Stagnant Week

As I mentioned last week, a group of volunteers from Italy came with various games, activities, skits, and songs to keep the children plenty occupied most of their waking hours.  With this, Iulia and I decided to postpone our weekly activities until after they left.  It would be far to confusing for the children to be shuffled from group to group, as well as extremely tiring.  But for real on Monday we will begin the program with the children.  Our first activity: the parachute!  This will be a great tool for teaching listening skills, teamwork, and coordination.  However, this first time will be more of an exploratory process for them because of all the excitement that will be attached to trying it out.  I have split the children into four groups according to their age.  Two groups will come each day, with all four groups coming on Friday (split into two large groups).  As the summer progresses I hope to integrate the ages so the children can also practice their learned skills with younger and older peers.  Let the games begin!

Another snafu in the week came about an hour before our scheduled meeting with the caregivers/sisters when Iulia discovered two of the caregivers were on vacation that day (even though we told them weeks ahead of time).  We already knew the sisters would not be in attendance because of their brief sabbatical to spend time in prayer [Side note: Iulia recommended that I also add a section with encouragement for the sisters on things they do well with the children.  I do this weekly with the caregivers, but it's definitely important for the sisters to hear these things as well.  Love this idea!].  So instead of holding a meeting with only three people, we rescheduled the meeting for Tuesday afternoon.  This means there will be two meetings next week.  It seems this might be the case throughout July because this is the month that many of them will take their week-long vacations.  Scheduling has definitely been a difficult task since my arrival, and I hope we can find a sufficient solution to this barrier.  As of now I will probably make a brief outline of the main points we discuss (longer than the "take-home points" I give to the sisters) to prevent them from getting too far behind.  During the ice breaker each week I also try to weave in some review of the previous principles, so hopefully this will keep them in the know. 

However, I do have some wonderfully exciting news about some of my observations this week!  One of the days the volunteers scheduled time for the children to go swimming.  As the youngest ones were getting into their bathing suits, one of the caregivers asked them all to stand in line before going outside.  While I do not know the specifics of what she said, after calmly giving instructions (meaning she waited until they were quiet), she asked the children to repeat what she said.  Only one of the children began to repeat the instructions, and she cued the others to join in as well!  Whether she did this to appease me as I looked on, or whether she has been employing the new methods routinely doesn't matter much at this point.  The fact that she was willing to give it a try and see that it worked was a HUGE step.  I was jumping for joy on the inside.  Then, when the children were wrapping up their pool time, she told them "5 more minutes" to help them prepare for the transition.  Another important principle discussed briefly in the meeting!  I've also observed other caregivers giving more praise and encouragement to the children, which is much needed.  It's so great to see small steps towards changing their tactics and attitudes.  As the summer rolls along and Iulia and I interact with the caregivers more often I hope to see even more examples of the strategies we discuss being employed.  God is good, and he is faithful!

Oh, I cannot neglect to mention that I was approached by one of the sisters during breakfast early this week regarding the video camera.  She apparently was none too happy about me placing the camera around Casa Sperantei at various times across several days.  With my limited Romanian, I told her that we asked permission at the meeting two weeks ago-- the one where two of the sisters were present, including her.  Her retort was that we never asked because she didn't hear, and that Sister Marisa was not informed about this either.  However, Iulia also cleared this with Sister Marisa.  It wasn't worth me arguing with her, especially because I don't want the gap in my relationship with the sisters to get any bigger.  So I no longer will use the video camera; with the possible exception of some outdoor activities where only the caregivers will be present.  Unfortunately this confrontation/apprehension speaks volumes about her interactions with the children.