La Multi Ani- Happy Birthday Teo!!

Today was a BIG day at the Sunshine School because long time student Teo turned 15 years old! Teo was one of the original Darius House kids and has been under RCE's care for many years now...since he was 4 years old. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a young boy and has been receiving physical therapy to help maintain the ability to sit, breath comfortably and to keep his tightening muscles as loose as possible. Teo also has a younger brother, Alex, who is 10 and has the same diagnosis. Alex currently lives at RCE's Darius House. Both boys were abandoned by their mother at a young age once it was discovered they had muscular dystrophy.

15 yo Teo and 10 yo brother Alex

Teo and Sunshine School Assistant Adina

Teo is a HUGE Los Angeles Lakers fan, so Mary Ann made sure that he had his very own Lakers jersey for his birthday.  The only catch was trying to find one in Romania.  We had several leads through the Romanian version of E-bay and finally found one available in the far Eastern part of Romania.  Carmen was able to call the owner by phone and when he heard Teo's story, he waived the shipping fee. He also told Carmen how thankful he was they had talked, because he had been wanting to start up an NGO to help orphan children for many years! They spoke loosely about some future collaboration..

Teo and his classmates

Teo celebrated his birthday at school with ALL of the Sunshine School students, assistants and teachers as well as other RCE staff! Everyone sang happy birthday and then Teo blew out the candles on a huge birthday cake that had a gigantic basketball on top of it. Teo has become quite the fan of American basketball over the past few years and is happy to tell anyone and everyone that Kobe Bryant is his favorite player. After he blew out the candles, Teo was given gifts by each of his classmates and then one big card from all of the classes at Sunshine School. He was also presented with a Lakers championship t-shirt and many cards and notes from his fans in the states. Teo was quick to tell everyone how happy he was! He also told many of us that he was soon going to be an 'adult'. It was fun to share his joy and many smiles with him.

Alex, Ovi and Teo

 Some other notes..

-  Had my first fish dinner in Romania last night.  Was invited to Darius House coordinator Lucian Bradean and his wife Elena's home. I forget the name of the kind of fish we had (it was a Romanian name I didn't recognize), but I DO remember that it was stuffed with apples and walnuts grown by the Bradeans. We also had vegetables, rice and a delicious pastry for dessert. All made by Elena!

- I will attend my first Romanian funeral tomorrow. A man that lived in one of the old folks homes run by Dr. Daria through another NGO, passed away today. Since Dr. Daria is out of town, she called Ovi and asked him to officiate at the service. Because the man doesn't have any known relatives, Ovi asked Doina and me to attend to fill out the 'congregation'. There was some talk about the 'American guest' singing a hymn solo, but I hope that was only talk...we'll see.

Paula, Damaris, Florinel, Angy

Orthotist and Damaris

- We took Sunshine School kids Damaris and Florinel to an orthotist (brace maker) today to talk about getting braces made for both of them so they can walk.  PTs Paula and Angy came as well as Doina who acted as my translator. It was an interesting hour as we waded through what was available in Romania (not much), how long it would take to get the braces (too long), and how much they would cost (too much). My experience in Romania has been that they tend to 'over brace' so we were hoping to prevent that from happening. In the end, I think we came up with a solution for Damaris that will work. We'll pursue some anti-spasticity medications for Florinel first. Which might be a tough sell because as much as they use medications in Romania it seems very few physicians are comfortable recommending these types of medicines. We'll see...

- We got the pictures for the homeless shelter folks printed. They will be distributed sometime this week!

Romanian words of the day:

Fish= peste (pesh-tay)
Rice= orez (o-rez)  * this is a review word! ..remember orez cu lapte (rice with milk)?
Orthosis (brace) = ortheza (or-teza)