Eventually, we were led into a large room, where we spread everything out for the obligatory counting. I also had some money that had been donated by co-workers. I felt very comfortable about everyone there, but I still didn't just want to hand the money over. Lilia said that what they needed was a bag of sugar, and bananas would be nice. We would arrange those later.

I wanted to take some pictures, so we (the director, Lilia, and I) each gathered up an armload of toys, and went into another room where eight or ten kids were doing some kind of lessons. Needless to day, the lesson was forgotten. The kids crowded around, and ooohed and aaaahed. We started handing out toys, and I was struck by how well behaved the kids were. There was absolutely no pushing or grabbing, and there seemed to be a great deal of co-operative play, as opposed to hoarding. The hard part was rationing, as there were another five groups of kids to visit in this orphanage. I didn't want to think about the other half dozen orphanges I wasn't going to visit. Suddenly, the bag of stuff I had brought was beginning to look very small.

I took some pictures, and we moved on to the next 'family'. The kids were not related, but lived in small family groups. The next room was very large and open, and they were learning a traditional Mari dance. Yoshkar Ola is the capital of the republic of Mari El. The Mari are more closely related to the Finns than the Slavs.

One little girl, about ten, saw my camera, jabbered a few words, and vanished. Lilia told me she 'go to be beautiful for camera'. She reapeared a few minutes later, and made friends with the camera. She was very outgoing and precocious. I promised her I would send her a photo. Unfortunately, the lighting conditions were difficult in that room, and those pictures didn't turn out.

One of the little boys in one 'family' had lost his legs above the knees. He sure didn't let it slow him down though. All of the kids were very outgoing.

As we toured from room to room, we went through a central room with a big picture of the president of Mari El. Lilia said he liked to have his picture taken, visiting children, and old people. If you beleive the pictures, a very caring man. I never heard a single good word spoken about him. Lilia once wrote to me that a local reporter had written a piece in the paper which accused the president of arms dealing. His response was to buy up all copies of the paper, have her fired, and state that she was likely to end up cut into little pieces all over Moscow. Nice guy.

I couldn't dwell on the president for long. One small group of boys followed us from room to room, wanting to talk with me. They had a hard time with the fact that I could speak to them, but couldn't udnerstand what they were saying. Unlike Lilia, they spoke in one speed- fast! One of these little boys had a plastic shark's head, with a trigger that made the mouth open and close. He was busy trying to gobble up another boy's large Spiderman. The one thing I did understand them say, and they said it over and over, was 'spasiba'.

More pictures... 1, 2 3, 4. I have a few more that I have to reprint, as I gave away the original prints before I had a chance to scan them. I will put them up when I get them re-printed.

For more information on helping orphans in Russia, contact Howard Ketley
Part 3	Trip 2 Index	Part 5