Conversations

This week I got to meet two more wonderful volunteers! Sophie is from north England and Jackie is from Kent. We spent the week going to the orphanage and wandering around the city. I took them to the typical tourist places I knew of (the craft market, central park, huge market, and Mall-Dova), and told them to hit up the cemetery on one of the days I didn't go to the orphanage. On Friday, when we went to Mall-Dova, I finally got to eat my fruit and ice cream that I've been dreaming about for a year!

On Thursday, I did a full day at the orphanage with Sophie and Jackie. At lunch, I stayed at the orphanage while they went to Andy's Pizza because I had brought my lunch. I sat down on a bench ready to get some homework done in the two hour lunch break. I had just started on my sandwich when a young mother wandered over my way. A little background: UNICEF has a program at the orphanage for young women without family who are pregnant. They stay at the orphanage for up to 9 months after their children's birth where they receive medical care and learn about how to care for their children and life skills. Many are in their late teens, early twenties. We call them the young mothers, and we often see them out with their babies. This particular girl expressed interest in me a couple days prior. She had wandered over to where I was playing with Dima and asked me if he was my child. I said no, I was an American volunteer, and she wandered away. Well, on Thursday she came over and plopped down beside me on the bench. A bench that was in the middle of nowhere, with no one else around. She sat down and immediately began speaking to me, and did not stop until I had to go in, two hours later. Our conversation was not easy, and I'm sure we were talking about two different things for most of it, but I think we learned a bit about each other. The conversation was entirely in Romanian and Russian.

Her name was Oxana and her baby was a little boy named Zandu (short for Alexander). She said she was 21 and he was 18 weeks old. Our conversation meandered from her telling me she needed a new cell phone, to me talking about my family in America. She told me that during her pregnancy, all of her hair fell out. She was wearing a headscarf and said she had to wear it all the time. Her head was still bald, although her eyelashes and eyebrows were starting to grow back. I asked her where her mother and father were since many of the girls are disowned by their parents when they get pregnant out of wedlock. She said she did not have parents. I asked her about the baby's father and she said he was in Germany. She asked me how much the orphanage was paying me.  I said none, I was a volunteer. But how much are they paying you? She continued to asked. I said none. I bought my plane ticket, I buy my food, and I pay for my housing. She was still very confused. Volunteering is a new concept to Moldova. Many of the caregivers are very suspicious of us. Most expect we are spying on them for the director. It can be difficult here for some volunteers because the caregivers will treat them badly. They don't understand that we really are here to help. A lot of times, they see us as a burden. The more I pick up the babies, the more they will want to be picked up and wil not longer lay complacently in their cribs. Luckily, my caregivers are very nice. Many of them were working her last year and know me. However, they all know me as Jessica. I'm not sure how this name came about but even now when I introduce myself as Jacy they say Jessica back to me. Even the Oxana, the young mother, called me Jessica. I'm sure she heard it from someone else. She told me it was a beautiful name, which I took on behalf of all my Jessica friends out there.

Most of my conversation with Oxana consisted of her speaking rapidly in Romanian, me repeating back bits and pieces and wracking my brains for recognition of any of the words. Usually gestures came into play. I've picked up a bit of Romanian while here, but mainly I can say I am or I have, so most of my sentences started like that. I can also ask how many.
 Later that day, after talking with Oxana, I got to have another conversation with my caregivers. The caregivers in my group invited me to drink some coffee and, once again we had a broken conversation consisting of I am and I have statements. They were so excited to talk with me. I asked about their kids and they eagerly told me about them. I learned the word for boy and girl, but am having such a hard time remembering. I feel like adding a couple more verbs to my repetoire may help me.

