Once there were eight...

Last summer Garry promised Maria, his assistant, who was busy calling, and emailing various Christian organizations working with orphans in Ukraine, that when we had eight students for the school, we would take her out for a special dinner at the fancy restaurant near her house in the city.

Maria is busy translating in Garry's class

When school started in September we thought there might be eight students, but that quickly changed when Tolik left and we have had seven most of the time, last week there were eight again when the Kolya who came and left after a week reappeared...

Sasha, front, Valera and Kolya (the first one to arrive in the summer)

...but then over last weekend, our Sasha from Reni, took off. The pull of helping his real family was too much after a couple weeks of staying here at the school after he was originally going to go find work and help his siblings who had left where they were living at the foster home run by the Swedish lady. The other students were phoning him and trying to get him back, but he is staying away, Kolya is very sad because they had become very good friends.

Today there is yet another guy named Sasha, out to visit the school who might join us... it seems the original idea that we would be taking more new students in January has gone out the window. It makes teaching English interesting, since we keep getting new students. Garry says that the idea is just trying to keep enough students to run the school, he had originally said we needed six to start in September and we have stayed between six and eight (three have left if you lost count).

Sasha in class with the guys earlier this fall

 Poor Maria, she should have gotten that dinner in last week, but there are a few more prospective students she has contacts with, so there will be more visits and interviews and hopefully health checks and document registrations to do.