Romania - Monday & Tuesday

Yesterday was the first day of actual camp for my American team and it was an exciting and slightly nerve-racking experience. We started off the day fairly slow by heading to the LOC office and doing a team-camp orientation (finding out what goes on at camp) and then heading to the camp gym. At the gym we had another orientation with our assigned interns and volunteers/translators. I have Anna and Courtney as my interns who are fantastic because they are great with the kids and know how to immediately make me feel comfortable in this new situation. Our translators are Tero and Andrada, who are terrific with the kids, the best translators I’ve met thus far, and just great people to be around.

         When the kids first arrived I had no idea what to really expect. We weren’t sure how many there would be and what ages. It turns out that we have about 45 kids this week and their ages range from 5 to 22. My team for the week is Team Green ( Verde) and we have 8 younger children (Andrada, Cristina, Lorena, Carmen, Sebi, Adi, Adelin, Bogdan). The children are all wonderful to be around but I’ll admit that Sebi is one of the most adorable kids I’ve ever seen. It's pretty difficult communicating with the kids whenever we don't speak the same language but overtime it's grown to not be as much of a problem. Hearing the chant “Verde!! Verde!!!” at the top of their lungs is one of my favorite parts of the day.

         The camp days consistent of many different things and is divided up into lots of 20 minute segments. We start out with a lot of chanting and then lead into a time where we sing (in Romanian), the interns do a skit (Wild West themed), and the camp pastor does a mini sermon (the week is focused on being lost and then found). After that we go into stations rotations, which consist of craft time, memory verses, team time, and outside sports. The outside sports are my best part of stations because I’m a fairly active person and those kids help to give me so much energy to keep going all the time. We have lunch (provided by the delicious Romania TipTop restaurant) and then more singing, team-time, and finally the challenge of the day.

         The challenge of the day is based loosely off of the Minute to Win It game. Tuesday’s challenge consisted of having to keep three balloons in the air for an entire minute, which became trying to keep 2 balloons up for 30 seconds. Adelin was able to keep two up for 31 seconds, which was the best time, Verde!!!! Our last thing is team games. Tuesday the game was where each person had to take a spoonful of white, uncooked beans from one end of the gym to the other, and the team with the most beans won. Little kids…spoonful of beans…needless to say we did not win.

         After the kids left and everyone was gone, my team went to Ogra. There is a gypsy village in Ogra that the organization has been helping for some time and three of the interns this summer spent their time teaching the children how to speak and write Romanian and English. The village was far from what I’d originally expected, but I couldn’t help but feel for the children and people there more than I think I’ve felt for anyone else in my life. They have so little and yet the smiles on the kid’s faces were heart-wrenchingly beautiful. All they wanted to do was play and have fun and be kids, and not worry about money, food, clothes, or shelter. When one of the interns asked me what I thought about the village, all I could say was that it was interesting but that was the wrong answer. What I couldn’t stop thinking about when in the village and when thinking about the kids, the people, or the lack of everything, was what can I do?

         Yeah sure I’ve made a huge step in the right direction by coming here, by seeing the people, meeting fantastic kids, and understanding what a different part of the world is like but that can’t be the ONLY huge step. When a person starts walking they do it one step after another, and that is how I have to be. I need to keep taking steps, keep walking in the direction that God shows me. I don’t know whether or not those steps lead to Romania, to further development into Livada, or even to anything having to do with children, but I do know that this trip is already making a life-changing impact and I’m only on day two of camp. There’s no turning back now, so it’s time to trust in God and keep on walking.

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Jeremiah 29:11