Updates and Introductions

This week I found out more information about the children I worked with last semester.
 Nicu- Despite trying desperately not to have favorites last summer, Nicu worked his way into my heart. He became very attached to me (and I to him). My friends in Moldova visited the orphanage throughout the year while I wasn't there and kept reporting on him. He had transferred to group one, and the court had ruled he was available for adoption. When I arrived at the orphanage this summer, I found out that he had been adopted! Although I miss seeing his smiling face, I am so happy he has been adopted!
 Denis- Denis was another child who had become attached to me. He too has been adopted! Most of the children are in the orphanage due to poverty and have living parents,  and as long as those parents continually say they will come back for their children (they are contacted roughly every 6 months by the government) a child can stay in an orphanage forever. However, once in a while, the children are in the orphanage due to parental abandonment or death and, in these cases, the court rules that these children can go up for adoption. If these children are healthy, they are adopted fairly quickly, which is what happened to both Nicu and Denis. However, if these children have a disability, they spend the rest of their lives in institutions.
 Cristian and Cristiana- Twin brother and sister, they are now in group one. I got to see them and tried to hold Cristian who got scared. They look exactly the same.
 Madalina, Andre, and Catalin- All in group one. I got to see them all!
 Vasilie- He was the youngest in the group, only three months old when I was there. He went back home to his family.
 Maria, Euraslav, Adolf, and Julia all went back to their families. And, as I mentioned before, I saw Artur in group four. His sister is in that group and they wanted to keep them together.

There are ten children in the group I am working with this summer.
 Dima is the oldest and is full into his temper tantrum stage. He loves being outside but he throws a tantrum any time something doesn't go his way, like if he can't step in mud, get into someones car, or sit in a puddle. But he loves the other babies and tries to take care of them. He also loves to sit on chairs, benches, curbs, etc. And he enjoys handing me things saying 'Na' (translated to 'take', similar to how we say 'here' when we hand things to children).
 Ariana is another older child. She also throws lots of tantrums, a bit like Princess Julia last year. She is just learning to walk.
 Victoria is also a bit older and learning to walk. She has curly blonde hair that sits like a crown on her head. She loves getting kisses and leans her head towards me in order to get more.
 Mikala is the youngest, three months old, and likes to watch me as I hold other babies.
 Ana is around 6 months and has a misshapen head that makes it hard for her to hold it up. She has pretty blue eyes and dark hair. She sucks her thumb and probably has digestion problems because she cries a lot after eating and the caregivers rub her tummy.
 Ion (pronounced Ewan but is our equivalent of John) has bright blonde hair and big blue eyes. He reminds me of Adolf from last summer. He is very smiley and is starting to stand. He has learned how to stand up in the swing which isn't a good thing.

 Eura also has blonde hair and blue eyes. He is the same age as Ion and loves to explore. He has just started to pull himself up but hasn't learned to stand yet. When I stand him up in my lap, he doesn't push his legs down.
 Anton is probably around nine months old. He is just pushing himself up onto his arms and turning over. He sucks on the palm of his hand and it looks like he is blowing kisses.
 Delia is a smiley baby with dark hair and pretty brown eyes. She is also just starting to push herself up onto her arms. On Thursday, she had used up all her diaper allotment (they are allowed two) so they laid her on top of a sheet with a piece of plastic underneath. She was continually wetting her clothing and needing changing. She went through four pairs of pants in two hours.
 Max is a blonde haired, brown eyed baby. He is just learning to hold his head up.
 Ionana (Johana) is probably the second youngest of the group. She has dark hair and blue eyes.
 This week I spent two full days and two half days at the orphanage. Many of the same caregivers from last summer still work there and they remembered me. They are teaching me some Romanian so I can communicate with them.

We thought a new volunteer was going to come last sunday but I think my hosts had the day confused, so I've been alone this week. The new volunteer arrives tomorrow and I'm excited to meet someone new. I've been busy this week with homework, teaching ESL, and the orphanage so I haven't been too lonely, but it'll be nice to have someone to hang out with. I can't believe I have been here for two weeks already. Time goes so fast!

