On Monday, Jess (in the greet v-neck shirt beside me), Jen (in white with the glasses) and I took our first trip together to the internat. They had already been there twice, so they were already familiar with the surroundings and with the girls. When we arrived, we were immediately swarmed by dozens of girls fo all ages. Teh girls ran to hold my hands and they pulled me towards a bench where we sat (same ritual took place with Jen and Jess). I had girls everywhere around me. Even on my lap, and my feet, and climbing from behind me! They were all so happy to see us! a few wee shy girls stood at a distance, but still displayed obvious curiosity and excitement.
Oxana, Jen and Jess' tutor, served as our translator for the first half our or so, after which she left, leaving the three of us to play and become acquainted with the girls. Since my Ukrainian at this point is beyond negligible, I had to get creative to communicate with them. I started by first pointing at myself and saying "Myrah" (I explained the thing about my name in another post), abd then pointed at a girl as if to ask her name (have you seen Disney's Tarzan? You get the point). I did this a few times and she got it, telling me her own name! And so it began. I pointed at each of the girls around me and I wrote down the English transliteration of their names onto my little notebook. The girls were fascinated with this process. When we were done, I began to re-read the names and tried to point to the right girl, trying to remember and memorize all of their names. I started to get good at it, and the girls took this as a kind of game, jumping in excitement every time I got a name right. It was so much fun!
After that, I stared to draw on my notebook a picture of Canada and Ukraine, with a plane going from one to the other. They understood what I meant. They were already familiar with words like "Kahnadkah" (Canada) because in the past Canadian students had come to do similar placements at the internat. I think that is also why they were so patient with my lack of communication skills. They understood I could not understand Ukrainian, and they tried their very best to show me with their body language what they were trying to say (I am talking, of course, about the more high-functioning girls, since there are others whose mental dissabilities made it more difficult to communicate with me). Then, I drew a family tree made of stick people, and I wrote the names of my family members, pointing at them saying "Mama, Tato, Brata, Brata, Sista", as well as a picture of my two dogs. Again, the girls understood me perfectly and they were delighted!
Then, Jen started to play with a soft volleyball, and so we began to throw the ball to one another, which soon enough turned into another name game, each of us saying the name of the girl to whom we were throwing the ball. This was all outside, in front of the main building. After a while (at 1:00pm), the girls were called in to eat (or have a nap, I am not sure), which gave us some time to take a break. In the meantime, we spent some time with a very smart and vivacious 10 year olf girl named Oolana who lives near the internat, and who visits the girls here to play with them. I think that is so sweet. (She is the girl in the white stripped sleeveless shirt next to me)
As the afternoon rolled by and some of the girls were allowed out again (at least the older ones), we spent some time playing with them on their playground, which was also very fun. Then, we decided to take a tour around the internat, with Oolana as our very helpful guide. She even speaks a few words of English! I was happy to encounter the facilities in much better condition than I had expected. The impression I had gotten from Sarah (who had already been here) was that the building was not in good condition, which is true to some extent, but only minimally. There are things that can definitely be improved, but overall it was not at all what I thought it would be, which is great.
During the entire visit, the girls were very sweet, often holding our hands and even hugging us. They also pointing at things and told us the name of what they were pointing at, so as to teach us (me especially, hahaha, since Jess and Jen have learned a bit of Ukrainian from lessons at the university, but then again, they got here 2 weeks before me and are in a different program). Surprisingly, they were not photo-shy in the least, and we even had one girl posing and doing all kinds of acrobatics and jestures for us. Her name is Luba, and she has got so much energy! (I will tell you about the girls individually later).
After that, we went back inside, and one of the girls pulled out a cellphone (which we are sure has no credit and is more like toy than anything else), and started to play music on it... so we started to dance!! That was also a lot of fun. No shame on being silly. It makes them so happy!
After our little dance-a-thon, we said goodbye and went on home, at which point I fell completely asleep...
Now that the story of my first day is told, I will tell you about my actual thoughts in the next post...
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