Week 2 - Exploring

Day 7- Monday, June 11, 2007, Because of the extra time we spent with the boys from the orphanage, we were given 2 days off! So, I was able to travel to a town about 1.5 hours west of Bucharest, called Targoviste. We were able to walk downtown, see a zoological garden, and go to the top of a hill overlooking the city to an Orthodox Monestary. It was really cool!

Day 8- Tuesday, June 12, 2007, Today was Alinas birthday, so we went to a really big park called Herastrau, went for a boat ride, etc. It was a great two days off!

Day 9 - Wednesday, June 13, 2007, Back at CTL, we spent the morning with a cool lady named Heidi-- she has been in charge of camps and was giving the staff some training on a camp we have for kids in July. We did a team building activity that involved creating a bridge that would hold a set of bongos with only newspaper and scotch tape-- OUR TEAM DID IT!! WooYoo! I'll be in charge guitar clinics with Fibia for the camp. Later we did some planning for the next couple weeks (2 new teams coming).

Day 10 - Thursday, June 14, 2007, In the morning I went with Anca to Ruth's school.Ruth's school is a school with about 80% population of gypsy students. The Gypsy culture is a subculture of Romania, often treated with disrespect and discrimination. These families can often choose to give their kids up to orphanages because they cannot afford to feed all their children. CTL (Children to Love) works with these families to offer them live skills and a variety of programs.

We were working with a 3rd and 6th grade class to make a video about Respect and Friendship. We had a script about a student misbehaving and needing a friends help to be successful. I was assisting Anca with videotaping.

After that, I met with some of the leaders for CTL to talk about what I have to offer this summer, what the vision of CTL is, and how I can help. It looks like I be most effective by helping with guitar classes, English classes, and curriculum development for orphanges. So next week, I will be working on deveolping those opportunities. After the meeting I spent a lot of time editing the video with Fibia.

Day 11 - Friday, June 15, 2007, After the morning meeting, Anca, Alina and I went back to Ruth's school give shirts and certificates as rewards for successful students. There was a big ceremony with a lot of kids and parents. After, the awards, we showed them the video we made with the two classes.

Day 12 - Saturday, June 16, 2007, We were able to visit the other interns apartment for dinner and went out to see a concert (canceled :( It was fun. I am one of many interns this summer. Monica, Julie, and Brenn).

Day 13 - Sunday, June 17, 2007, In the morning I was able to visit a rugby match of an orphan boy named Michael. It was great to be there to support him-- I think we were the only ones. I had never seen the sport before so it was an interesting experience!