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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 2019 WWW. UNWLA .ORG 11 with him if we were interested, as shooting had ac- tually stopped for the last two days. We went shop- ping with him in Dnipro to buy presents and sup- plies for the orphanage. We bought Easter choco- late eggs , lots of wrapped candies , athletic shoes ( mostly for the boys ), socks for everyone , and soc- cer balls. The next morning Serhii arrived with two fellow volunteers, also in camouflage . These were Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) volunteers supporting a volunteer unit at the front, which was not a part of the regular Ukrainian military. If not for the food and supplies that these v olunteers bring to them every two weeks, the soldiers would have noth ing to eat. The packages the volunteers were brin ging were from supporters as far abroad as Germany. They told us that fighting had erupted overnight and that they could not take any ci vilians to the front — not that we would have gone . And as we later learned , it was a good decision because the volunteer army lost four young men in the battle . The two hour ride from Dnipro to Petrovsk was mostly on good roads until we got into Do - netsk oblast where we encountered numerous pot- holes. We also had to go through two checkpoints where t he sentries merely asked who was in the car , noted it was civilians , and let u s go through. On the way back , however , they searched the car and asked the volunteers to get out to make sure that we weren’t carrying any weapons . When we reached Petrovsk, I was sur - prised to see it was a decent - sized city with a flour- ishing supermarke t and a small adjacent depart- ment store that sold all manner of goods. The or- phanage was within the city limits, not far off the main street. The building, which had been donated by a Japanese charity, had multiple bedrooms, a large dining hall, a large ki tchen, a reception area, and a large work room upstairs where the students studied and did their activities. But there were only two bathrooms and two sinks and one non - work- ing shower for 32 children (aged 8 to 18 ) . The care- takers sadly noted that the kids had to go across the street to take a shower. Nonetheless, e verybody looked clean and everything was in order, perhaps because they were expecting us. Having grown up in an orphanage in Philadelphia with 50 other kids , I’ ve experienced p lumbing problems a nd water shortages. B ut I also know that kids don’t spend that much time using these amenities anyway and that you get used to taking turns. The se kids looked happy and scrappy and were well disciplined in saying “Thank you” in both Russian and Ukrainian. The oc casional child came over and hugged one of the caretakers spontane- ously , suggesting that the children are well taken care of although eager for human comfort. They were delighted with the athletic shoes although we hadn’t brought enough for everyone . We venture d out to buy some more but there weren’t enough of the right shoe sizes in this small town , so w e left money with Serhii to buy some in Dnipro before his next trip to the front as he goes there every two weeks and drops by the orphanage routine ly. Serhii had also, at Dr. Furtak’s behest, brought stacks of dried macaroni (oh that institutional diet!) , large chunks of meat, and butter. The chil- dren asked us for shampoo and toothpaste and slippers in specific sizes . W e got what we could and distributed the items. The boys were delighted with their athletic shoes and the soccer balls , but there was still snow on the ground so they couldn’t go out and play. However, Brian had brought a F risbee for them , and he soon organ ized a game out in the snow : two teams engaged in football fris- bee — at least that’s what it looked like to me! I spent some time touring the building and learned that the children had done all the reno va- tions on their bedrooms themselves. In fact, t hey pu t in the wooden flooring , wallpapered and paint - ed the walls , and even put together the bunkbeds. I saw one room they were still working on , b ut i t wasn’t clear to me, even with the multiple bed- rooms, where 32 people had room to sleep . I ne- glected to ask , but I did talk to the four caretakers who were there that day. The director of this pri- vately run orphanage was on leave and visiting rel- atives in Israel , but the four women who were there were open and willing to talk about the children and their own role s and responsibilities. We learned that there are government - run and subsi- dized orphanages in other nearby cities but not in Petrovsk and that this orphanage subsisted solely on donations. Because it is a private orphanage, children are not required to lea ve at age 16 as is the case in the government orphanages , and the re were thus a few older boys. Although very few of the orphans go on to higher education, the caretak- ers pride themselves on the fact that most of the boys get jobs or go in to the army wh ere as the girls get married and start families. One of the orphans had indeed married in the area and had come back to the orphanage as a cook. The caretakers take turns on a two - day cycle of having someone sleep over with the children . The se caretakers are p oorly paid but clearly enjoy their work and were gratified to get a little something extra from us before we left. I had long conversations with the m and was feeling proud of myself about how much Russian I understood (this is a Russian speaking part of the country) until I found out that they were speaking
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