The orphanage is only about 1 hour away from Kherson, so Bill and I volunteered to go there and visit with this girl. Karen called the director of the orphanage to make sure it was okay for us to visit and evaluate the girl. We took Andrey Kisorets (American Andrey) with us to translate and we had a wonderful time. Not many visitors go to Stari Zburivka so even the teachers were curious about us.
We were ushered into a classroom that was very small (probably about 12' X 20'). We started with at least 20 kids and one teacher - that would make 25 people, 8 desks, and 18 chairs. It got crowded quickly. We were trying to not make it obvious that we were there to see one specific child. We started off putting dominos onto 6 desks that were pushed together. All the kids grabbed some and hesitated. It seemed as if they did not know what to do with the dominos. The teacher showed them how you put them end to end with the number matching, but they did not seem very interested. Instead we stood them up front to back etc... and knocked them down, lots of laughing.
I had decided to stand next to the girl that we were there specifically to see, while Andrey, Bill and Natasha (Andrey's girlfriend) stood at various spots around the table. At first the kids were barley talking to us; well that lasted all of 2 minuets. After about 5-10 the young girl we were there to see pulled me over to a different desk and wanted to play with Barbie dolls. I realized that I was spending all my time with her and decided I had better play with some of the other kids. The girl (sorry I cannot say her name) followed me and even though I was playing and talking with other kids she kept a hand on me. She is very affectionate. I would say she was a little passive, but it is better than some of the aggression that we witnessed. It is so sad to see the damage that has happened to these young kids. By the time we were ready to leave the little girl that we came to see was hugging me tight and telling me niet, niet (no, no). She desperately wanted me to stay. Natasha had two children hanging on her and Andrey had a couple on him as well. Once we got the car turned around Bill had to put on the gas and drive out of the gates quickly because the kids were running after the car and we were afraid that we might run one over. It was so sad to look back at 20 or so faces waving at us and knowing they did not want us to leave.
It is so heart breaking I just asked Bill if we could visit the Kherson orphanage on Saturday morning and then the Stari Zburivka orphanage in the afternoon. It will be up to Andrey, since he is the one doing all the translating.
Today is Sunday and we had a great day as well. House parent Andrey took three of the boys to another city in the van, so to get to church we squished four boys into the back seat of our little car. Bill and I decided to cook another american meal; a beef roast and mashed potatoes. We got a beautiful 5lb roast for $17.00 U.S. (136 grevna).
As you know it takes a while for a roast to cook and most of the boys got impatient waiting so they took off for town. Kola is the only one that waited around with us, so when it was time to eat the three of us sat at the table and had a very wonderful, quiet, pleasant, YUMMY dinner. I am upstairs and I can just hear all the other boys coming home. We will have to see how they enjoyed the dinner.
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