Week one in Moldova

         I am living in the village of Gratesti (pronounced Gra-tee-esht). My host is a family of five. Victoria, the mom, is around my age and is an English teacher in the village. She spent four months in Panama City some years back and is fluent in English. Valeru is the father and he is the director of Service for Peace, the organization that brings volunteers to Moldova to work at the orphanages. And then there are the three children, Dan (5), Bogdan (3), and Otellia (1 1/2). A couple of years ago they built a large house on the property Valeru inherited from his mother. The 'new' house is built right next to the 'old' house, which is where the family lives. The new house was built with the sole purpose of being a place for volunteers to stay. However, the old house doesn't have an indoor kitchen or toilet so the family spends a lot of time in the new house. My meals are included and so we have home cooked Moldovan meals every night. In the morning, which are a bit chaotic, Valeru drops us off at a bus stop on the way to taking the two boys to a nursery school. Bogdan spends the ride crying. The kids are often at the school from 9am to 6pm. Otellia stays home and Valeru and Victoria spend their days cooking, cleaning, and working in the garden behind their house. We have fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs every morning.

 Currently, there is one other volunteer living in the house with me. She is leaving tomorrow morning early and has been here for three weeks. Her name is Fiona and she is from Scotland. A friend of hers, Lynn, suggested she come her for a volunteer vacation. I had met Lynn last summer. Lynn is a good friend of Victoria and Valeru's and had managed to collect and ship around 30 strollers from the UK to the orphanage last summer. She has a charity in Scotland working with the orphanage and poor families in Moldova.                  
     Two days after I arrived, the whole family (including Fiona and I) packed ourselves into the car and headed to the boys pre-school for a festival/bake fair. Victoria and I had made peanut butter cookies the night before to sell, but I'm pretty sure she had to give them away because no one had heard of them before. All the teachers took desks out of the classrooms and the parents set up shops of breads, Moldovan food, toys, and crafts. There was also music and entertainment. It might have been a bit of a talent contest because there were a couple of bands who played, a flutist, children would recite poems or sing songs, and a woman sang what sounded to be a traditional Moldovan song while children and adults joined hands and danced in a circle.

            After the festival, Valeru dropped Fiona and I off at the National Museum in Chisinau where we were meeting Vika (my host last year). She and a woman from the UK founded a charity organization to help poor families in Moldova. For around $45 a month people in the UK can sponsor a poor family in Moldova. Vika uses the money from the sponsors to buy food and necessities for the family. Sometimes they need to the money to pay for electricity or rent instead. Last year, I went with Vika to deliver the food to the poor families and got to meet a lot of them. If you are interested in sponsoring a family, or would like to learn more about their situations visit www.themoldovaproject.com      

This summer, the Moldova Project raised enough money to take all of the children on an adventure day in Chisinau. They went to see a puppet show at the National Opera house, they visited the National Museum and got to take pictures with a children's cartoon character, they ate pizza and ice cream for lunch, and they got to go to the zoo. Most of these children had never been into the city, let alone to the zoo. And many of the children had never had pizza before. In all there were 27 children and a handfull of moms. 
     Fiona and I arrived at the National Museum on time to see the children take pictures with the cartoon character. Then we all walked over the to the pizza place. It was amazing to see how excited the children were to eat pizza and ice cream. After lunch, we all crammed onto a bus they had rented for the day and went to the zoo. The zoo was small but had a nice assortment of animals and the children were in awe. I made friends with a little girl who would blow bubbles at me as we walked along. We also met a couple of Moldovan volunteers who were fluent in English. One was just finishing Medical school and another was in school to be a psychiatrist. Neither job is paid well in Moldova and it was interesting to talk to them. Many mental health issues are not recognized in Moldova and the ones that are are treated with institutionalization. 
     After the zoo, the families got on the bus to head back to their village and Vika, Fiona, and I grabbed a cab to the center of town.
         Monday was my first day back at the orphanage, but I only spent an hour there. First we had to get my blue book stamped by a doctor. I had gotten a blue book last year (literally a blue book with my picture in it and pages to be stamped and required by the government for all volunteers in Moldova). I also had to bring a letter from my doctor, which Victoria translated, saying I am healthy. Last year I didn't realize I needed such a thing and we had to give a little bribe to get a stamp. After we finished with blue book and arrived at the orphanage it was 11:00. I had agreed to take one of Vicotria's English classes for the summer in exchange for her helping me with my research. That class is at 5pm Monday and Wednesday, however, the bus ride to Gratesti is so long and involves two buses that we had decided I should leave the orphanage at noon, ensuring enough time for a nap when I got back! From 11:00 to noon I took two babies out for a walk. The first was a little boy named Dima. He is probably around a year old and is walking quite well (sometimes refusing to hold my hand). He loves cars and has to touch and point at every car we come upon, which isn't many in the orphanage compound, however, he also doesn't want to leave them. He has blonde hair and blue eyes and a very round little body. He hates going back inside and refuses to walk when he knows we are heading back in. 

