Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Second Day with Abraham

Good morning west, evening east, welcome to my Manologue (Yeah, that’s right Dr. Ray – I’m borrowing your line.  I’ll pay back – WITH INTEREST).

Anyway, how could things have been any better than the day before?!  I don’t know but it found its way.

Before I went to sleep, I set my alarm using the cell phone that Yavor gave me.  I set it for 5:30.  Why?  So I could feel more like I do at home.  Well, also, there is a lot to do while I’m here and I want to be able to clear up everything that I want to do personally in the morning so that I can spend that energy focusing on little Abraham.

My traditional Bulgarian breakfast
After prayer and some writing on the prior days blog, I studied until it was time for breakfast.  Breakfast was very similar to yesterday, so I left my five little olives as my token of appreciation for a meal well made.  Except for the olives.

At 9:15, Yavor and I roared down the streets to the orphanage for the beginning of our second day with Abraham.  Not roar, more like rumble.  It has nothing to do with his car; it was all the road.  We got there at the exact right time.  Bravo!

Today we first stopped by to visit the social worker to discuss what was going to be coming up next.  Well, not us – Yavor and the social worker chatted and from time to time Yavor gave me an English bone.  We were scheduled to take Abraham’s visa picture tomorrow, so that was the exciting news.  I also asked a couple of questions from our list of questions before a staff member came in with little Abraham.

Similar to yesterday, it started a little awkward as we both tried to figure each other out again.  We were in the play room again for the morning and Abraham immediately started playing with his cups again.  He enjoyed just taking the cups in the little cardboard box top like a proper little waiter.  It was like he was in his own little world; whenever I tried to interact with him, he would go back to focusing on his cups.  It was very good to see him playing.
I tried giving Abraham a cookie from those that Yavor and I bought yesterday.  He took the cookie and took a very small bite and made a face like he was disgusted with it.  Yavor then tried just giving him a piece of the cookie rather than the whole cookie.  Abraham took it much better, so I helped feed him the rest of the cookie.  Once he was done he was off playing.

Then, the social worker who was also in the room, made the observation that the food that is served to the children is also in little cups like these.  So, he was acting out what the workers at the orphanage were doing.  And it even looked like he was serving something out of these cups to an invisible person.  I was happy to see that this child has an imagination and could imitate what he saw.

His eyes always look like they are scanning and observing the world, like his mind is working faster than we can see in his actions.

Then, he went towards the piano and pointed at it.  I thought that maybe he had memories of a teacher or staff member playing the piano.  The staff said that he liked to move and dance when music is playing.  So, I took this as my opportunity to see what he does.  I started playing a happy little melody for him on the piano.

He stopped and listened.  He would stomp his foot from time to time, but he was still and listened intently to what I was playing.  When I stopped he looked at me as if to say, “Why did you stop?”  So then I would pick it up again and he would listen intently at what I was playing.  I felt quite moved.

After a while of playing Mr. Waiter, he decided to start silly playing with the cups.  There was a lot of laughing and giggling.  I gave him two more cookies that I broke into pieces and put into the cup.  When he was done, he became quite upset because…he wanted his bread!  It was around lunchtime and he knew that he was supposed to have some bread.  Bread is his favorite food, the staff said.

Yavor and I then left for lunch and a break before the afternoon.  I walked around and took a few pictures and a video of a crow infested park.  Creepy!  I saw some humorous signs in English…the “Fast Food Face” tickled my funny bone.
When we arrived for the second visit, we had to wait a little bit so that they can get Abraham ready to go outside.  He was woken from his nap and looked not quite awake when he came down for the visit.

When we walked outside into the play-yard, he started to squint and smile enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine.  He wasn’t very active for the first ten minutes or so; I walked him to the top of the stairs of a slide and he just stayed there looking around.  He would hold onto the metal railing for the slide moving back and forth.

Well, while he is on top there, I can give you all a quick description of the place.  It was an old playground with some rather seriously outdated play structures.  The slide that I mentioned above – the paint on it was so cracked and worn that it almost ceased to be a slide.  Well, yeah, it wasn’t a “slide” more like a “scooch.”  The grass was growing well but not too long.  They didn’t allow nature to fully take it over.

Most of the play structures were made of metal and the paint was chipping off.  To quote Executive Officer Marty from the movie “Down Periscope” in regards to the WWII vessel the USS Stingray:
“I think I need a tetanus shot just looking at it.”

I’m going to see if Abraham wants down now, let’s see…

With some help, I got Abraham to “scooch” down the slide.  After that we visited various play equipment.  He was interested in the swings, but once he got in and they started to move, he didn’t care for them.  So, we walked around a little more until we got to these little play houses that were made of metal.  They had a roof and a quarter wall that was just ornamental iron “piping” for a lack of a better word.  This gave rise to a most entertaining game with Abraham.

He went to the quarter wall and hiked his leg over as if he wanted to go inside.  So I helped him.  Once inside, he turned around and then hiked his leg over again.  So I helped him.  And then…well, you can probably guess what happened then.  I became his “antigravity” device so that he could jump over this wall for at least 20 minutes nonstop.  Abraham was smiling and giggling the whole time.  I knew that normally this would be a tiring physical feat to do for that long, but I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else.  He was so happy.

After a long while, with Yavor’s help, we were able to coax him into going somewhere else.  There was a “merry-go-round” type thing where you spin like a centrifuge that I thought he would like.  Abraham came onto the “thing” and looked content.  I slowly spun the thing to check his reaction.  Immediately he scrambled for me to get him off of the spinning death trap (his words, not mine).

Abraham then was running in the grass and loved to be active.  After a while, I tried the “thing” again with him, but instead of just spinning it, I walked around it, holding onto him as it spun.  He wasn’t scared anymore.

Then it was time to go, and Abraham would have nothing of it.  So, using the old Distract-The-Kid approach, I turned him into an airplane and flew him back into the building.  He absolutely loved it!  For many hours afterwards, I was euphoric knowing that this little guy was happy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos that round as I spent my time playing with Abraham.  I know – I’ve already spent my time in the corner and I’m not going to let that happen again!  And tomorrow is another day with Abraham!

St. Christopher, pray for us!
God bless!
Sean

PS – I heard that Lufthansa airlines was cancelling flights for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week because of a strike.  I’m hoping that they get this resolved soon!

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