Day 2 - Lori
by Lori Lenz
It’s Tuesday and we have begun our work projects. We’ve spent the morning covered in dust, plaster and whatever fell from the ceiling. We are redoing a hallway and 2 rooms in the orphanage – so we’re basically ripping everything off the walls and ceiling and starting over. It appears there have been many layers of paint and paper in these rooms, so the task has been very fun.
A few of the kids have come in to help, and Sasha has proved to be a natural at photography. Stephen has been letting him document the process, and Sasha has quickly become a part of the Faceless Team.
One thing that is interesting is that the guys tend to hang out quite a bit, but the girls seem to be a bit harder to find. I believe tonight we are going to pull out the badminton (sp?) and play some ping pong and see if we can make some friends.
Markus told us yesterday that most of the kids in this school are social orphans – meaning they have families, but for one reason or another, the parents or extended families don’t want the kids. So they live here and the state takes care of them. After seeing the kids around and having a few of them help us move in, maneuver the building or tear wallpaper off the walls, I just can’t imagine how that happens. We’ve been told the reasons are often the economy, alcoholism, just the inability of the parents…but that just breaks my heart. Now it seems even more crucial that we figure out a way to get to know these kids and let them know that they are special, interesting, loved. If our team, along with the wonderful folks that we are working with on the ground here, can let these kids know that they are loved, and they are part of a huge family that is pulling for them, then this trip, and the others like it, are more than worth it.
And I already know that I’m probably getting more out of this week than I could possibly ever give.
We have a new mystery to solve…this morning at breakfast we had noodles, an egg, bread with cheese…and coffee. The coffee looked black, but was sweet and tasted like it might have had cream in it? How is that possible? We will find out.
We hope to head into town at some point today to get some more power adapters and maybe try one of the hazelnut snickers bars that we have been hearing about. This is the town we are staying in - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasylkiv
