The second of two e-mail updates received on 1/7/10, this one received at 3:35 pm:
Friday, January 08, 2010
Julianna and Christmas in Belarus – Update #5
More on Deaf Orphanages and Village in Belarus – Update #5
Hello friends and family!
The internet is working tonight, and I have time to write to you, so I'm thanking God for answering those prayers. The past few days have been so very busy here in Belarus - nonstop activity with 4 girls staying with us and constant activities for us to do. Yet, even though the slight break from activity tonight is nice, the quietness in the house tonight is deafening as it is so evident that the girls are no longer with us since they went back to their "homes" yesterday. Their smiles and laughter are missed so much by Rich, Joe and I tonight...
But, now let me step back in time to three days ago when we had the excitement of visiting the deaf village. On Jan. 4th, our day began with meatballs & chicken broth, eggs, and mashed potatoes for breakfast! A heavier meal than any of us are used to, but since we are learning quickly while here that we often do not get time to eat lunch, we know we need to eat what we can in the morning so we can make it to dinner time! We left around 11 am to head over to the deaf "village" (as it had been described to us). In reality however, it wasn't really a village but a set of buildings where many deaf people lived and worked. The first building we went into was the "enterprise" building (the administration building & factory) where the deaf people worked. The deaf people are organized into various associations, of which this "village" we went to is one of them. The association provides for all their needs and is run by the government. It provides the deaf with a job, a "home", and a place of entertainment. The jobs that are given to the deaf people are very simple jobs that require very little knowledge...they are trained to do one skill, and they do that one thing over and over and over. The factory we were in was making window handles and hinges...there were some machines, but the people were doing much of the work by hand also. We got to tour the factory which was very dirty (but that's probably normal even for a factory in the United States) and very cold - Rich's thermometer registered just 50 degrees! They also have other types of manual activities such as sewing that they will have the deaf people do. The tour was interesting. Joe was quite the celebrity - certainly the only deaf American any of these deaf people ever met before. They stopped working to come talk to him and the people who were there supervisors wanted to take so many pictures of Joe talking with them. For that matter, the association directors and administration said we were the first Americans they had ever met also, and they too had us stand with them and took many pictures.
After the factory, we went to the apartment building. Wow - what a shock...we walked in on the ground floor to a sparse concrete "lobby" area with no decorations. We headed up the stairwell - uneven concrete steps, dirty walls, overall filth. But it only got worse...the further up we went the more intense was the smell that permeated the building. After going up a few floors we were led into a small room - probably not more than 8 ft. x 10 ft. - which was packed with women and children. All the children there were deaf except for one. The mothers had heard that a group of Americans were coming to visit, and these Americans wanted to help their children. Obviously they desire our assistance. The children ranged in age from 1 1/2 years old to 12 years old. Absolutely adorable children - each one of them. The room was so full of people you could hardly move. Fortunately we had brought along a bag of matchbox cars, some kaleidoscopes and a baby rattle. We asked some of the mamas to wait out in the hall and Rich got out the camera and video camera. We started videoing each child, writing down their name and age. Then each little boy got a car and the girls got the kaleidoscopes. The smallest child got the baby rattle. Some of the children were shy, others were so excited to see us and get a toy. Most were probably wearing their best clothes, and those were not good - fairly old and dingy. Some of the children smelled bad - but that is nothing unusual in Belarus. I was able to convince even some of the shyest children to let me hold them while Rich filmed them, which was just wonderful. I loved being able to hold and hug these little ones who have so little. It was amazing how their eyes sparkled when we handed them a little toy. We learned that all the children we saw that day had at least a mama or papa - perhaps both. They all lived in the association building. When the children are 3 years old, their parents can begin sending them to a "daycare" school where they live. The children only come home 4 times a year - for summer break, one week in the spring & fall, and for the holiday over New Years (probably about 2 weeks). The adults talked about how difficult it was for them to send their children away to school and not be able to see them for such a long time. I can only imagine. We were told that the government gives them hearing aids for the children, but I'm not sure the hearing aids really work well for the children or are suited to their individual needs. Krystina and the other girls with us were wonderful with the children too - talked to them and gave them lots of hugs. I wanted so badly to take the kids away from that place to give them a better life - their mothers looked so sad the entire time - so depressed, defeated - totally hopeless. Their babies are just children like those in America, but born in a country where there is so little hope, so little future for them. They are just little ones growing up in filth...it's so sad.
