Pictures--Finally
I made friends with the young guy that runs the internet shop and he copied my pictures to his computer and emailed them to me..so now there are some pictures. The other volunteers will be jealous. :)
My assignments yesterday were unreal. In the morning me and Harry (a 72 year old volunteer from Wilmington NC) went to the kindergarden for deaf children. All of the children were deaf and some of them are also autistic or have some type of mental illness. They were ages 4-6 and there were about 10 of them in our group.
Harry has been her for three weeks so he had been before, but it was all new to me. At first I was a little taken aback. One of the kids is very troubled and was sitting on the table with his head thrown back and hitting himself. The others were just kind of "checking me out". But we were outside with some swings and we had brought some toys and balls (thanks Sonja) so I quickly recovered and began to act their age. Within no time I had made a buddy or two and from there things became easier for me. After a couple of hours I had become accepted by most of the group and we were just playing and having a blast. They are a delightful bunch, who adore attention, and I am proud to have been accepted into their world. I get to go there again today and I cannot wait. Today I will have a better idea of how to pack a bag of toys to take. I would never have imagined I could feel so much joy and sadness at the same time.
My afternoon assignment was at a shelter where children stay while they and their situations are being evaluated. They are either kids that have been take off the street of ones that have been taken from their parents. I will save that experience for another day but I loved it as much as the morning assignment. If given a choice I will do these two assignments for most of my time here. But I do want to try them all out.
I will take some pictures of the assignments in a week or two after everyone gets really comfortable.
Most of the group (8) is going to St Pete this weekend. They are leaving tonight at 10 for the 12 hour train ride. So tomorrow (Friday) will be a little sparse around here. Three of us are going to Susdal and Vladimer, two other of the cities in the golden ring. We leave sat morning for the three hour taxi ride and come back Sunday afternoon.
Greetings to all...
Some notes..some of which some of you have asked me in e-mails.
I made a mistake the other day with my new name. It is actually spelled Bearus.
We do have have hot water most of the time but we have not for the last three days.
There are no english TV stations here.
No one has found an English printed newspaper yet either.
Learing Russian is tough.
Most things are very cheap..A bus ride is 10 rubles--about 27 cents.
Yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of nuts, an ice cream bar, two sticks of bread, a liter of water and a bag of chips for 85 rubles--about $2.25.
So much for now--wishing all a great thursday..
Bearus
My assignments yesterday were unreal. In the morning me and Harry (a 72 year old volunteer from Wilmington NC) went to the kindergarden for deaf children. All of the children were deaf and some of them are also autistic or have some type of mental illness. They were ages 4-6 and there were about 10 of them in our group.
Harry has been her for three weeks so he had been before, but it was all new to me. At first I was a little taken aback. One of the kids is very troubled and was sitting on the table with his head thrown back and hitting himself. The others were just kind of "checking me out". But we were outside with some swings and we had brought some toys and balls (thanks Sonja) so I quickly recovered and began to act their age. Within no time I had made a buddy or two and from there things became easier for me. After a couple of hours I had become accepted by most of the group and we were just playing and having a blast. They are a delightful bunch, who adore attention, and I am proud to have been accepted into their world. I get to go there again today and I cannot wait. Today I will have a better idea of how to pack a bag of toys to take. I would never have imagined I could feel so much joy and sadness at the same time.
My afternoon assignment was at a shelter where children stay while they and their situations are being evaluated. They are either kids that have been take off the street of ones that have been taken from their parents. I will save that experience for another day but I loved it as much as the morning assignment. If given a choice I will do these two assignments for most of my time here. But I do want to try them all out.
I will take some pictures of the assignments in a week or two after everyone gets really comfortable.
Most of the group (8) is going to St Pete this weekend. They are leaving tonight at 10 for the 12 hour train ride. So tomorrow (Friday) will be a little sparse around here. Three of us are going to Susdal and Vladimer, two other of the cities in the golden ring. We leave sat morning for the three hour taxi ride and come back Sunday afternoon.
Greetings to all...
Some notes..some of which some of you have asked me in e-mails.
I made a mistake the other day with my new name. It is actually spelled Bearus.
We do have have hot water most of the time but we have not for the last three days.
There are no english TV stations here.
No one has found an English printed newspaper yet either.
Learing Russian is tough.
Most things are very cheap..A bus ride is 10 rubles--about 27 cents.
Yesterday I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of nuts, an ice cream bar, two sticks of bread, a liter of water and a bag of chips for 85 rubles--about $2.25.
So much for now--wishing all a great thursday..
Bearus
posted by Bryan at 2:07 AM
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