Andreea's School

a girl named Andreea who worked in the orphanage when Amy was there took us to the school where we worked to show us around. I thought we were going to go work in the classroom or something like that. It ended up being a full on tour. I really enjoyed it. We went first to a first grade classroom where there were about nine kids. Andreea was telling us about each of the kids while they just stared at us with wide open mouths. There was one kid in there that hydrocephaly pretty badly. I can’t remember what his name was, but he seemed really, really happy. Andreea was telling us about what kind of disabilities he had, but then she said that they have all noticed that his emotional intelligence is far beyond what most people can comprehend. It amazes me that people who have been given so much can lack so much understanding like they do in the states. But the kids at this school, who know so little, have bigger smiles and more honest determination than most people I have ever met.
After we looked around many classrooms (from first grade through high school to practical teaching rooms, like hairdressing and public food industry techniques) we went to their gym to watch their volleyball team. Though only half of the kids in the school have disabilities, all of the kids on the volleyball team had disabilities. They are the volleyball champions in Iasi and were even invited to go to nationals, but they lacked any funding to go. I think that that is just so sad because I knew many kids that I went to school with that went to competitions across an even bigger country all the time that didn’t deserve it half as much as these kids do. They were good. They were better than most kids I ever saw play at my high school, and they were playing on a gym floor that looked like it hadn’t been replaced since 1973 when the school was built. I’ve never seen a more determined team, either. There was one player that had one leg shorter than the other. In between plays he could barely walk, but he could play volleyball better than any Saratoga kid I ever met.
I sat next to a girl on the bench who wouldn’t stop staring at my eyes. Everyone here has really dark eyes and she almost acted as though she had never seen blue eyes before. A teacher was sitting with her on the bench and she even asked me if I was wearing contacts. They were surprised when I told them that they weren’t. After the game was over the team asked us to take a group picture with them. We all felt really embarrassed at first but they seemed really into it and wanted us to be next to them. One of the boys that we were told later by Andreea really likes girls was standing next to Amy at first. Another guy got in between them and he pushed him out of the way so that he could stand next to Amy! Ha ha. He was fairly attractive, too, we all thought. Turns out he’s only sixteen. Such is life.