After taking the children’s pictures and giving them toys we were invited to go into one of the mother's apartments for tea and a snack. We went up the stairs to another floor and entered a VERY small apartment - three rooms - one a mini kitchen which only had a small refrigerator - no stove - and 2 small bedrooms/living areas. A table had been put in the one room and that was where we sat. We had a good conversation with the director and the other association worker there about the facility and their needs. They seemed sincerely interested in having us bring the deaf children to America with the ABRO program this summer. They told us they had a total of 13 deaf children that lived in the building, 100 deaf adults. Apparently a German group has helped them some in the past, but that group will only take hearing children, so the deaf children have never had an opportunity to have assistance similar to what we are offering through the ABRO program. The woman who hosted us in her apartment was partially deaf and had a speech impairment we were told. She had 2 hearing sons - one was older but the 2nd one was 12 years old. He has a physical disability - apparently he has club feet and has had 2 surgeries so far for them. The mother was so gracious to us, and obviously was trying very hard to get us to take her son to America this summer. After eating she asked us to take so many pictures of her son with us. Then they even had us take pictures of a little dog they had! :) That was kind of funny. After eating there, we had a better "tour" of the apartment building. For every 4 "apartments" there is one kitchen which is shared. The kitchens were horrible - one rusted, very old stove, one or two sinks that looked like they were about ready to fall off the wall and a small refrigerator. There was one table in the kitchen too. It smelled horrendous and was filthy again. We went up to another floor in the apartment, and the smell on that floor was even worse - made us want to gag. Again the apartments all shared a kitchen and on this floor we saw a "laundry room" which was basically a dirty concrete hole with 2 regular sized sinks hanging on the wall. Laundry was hung over the pipes on the ceiling. No washing machine or dryer at all. We never did see the bathroom in the apartments, but I can only imagine how bad those must have been too. I'm sure that was the source of some of the smell in the building.
Next we went to the "club". This was the best building of them all at the deaf facility. They have a library, sewing room, art room, and theater there for the deaf people. Apparently they have a singing deaf group that performs there and has won awards too. I was quite impressed actually by their auditorium. I must tell you though about the bathrooms we did see in the club... in the ladies room, you walked in and there were 2 sinks inside the door. Then you walked into the toilet room - except there were NO toilets. There were only 3 or 4 holes in the floor - you just squatted over a hole to go to the bathroom. There was no toilet paper, and there were no doors on the "stalls" for each toilet. The smell was bad too. Krystina went in to the bathroom with me and told me that the bathrooms at her school were the same as these. Unbelievable... These bathrooms make port-a-pots in America look like luxuries!! Before we left the deaf facility, I was able to pull aside the one mother who had us in her home and give her $20. She was so incredibly grateful - hugged me, kissed me, etc. I mentioned her reaction to one of the other ladies here with us on the trip from America, and she said that $20 is probably more money than that woman receives in one month on her government stipend.
Two other things we learned - if a deaf adult in Belarus wears a hearing aid, they cannot receive government assistance at all, so most of the deaf people here do not wear hearing aids. Also, we learned that if a woman "registers" her marriage with the government here, she does not get as much government support as a deaf person as she does if she is not "registered" as married. That reminded me in many ways of the welfare system in America actually, but many of these deaf people have absolutely no opportunities here to survive except through the government stipend each month.
