Monday

Today was sort of a slow day. We started off with a tour of a group home that is next to the clinic called Casa de Speranza (I'm spelling that wrong). It's a home for kids with HIV who haven been abandoned at the hospital by there parents. Apparently that happens a lot here. You could tell the clinic was trying very hard with very little funding. Apparently all of their funding comes from the states with no help from the Romanian goverment. After that we spent a little time with one of the pediatricians. She had a lot of energy and was going through lab results and things like that. We had one patient, a teenager who had eaten something he was allergic to and had hives. I think I must have been missing something because everyone here became very worried and he was hooked up to an IV, given IV cortisone, p.o. steroids and some other medicine. Then he stayed hooked up to the IV for hours so he could get fluids. So I was a bit confused.

After that long hard day at clinic we walked to the grocery store in our never ending quest to find food that can be cooked in a microwave. Our search for peanut butter and mexican food continues to elude us. Oh well. We also hit up a farmer's market for our vegetables which was fun. One of the vendors kept pointing to her chest and saying something in Romanian then grabbing my arm and laughing. I have absolutely no idea what was going on but at least we made her laugh.

The evening was spent relaxing in our room. I have made it through 4 books at this point. Thank goodness for all of the electronics and other distractions we thought to bring with us this time! Not sure what we will be up to today. More later. - Becca