 The second child I took out was a little girl named either Ariana or Ariadna. She is also probably around a year old and has brown hair and blue eyes. She also has infant acne on her face and hands. She can't walk very well yet and needs to hold both my hands as we walk. She likes walking in dirt, which is a big no-no at the orphanage so I often have to redirect her footsteps. I took each child out for half an hour and then had to head to the bus to get back to Gratesti.
     The class I am teaching at Victoria's school consists of 5 teenage boys and one girl. They are all very sweet and are at an intermediate level. The first class I had with them, which was on the Friday after I arrived, we just played a game, which they all really enjoyed. Our next two classes consisted of lessons and games. The class is only an hour and goes pretty quickly.
 On Tuesday this week, Fiona and I went to visit an ancient monastery built into cliffs. I had been to this monastery before but it is so beautiful I decided to tag along with Fiona. Valeru drove us, first stopping at what he called a boy's orphanage. I would call it more of an institution for boys and men with physical or mental disabilities. At the orphanage where I work, there are two groups of children with disabilities, however, these children are only allowed to stay at the orphanage until the are somewhere between the ages of 5 and 7. Then they are sent to the institution. Although the institution is very beautiful and has a playground, pool, classes, and craft lessons, many of the people who call it home could have fully functioning lives on their own, if given the chance. Many have physical disabilities that in no way inhibit their mental capacities. To learn more about institutions like this one, check out the book The Boy from Baby House 10. It's an autobiography of a boy born with cerebral palsy in the 1990s in Russia and grew up in an institution. He was eventually found and adopted in America.

Lynn has been working with this boy's home quite a bit. Currently she is trying to get funding to by some lifts and hoists for the boys and men (many of the children stay at this institution for the rest of their lives, which, sadly, isn't very long). The boys who have severe physical disabilities but are too heavy to lift, spend their entire time in bed. Most of these beds can move and the boys can be taken outside or into different rooms, but they nevertheless spend every day of their lives in bed. However, Valeru mentioned that often, the larger, more able-bodied boys will carry the boys who are more physically disabled outside so that they can enjoy the sunshine. He also mentioned that school lessons are a relatively new concept for the boy's home. In 2010, they started teaching the boys lessons.
 When we visited the boy's home, Valeru pointed out all of the amazing artwork and crafts the boys make. There were paintings, weavings, papercrafts, knitted socks, etc. Valeru took us into a classroom and we got to meet many of the artists. One boy named Dima was a particularly good salesman for his crafts and Fiona and I both ended up buying one of his embroidered pictures.
 Later, Victoria and I had a conversation about the life of people with disabilities in Moldova. Last year, I had met one of her students who was a teenage boy with cerebral palsy. His mother had fought very hard to keep him in school. All the specialists told her to send him to an institution, but she refused. A couple of months ago, the boy died due to a medical complication that, Vicotria believes, could have been prevented if the doctors hadn't been so apathetic about working with a child with a disability. They saw it as a waste of resources to save the life of a child with cerebral palsy.

