Sam and I had planned to jump on a service trip this morning but she was too sleepy and didn’t wake up when I was saying her name one foot away from her face. So I went outside and got a ticket last minute by myself. But not really by myself because coincidentally Sam’s roommate was on the trip as well. Our first stop was an orphanage nearby. We listened to the manager of the orphanage talk about their work and the children who are there. There are currently 14 children in the home but some of them, or rather most of them, are not orphans. They have been placed there by social services or their parents are drug addicts or something of that nature. Sometimes the parents come to visit the children or they go visit relatives during the summer. The whole thing is financed by the local government but their finances are still not adequate for the work they do. Their house is in desperate need of repairs but they do not have the money to do them all.
We brought toys, games, and treats for the children who were there and spent a couple hours playing with them. We played with bubbles until the youngest started crying because she was scared. It was so sad to realize she had never seen bubbles before. Once she got used to them it was a lot of fun watching her chase them around. We also had sidewalk chalk, beach balls, coloring books, silly putty, jelly beans, and pixie sticks to give out to the children. After playing around their patio that looks over the ocean we headed down to the beach. Most of us didn’t have bathing suits so we couldn’t swim but we watched the children play in the water. They were having a great time and I wish I could have gotten in because it was so hot sitting on the rocks. I played cards with two of the children instead. We were playing a game that the little boy was making up as he went but it was something like gin rummy I think. It was hard to catch on because we didn’t speak the same language but I just copied what he did. The first round we all won at the same time and the second hand I lost miserably. It was still exciting though and it was nice to interact with children as it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to do that.
After a sad goodbye we headed to the Pediatric department at the local hospital. Our group was rather large so we split into two groups for the tour. The first group went while the other group waited in the lobby. After a while it was our turn to tour the pediatric wing. There are only about 20 beds in the wing and currently about 5 of them were being used. We talked to the head doctor in the department who told us way too much information to absorb in the short amount of time we had. We were running out of time so we didn’t get to interact with any children there, which was unfortunate. The group rushed back to the port to jump on the tender boat back to the ship. (We are not currently alongside the port so we have to take a tender boat about 20 minutes out to the water to get back on the ship) After a rushed lunch and a quick nap I met up with Jon, Logan, and Julie to head out to Old Town. We met up with Erik, Andrew, Spencer, Sam, Courtney, Shane, Meredith, Anna, Lauren, and Greer. We had dinner at Taj Mahal which is a neat Bosnian restaurant down a side street. The only way we found this place was from asking our inter-port student what places he recommended. I ordered Cevapi (CEV-AH-pee) which is seasoned minced meat shaped in finger-sized portions served in bread with onions and some type of cheese spread. It was amazing but I heard that the second time you try it is not as great.
Some of us grabbed a gelato after dinner and then headed to the cliff bar to enjoy a “rum-refresher” which ended up being a bottled Bacardi drink. Mine was grapefruit and very tasty. The cliff bar (we don’t know the real name) is situated on the outside of the city walls (Dubrovnik is totally surrounded by high stone walls) but you climb through the wall to get to it. There are different levels to sit on and watch the waves. There is also a ledge to jump off into the water below. They were playing Frank Sinatra and the place was only lit by candle light. We all agreed that it was very romantic and felt like something out of a movie. Julie asked me to be her boyfriend for the night so I used Erik’s smooth move to put my arm around her shoulders. It involves locking your fingers together and moving your arms in a wave motion. Then a little robotic motion to swing your arm around the person’s shoulders. Very suave I think. (not really)
We had a lovely walk home in the warm weather and ended the night early to prepare for our adventures tomorrow.
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Cevapi was awesome and the first truly exotic thing I have tried so far. It’s not really exotic but it’s the most foreign dish I have tried.
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At the hospital I saw a lady wearing a see-through white tank top. Without a bra on. She was not in good shape physically. It was a really unfortunate event.
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