Day 23

Because the school is closed on Sundays I thought Alex and I would have to spend our time together outside, but she took me straight back to her room instead.  And honestly, it wasn't much warmer in there.  Alex has three roommates and there is a room right next to theirs that either has two or four girls in it.  For some reason the radiators in those two rooms aren't working.  The rest of the building is fine, but those two rooms are freezing.  There is about a 1/4" layer of ice *inside* the bedroom window!  And that was with the sun shining in.  At night the girls can see their breath.  They each only have one very thin blanket to cover up with so they pile coats on top of themselves to keep warm at night.  Alex said they have told those in charge that the radiators aren't working, but they haven't gotten fixed yet.  And while Alex only has nine more sleeps there the other girls don't have the luxury of leaving.  I am going to see if I can find some fleece blankets to take to them.  I know it's not the answer, but it can't hurt.

While I was sitting in Alex' room one of her teachers came in to get the girls to go shopping to buy gifts for the boys in their class for Men's Day.  She invited me to come along.  We walked to a few little "shops" that would be considered flea markets in the United States.  The teacher ended up getting each boy a sports themed coffee mug.  While I don't know that they will be drinking coffee, I do believe tea drinking is pretty normal here for the teens.  Then we went to a tool shop and Alex wanted to get her male teacher some kind of power tool (sander, maybe?).  She asked if I could buy it and I wasn't about to turn her down.  After we left the store Alex told me that her teacher was hoping Jeff was still here because she was wanting him to make sure the power tool we were getting was a good one!  She was disappointed when Alex told her Daddy had gone back to America already.

I have come down with a slight chest cold.  It is truly not a big deal, but I sound *terrible*!  It is both comical and painful to listen to me talk.  (Please, no cracks here about how that's not any different from any other time!)  What I wasn't expecting from this was how upset and worried Alex would be about it.  We had gotten her some very good throat lozenges for the chest cold she had last week (hmmm...starting to put 2 & 2 together, here!) and she made me take what was left.  Then she gave me instructions to drink tea with honey and to put a hot compress on my chest.  Then tonight while we were on the phone she told me she was very scared for me staying by myself in the apartment.  I tried to reassure her that I felt very safe here.  Never mind the fact that in just a little over a year from now all of her friends will be on their own and probably not in an apartment nearly as nice as this one!  The irony of it is heartbreaking.  In her mind the fact that I am not "used" to being here makes me uniquely unqualified to take care of myself at the age of almost 40.  But this is just a way of life for these 15-16 year old kids that she has know for years.  When they are released from the orphanage, or Internat, or Children's Home or whatever you want to call it, that's it!  And they don't have anyone to be worried about them.  I could go on and on and on about this, and kinda sorta already did.  I think I am being overly sensitive to the fact that my daughter can see her breath at night *in her bedroom* because it is so cold and she is sitting there buried under a pile of coats to keep warm worrying about me!

On top of all of that, one of Alex' roommates has a tooth that is really bothering her.  She let me take a look at it.  It is rotten on one side and bleeding and needs to come out.  She keeps trying to pull it out herself because she is too scared to go to the dentist.  Which I guess I don't blame her as they don't use any pain killers anyway.  I feel a tangent coming on so I think it's time to sign off!

S~