Thursday was my first full day at the orphanage! I spent the day taking children out for walks. Dima and Ariadna are the only two who seem to be able to walk a little, so they were both taken out by me. While I was out with Ariadna, I spotted a child I had worked with last summer. His name was Artur and he hadn't changed other than growing a little. He still had his large ears and he still sucked his first two fingers. I itched to hold him, but had Ariadna in my hands. I talked to the caregiver who was with Artur. She remembered me from last year and we had a short conversation in my broken Romanian/Russian. After I saw Artur, I frantically searched the faces of the children running around the grounds for familiarity. I didn't see anyone else that I recognized.       
After returning to the room with Ariadna, I took a three month old baby named Mikala out in a stroller. She cried as I laid her in the stroller so the first chance I got, I picked her up and rocked her on a swing. I held her against my chest so she could feel my heartbeat. Every time I hold a child at the orphanage I think about how much they deserve to feel my heartbeat, my warmth, hear my voice, look into my eyes, and how rarely they get such interactions. Once, last summer, I rocked a child to sleep and I thought that was probably the only time in his life that he was rocked to sleep in the arms of someone. As I learn about human rights in my International Social Work class, I think about how much of a human right it is to be loved, held, sung too, etc. And how many children, especially children growing up in an orphanage, have these rights violated.

At 3:45, I left my group and headed to the room of group 1, the group I know some of the children I spent time with last summer are in. As I walked in, a caregiver greeted me. I introduced myself as an American Volunteer and she told me to come back at four. Realizing that wouldn't work for me since I was meeting Fiona at 4, I told the caregiver I was going home and she looked confused. I racked my brains trying to think of how to tell her I just wanted to see some children and then realized I could just ask for them by name. I said the name of one of the children I had worked with and the caregiver said no, he wasn't there. I realized I needed Victoria's help translating, and left, sad that I still haven't gotten to see some of the children I worked with. About six or seven months ago I had a dream that I had gone back to the orphanage and had seen some of the children. In my dream, I hardly recognized them, and they wanted nothing to do with me, which broke my heart. Ever since that dream, my heart is aching to see the children once again. And every day I am unable to see them I am sad, and a little relieved. Today, once again, I thought I would be able to visit the children I had worked with last semester. We were just going to the orphanage for a minute in the morning, for Fiona to say goodbye. It was planned, the night before, that Victoria would go with us and would take me to group one to translate. However, at the last minute she could not go. Now, monday is the day planned for my reunion. I am so anxious, and afraid, to see them again.
 Thursday after working at the orphanage, Fiona and I went to see the opera La Boheme at the National Opera house. Because the Ministry of Culture subsidizes opera and ballet, the tickets are very inexpensive. The government thinks opera and ballet are cultural events that everyone should afford to go see. We got our tickets for $9 and had amazing seats. Last summer, I went to the opera for $3. The opera was very beautiful.

 Today is Vicotria's birthday and we are having a bbq this evening. Fiona and I spent the day visiting a wine cellar (it has one million bottles, however, it is not the biggest cellar in the world, although that cellar is in Moldova), having lunch with Valeru's mom in her village, and giving food to a poor family. The poor family is a family of five. The father is a shepherd and they have a large garden at their house. They lived down very steep, dirt hills and as we left their house it started to rain. The roads were soon flooded but we had made it to the main road.

Tomorrow is Children's day and there will be many festivities in Chisinau. On Sunday, a new volunteer arrives for two weeks and I am looking forward to getting to know him or her. Once again, I am having an interesting time here and look forward to more amazing experiences.

Back in Moldova!

