May 24th - Day 3

8:45 AM - First night was WONDERFUL! I slept like a rock, white night or not. I managed to get in a whole seven hours! I was even able to turn  on our Russian TV and figure out the weather for the day. I'm starting to feel at home. Breakfast was wonderful, and Pastor started off our mission off with Psalm 121. Today we're going to two orphanages, one for mentally handicapped children, and then one afterwards that is simply an orphanage. We filled up our bags with gifts for the kids, and I'm really excited to experience that! We're also all wearing crosses that we will give away to a child of our choice. We're driving to our first destination, watching children walk or be walked to school, and it's almost 9!
[Note: Russians don't start their day until 10, similar to how we start our days at 8.]

1:30 PM - We just finished up our first visit to an orphanage, Szhilgorodok, which St. Peter's in Davenport, Nebraska helps to sponsor. This orphanage is for children ages four to eighteen who have any mental handicaps. The staff served us a very nice lunch in the administration building, and then we met the kids. The first room had younger children, who were in need of help, but were also partially capable on their own. I made a couple of new friends who loved holding hands, getting presents, and having their backs rubbed. The next room we went into was for children who have to stay in bed their whole life. I made a friend in that room, and I will never forget how hard that child worked to turn over, just so I could hold their hand and they could see my face. The smile on that face was more powerful than any drug could ever be in making me smile and feel God's pure joy.

Finally, we met the orphans who were more capable of taking care of themselves. We met many smiles and grateful faces as we walked through the classrooms. The older, most capable boys (I either didn't meet any girls, or everyone had their hair cut short due to lice,) live in a brand new building and have all sorts of classrooms. They have an auditorium, a "fantasy room" that is in the works for becoming a therapy center, as well as a small pet room! We got to play soccer with the older kids, and we met Courtney's friend, Volvo. He is a very enthusiastic soccer player! We met another boy who was dressed up in a suit, and his name was Surggio. When we asked why he was so dressed up, he replied that he had a date! He seemed very pleased! :)

There were many faces that I won't be able to put names with, but it gives me comfort to know that our loving Father knows all their names, and that He loves them.

10:25 PM - Whoosta! What a day! After our first visit, we went to Lopuhinka. This orphanage was an old school that has been transformed. It's been an orphanage for many, many years, but they didn't start to restore it until about five or ten years ago. We handed out presents there, and got to play with the kids for a while. They were still in school, though, so we didn't stay for very long. We got back into the city, and Nicoli [our translator] took us sight-seeing at Peter the Great's summer palace. They have over 150 fountains running over many acres that overlook the Baltic Sea. Beautiful view, absolutely breathtaking. We walked around for a good two or three hours. We'll sleep good tonight! On our way back, we had to stop to exchange our dollars for rubles. The exchange rate is the highest it's ever been, and we got a little over 310 rubles for each 100 dollars we exchanged. While we were waiting for Uris [our driver] to come back from the exchange, we realized we were outside of a store that carries a brand  called "The Nebraska"! Unfortunately, they were out of stock in that brand, but we thought it was pretty cool!

We went to dinner after that, at a places that translates to the English word "teaspoon". They serve pancakes there with various toppings and fillings. Super good!  We had some hassle ordering, since our meals were about 100 rubles, but we only had 1000 ruble bills from the exchange place. We got it all figured out, but over here, Russians don't like to make change. They want you to do it for them.

After dinner, Alyssa, Karen, Michela, Michael, Carter, and I all went on a walk. I love walking with Karen for two reasons: 1) She has so much information about the area and 2) she knows where she's going. We went right down to the river and I started to pretend to through bread crumbs to a pigeon to see if he'd come closer. This ended up attracting a crowd of pigeons, who started eyeing my hand that was supposedly housing food. They didn't get real close until Michael started crumbling chocolate and throwing it at them. It had a cookie in the middle, so then, we had not only a crowd, but a significantly less shy one! We had fun. Tomorrow we're going to take them some crackers and see how many we can get.

On the way back, we experienced kind of a culture shock. I was trailing the group a bit, taking in all my surroundings, when I heard some shouting. Across the street, there was a lady yelling the Russian word for no at a man (presumably her husband,) and pushing him backward, or at least trying to. The guy was twice her size. He was holding a toddler and shoving her back with his free hand. I told Karen, and we stopped to watch, because realistically, we couldn't do anything else. In Russia, it is completely legal for a husband to beat his wife, and if someone had stepped in, WE would have been the ones who would have gotten in trouble. He started pushing her toward the street, but then they walked back to the apartment complex, and he shoved her out of our sight, after putting the kid down. We could hear the baby crying for a while. We weren't the only ones who saw, but we were the only ones who stopped. Karen says that the complete lack of religion for eighty years led to the devaluing of the human life, which lead to mass amount of orphanages, still here today, and situations like the one we saw. We may not be able to change the law, but we can change the kids we meet, and maybe change their kids' futures. We can only pray that God's perfect will and timing take place.

Something else I wanted to mention was the Christmas gifts. Karen was talking about Nicoli and his wife, and how every Christmas, they go to the orphanages dressed as the Russian version of the "Clauses" (Mr. Frost and the Snow Princess,) and get the children toys if the sponsors have provided money for a Chrstimas. It costs as little as $500 to give each individual orphan a Christmas present to call their own. I think that sponsors and potential sponsors should know that, because it is NOT that hard to give someone a Christmas like we experience in the USA.
[Side note: to sponsor an orphanage of your own, it cost as little as $250 a month!]

Something else I wanted to mention but forgot is the villages. Once we leave the city on our little van, we hit buildings that are best referred to as shacks. Boards and tin cover any holes, fences that are made of crude sticks, grass grows high in front yards, and windows may or may not exist. Electricity is nonexistent in 70% of the homes, and water from the ground (which, by the way, is the source of the "dead goldfish" smell I mentioned earlier,) is drawn from a community well, or perhaps one that is shared with nearby neighbors. Cars barely exist in the villages; Daily or bi-daily buses provide transportation to the city. There are no grocery stores or super markets int he village, only makeshift markets set up by the local people. It's becoming pretty evident that, yes, the orphans are in need of our help, but so are the other people of Russia! Unless I'm mistaken, the living conditions are a result of Communism, which this country has yet to recover from. Oh, and here's a fun fact: We drove past one of the Russian president's 20 houses today. When I say "house", I mean mansion, with enough "yard" to build two more mansions on. And the villagers are selling tulips to try and feed themselves. Just something to think on. Oh, more on that 70% without electricity: That's across the country, and those same people are without running water. Also, the average life expectancy in Russia: 46 years old.