We Have a Lot of Catching Up to Do . . .

Before I start, I would like to tell you some of my favorite quotes from Alex so far on this trip. I hope they make you laugh. 

Alex:  “We could be premiere members or flyers with small children. We just need to steal a ticket . . ."
Me:  “Or a small child."
Alex: “Yes. It’s a brilliant plan.”

Me:  (Showing Alex my Ipod) “It’s really nice, but it has someone else’s name engraved on the back.”

Alex:  “Just put a unicorn sticker on it!”

Irene:  “Alex, you’re so skinny! Eat something! I eat all the time, and look at how beautiful  I  am.”
Alex:  “I’m sorry for being ugly.”


Alex:  “I have great ideas but nobody listens to them.”
*2 minutes later—I have to hang my clothes in the closet because the hanger outside is full after doing our laundry*
Me:  “I hope my clothes dry quickly.”
Alex:  “Yeah, me too. If worst comes to worst, you could always just freeze them.”
Me: “ . . . Great idea, Alex.” ;)


Alex: *Playing with the cats at the orphanage* “Tiger kitty! Meow!”


Me:  “I like to target practice.”

Alex:  “Are those targets in the shape of people you hate?”

Me:  “Who do I hate?”

Alex: “Umm . . . Kat."
*Following conversation about how having Kat as my best friend  is all a clever ruse because I am on a secret mission to kill her.*

As you can see, I am having a great time with Alex! He never fails to make me laugh, and it’s good to have someone who understands home here with me.

Well, it took us five days, but we finally came up with the brilliant plan to save blog posts on Microsoft Word and then copy and  paste them  when we have wi-fi. This will make our life much easier in the long run, and hopefully very soon you will be getting regular blog posts! It’s a bit sad that it’s taken us this long to figure it out, really . . .

Anyway, day 2 (some of this may be the same as my last blog post; please bear with me):  After an overnight train ride we arrived in Odessa at around 8 a.m. The train ride was very interesting. There were two mattresses on the bottom which had the dual purpose of seats and above them there were two more mattresses. A man from Kiev shared the car with us and he spoke decent English, and I learned a little about his life in the petroleum industry. It took me a while to fall asleep, but after I did it was a smooth ride to Odessa.  We were then placed in our new apartment, which is only two blocks away from The Way Home and brand new! We are actually the first tenants to use it. It has been wonderful so far and I really enjoy staying here. After a quick breakfast, we had our first visit to The Way Home.

I really shouldn’t be calling it an orphanage. The children who stay here cannot technically be orphans. If they are, they are whisked away by the state. The children here are street children who do not have functional parents. The Way Home is not government funded, but instead gets their funding from private donations and organizations such as UNICEF and the Children’s Fund. The government has repeatedly tried to shut them down, however. There are also rumors that one of their big sponsors will not be able to fund them anymore. The Way Home provides lodging, catch-up school, and physical rehabilitation to any children who decide to stay. They also have a day center in the city that provides medical attention and food  to anyone who wants it, and a center for smaller children that serves a day care and tries to prevent them from living on the streets. Children must come voluntarily. Currently, there are 18 children living there, most of whom are teenagers.

Our first visit was not very in-depth and was a little difficult considering our lack of Russian. Luckily, after about an  hour, we were saved by Rosie who is a Russian major from Cambridge University. She has a bubbly, outgoing personality and it was nice to have a friendly face. She translated for us, gave us more information and a tour of the The Way Home, and introduced us to the children.  Unfortunately, she leaves on Wednesday to go back to Cambridge after 6 months in Russia and 2 in Ukraine, but I feel very blessed that she is here for a short time. After that, we donated $1,000 (7,985 kryvna) to the fund, and they were so grateful! Rosie told me that it will go a long way here.

