hasn’t been held very much because he gets very stiff when I pick him up, but relaxes when I put him back down.

I am now down to 2 weeks here. Time has gone so fast!