Sibiu

Hey everyone!  We are back to Timisoara for the time being.  We are back here because of two things: getting a one-year visa and getting a used car.  We are currently on a "tourist visa" and it allows a stay for up to 90 days within a six month period.  That means we have around six weeks left on our tourist visa, and if we don't apply for a one-year visa, we will have to leave the country and we will not be able to come back for another three months.  We did think of this because we want to visit Moldova and Ukraine as well, but we thought it would be much more convenient to have a one-year visa in Romania so we can use this country as our "home base".  We wouldn't want to be "banished" from Romania!  The usual procedure is to apply for the visa at least 30 days before the expiration of the tourist visa, so we decided it would be best to do it here in Timisoara because we have the apartment there and good friends there who can help us with this process.

We decided that we needed a car because we wanted to really go through Romania and visit as many orphanages/schools as we can to really understand the situation with deaf orphans.  The rail travel system here is actually very good, but it limits the cities we can visit and the travel routes we can take.  Rail travel also requires us to make arrangements at the cities that we are arriving and take a taxi from the station to the place, etc etc.  It takes a lot of time and money for that, so we thought - hey, why don't we get a used car, so we can really see Romania and take the time to make all the stops and plan the route ourselves rather than following the railroad.  We talked about this with DeafMissions, and they talked with the local deaf church there that we have attended for the past year - Christ's Church of the Deaf.  They were so kind to donate $2,500 to us so we can buy a car!  This is very generous of them!  We are very grateful and are now looking for a car, another reason why we are in Timisoara.  

If you would like to donate any amount in addition to the $2,500 for the car, you can do so through our blog at www.odeafo.com and clicking on "Donate".  Thank you very much!  :)

We really enjoyed our time in Bucharest and Sibiu with Allison and Ryan.  Being with them really refreshed us, because they are family, and it's nice to see Americans after so many Romanians!  :)  We discussed a LOT about what we wanted to do in Romania, and it was hard to come to a conclusion because we really did not know the exact situation with deaf orphans and the best way to help them.  Ryan/Allison are back in Texas now - they were only here for three weeks - but now they are going to try and raise support so they can come back to Romania.  We are here now to keep on surveying the situation and keep on with the goals of Operation Deaf Orphans, which is to research/document, work with children, and meet leaders who can help deaf orphans.

We visited a deaf school in Sibiu and they had five orphans there.  We couldn't take pictures, since it is a government school.  There are a lot of places where we can't take pictures.  But we really enjoyed meeting the deaf children.  Most of the teachers (if not all) of the teachers have a very low knowledge of Romanian sign language.  The reasoning behind this is that they would like to encourage the children to learn how to speak and rely on speaking, but this is obviously not a good method because a child needs to have a good grasp on a language before s/he can move on to another language.  This situation is the same with the other two deaf schools we've visited in Timisoara and Bucharest.  

We've partially figured out how the system works with deaf orphans in Romania.  Basically, if a child is deaf and abandoned (or orphaned) - they will be referred to the deaf school in the county.  The deaf school will then be able to obtain the child through a "certificate", and the abandoned child will reside in the deaf school for the school year.  When summer holiday comes, the child will then go to a foster home or a children's home until school starts again.  This is what we have seen in Timisoara, Bucharest, and Sibiu.  

What we would like to know, however, is where the abandoned deaf children from infancy to 5 years of age are.  We usually see those kids at deaf schools over the age of 5 or 6.  This makes sense because they are "old enough" to go to school, but what about the infants/toddlers?  This is the missing link for us.  Our assumption now is that they are "scattered" all over in the orphanages/children's homes in their counties and don't get their language acquisition until they are finally placed in deaf institutions.  We would love to start an early intervention program and be able to take care of the infants - 5 year old abandoned deaf children and teach them sign language, so by the time they get to deaf schools, they will be ready to learn and make friends.

What makes this difficult is that there is no single place where ALL the deaf orphans are.  We have found deaf orphans, but they are usually in deaf schools, and they are always over the age of five or six.  So, where are all the deaf infants/toddlers?  Please pray for us that we are able to find them and see what their situation is.  God is powerful and able to guide us if we only ask.  

Enough words!  Below are a few pictures of our tour to the former bad dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu - the man who ruined Romania's development and caused the problem with orphans.  We went into his government building that cost over 13 billion euros and was built between 1985-1989 while the rest of the country was suffering under economical hardships.  

Also we have a few pictures of our time in Sibiu, a very beautiful city.  Enjoy them!  

Ceausescu's crazy palace.  This building is the SECOND largest in the world.  The first is Pentagon, and this is the second.  It was built while Romania was suffering economic hardships.  Shows that Communism is a very bad government system and funnels the money from the country to the top 0.0001 percent.  It is currently where the Romanian government meets.  It's called, "Palace of the Parliament".    

An audience inside of the building.  All the seats are 100 percent leather and the chandelier weighs more than 5 tons.

Beautiful building, yes, but it felt hollow because of the history associated with it.

One of the MANY empty, marble-filled rooms.  Can you find Allison, Ryan, and Alexa in this picture?

