We’re volunteering in Romania as part of Projects Abroad volunteer system they run. We’re there for 4 weeks throughout October.
Deb is working in the orphanage and hospital looking after the babies, toddlers, kids and maybe even teenagers as the orphanage caters for children from ages 2 to 18. The hospital looks after the babies until they’re 2 years old from what we can tell. Whilst Deb is a trained nurse, it’s not a nursing position as such, but we’re pretty sure that’ll come in mighty handy. Deb’s prime reason for choosing this is she loves babies – pure and simple. She’s hoping that with her nursing skills she’ll be able to make a difference to people when they most need it, right at the start of their lives.
Glen, who doesn’t quite have the caring personal touch that Deb has, will be working in the conservation side of things. Specifically, Brasov has the largest bear sanctuary in the world where they provide a home to mistreated or injured brown bears and also wolves as I’ve recently learnt. The position is a vet’s assistant where you feed the animals, improve the sanctuary via landscaping, clearing and so-on and basically whatever the vets need. Glen’s major goal is to experience a totally different working environment whilst helping animals. So for 4 weeks, no sitting behind a computer in an office for all hours of the day and night – it’ll be a lot of manual labour in the (cold) outdoors.
Needless to say – we’re both super excited but pretty nervous about what’s ahead!
If you’re interested in reading a bit more about it, particularly the Romanian side – there’s some good info at the Projects Abroad website.