My Heart Remains in Romania

I volunteered with eight other Global Volunteers at a clinic in the small rural hamlet of Codaesti, about a 45-minute drive outside the cultural center of Iasti in northern Romania six years ago. For three weeks we cared for about 30 infants and toddlers, ranging in age from five months to two years. I have many poignant memories from 20 years of international travel, but those three weeks profoundly changed my life.

I’ve been a volunteer in Brazil, the Cook Islands, Ghana, Peru and Vietnam and other countries. Nineteen programs in all. On another Global Volunteers program I mixed cement in Guatemala and built roof trusses in Mississippi. But those three weeks working with this infants and toddlers in Codaesti introduced me to a new career.

In my adult years, I worked several part-time jobs (bartender, waitress, tour guide) but I knew I need a steady job to support my international volunteer habit. At the age of 52, I went back to school to become a licensed practical nurse, and now I'm studying to become a registered nurse. I know this would not have happened without my Global Volunteers experience. In fact, every major decision I've made about the next 50 years of my life can be traced back to this short, but profound experience with the babies of Romania.

Thankfully, memories aren't always built on first impressions. When we stepped into the small four-room house–a temporary orphanage–on the grounds of the Codaesti hospital, we were hit with the overpowering stench of urine. Babies of all sizes and ages were crying in their cribs, most of them suffering from a full body rash. The overworked staff could only change diapers three times a day and propped them for their feedings.

We were nonplussed by the challenge we faced but enthusiastic to soothe their tiny bodies and spirits. We cleaned the infants and covered the soaking wet mattresses with large plastic bags. We had brought with us lots of sleepers, dozens of cloth diapers, rubber pants and a case of Desitin.

There was no formula, so the staff had been feeding them a thin gruel of crushed crackers and water. We worked to fortify the meals to improve nutrition and to hold each of them as we fed them. Just holding and comforting dry babies became a joy.

As I write, I am staring at my psychology textbooks and thinking about the cognitive, physical and psychosocial abilities of each of those small children. I think in three short weeks what we performed was nothing short of miraculous. The babies began to turn over, the older ones began to crawl, and they all experienced a sense of love, probably for the first time in their short lives.

But, please don't conclude this was easy. Truth be told, we put in long days and passed up brief opportunities to be tourists in order to get the rest we needed for the next day’s challenges. Washing over 100 diapers by hand is not pretty or easy. But to know they those clean dry diapers would caress the dear bottoms of our babies made it worth every minute.

Perhaps that's why Romania stays in my mind. We witnessed unmistakable improvement of our babies, and we knew that another team would be arriving in a week to take our places. It eased separation anxiety some of us felt when we left.

While the service program in Codaesti ended when the hospital closed several years ago (a casualty of changes brought about by membership in the European Union), my experience exemplifies what happens on a well-run volunteer team. Global Volunteers has sustained a long-term development partnership with Dr. Dehlia at Tutova Hospital in Romania to care for similar needy babies at the Tutova Failure to Thrive ward outside Barlad. The philosophy of Global Volunteers is to help a community with a project that the community decides is necessary. Working side by side with a person from a different culture is not only a good way to learn about that culture but also to make a close relationship. I have never been on a team that expected me to do anything for which I was physically unable. I was, however, offered the chance to learn new stuff. But in the end, it is about making friendships and letting others get to know an American. Many people I have met tell me I am no the American they expected. And I have learned that people all around the globe have the same needs and wants as we do, laughter comes in all languages.

Susan Surma, nurse and indefatigable international volunteer