When we came home, Alex took a nap while Irene and I headed towards the Black Sea. It was breathtakingly beautiful! From where we were situated, you could see all around the bay of Odessa and the city against the sky. Odessa was founded by Catherine the Great, who sent a telegram when she reached this point saying “assedo” meaning no water. From this telegram, the city got its name. If you look out over the water, you could see many ships leaving the port of Odessa and the water fading into the distance. The beach was pretty crowded, but it was a family beach so I enjoyed seeing all of the small children playing. Irene says that we can only go before 10 a.m. or after 5 p.m. because the sun is too hot otherwise, but it does keep the water very warm. This was my first time swimming in salt water, and it surprised me to dive and come up with the taste of salt on my lips. I didn’t go out very far because I couldn’t see without my glasses, but it was nice to just relax in the warm water and to sit and sunbathe on the beach.

When we came home, Irene and I stayed up talking for quite a while. During that time, I learned a lot about the situations of the orphanages in Ukraine. First of all, the family orphanage in L’viv is overjoyed to have us! This will be the first time that they have had  international student volunteers and the children have been waiting and waiting to see us. The mother in charge of this orphanage is actually the leader of the organization that oversees family orphanages. The orphanage is composed of ten children, two of which are the family’s sons. I am very excited to meet them and have even talked to them on the phone, but it will definitely be difficult because they only speak Ukrainian! During our time in L’viv, we are going on a five day hike in the Carpathian Mountains with forty children from all of the family orphanages. They want us to bring American games, so if you can think of any games for children that do not involve a lot of directions or at least have directions that we can easily mime, please let us know! Anyway, family orphanages are government funded but the government thinks it’s a benefit to the families when actually it barely helps them cover their many costs. One of their daughters is hyperactive and requires medicine from the US and all of the money they receive from the government for her covers this cost. Another adopted son of theirs is very talented at music but was not accepted into a prestigious music school because they said that they do not want orphans as students. She also told horror stories of the state orphanages. One of their children would not let them anywhere near his feet because he was beaten on the soles of his feet all of the time. One of their adopted daughters talked about men who would come into the girls’ room and pet and kiss them. She was so scared of these men and asked her new mother why they did that. It’s especially horrible for mentally challenged children, and “mentally challenged” can be as simple as having ADD or ADHD. These children are placed into a special orphanage until they are 30. Then they are placed in a senior home. I can understand for severe cases, but think of the waste of life it is for the other children!! It breaks my heart. Irene originally asked the state orphanages if we could volunteer there, but they said no—she does not know if it is because it is an additional headache for them or because they are corrupt, but she suspects the latter. In any case, I am glad her priest recommended the family in L’viv. They are so excited that we are coming and they do not even know that we are bringing $1,000, plus they have offered to make us as many meals as we want. Irene said that they needed $800 for the boy’s saxophone, so I am excited that we can help them with that! Plus, these children are from around ages 8-12, which is an age group that I am familiar with. Although I am loving The Way Home, it has been difficult for me to connect with these teenagers, especially since I can’t even imagine what they have been  through.

This weekend, we went sightseeing around the city. On Saturday, we went to the city center and the beautiful fountains and gardens there. We also saw a chair that is famous because of the legend behind it:  A man was in search of a set of twelve chairs, one of which held all of his inheritance. He looked and looked, and finally came to the last chair in an opera house. He bought it, only to find that the opera house had been built with the money that was inside the chair! We also saw the most beautiful opera house, and it is famous all across Europe. We are going to see the opera Rigoletto on Friday night and the ballet Swan Lake on Saturday night! I am so excited! After buying the opera tickets, we went to a very big market to buy some fresh food and then headed to the beach for a few hours. On Sunday, Irene and I went to an art museum that is only a couple blocks away from our apartment. It had some of the most precious and beautiful paintings, and everything looked so life-like and real. The modern art was not the abstract art that we know in America, but looks like the paintings of the impressionists. We also went around different parks in the city that ran very closely to the sea and  saw sculptures of the history of Ukraine. There were palaces and ancient buildings—each one is so different and has so much history behind its walls. It’s absolutely incredible how much beauty there is here. One bridge was covered in locks, and Irene told me it’s where couples go to “lock their happiness.” Apparently it’s quite popular in Russia and Ukraine. Later at night, we met up with Rosie and walked around the city some more and grabbed dinner. It was fascinating to learn more about English culture and also to get to know her more. I also called Jenny, a former foreign exchange student of Marlette High School that is from Ukraine! As soon as I said hi, she exclaimed, “Chelsea!” I couldn’t believe that after two years, she still remembered my voice. She is doing very well, but this is her exam week so we didn’t get to talk long. She is studying sociology at K.D.I., a school in Kiev. We are going to stay in contact over my stay in Ukraine in hopes of meeting up. 

