Today was my second day at the internat, but things went a little different than planned. I left my house by 8:30 am, since I needed to make sure that made all the bus connections on time (it was my first time taking the bus by myself). So I ended up getting to the university at 9:00 am when our bus from there was supposed to come at 9:45am. Since I had some time to kill, I went to meet Olana Huzar, the professor at the university who is supposed to be our contact. Due to her and Orest's schedules, I hadn't had a chance to meet her yet, so it was a good opportunity to do so. My meeting with her was a bit odd, though, since she did not say a whole lot. Nevertheless, it was nice to finally meet her and give her the letter Sarah had sent for her (I forgot the tea, Sarah, but I will give it to her tomorrow). After that, I found a nice place to sit and did some of my morning prayers.
I decided to head to the bus earlier, though, just in case, which turned out to be a good idea, since the bus came 10 minutes early! That meant Jen missed the bus and had to meet me later. Oh, also, unfortunately, Jessica got sick last night and was not feeling well, so she stayed home for the day. Sooo... that meant that I venture to go to the internat all by myself. With no knowledge of Ukrainian. Hahaha.
It turned out great, however! When I arrived, I was able -with signs and grunts- to show to some of the staff that I was coming alone and that Jen would arrive later. They just pointed me towards the inside, and I walked right in and into one of the playrooms, where some girls where watching TV. As soon as they saw me, they yelled "Myrah, Myrah!!" and ran to greet me. Then, one of the girls showed me that she wanted me to braid her hair. So she ran to get a brush, and so I proceeded to French-braid her hair. Doing that just took my heart apart. I don't know how to describe it. As I was brushing this little girl's long, black, oily hair, I wondered when was the last time anyone played with her hair and make her feel pretty... At that time I just loved her so much, I almost cried. When I was finished, she was so happy, and that gave me great satisfaction. From then on, I began to call on each of them, and to brush and braid their hair. There were some girls with very short hair, and so they were very shy to have me comb it, but I encouraged them and they were visibly very grateful that I did not discriminate against them. One girl, in particular, was so delighted when I parted her hair to the side, giving her a small swoosh, despite her short hair. She too, was very happy.
From then on, we had a wonderful hour and a half. I pulled out my list of names, and added some names that I was missing to my list. Soon enough, the girls caught on, and they proceeded to ennumerate and name all of the names of all of the girls there... well, not all, but we got a good 45 out of the roughly 70 girls at the internat! What is more, is that one girl, whose name is Alina wrote down all of their ages, with the help of the other girls, at my request. Alina (one of the 2 Alinas here) tends to take a motherly role despite the fact that she is younger than some of the other girls (16), which is why I nicknamed her "Alina Boss", since everyone listens to her when she gives orders haha. She liked her nickname, but prefers it in English... because it is in English! Haha. They also tried to teach me the names of the numbers from 1 to 10. Still working on it, haha.
Once we were done with the names and numbers, I began to draw a bird on my notebook, and the girls liked it so much that they began to request other animals (you must be wondering how we communicated... well, we did so with our hands, with signs, with words which I started to catch, with sounds like "gwoof, gwoof", and with pictures on the blackboard). In just a few minutes, I had girls lined up with their own notebooks to have me draw the same pictures on THEIR notebooks. Man, I have never drawn so many animals in one day! Hahahaha. ...It is really amazing how such simple things as dancing to cellphone music, drawing stick-men and animals, or writing somebody's name down, can bring such joy to these girls. It makes me think of how we, older, busier, 'more intelligent' people, often fail to rejoice in the simple things in life. We worry so much (I know I do), we do so much (I know I do), that we let our life pass us by without stopping to enjoy and say thank you for the little things we are blessed with. If you don't believe me, when was the last time you were truly, genuinly grateful for having someone spell your name right? Or for having someone give you a hi5? Or for the fact that your eyes are fine and not crossed...? Or that you have 5 fingers in each hand...? I certainly hadn't for a long time...
Just at that time, Jen arrived, and we had a session of arm wresseling with the girls. A few of them were surprisingly strong, which is weird when you consider that many of them show clear signs of underdevelopment due to malnutrition. Actually, it is obvious that malnutrition is rampant, as revealed to us the great number of girls in their teens that look just like children. In fact, almost every girl there looks much younger than she really is. The ones in their 20s look like they are in their early teens. The ones in their early teens look like they are 8. The 8 year olds look like they are 5. The 5 year olds look like they are 2. It is terrible.
