My walk to the Orphanage Today

So many times the ordinary events in a person’s life don’t get told to anyone. They are just private memories that bring a smile to the owner’s face if they remember them and that’s it. Today, I walked to the orphanage but instead of just holding the memories of that walk inside, I’ve decided to share them.

One of the things I love about living in Romania is the pace of life...it is slower and more enjoyable. The fact that I can leisurly walk to work in the morning is a joy in itself. It has been raining quite a bit lately, so everything has that fresh rain smell and as I walked, I took deep breaths and enjoyed the cool clean air. As I walked I noticed a large group of people walking towards me all engaged in conversations with each other. As they passed I couldn’t help hearing a few words and usually I don’t pay much attention to them as they are little snipits of conversation in a different language...basically just noisy voices. Well, today as they walked by I realized something. I actually understood the few words I heard....a woman was talking about her sister needing some medicine. My vocabulary of Romanian words isn’t that large yet, but in that moment I heard a few words that I recognized and in that split second of our passing...I understood! What a thrill it was to actually hear and understand!! I spent the next few minutes reflecting on how good that felt and then it was time to cross the street. This, of course, requires a little more concentration because the cars here are supposed to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, but you must make sure they see you and are able to stop before you just head out. Today, it was easy...the cars were far enough away that I could readily cross without fear. I had only walked about 20 feet when I heard a child’s voice calling my name in Romanian...Natalia, Natalia! I turned to look and saw a group of children...six of them...walking behind me waving hello and practicing their English. Hello!!! I smiled because this group of gypsy kids are what my grandmother would call “street urchins”. No matter where I go or when I go in town, it seems I always see one or more of them running around begging for money. Usually they call me Tanti (rhymns with Auntie...which is also what it means). Tanti is an affectionate name that children call women...even if the woman is not their aunt. Apparently, they know my name now and have graduated from Tanti to Natalia. They came running up to me and encircled me. I’m sure we made quite a sight...me wearing my long black rain coat standing in the middle of these children...and all of them wearing orange track suits. I can only guess that they must have found a good deal on them...or they all really like the color orange! They kind of looked like a team of gymnasts waiting to compete. They all started talking to me and I understood enough to have a short conversation with them before they started using words outside of my vocabulary. At that point they decided to switch to English and started singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. They didn’t quite have the pronounciation correct, so I joined in to help them. I had to laugh as one elderly woman passed us and smiled. I wasn’t sure if she knew we were singing a Christmas song, but since I did it made me laugh. I’m surround by orange clad gypsy kids singing a Christmas song in April. After this we had to get going because they were headed to school and I needed to get to the orphanage. They then took turns telling me they loved me both in Romanian and English and kissing my cheek. One little boy must have kissed me 5 times before leaving! By that time, I was at the driveway of the orphanage and as I walk toward the building I was excited to pass along a little love and kiss some cheeks myself!