Детский Дом № 1

Located not far from the university is “Children’s Home, Number 1.” A yellowish building set back from the street, this house is home to 60 children ages 3-18. Some are orphans and some have abusive parents; a fact that you often forget when you see their smiling faces and sparks of mischievousness in their eyes.  It’s truly heart wrenching when you remember the painful reality in which these children live.

The children are preparing for their annual “Yarmarka” or “Market Day” fundraiser. Volunteers come to the home every day with cute crafts for the children to do and to just simply spend some time with them. I spent the last two Thursdays making “God’s Eyes” from yarn and bamboo sticks. I really couldn’t come up with a way to market them, besides pure ornamentation. One clever girl, Tanya, cut out cute illustrations from a children’s magazine and put them in the middle of the God’s Eyes; they make really cute picture frames! This week we (Anne, me, and whoever else wants to come!) will be making ribbon stars and pinwheels. 

(Any suggestions for simple, but sellable crafts are greatly appreciated! Thanks Dasha for the photos!)

Spring has definitely arrived in Irkutsk, though there is a startling lack of things blooming. How spoiled we are in Washington with such beautiful flowering trees! *Almost* all of the snow is gone and I haven’t needed my long johns for a few days now :) The “lake” (really the Angara River, the part before the dam) is still frozen over, but the look of the ice is much changed.  The lack of snow has unveiled a lot of mud, which is about as lovely as it sounds. But as soon as the temperature stops going below freezing every night, the dry air and bright sunshine should dry everything up in no time.

Lena had her birthday on Sunday (I never did catch how old she is now, but I think her early 40s).  I made her a completely American Breakfast Sunday morning, at least as American as I could :) I made buttermilk pancakes, fried apples with “Amerikanka” apples, and Starbucks coffee thanks to Jake (thanks again Jake!). Lena loved it all! The pancakes turned out really well, praise God, considering that I guessed on the measurements. I had bought the ingredients the day before, and early that morning (even earlier for us, as we had daylight savings on Sunday) I got the butter out to start sautéing the apples. Much to my surprise the butter was brown! Turns out I bought two packs of “chocolate butter,” which I didn’t use with the apples, but it did taste quite good on the pancakes :) Pancakes have never tasted so good.

That afternoon, I joined Lena and her family for a birthday dinner at a Mongolian restaurant. Her dad is a well-humored doctor who, being in a family of all women, has rather selective hearing :) Her mom is a German professor and would translate into German for me if I was having a hard time understanding the conversation. Lena’s younger sister is also a teacher, of medicine I think, and she has a cute, strawberry blonde-haired, freckled, 11-year old daughter named Sonya.  It was such a pleasure to meet them and to be included in the family for those few hours. After a meal of good meats, “spicy” salads, and the highly caloric traditional Mongolian tea/broth made from butter, milk, and pieces of fat, Lena, her sister, Sonya, and I went for a stroll along the Angara to enjoy the sunshine and to walk off the tea. Russians have two different speeds: one for when they have somewhere to be, and one when they “gulyat”. To gulyat translates as “to stroll” but also means “to walk” and “to have a good time.” There is an art to strolling and I had fun finding the right rhythm in my stride, unhurried, methodical, and graceful.

But I have plans to kick it up a gear and start running now that the streets are finally clear :)