Some pictures from the program

 Here are some promised pictures...

Rebecca (on the right) and Dana (in the back) work on reading with two of the girls in the program. It's encouraging to hear Rebecca speaking Romanian - helps me believe that I'll also eventually learn to speak it well.

This is one of the kids who just finished first grade. She and I worked on reading. It was exciting to see her interested in what the words mean and to see her work through her frustration over how difficult the work seemed to be.  She and two of her sisters come to the program at the church.

This is one of her older sisters, playing with some schoolmates after the end-of-the-year classroom program. Behind her (in blue) is Dana, who works with the program and keeps the kids in line.

At the park, after the "graduation" ceremony at their school... The kids are gathered around Dan, who helps them with homework and also gives them the very important (and often lacking) influence and example of a man in their lives. 

Claudia with two of the first-graders in their classroom. Believe it or not, both are gypsy - the blonde one they call Căpşunică or "little strawberry." Both girls did well in their schoolwork this year, learning to read even three and four syllable words! 

The kids are finished with the program for the summer, but hopefully will be coming back in the fall along with a new set of first-graders - the younger siblings of these kids or other kids whose parents see the benefit of the program and tell their young kids "you'll be going to school with them when you're older."