Yesterday, we arrived at The Way Home at around 11 a.m. for social patrol. Social patrol is a van that goes around the city of Odessa to popular meeting places of street children. We also bring food from a local monastery for women. I wanted to help carry the food from there, but apparently women are only allowed to enter if they are wearing a head covering, which is very popular in the Orthodox Church, the most wide-spread religion here. Also, the people here are very traditional and tend to not like having women carry things. We went around town for a full day, but only met one woman. She was twenty-six and living in the pipe systems which a locked and closed cover. She didn’t want any help, but the people of The Way Home know her from past meetings. It was depressing to see the places where these children lived—in abandoned bunkers and beneath in the pipe systems with old worn out mattresses or simply a coat to sleep on. You could see the accumulation of filth in the dust, dirt, and leftover wrappings and glass bottles that are everywhere. I think the things that saddened me most were the needles. Needles were strewn everywhere, remnants of a leftover homemade drug that affects the nervous system after many uses. We could see these effects in The Way Home, where some children cannot walk properly. Luckily, they have physical rehabilitation for that. It was just incredible to know in a city where there is so much beauty, there is also so much pain. In one case, there was evidence of children living right next to a popular tourist spot—the steps leading to the sea port. It is one of the most beautiful places in the city, but right next door is the filth of a place that is home to some, but really shouldn’t be. It seems like something from a book, somehow—pain mixed with beauty. It doesn’t make sense.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any children today. Rosie told us that in the summer, many escape to the beach for the day. It would be ideal to do social patrol at night, but it is more dangerous and The Way Home does not have the workers or the bus driver for that. Today, the teenagers and Rosie went to the beach for a party but Alex and I went on another social patrol that was especially arranged for us (social patrols are usually only on MWTh). We actually met a child near a large market. His name was Bora, and he seemed absolutely fascinated by us. He looked like he was 11 or 12, and wore black jeans and a black zip-up vest. He even knew a little English--enough to say "What is your name?" and "Good-bye." He ate some soup and bread, let us take many pictures, and learned about The Way Home. In the end, however, he decided not to come back with us. Imagine having your independence at age 11. I can see why he would choose to stay:  he's probably a little scared and doesn't want to be told what to do. It can easy to be misguided at 11, though. I wish he would have come with us.

To anyone who made Alex promise to take care of me, I just want you to know that he is doing a great job! He is always the perfect gentleman in everything and  is constantly asking me if I am okay. We are sharing the same room  in our apartment and he has given me the bed made for two people and sleeps on the air mattress on the floor. Even though he is getting much less sleep than me every night, he refuses to switch. Irene has also been amazing. Ethan told me that he sees a lot of me in her, but I disagree. I see the shadow of someone I hope to become. If I can care about people half as much as she does in my future, I’ll know that I have a good heart. She is always cooking and cleaning for us, and if we are out by ourselves she calls often to make sure that we are okay She told  us to think of us as her mother while we are in Ukraine. I have been eating really well here! It is not only healthy food like Peru, however. We are eating pretty healthily—plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, and yogurt. The food here is very rich however, especially the dumplings filled with cottage cheese and the cheese itself. All of the food we have bought in the market is fresh without preservatives or any other additives, making it a new experience for us. Irene also has a big sweet tooth like me, so we have lots of cookie, cakes, and tea. 

It’s hard to say which place I enjoyed more, here or Peru. Their histories and cultures are so different that it’s difficult to compare! I feel like I am making more of a difference here. One of our major goals of this trip is to create a book of the children’s stories in Russian and English and it seems like this could definitely be a possibility! With the help of Rosie, we have been able to get the children’s permission and their stories are already written. I really hope that we can bring this part of our trip back to the United States.

Well, I guess that’s all for today! I know this is a long blog post, but I hope that you enjoyed it. We both love you very much and can’t wait to return to the US with our stories. Baca (good-bye)!

Love always,

Chels :)