Life will go on and I will keep him in my heart and prayers. A few blocks away there's a new McDonald's where Romanian parents bring their kids to eat Big Macs and collect toys in Happy Meals. The American restaurant donates a great deal to this facility, but the children in No. 5, like those in institutions across the country, grow up in a world of their own. They all learn too early that crying won't help. Inside the orphanages, though filled with hundreds of children, there's almost no noise.
Children sit and stand and watch and wait.
When the Canadians enter a room, the orphans quietly and quickly flock around the adult's legs, hoping to be picked up. If they have a disability, things will be even worse. No one here knows how to tend to special needs children. Staff are trained to feed and clean in assembly-line fashion, but anything more is a surprise. The director hoped they could teach her staff what to do with the kids.