There is just something about a summer camp that completes a summer. The past two weeks my dear partner and I spent our time with the kids from the orphanages at their camp location, which is about a mile from the older kids home. The camp was in the more wilderness side of town, tucked away inside some trees. The kool thing about this camp is kids of all ages were living there for the summer so we had the unique opportunity of living with kids from 6 years old all the way to 18! This particular city that the orphanage is located has two cites one for the younger kids and one for the older. There are around 152 kids total (to my understanding). There is a pretty even amount of KZ kids to Russian kids at the homes and most speak both Russian and KZ.
When we arrived last Saturday we pretty much were left to figure things out, which was perfect because it gave us a great opportunity to jump right into using the Russian we know and pretty much becoming a part of life there. The thing with the KZ culture is their schedules are pretty lacks; this means the kids had a lot of free time to spend doing what they wanted in the campsite area. Alison and I were giving a tentative plan of how each day would go…
This looked like; at 8am meet on in front of the building for morning exercise/stretches, at 9am we would eat breakfast, the first week we were there at 10am we would go to work with them in the garden and also around the house were they live during the year pulling weeds and such (It was very hot this first week so we had our work cut out for us haha). The second week this time was a little different I’ll explain later… We would come back from work then have an hour or so of free time then at 1:30(ish) we would eat lunch. Then after lunch the kids would all go to their individual houses and have a naptime from 2 to 4. I was very thankful for this time and the Father began to show me the art of REST, which was so good. After this time 4pm would be yet another time to eat haha (we ate good this past two weeks) then some more free time to about 6pm when we would then go to the stage up the hill and watch/partake in a concert/competition (some really funny memories where made during these). After this would be dinner, then free time or some “disco techa” where the kids would all go to dance ha! After this more eating for second dinner and tea then the kids would go to their houses and have a time called “candle” (but in Russian) and tell about their days and say goodnight and such.
The food they eat is A LOT of potatoes and bread! We ate some very delicious soups and they made GREAT bread (and anyone who knows me at all knows I really like my bread haha). Occasionally they would have some fruit or tomatoes. They eat the potatoes though because that is what is most available to them and grows fairly easily there. They also use a lot of dill in their cooking because it grows well too. They would also have meat everyday but it was cow mixed with onion and other things. Sometimes there was fish soup. We were thankful for our meals and the kitchen ladies who worked very hard everyday to cook for the 70 some kids at the camp plus the workers.
Alison and I were on our own for understanding things with our very simple basic Russian for the first couple days but then they hired a helper who speaks English. She was a younger woman, a single mom who works for the kids home. At first it was very awkward to have her around because we had no schedule of our own and she would often ask, “what should you do?” and we could only respond with what the kids do or play with the kids. She would just have to follow us around or go hang out with the other workers. However, by the end of the two weeks this woman became a great friend of ours. She was so willing to share about her life and she helped us so much with language. Her friendship to me is one of those things that are hard to simply describe and the best words I can say is the Father definitely gave me a heart for her. I had quite a few moments of deeper conversation with her and earlier, I shared my story with her which lead to those different conversations about what my “story” means and such. We had really great moments of laughter as well. I am so thankful for what I know the Father had planned from the beginning.
As far as were we lived we thought we would be assigned to a family group but we ended up having our own room and this gave us a bit of a challenge to connect to the kids but this was good for us. We had the chance to spend time with all ages and different groups of the kids. Alison and I both found specific groups of kids and ages of kids we connected to.
My picture of what the orphanage was kids desperately seeking love but actually I personally went in with a pretty open mind of what the time would look like on account of Alison and I actually not having a lot of info going into our stay (I think this was a good thing!). To describe the kids and the atmosphere would be a lot of deep hurt that comes out in the coldness and rough attitudes of the kids. These kids of all ages come from all different situations only about 25 they said are true orphans that have no one the rest have families still but have come from abusive situations or the families simply cannot support them. Some of the kids actually have some contact with their families. The kids also definitely have the northern KZ culture, hard at first but we saw that once you talked to them, or played with them they loved it. The older kids were a bit harder to approach because they have more years at the home and it is evident the hardness that they build up, especially to outsiders. Through out our time we would found that little things like playing cards or making bracelets where great ways to spend time with the older kids. The younger kids definitely captured my heart as well ☺. I really do love simply being silly or playing games with them. They were also so helpful to language learning, I loved when they would speak really slowly so I could pronounce things right and we all would just laugh because of how I sounded. I did however learn a TON of new words and can understand much much more!
The thing that lingered on my mind as we lived life day to day with these kids is something our language helper had told us. She said one of the first days there, “these kids live here and it seems that they are like any typical child, but they have seen and lived through so much.” To think that my little friends have been beat up, abused over and over, have watched their parents drink themselves to lowest of lows. No wonder they come across as rude or disrespectful they have never been shown anything else. Also the old soviet way that is apart of the culture is that yelling and force is the way to teach them, they are taught hardness. I watched multiple times kids going at each other swinging very forceful punches that did major damage to the receiver of them. This is their life though. Another thing our language helper told us was, “they will love you one day and the next treat you horrible.” I understood this because they are there, they do not get to go home to a family and extra provision. Their family is the groups they are in (which they do stick very close together) and even then they fight or have clicks. They have only some constant people in their lives like the different workers or teachers and the home hires “moms” to come and help them or stay with them. The kids love these women very much because they are the constants in their lives. Even with staying with them two weeks they still knew that we would leave and go to extra comfortable living and they would be left. This was the biggest thing that broke my heart. I also know how incredibly hard it is there and have times of getting flipped off by a kid because he thinks it is funny or to be blatantly disrespected. It is hard work to live there; I admire the women that do work there. The kids are simply crying for attention in all different ways, some are extremely clinging, some are rude, some are loud or quiet it all varies. This all shows that they are seeking attention, worth and love. I know that nothing I could give, or no amount of time I could spend with them would ever be enough but the truth I hold and desperately wanted to give is what changes lives and the love that is so desperately sought.
This is a marathon blog, but a few highlights of the week...
Alison and I both competed in their fun competitions they had. Alison was in the “Miss camp” comp and ended up placing 2nd haha. They have different workers or older kids judge the different questions asked and Alison had to do a dance. I competed in the “I wanna be a Star” comp and I had to sing two songs one children’s and one popular song. My popular song was one of the English karaoke songs they had, a song by the Dixie Chicks! (see facebook for videos). We also wrote a rap and a blues song we performed for them, they loved that I could beatbox ha!
I got a chance to play quite a bit of basketball and loved it! We also got to swim in their swimming pool they had, which was so great on the hot days because the water was SUPER cold haha. Another thing, two words, FRESH RASPBERRIES! They let Alison and I pick raspberries multiple times (my first time ever picking fresh raspberries). I am eating some right now ☺.
The little kids had a TV in their house and would watch Jackie Chan cartoon and it was so fun to simply go watch it with them then play fight with them after haha! Then my time with them at night, after they found out I could beatbox they had me teach them every night and sing songs. We would laugh and sing it was a very sweet time.
One of my favorite things of these two weeks was my best friend their, a little boy who befriended me day two and helped me so much. Much of my talks to Father where for this little guy. I will always remember him and most definitely will be back to visit him before December.
It was a great two weeks, and I know that so many lessons where learned through it. It is fun to come back and understand more of what people are saying around me. The time at the orphanage was hard but one of those moments that forever has shaped my heart and how the Father draws forever the glory to himself. The biggest thing that I was shown and reminded of was that actions speak when language can’t, and to simply think of what the Son would do and that our hope for glory comes from following His example.