Many of the girls suffer from facial and limb deformities, and a huge number of them have eye problems, particularly crossed-eyes. There are also a number of girls with Down Syndrome, and at least one girl whom I suspect has autism, although it is hard to tell because of the language barrier. There are some girls, though, who seem to have no disabilities, unless they are learning dissabilities. There is a pair of sisters who apparently are here only on and off, depending on the state of their family, which struggles with parental alcoholism in a single-parent household.
When the girls were called to eat, Jen and I went into one of the classrooms and had our own lunch. Irena, the 'house matron' joined us, but we didn't speak much, again due to the language barrier. After lunch (or was it before?), Jen and I went to spend some time with the younger girls. Like I said before, these girls were about 5, but they looked and act as if they were between 1 and 3. My goodness... if there is a way to make one's heart melt, it is to spend just a little bit of time with these "babies". They love to go on your lap and cling to you, as if you were their mother. They lean their tiny little heads on your shoulder, and in the process they take your heart in their hands. I fell in love.
And it is not that I don't understand how hard it would be to raise a child like this. I do. I have worked with a girl with Down syndrome before, and boy, it can be challenging! (Actually, that is an understatement). But the fact that sometimes people don't see these wee little ones as people, that just... I don't even know. For those of you whose taste would prefer other wise, please forgive if I get religious on you, but holding one of these children and seeing how great their need for love is, just makes me want to share Christ's love with them so much. And what's more, I felt so love by them too, and by extension, by God. I cannot describe the feeling. It is perhaps too personal to explain, but I hope you get the picture. I know this is going to be challenging, hard work, but from that moment on, I knew that whatever it took, it would be worth it. Perhaps I am getting idealistic and sentimental, but leave me alone, hahaha. It is what it is, and I think it is wonderful.
That being said, I think that one of the things we can perhaps implement here is to design a "How-To" Hygiene program. Unfortunately many of these girls have very poor hygiene, particularly when it comes to blowing their noses, covering their mouth when they cough or sneeze, and when it comes to their teeth. It is so sad to see the teeth of little children half-rotting. There is no need for that to happen! The grant will be useful in that regard.
After we spent a good chunk of time with the little ones, we went back with the older girls and did some colouring for the rest of the time until we left to catch our bus. That too, was interesting. Our bus came 25 minutes early. No, I am not lying. We left 25 minutes before the bus was supposed to come, and as we did so, we watched it drive away. Great. Actually, though, it WAS great, because that gave the chance to spend some time talking to Jen, which was awesome. Turns out we are much more alike than I originally thought. She is also a Christian, and she hold a lot of the same views and interests as I do. We talked about a lot of things, and I was very grateful for that opportunity. We are often so busy and overwhelmed, that we haven't really given much time to get to know each other (I mean all three of us). On that note, I hope Jess is feeling better so that she can join us tomorrow. I cannot even imagine how she must feel right now.
The day fnished well because after a nice supper Orest took me to get the Internet cable required to hook up my computer to the Internet. AWESOME. This might make my studies a bit easier, since I won't have to rely on the availability of his computer to do my school work. In the meantime, I am already 7 lessons behing in my schoolwork, but at least I caught up with my blog!! I have an assignment due next week, but I am sure I will be able to catch up, so long as I am diligent for the rest of the week. I also need to start sending my journal entries to Dr. Frick, the prof. who is marking my RS directed readings course... I guess I better get on that!
Tomorrow should be another intersting day. My Ukrainian lessons start tomorrow, so I am excited. I have a ton of pictures to add to this blog, but I think that will have to wait till tomorrow, since it is already passed 1:00 am and I am going to be so tired tomorrow if I post them today (it takes FOREVER, so you should be really appreciative of every single picture I post, hahaha).
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read yet another long post. You are wonderful. I would love to hear from you, but if you can't figure out a way of posting your comments on your blog (some people have told me this), feel free to post on my facebook or email me. Hearing from you guys really help me to get going, so I am very thankful for all of you who have posted comments or emailed me, as well as all of you who have just simply taken the time of your busy lives to read my blog. Love you all, miss you all. God bless.