After leaving the deaf village we met Irena, our one chaperone with our group this past summer, and Pasha & his mother (one of the children who came to Frederick last summer). We all went bowling and had a nice time with them. Bowling in Belarus is very similar to bowling in America. After bowling, Irena took Rich, Krystina & Olya to go shopping more (Rich was so excited about that!! haha) and Joe, Marharyta, little Krystina & I went with Pasha & his mother to visit her office. His mother is a dentist and works for a state run clinic. We walked to her office, which was quite a good distance - I would guess we walked for at least a 1/2 hour, and it was absolutely freezing. I'm pretty sure it was below zero degrees. So cold it hurt when you breathed through your nose. Anyway, we arrived at her dentist office, and it was so busy with people. Long lines waiting for the government healthcare there. She took us up to her office and showed us her dental area. Looked fairly similar to American dentist offices, although a little bit more sparse. I don't believe she had the advanced equipment as we have in America. She was such a sweet lady, and cleaned both Krystina & Marharyta's teeth while we were there. Then she called a taxi for us and took us back to the ARK house. Dinner was good - we had crepes with dried fruit and cream cheese inside! That evening we played with the girls some. I french braided all the girls hair (except Marharyta who didn't want it done!), and then we tucked all the girls into nice warm soft beds for the evening. We did a bible story then told them good night. We tried very hard while the girls were with us to impress upon them about trusting in God and believing that anything is possible with Him.
The next day - Jan. 5th - we got up early as we were taking a trip to the Cherikof shelter that day. I really enjoyed visiting this shelter - it's probably been one of my favorite things about this trip! We left on the bus around 9:45 am. Breakfast that morning was rice, chicken, carrots/onion/garlic mixture, cinnamon bread & cream cheese with raisins. We had an approximate ride of 1 1/2 hours to Cherikof on a bus.
A shelter is different from an orphanage. Initially when a child is removed by the government from their parents' home in Belarus, they are put in a temporary housing situation for a short time. Then the child is moved to a shelter where they stay for 6 months to 1 year. During this time, the parents have the opportunity to "straighten up" their lifestyle so the child can go back home or the social workers look for another relative to take the child. If neither of these options work out, then the child is moved to an orphanage.
The bus ride to Cherikof itself was interesting - on the way there, Marharyta got car sick and threw up. Fortunately, we knew she wasn't feeling well, and another woman on the bus had given her a plastic bag. Many of the more experienced ABRO people on the bus with me said it was quite common for the orphans, like Marharyta, to get car sick, because they usually have rarely gone anywhere in the car - they stay at the orphanage all the time.
Cherikof was a good place. They had a decent playground for the children, and the director there seemed to be very sincere and really love the children (that's not always the case with the administration of the orphanages!). I learned that this director has on occasion even taken children who had gotten too old to live in the shelter into her own home to help them get established rather than having them end up out on the street. It's good to know there are people like her here in Belarus helping these children in ways they can also. We were led to a room in the shelter with a very big Christmas tree which sat in the middle of the room. About 20 children came in - almost all were dressed in some type of costume - and they sang songs for us and danced around the tree for us. Then Father Frost (Santa) and his granddaughter, the Ice Princess, arrived. Tradition has it that the children must perform something for Father Frost before he gives them candy, so each child came up to Father Frost, recited a poem, sung a song or even played a piano, before he handed them candy. It was very cute. Cherikof actually had some very young children there also - as young as 3 years old. All the children were precious - to look into their eyes and faces and know that their parents had rejected them or would not provide for these little ones was unbelievable & so sad!! We gave gifts (toys, clothes, & school supplies we collected from people in America) to the children and then had the opportunity to spend some time with them and take some pictures. After the children left, we had an auction of some of the children's artwork amongst the Americans to raise money for the orphanage. The children here are very talented in the creative arts - I've seen beautiful creations in the orphanages, and they all seem very enthusiastic about drawing, painting, etc. After the auction, the director brought more children back into the room who she really wants to find host families for next summer. There was one little boy in the group she brought who was fairly young. He has vision problems and he still believes his mother will be taking him back. The director told us that is not the case however, and he'll probably end up in an orphanage. There were a few sisters who also were young who really needed a host family this summer. Precious little girls. Also there was a slightly older child, who was a very sweet, shy girl. She played the piano very well, and seemed like a wonderful child.