I'm back! I arrived in Moldova late last night after 20 hours of travel. I had layovers in DC and Istanbul. My flight to Istanbul was late because the computers for Turkish Airlines in DC were down and we waited 2 hours in line for them to come up. Luckily, my flight with Turkish Airlines included slippers, toothpaste and a toothbrush, and three meals (one of those meals was on my hour long flight from Istanbul to Chisinau). I'm happy to be back in Moldova. I will start at the orphanage on Monday. Today I will help Victoria with one of her ESL classes, prepare for my research, and do homework for my International Social Work class I am taking online. I am also waiting impatiently for school loans.
         The weather here is beautiful; sunny and warm with a breeze. I'm staying at a different house this time, complete with its own orchard and am enjoying homemade jams and juice. I'm excited to go back to the orphanage but I'm a little scared to see how much the children have changed. I think I will work with group 5 again (infants) but because all the children I worked with last summer are now in group 1, I'd like to spend some time in that room too. I think I will volunteer at the orphanage three days a week and spend the other two teaching ESL, doing research, and doing homework. I hope it's not as busy as it sounds. My research will be centered around interviewing families who have been affected by orphanage care. I will ask them about their perceptions and experiences with orphanages. I also want to find out more about the foster care movement which is in an infant stage here and is slow to take off. Vicotria (my host) will be acting as my translator. If all goes well, I will be able to publish a paper sometime next semester!

Heading Back

Hello everyone!
I'm heading back to Moldova and I'm super excited. I've already got my ticket (May 22- August 12). I've also managed to get a $4000 scholarship through my school. I miss the children so much and can't wait to be back!

Saying Goodbye

    Well, my last week as come and gone and it was very sad. I had gotten very attached to a couple of the children and it was very hard to say goodbye to them. Especially Nicu, who was my favorite. 

    On my last day, I brought in champagne for the caregivers. I also had Vica help me write a card to them, thanking them for everything. She had also helped me write letters to all of the children telling them how much I love them and how important they are. I wrote the letters in Romanian and then wrote a little note in English telling each one something special about his/herself. I gave the letters to the caregivers and asked them to put them somewhere safe so that someday the children can read them. I don't know if that will every happen. Maybe the caregivers will just throw them away, or they will get lost, but at least there is a chance of the children knowing what they meant to me.

    The caregivers were very sweet to me all day and I took a picture with them.     Early in the morning on my last day, the caregivers dressed Nicu and took him out of the room. They've been doing that every day because he has been a little sick, and I think they were just taking him to another room to see a doctor. However, when I came back from lunch, he still hadn't returned. I asked Pasha, the nurse, where he was and she said he was in isolation. At first, I thought that meant he was at a different hospital and I asked what hospital he was at. She said he was here and I asked if I could visit him. She wasn't sure but the other caregivers said it would be alright. At four, I asked Pasha if we could go see Nicu and she led me down the long halls to a room marked Izolator. Inside, she told a nurse what we were doing and we waited. We waited inside a doorway and Pasha could see to the right but I couldn't. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but then Pasha gestured for me to come in and I could see Nicu being held by a nurse. He was very calm and wasn't doing much. But the minute he saw me he started jumping up and down and flapping his arms. We all laughed. He kept trying to get away from the nurse and come to me, but they wouldn't let me near him. I just waved and talked to him. It was really hard. I really wanted to hold him and kiss him. It was very emotional and I swallowed back tears. I really want to go see him on Monday before I leave for the airport but I know that it will be to painful for me. It would just reopen the wound but I already miss him so much. I wish I was in a better situation so that I could take him home with me. He is absolutely beautiful. I think it was love at first sight, but I tried so hard to be impartial and love all the children the same. I tried not to treat him special but he kept coming to me. I am so grateful for having gotten to spend time with him but it hurts so much saying goodbye. 

   I  am so incredibly grateful to have been able to have this experience and I am indebted to all of you who helped me. It truly was a life changing experience and I only hope I can work hard enough to deserve the love and joy I received from the children. I found out that I got into the Masters of Social Work program at FSU and will start this fall. I hope to continue my work with orphanages and international adoption. I'm hoping I'll be able to set something up with my grad school, where I can come back to Moldova to work with the children again as some sort of internship or practicum. If I could spend the rest of my life at the orphanage I would. 

Carla's Dreams

     Another volunteer has come and gone. She was only here for a week and was a lot of fun. She had my same silly sense of humor. There is one other girl here with me. She will be here for a month. Tomorrow a male volunteer from Italy will be coming. We're very interested in finding out more information about him. 

