Quite a few people have asked me the same questions about my trip since I've been back, so I thought I would put a F.A.Q. section. Here goes: 1) Would you go back to Romania again? I would go back in a heartbeat! I loved it!
2) What was your favorite part of the trip? It's hard to pick just one particular thing, but I loved meeting the kids that I sponsor (Adi and Simona) through Livada Orphan Care. That was one of the main reasons I went, and that was definitely a highlight! I enjoyed interacting with the abandoned babies too.
3) Would this be a good possibility for a church mission trip? I think it would be a great opportunity to introduce some different people to the joys of a mission trip. We mainly offer medical and construction trips through my church, and I think a trip to work with the abandoned babies would appeal to a totally different group of people. This is not something that Livada is currently doing, but I hope it might become an option in the future. I could see doing that plus spending time at the Livada houses (Casa Nadia, Casa Ana, Casa Rebeca) as a fun mission trip.
4) What did you think of the sightseeing? Wow! There is some genuine first class sightseeing in Romania. I would definitely go back to Peles Castle in Sinaia, and I would love to go to Sighisoara again. Besides these places, there are painted monasteries, and I would hope to see Bucharest some day too. Romania is very unique that in spite of being the size of the state of Pennsylvania, I believe it has 7 UNESCO World Heritage sites, which is really a lot. One drawback is that they don't really seem to be set up for easily offering day tours. I was hoping to be able to do something like a Grayline tour, but that didn't seem to be available. Maybe I was just not finding it!
5) How did you find the prices? The prices for different things such as hotel, cabs, food, and internet were very reasonable.The biggest expense of the trip was the plane fare.
6) What did you think of the food? Romania is a meat and potatoes kind of place to me. I thought the food was exceptional. The meat of choice seems to be pork, but there were plenty of other things to be had. There were lots of salads, veggies, soups, and for the less adventuresome there's always pizza and McDonald's.
7) Did you have any language difficulties? As always, you have a much more interesting experience when you can speak the language (sounds like a former foreign language teacher, right?), but there was always someone around who spoke English. The young people learn English in school, and most of them seemed to be able to speak and/or understand English fairly well. A few phrases and knowing the numbers always seems like a good idea. A couple times I tried Spanish or Italian and that helped a little!
8) When you refer to the place where you visited with the babies, you have referred to it as "babies' hospital", "babies' home", etc. What exactly is this place? I probably should not call it either one of these terms. It is the upper floor of a regular hospital. Since it is illegal to put a child under the age of 2 years in an orphanage, they have to put the abandoned babies somewhere, so they put them in a hospital. They're in a bit of a "pickle" though, because I don't know what they'll do with these kids. The idea is that they are hoping for domestic adoptions, since international adoptions are banned and they are supposed to be trying to close the orphanages down, not put more kids in them. So where these kids are supposed to go is beyond me. Already there are several kids there who are almost 3 years old, and there is a 4 year old in a crib that is showing the signs of minimal interaction with other people...You are probably thinking that this doesn't make much sense, and you're right! I have no idea what the solution is, but I think the first thing they have to do is make it a criminal act to abandon a baby, if they haven't already done so.