We also met deaf children in Cherikof. One little girl broke our hearts. She wore a hearing aid, but I don't believe it helped her much at all. She didn't know sign language at all and could not speak. She is 7 years old, and has no communication. She comes to Cherikof for school but lives at home with her mother. Her mother was there too, and did not want us to video her daughter because she was ashamed that her daughter was deaf. We were able to take the little girl's picture though. This child desperately needs a host family this summer who can spend a lot of time with her to begin teaching her some communication skills. She's obviously been neglected for a long time and it worries me that she cannot even talk through speech or sign language now at age 7. This is the culture of Belarus - anyone with a handicap can have a serious disadvantage, as is seen with this child. We met 3 or 4 other deaf girls there too whose parents brought them to meet the "Americans who want to help deaf children." We took pictures of them and told them about America. After meeting with the children, we had lunch at the orphanage, and then it was time to say goodbye and head back to Mogilev.
Dinner at the ARK house was pasta and chicken - a good meal. Our girls loved it and ate quite a lot! We let the girls stay up late that night, since it was their last night with us. We played with them, I braided their hair again, and we videoed messages from them to bring back to their host families in America. So cute to see what they wanted to tell their American mommy and daddy! Our poor girls - some of them smelled so badly even after they had taken showers for a few days and were using deodorant we brought them. They live in such bad living conditions, in such horribly smelly places, I think the odor just gets in their skin! After a while, it's a little hard to take the smell, but I love these girls so much, you just hug them and hold them anyway figuring you can endure the smell so they know how much they are loved.
Yesterday, we had to take the girls back to their homes. Olya was the first girl we dropped off. Another ABRO lady met us at a bus station to take her back home. She cried when she left, as Rich and I also did. It's so hard to say goodbye to these kids - especially when you know their homes are so horrendous and such bad living conditions. Then we drove to Msistlval to take back Marharyta & Krystina. While at their orphanage we got to tour the buildings again with the director and we met a few other deaf children we hadn't seen before. We brought more toys with us and left them there for the kids. It was snowing, so we couldn't stay too long, but we did get to see their historical museum, and we learned that the buildings where the orphanage is are hundreds of years old. It is an old monastery. Some of the buildings including the gymnasium have been condemned because they are no longer safe. The dormitory buildings smell very moldy, but they do have some heat. I was told they have about 46 boys and over 50 girls that stay there. One adult supervises the girls floor at night and one adult supervises the boys floor at night. That's it - 2 adults for over 100 children!! Saying goodbye to Marharyta & Krystina was also very hard, but they did well. There were some tears, but they are both very strong girls, and they know how much we love them.
Next we took Rich's Krystina back to Dreben. It was a long drive - it was snowing all day and the roads were getting quite bad. But we made it to her apartment where her foster mom was. Krystina was very upset to have to leave and wanted to stay with us so badly. It was very hard to leave her as we were all so emotional by that point in the late afternoon. When we left the van felt so empty with out the four girls with us. When we arrived back at the ARK house last night, we ate sausage balls wrapped up in some kind of dough and yogurt with dried fruit. It was alright. Rich, Joe & I talked for a long time too.
I've discovered that the Internet here shuts down around 9:55 pm so I'm going to end this email and then start a new one with the rest of the update. That way if I don't complete the second one you'll at least have some information. I hope you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves. Thank you so much for your continued prayers! We can feel your prayers giving us strength and protection on this trip!
Take care,
Elaine
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Visited Deaf Villages and Children Shelters – Update #4
From an e-mail message on 1/5/10 at 12:19 pm EST: Dear friends & family,
I hope to be able to write you a longer email later tonight with more details about the past two days here in Mogilev, Belarus, but our internet connection does not always work, and that is why these emails have not been sent everyday unfortunately. Each night, I try to spend as much time with the children as possible before they go to bed. Then I hope and pray the computer connection is still working so I can send you a message. Unfortunately the past day or so, it has not worked. Tonight, I decided to let you all know we are still alive and well before the internet decided to "stop" for the evening. But I must go back soon with our girls, since tonight is our last evening with them. Tomorrow the orphanage and Krystina's foster mom want us to bring them back to their homes. Tonight and tomorrow will be very tough days for us as a result - we love these girls so much, and they love America so much. They dream of living in our country and having families. Fortunately we are able to give them a family who can provide for them in some ways through ABRO, even though Belarus doesn't allow international adoptions.
Yesterday we went to the deaf "village" and it was an amazing experience. I promise to write about that more when I have time. This short email will not do the visit justice, and there is so much I wish to tell you about it.