      Last Sunday, there was an event in the park near our apartment for children from orphanages all over Chisinau. The volunteer who was with me and I did face painting. I can now say I am a professional butterfly and spiderman face painter. We painted faces for 3 hours straight. It went very fast and was actually a lot of fun. I think people were excited because they knew we were foreigners. We would ask what they wanted and gesture to our faces. I had painted half a butterfly on the other volunteer and she had painted spiderman on my face. Sometimes the people getting their faces painted spoke some English and could tell us other things they wanted. We attempted other paintings such as cats, tigers, bats, flowers and 'something scary'. For 'something scary' I painted their face white and then put black around their eyes and mouth with a trail of blood leading down from their lips. They loved it. A couple of people also wanted the Moldovan flag on their faces. I needed some help with that. I asked Vica if we made it on the news for this event but she said that the President of Moldova was there and they had more important people to film. 

      The orphanage has been great and I am going to miss it more than I can say. I found out that another of the children has gone home to his parents. I have mixed feelings about this because he is the one I think was being abused. He was really scared when I first got there. I watched as a kid hit him over the head and he didn't react at all. He would also move away from me whenever I came near. After a month, he was running to me, wanting hugs and kisses and crying whenever he wanted some attention. I really hope his parents treat him well. 

    Nicu and Denis are so fun. Every morning, when I come in, they run to me and want to be picked up and held. I really want to take Nicu home with me. He is whiny and spoiled but I love him so much. His smile is breathtaking. Denis also has been running to me and loves being cuddled. I'm so happy I get to spoil them. 

     I try to hold every baby at least once a day and usually suceed but some of the babies are in quarantine and I don't always get a chance to hold them. They are kept separate from the other kids and the caregivers have been having me take the healthy kids outside while they bring the sick ones into the main room. If the healthy ones are in bed by 3:30, I go into the sick room and hold the others. My little baby Vasili has been at the hospital because he was sick but now he's back and I'm so excited to spend time with him. I was worried he wouldn't be back by the time I left. He is so cute and loves being held. I talk to him and sing to him and his eyes get really big. He is the youngest of the bunch.

       On Friday, we went to Carla's Dreams' concert. I was so excited. Carla's Dreams is the singer who hasn't revealed his true identity. He is in the music video  link I sent last week. He is singing with Dara (another Moldovan singer) but the video features Roma's face as Carla's Dreams. We all thought Roma really was Carla's Dream. Vica kept telling us he wasn't but I said I wouldn't believe her until I saw them in the same room together. At the concert on Friday, I could see Roma standing across the room from the stage where Carla's Dreams was performing so I think I can safely say he isn't Carla's Dreams. 

     The concert started out with Dara singing some of her songs. Check out the link to her song 'Open you Eyes.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFm0ApksBRw   Love this song!  

     After Dara performed for about half an hour, the annoucer told us Carla's Dreams was coming on stage. Vica had teased me that Carla's Dreams would reveal his true identity. I could hardly wait, but it never happened. At first, a bunch of people wearing different colored hoodies came out and performed a dance. It was interesting, especially with the whole hoodie thing going on in America. Then Carla's Dreams came out. He was wearing a black hoodie and had his face painted black. He sang a bunch of his songs and then Dara came out and they performed their duet. It was so great! Here is the promo for the club event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc04OP6sKtg   And check out this clip from the club http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDcGlPVJoNs   The cameras never pan over to where we were at. 

     If any of you are interested in a gift from Moldova, just let me know what you want and I'll tell you the price. There are nesting dolls for around $15 . They also have some pretty boxes . And Soviet memorbilia. You can buy an old soviet pin for $5-10. . Or check out this link to see the actual craft market http://www.360cities.net/image/kishinev-sounenir-bazaar-chisinau-moldova#261.90,4.94,70.0

      I can't believe I only have one week left. It is going to be impossible to say goodbye. I will miss those kids so much.