Another day at Karpinsk

The last place Julia and I visited before she left was the disabled orphanage in Karpinsk. We went there to take them some puzzles made by my Sister-in-laws youth group, some paint and art supplies donated by Julia's art teachers and friends and some stuffed animals donated by my English class. We also brought Candy Bars for the older children and Yogurt for the younger children donated by Desanagiving.org. I was excited to see some improvements at the orphanage. They have completed renovations on 4 classrooms and have children sitting in desks in the classrooms being taught. It was very nice to see the children doing something besides laying in bed! 8 apple computers have been donated to the school and a classroom is set up with the students working at the computers. Very cool! A few of the hallways have been freshly painted and decorated with murals. A room that was dreadfully smelly last time we went to visit has been renovated and painted with bright colors and a mural of a kitten on the wall. There are still tons of improvements needed, but it was nice to see progress and to see that funds that have been donated have been put to good use. They are currently working on rennovating a room for another bathroom for about 20 new children that have been sent there.
They asked for 300 dollars to repaint, and put murals on the ceiling of the Cerebral Palsy room where the children are so crippled they just lay in bed all day. I was pleased to have 150 dollars left from Patti Johansen to donate to that effort. My friend Elena had another 100 in her purse so we are hoping to see that happen next. Desanagiving.org has earmarked 12,000 dollars to renovate more rooms so I am excited about that. They seem to be doing good things with what they have been given so far. They keep their receipts so that Elena can see where the money has gone and they use the money carefully. They also mentioned that the state does not give them any funds for educational supplies so the students do not have notebooks or pencils in the classrooms. If you know of anyone looking for a service project, that would be a good one. They are short on new clothes for the students as well so Jula is working on that in her ward. It was a more hopeful day at Karpinsk than my last two visits so I came away not quite so depressed as usual. It was difficult for Julia to be there and also for my friend Elena's student Christina who came with us. Elena and Christina were taken to the graveyard where the children who don't survive are buried. We were not invited because we are foreigners. I was a bit relieved. Not a pleasant way to spend the day. Very sobering! If you are interested in this check out the Desana website. Very interesting letters there written by Christina and Elena.