Today we went to another children's "shelter" - not an orphanage, per se, although children without families do live there. Basically it's a place where the children stay after being taken away from their families by the government and before being placed in an orphanage. Today was wonderful also - I really love going to visit the orphanages and be with the children. They are so precious.
We met several children - deaf and hearing - who need host families this summer. Please begin thinking and praying about opening your homes this summer to one of these children. They are so precious, and we so desperately want to help them as much as possible.
I will write more later - must go play with the girls, hug them while they cry as they don't want to leave, and look at pictures and videos of our times with them. I love them all so much. Please pray for us all as tomorrow will be a very hard day for the girls and for us.
May God bless you all for taking this journey to Belarus through your prayers with us!
Elaine
Dreben, Mstislval orphanage – Update #3
From an e-mail on 1/3/10 at 1:09 pm EST: Dear friends & family,
I can't express how much your thoughts and prayers have meant to us while on this trip so far. So many of you have sent your love and prayers our way - thank you so much! It's almost like you're here with us in Belarus.
It's been a while since I've had access to a computer to be able to send an update email. The past 4 days have been very busy, so I'll try to summarize as best I can, but I'm afraid this may be a long email!
When you last heard from me, Rich, Joe & I were getting ready to head to Msistlval where the deaf orphanage is located. The ride there was interesting in and of itself! Valentina had rented or borrowed a van and a man drove it for us. They picked us up at the ARK house where we were staying and drove through Mogilev. Our first stop was to change some US dollars into Belarusian rubles at the supermarket. Wow - the supermarket was a crazy place... We also bought lots of bottled water since we can't drink the water here. (You'd be amazed how much you treasure clean water at home when you're in a country where you can't just go to a sink to get a glass of water!) Then we headed to Dreben to get Krystina (Rich's). It was about a 2 hour drive.
Dreben was a small town - apartments on one side of the road, many stories high. On the other side of the road were small homes. We found Krystina's apartment building and she came down to let us in (all the apartment buildings are locked here and someone has to come let you in the main door). We were all so happy to see each other again! Her foster mom Natasha invited us in, and we got to see where Krystina lives. It was probably a 3-4 room apartment - a living room, bedroom, kitchen and toilet. Natasha earns a living by keeping foster children. She has Krystina now. One week ago she got a new little boy named Artom. The government took him away from his mother because she was an alcoholic and he was living and playing in dirt in the home where his mother lived. When the government took him away he was very sick and had to go to the hospital for a while before coming to Natasha's home. He was a very cute little boy - about 1 1/2 years old. Unfortunately Natasha will only be able to keep him in her home for 6 months. Then he will most likely go to an orphanage, unless his mother cleans herself up and can show she can provide for him. More than likely, he'll end up like the many other social orphans in Belarus living out the rest of his childhood in an orphanage or foster home. It was so sad to hold that little boy and know there was nothing we could do to help him have a good family home to grow up in, other than pray that the government of Belarus will one day allow international adoptions again. Natasha served us (as is Belarusian culture when anyone comes to visit - ESPECIALLY Americans!) meats, bread, tea (chai in Russian), wine, and cookies. After visiting, we left with Krystina and headed to Msistlval.
Upon arriving in Msistlval, we went to Valentina's home. It was late already, so we couldn't go to the deaf orphanage. She cooked us a pasta dish with a meat sauce on top along with some other food. We met her husband Baris, and chatted for a while that night. It ended up that Krystina & I slept together in the one and only bed in the house. Rich and Joe slept on a pull out sofa. Valentina & her husband slept in her kitchen. Their only son stayed at his grandmother's home. Their apartment was small, but basically fine. A small kitchen, hall, bedroom, & living room. One toilet and bathtub (both in very tiny rooms).
