Remember the orphanage I stayed at last year? It was Sergei Posad Psychological. That's where we went today. It is about an hour and a half north east of Moscow by bus and all 31 of us went. There has been a little confusion about our schedule because of some disagreements within the Russian Department of Education but Director Valentina at Sergei Posad welcomed us with open arms. We unloaded all the presents and candy from the bus and then met with a large group of the kids in the gym. There are over 300 kids at S.P.P. but many of them are severely handicapped and could not come down to see us. (They will get presents, though.) We put on our puppet show for them and then sang some American Christmas songs. Mike Richards is the music person on the trip but he has generously allowed me to help so I led a couple of the songs while he played by ear (Jingle Bells, The 12 Days of Christmas, etc.) and then I played some numbers from the hymnal while he led the singing. The Russian Peace Foundation provided a keyboard for us to use while we are here. The kids loved the puppet show and wanted to hug and kiss all the puppets when we were done.
We all had pieces of candy and small toys in our pockets to give out and we were swamped! The older kids also wanted to take pictures with our cameras and we let them. Some of the shots turned out pretty good! They are all fascinated with cameras and want to see their faces on the digital screens when we take their pictures. The best part of the afternoon for me was our visit to the second floor where the more severely disabled children live. I know we still didn't see the kids in the worst condition, but I got to see my Pasha from last year. I think he recognized me (but maybe he was just happy for anyone to pay attention to him!) and I got to hug and kiss him a little bit. They were all down for their afternoon naps but they knew we were coming and nobody was asleep!
There have been many, many improvements made in the physical facilities since our visit last year and the staff was very proud to show them off. I've got to figure out a way to come back next year!
Tomorrow we will go to another orphanage - I don't remember the name but I'll make sure to write it down tomorrow - and we go to the ballet tomorrow night. I have tons of wonderful pictures but I'm not sure how to download them to a computer in a Russian Internet cafe so you'll have to wait till I get home to see them.
Blessings!
Do Svedanya!
Margie
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