Berlin Weekend

With the ILP program we get some planned vacation days- two four day trips and one ten day trip. For my first vacation I decided to go to Berlin, Germany with two other girls in my group. The three of us got really cheap flights and a great deal on a hostel, so we were able to do almost everything for under 200 USD.

Our hostel

We visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was an awesome experience for me. The memorial has over 2,000 stones covering a city block, and literally covers a museum. The underground museum put the holocaust into perspective for me. One exhibit had the number of people killed in each country, including Romania. I had never really thought about Romania's place in WWII, but the Romas (gypsies) were thought to be racially inferior alongside the Jews and were sent to concentration camps.

Another of my favorite stops on our vacation was Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. My group tagged onto a tour that we found at the train station, and it was definitely worth it. I learned information that I never learned in classes before and was reminded of history that I thought was unimportant at the time that I first learned it. I had forgotten how terrible people could be. The feeling of the camp was very solemn. Someone had laid white carnations at especially touching parts of the camp, which, to me, really showed respect to the men that were murdered there.

Other highlights for me were being able to see the Berlin and Checkpoint Charlie.

Some random pictures from the trip:

First "Real" Week

The past few days have been the first times that I've been able to go to the orphanage, apartments, and hospital. I absolutely love it all! The kids here are amazing. They all have had pretty rough lives due to social cases or disabilities, but the programs here really help them out. 

The love that I feel for these kiddos is undeniable. I do have a favorite though, I'll call him George for the sake of privacy. When I first walked in and sat down in his room he happily walked over and proceeded to bite my wrist, leaving teeth marks for three hours after. He reminds me of my little brother Timmy when my parents first adopted him, he can't walk well, can't really talk, and uses his teeth to express feelings. He loves to cuddle and be tickled and his favorite toy to carry around and chew on is a set of plastic keys. Those keys have saved my skin from so many bites!

The Orphanage

I have loved going to the hospital and orphanage extension apartments, too. The kids that we mainly visit at the hospital are the ones whose families live too far away to stay with their kids, kids from the orphanage, and kids whose families abandoned them. The kids at the hospital have captured my whole group's hearts.

The kids at the apartments have a lot of energy. Each apartment has three or four kids living in it with a worker. As volunteers we get to go visit for two hours in the afternoon and play and play with the kids so that the worker can take a break or cook dinner. The kids at the apartments are almost ready to go into foster homes, so they are very mobile and can understand Romanian.