Our first full day in Msistlval was quite exciting as we headed to the deaf orphanage around 9:30 am. We were excited to go meet the children and see Krystina (Joe's) & Marharyta. The orphanage/school is in an old monastery. The main building has been severely damaged by wars years ago, and was never repaired (it appears). They have a school building and a dormitory. Over 100 deaf children live there - boys and girls ranging in ages from 7 - 19. A couple teachers met us and took us in to see the children who had not gone to a home on holiday break. There were 9 boys and 2 girls (Krystina & Marharyta). The boys were aged from 7-19. You could tell they didn't get visitors much because they were so excited to see us and starved for attention. The other interesting thing was that there were some hearing children there too - I don't know why they mixed the deaf and hearing kids, but I hope to find out while here. Anyway, we handed out the toys and gifts we had put together for the children and they absolutely loved seeing what we had given them. They ate lots of the candy while trying to learn how to play with the toys - they didn't know what a frisbee, basketball hoop or football were, or what to do with them, so we tried to teach them. After playing with the kids some, we got to see some of the school. Small classrooms, but they did have some books, paper, pictures, etc. in them. They did have some heat too, although we wore our really heavy winter coats inside, and did not get overheated. We saw the bathrooms - the toilets don't really flush well at all and in the one bathroom I went in, there were 2 toilets and one sink. The smell practically made me gag. Following the tour of the school we went back to the kitchen where the children were starting to eat lunch - looked like chicken broth with some carrots, and some kind of food that resembled meatloaf on top of an egg (?). I'm really not sure what it was, but the kids did not eat much of it...they are all very skinny and many are so small for their ages. We took Marharyta & Krystina with us for the rest of the afternoon when we left. They had to go back to the orphanage to sleep that night, New Years Eve, though, because Valentina didn't have room for them in her home with us.
New Years Eve - a huge Belarusian celebration. Valentina invited her family over - her sister & brother-in-law and her mother. Of course, they wanted to come "meet the Americans!" They put out all kinds of food for dinner around 10 pm. They had fish (raw & cooked), chicken, pork, fruit, vegetables, etc. Juice, champagne & vodka were apparently essential to the celebration too. We first celebrated the Russian new year at 11 pm (Moscow is 1 hour ahead of Belarus), then the Belarusian new year at 12 pm. At 1 am we walked to the town square to the holiday lights. We saw it, but apparently arrived too early because as we were walking back many people were starting to come down for the concert that was starting later. We were too tired to stay longer. When we got back to the house, we had dessert and then around 3 am we finally went to bed!
The next day, Baris showed us the town - we first went on a horse drawn sleigh ride! Now I know in America we have this picturesque image of the horse drawn sleigh ride with the sparkling silver runners, and the beautiful horse - that was not quite what this ride was!! :) The horse was small, pretty dirty and didn't smell good at all. The "Sleigh" was more of a sled that had poles attached to handmade braided harnesses on either side of the horse. It did have a bench that 3 of us could fit on. The ride was fast & cold & bumpy! We survived though and it was certainly an interesting experience. We also went in the stable where these horses are and saw the stable area. Again - nothing like America!
After the sleigh ride, Baris wanted us to meet his parents, so we visited them in their small village home. It was a tiny little house - seemed like we had gone back in time about 100 years. It was so old! When Baris opened the door to go inside, 3 chickens came running out. His parents looked very old, but we found out they were only 77 and 82 years old. They had lived in this home for over 40 years. There were clothes hanging on the clothesline outside. They did have electricity and a small refrigerator & TV. Otherwise it seemed to be a 2 room house - a small kitchen and a living area. On one side of the living area were 2 twin size beds, on the other side was a sofa, chair & TV. They were very welcoming and friendly people. We were the first Americans they had ever met in their lives. To these people, that is a huge thing - at times Joe, Rich and I have very much felt that we are "celebrities" as we are taken to different places and introduced to family as "my friends from America". All the people we have met are so excited to meet us, as Americans, and can't wait to invite us to their homes. Constantly we're told to "come back in the summer"! :)
After that visit, Baris took us to a monastery that is over 600 years old. Again the old church building and monastery were severly damaged in WWII, but they have a small church there now and 12 monks live there. It was an interesting visit.
