Second Day

The second day at HOA brought a much different attitude and comfortableness out from the children. I suppose the gift giving had worn off and they were (most presumably) acting like they normally would. As you know from all children, there is always a honeymoon phase, and I think it may have already rubbed off.

The day started with playing with the children and doing a puzzle in a team environment. There must have been 6 other children ranging from 7 to 12 around a big red table with me. Of course I had the occasional child land on my lap and hug me, but primarily it was just this group. The first thing I noticed was their style of conflict resolution. Or rather, their lack of proper skills, by North American standards. A child would take a puzzle piece that another child wanted and the first primal emotion (anger) was dislayed instantly with a hit, or a threat of hit (with hand raising and a dirty look). Hostile language was also used, and of course the other child would react back and defent themself. Ofcourse I tried to curb this behaviour, but it was obvious they didn't want to listen. Nonetheless, I kept trying to tell the children no. This was very trying for my patience, but I realized in an instant what needed to be done. There was this one girl that seemed to be getting picked on the most, or perhaps she was promoting this attention (I am not sure due to the language barrier), so I opened my lap and tapped my thigh, and in an instant she was sitting on me. Then, I was softly speaking to her and took my arms and hugged her. She understood this as a loving gesture, but I was restraining her from the violent behaviour. Within two minutes, she was calm and it completely deflated the conflict.

Soon after the puzzling, we continued to play and I drew butterflies with the younger girls. In the background, all I could hear was "Jana! Jana!" There was never a dull moment when I wasn't wanted for attention. At times it was difficult to play without interuption, since they all wanted me to be in 10 spots at once. Later, the older boys and I watched tv, and wow, some pretty interesting Romanian advertising crossed our eyes and created quite a funny uproar from the boys and myself. A few minutes passed and the boys were asking me to speak in English. They are very eager to learn English, and so, I recited the words on the tv, and then a song came on by Akon called "Nobody wants to see us together..." In an instant, the language barrier was conquered as they knew all the words to the song. We all sang in a circle together as they intently looked at my lips and carefully studied my pronounciation.

Soon after this, we had lunch - it was a three course meal; a healthy soup; meat with rice and peas and dessert. These children are very well looked after. Once the meal was done, the children went to the study room and did their homework. Of course, I couldn't very well do much on this aspect, but I grabbed a globe and a geography book and went back and forth with some girls. They too are eager to teach Romanian, and when I told a girl she was a teacher, she smiled so big and blushed. It was very cute.

Once the studies were done, we played inside and then outside. We engaged in a lengthy soccer game, and the older boys ran circles around me. They are very skilled at soccer, or should I say football?! Again, the lack of proper conflict resolution came up, with at least a few rounds of punching, kicking and poor language towards each other. It is sad for me to see, but I do instincly see the survival mechanism and level of hierarchy they are scrambling for.