kids in the orphanage....sweet and lovable of course

The children
Margaret Mead said that the three paths to enlightenment are to have a nervous breakdown and recover, or have an affair with an old Russian or to play with young children. Lucky me, I got door three! It’s not yet a full day of work but given that I can’t understand a word that they say and they are jabbering away sure that I will…maybe 4 hr right now is plenty. So, let me explain. These are children from 3-15 and have been abandoned by their parents because of poverty or else taken from them because of alcohol and drugs. There are 80,000 orphans in Ukraine…by the looks of it, really great kids, too. This orphanage is a halfway house where the kids stay for a month to see if their folks can get it together. After that they go to a bigger place with 300 orphans and either get adopted after a year by Ukrainian family or they are open to world adoption. We have 22 kids now but I guess it changes regularly and the place can hold 150. The teachers don’t speak English are really good with the kids in that strict discipline way and yesterday was the first time one even spoke to me. An old guy who has the afternoon shift with the older kids sat down when I was playing checkers and played me, well, he kind of played both sides as he didn’t think I was making the right moves(I am researching the male attitude here) He doesn’t smile …I think the teachers have to do that to keep control.
So, yesterday I was with the younger kids. In particular I got to play with this 3 yr old girl…feisty, funny and very dramatic. They do a good job here of older taking care of younger but every once in a while the older kids would come and take her ball…oh my. It was a good good hour. Big blue eyes, which are the norm here in Chekasy…maybe all of Ukraine.
Then for 3 hours I was with the bigger kids, 7 boys around 10, 1 boy and 1 girl 15 yr old. There are a couple of boys that seem to be my best buddies. I’m remembering games on paper that can be explained easily. Hey, you know the dot to dot game where you try to make boxes. After you make boxes, do you have to make one more mark? Any suggestions for more games? No one wants to play chess. Outside hopscotch was a huge hit with Lana, the 15 yr old girl. She’s really easy to get laughing. By the way, I haven’t hopped in a long time…it’s kind of tiring!! Also shot hoops wishing Dan was here. Actually I wish a lot of people were here. We could get a whole lot of fun happening. I have no idea what happens in the winter or rain. It must be crazy as they are outside playing now 3 hours a day.
It’s very rewarding. Just keep scouring my memory for things to do that don’t require much instruction. Going to see if I can teach them enough English for Simon says. Okay, take care there. More about sunny, springtime Chekasy….