This is a ballroom.  There is a rumor that the ceiling can open for a helicopter to land.  This rumor is not true :)

This picture should give you an idea of how huge this building is.  

The view from the building.  Ceausescu planned for this balcony to be where he would speak from, but he never lived to do this - because he was executed about the same time this building was finished.  Cruel irony.  

On the train between Bucharest/Sibiu.  We finally arrived Sibiu, and Allison couldn't contain her excitement - she is signing, "Sibiu!".  Sibiu is signed like a "vampire" but you do it on your cheeks and you do the sign twice.  

One of the last cold days.  It got warm only a few days after.

Old Town Sibiu.  Very beautiful place, nothing like Bucharest.  

We saw this food store and thought of Billa, Alex's mom's favorite Yorkshire Terrier.  That's his name.  This one is for you, mom!  :)  

One of the beautiful buildings in Sibiu.  This tower is the one that we climbed - and you will see pictures from inside below. 

Inside of the tower.

At Sibiu, we stayed with a preacher and his wife at a church.  Their names are Cladiu and Anca.  We didn't get a picture of Cladiu, but the woman on the right is Anca.  She used to work as a tour guide, so she took us on a trip.  

Nice view!  

Sibiu.  This city is very beautiful and untouched by Communism.  A brief history: this place used to be occupied by Saxons (Germans/Austrians) and they built most of the city.  Eventually, control of this city was restored to the Romanians in 1918, when the Astro-Hungarian empire gave up control of Transylvania.  There is a lot of German influence in this city. 

We love the curvy streets and the connected buildings.  It made us feel like we were "really" in Europe.

Sibiu is also known as "Hermannstadt"  German word.

Two Gypsies window-shopping.  

That's all for now!  God bless and thanks for all of your support!

Bucharest and Family

On the train between Timisoara and Bucharest

Finally in Bucharest - and guess who was waiting for us?  Ryan and Allison, our family!  Alex's sister is Allison, so Ryan is Alex's brother-in-law while Alexa is Allison's sister-in-law and you can connect the rest of the dots :)  Allison is cold!  They flew from Texas, where it was around 70 degrees.  They are in Bucharest for around three weeks to do a mini-survey.  We are very excited about working as a team in the future to do work with orphans.  

First impressions of Bucharest - a very gray and concrete town. 

Waitin' for the bus

Inside the subway station

The man on the right is Jeremy Befort, a missionary who has been in Bucharest for around six years.  He works for FGCI (For God's Children International), an organization based in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is focused on helping abandoned children in Romania and Moldova.  He is an awesome guy, helping us with getting used to Bucharest and he gave us a lot of advice and information on how we can best help orphans/abandoned children in the future.  He is married to a Romanian and is a father of a cute baby boy.  

Apologize for the bad picture - this is us at the Dutas' house.  The Dutas are two people who work for their son, Andrei, who runs an organization called, "His Little Ones".  This organization is the one who had Ryan and Allison come over.  The Dutas invited us for coffee and dinner and they helped us to be able to visit three different children's homes.

We visited a deaf school and Allison/Alexa went on to a hospital where there were around 25 abandoned infants, but we were NOT allowed to take pictures of those places, so we can't share them on our blog.  But they were good visits and it really touched Alexa on how there were so many infants, abandoned by their mothers and basically left in their cribs.  They will be stuck there until they are two years old - which is when they will be placed in foster homes.  The system in Romania is still bad and corrupt when it comes to abandoned children.  There is a ban on international adoptions, which worsens the situation.  We really hope it changes someday.  

Urban Cemetery

Which one would you choose - this little house or the apartments?

Inside our rental apartment.  We cooked food together and used this time to get close as a group and talk about the future and possible plans.  It's only the beginning and we have not made a difference yet, but we hope that with God's help and donations from USA, we will be able to live in Europe and help abandoned children.  

View from our apartment.  Snowing.

We visited a childrens home and they allowed us to take pictures.  This home isn't a very good one, as the children does not appear to be in a good shape.  We could only observe and give them two hours of fun and games.  We feel bad for the kids, but there is really nothing we can do, we can only hope to save future children.  All of the kids are hearing.

We had a lot of fun with this boy, teaching him magic tricks. 

Finally, you can see Allison's face on the left!  The gang with the kids.  

One of the many streets in Bucharest.  Almost everything looks the same!  

The national theater house.   

Us meeting with Jeremy Befort.  He really helped us with the vision of possibly starting a foster home for the kids.  He basically laid down the truth - it's going to be hard and it's going to be a lot of work and red tape if you want to really help those children.  He talked about how he knows it's hard, but he couldn't just leave Romania because whenever he was in the USA, he would feel very strongly for the children in Romania.  His quote was, "Romania on the Braina"

A monument dedicated to the revolution of 1989.  The black cross (little one) on the left is the exact location where the first person died for the revolution.    

We found another Romulus and Remus statue!  

That's all for now.  We will be going to Sibiu next week.  This trip to Bucharest really opened our eyes on the problem with abandoned children in Romania.  

God bless!