Placement

Well, I think I finally have a fairly permanent place where I'll be working from now on. Unfortunately I can't show any pictures of the cute kids because we aren't allowed to take them. I'm working in a state run group home for mentally disabled children in the town of Sacele (right outside of Brasov). There are 10 children who range in age from 2-6 years old. They are absolutely adorable and I really like working with them. It's nice to feel useful there as well. The kids definitely need love and attention and the workers need the extra help. Most of the workers I've met are pretty nice and seem to like the fact that we are there to help out. The kids seem to like music a lot and bubbles. I'm heading to a big store here in town this weekend to try to find some other stuff they might like to play with.

There are 2 shifts per day and I'm working the morning shift from 9-1 every day and the evening shift from 4:30-7 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In between the shifts on Tuesday and Thursday I am helping out at an after school program in the town. The program is run by a lady who tries especially to help gypsy children in the area. I think I'm going to be teaching English to a group of kids on those days. I'm pretty excited about it because it's fun to help the kids there and teaching them English will help me learn to speak Romanian a little better. The only downside is the fact that Sacele is a little over an hour away by bus and we have to change buses on the way. The bus schedule basically doesn't exist, so you never know how long you'll have to wait! It's okay for now, but when the snow starts coming it won't be quite as much fun.

Anyway, that's the latest on what I'm doing. I'm trying to work something out for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons and have a couple different things I'm looking at doing. I'll let you know when I get all that finalized.