Service at the Orphanage

We arrived at the orphanage—Children’s Psycho-Neurological Hospital--Saturday morning and were divided into boys and girls. We went with the other female volunteers into a room with children who seemed to be under the age of 6. We passed out juice boxes, crayons, and coloring books. I was able to speak with Elena, one of the women who worked in the orphanage, and she told me stories of some of the children. It was obvious how much she cared for the children as I saw the kindness she showed them. One little boy had been found abandoned, and the police had brought him out to the orphanage. I heard some girls talking about another child who had been abandoned by her mother after her father had died, and was consequently sent to the orphanage. She is dying in the hospital—her body is shutting down. The hospital had admitted her this time, but said they would not allow her to be admitted again—she didn’t have a birth certificate, and there was no way to get one for her. Without documentation (she is not a Russian citizen), there is nothing the hospital can do for her.

We moved to another room, this one full of what I guessed were 6-10 year old boys. As soon as we entered, the boys began waving and saying hello. One came right up to me and through his arms around my waist and just hugged me. Two others attached themselves to my waist and hugged me. As they let go, the first kept holding on. I had one hand on his back, and with the other, I stroked his head. Tears sprang to my eyes as he held onto me. He then went and took a seat with the other boys, who had started to move towards the table. We handed out more juice and cookies, as well as coloring books. After they were situated, we turned to leave. Calls of “Spasibo!” thank you, followed us into the hall.

Then it was off to the older boys, who looked no older than 8 or 10, but ended up being in their early teens. We handed out car and sport magazines. One boy came up to tell me hello and kissed my hand over and over. He turned out to be quite the Romeo as he moved onto another girl after I started talking to some of the other orphans. I ended up talking to two in particular. They came and sat on the windowsill with me. One boy told me his brother was going to come and get him and take him to live with him and his girlfriend. The girls who had served there before said they often talk about being adopted. The boys told me about their different interests—one loves playing soccer and reading, the other loves computer games and likes to read as well. The second asked if I would come back the next week, but we had been warned not to make any promises, so I tried to sidestep the question. They were so cute and well-behaved. I found out later that this is in large part due to the fact that they are heavily sedated. There is not much that can be done for them, and one worker said 90% will end up in crime because they have no where else to turn.

We told the boys goodbye. One kissed me on the cheek. I didn’t see the boy I had spent so much time talking to, so I made my way back up the stairs. I caught his eye, called his name, and told him goodbye. Just before we left, another boy had come up and asked what my name was. I told him Kim, and he just looked at me weird and walked away. I heard him go up to some other boys and tell them my name. He must have thought it was so strange, because even as the boys filed outside, I heard the same boy say my name and point at me again.

We then went out to watch some of the older boys play soccer as the girls stood on the side with pom poms we had brought and did a cheer some of the female volunteers had taught them. A cute little boy came up and asked if he could get a picture with me. Turns out he was scouting out all the girls up and down the sideline to get pictures with them.

After the game, we went to see if we could help put up a basketball standard. The guys had it under control, so we mostly just ended up talking to the volunteers as they put it up before we headed home.