On Jan. 2nd we woke up early to pick up Marharyta & Krystina at the deaf orphanage & take them with us to the ARK house. It was great to get to take them out of the orphanage! Before we left the orphanage, we got to see the bedrooms. About 10 kids in a room - very small beds with little blankets, some heat, 2 small wardrobe closets for all the kids in the one room, very few toys and decorations. You could easily see which kids came to America before because they had some toys on their beds. The bathrooms were not good. 2 sinks for a whole floor, 1 bath "tub" (a 2 ft x 3 ft porcelian wash area that's about 5 inches deep - no shower & no privacy, and 5 toilets. There was one girl's floor and one boy's floor. No wonder the kids didn't smell very good - it'd be practically impossible for them to get a decent bath.
After taking the girls we went to the Ryasno orphanage where we met up with the rest of the ABRO group that went on the trip. It was so exciting to see the other English speaking people again - so nice to be able to talk to others too! :) Ryasno is a large orphanage - about 75 kids live there now. They have a school building, greenhouses, and a dormitory/kitchen. Again, we handed out toys to the children & the children put on a performance for us. The children also had made pictures and other crafts which they auctioned to us. The money raised went to the orphanage - they raise over $1,600 from the Americans! The thing about Ryasno that struck me the most was that we were told all the children there were mentally retarded. But, in our interactions with them, the children are not mentally retarded at all...they were labeled early in life as having severe learning disabilities and were sent to Ryasno. They will have this label for the rest of their lives, even though it's untrue. It is so sad to think these children, who are perfectly capable of doing almost anything probably, won't be allowed to grow to their full potential because of the limitations they have in life set by the authorities. The temperature in the one bedroom at Ryasno was 54 degrees. The bathrooms were ok, but according to Rich and Joe, the boys' bathrooms just have holes in the floors - no toilets at all.
We got back to the ARK house last night, enjoyed dinner with the girls, and then gave the girls their "presents" we brought from home. Oh to see their faces when giving them little things like a new pair of socks or a toothbrush! I got so many hugs and kisses for such little things...that's how you know these children really have nothing...they see us loving them in these little actions, and it is so rewarding. It's one time when their sad faces change to joy, a little light glimmers in their eyes...
Today we took the girls shopping - for 7 hours!!! Yes that's right a seven hour shopping trip...now I must commend Rich and Joe because they put up with 7 girls shopping for 7 hours today (we had 2 female chaperones with us and another girl, Olya, who stays with friends of Rich's in America came to stay with us too last night). We got the girls the essentials - they all needed new boots & socks. Some needed underwear, jeans, shirts, hats, & scarves. It was a big day. The shops are totally different than in America too. Much much smaller...
We visited another girl this afternoon too, Natasha, who stayed with a host family from New Hope in Frederick last summer. She and her family live in an apartment. Her parents are both artists, and they do beautiful work. Her father's dream is to be able to have an art show in America... They thanked us (all Americans) so much for helping one of their daughters be able to come to America and see the ocean, our country, to get clothes, medical care, and help. They were so grateful... They served us cake, tea, and cookies. They had 2 bedrooms in their apartment (one was also the living room) and a kitchen. It was a newer apartment. They have an older daughter (17) and a younger daughter (almost 3) too. The youngest was so small for a 3 year old - if I had to have guessed her age, I would have said 1 1/2 years old. She was adorable - so sweet.
Tonight Joe, Krystina (Joe's), Marharyta & I ate at the ARK house and we'll play games and hang out with the girls some. Rich, Krystina, and Olya went to visit a friend they know from when they were with the ABRO group in NC.
Tomorrow we go to the deaf village, and then we are supposed to go bowling. Please pray for us tomorrow...I highly suspect that seeing the deaf village will be a very difficult experience for all of us. While we want to go learn about what happens to the deaf people in Belarus, we are also wary of going, knowing what we will see most likely will be very bad living conditions for these people.
I hope you are all doing well in America. We all miss you and we miss America. I know that even though I knew we were very blessed to live in the U.S. before I came on this trip, I now realize how very blessed we are. I'm not sure I will ever quite look at a shower or a clean toilet the same way as I did before - or clean drinking water - or lots of fruits and vegetables - or a nice car. God has truly blessed us so much...we need to thank Him and give back to Him by serving others who so desperately need our help.
Thank you for your continued prayers. Having you all as friends and prayer warriors is such a blessing to me!
Take care,
Elaine
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