Meet the students, part one

So I like to introduce you to some of our students and staff. Some of the teams coming asked to learn something about our students before they meet them as they would like to start praying for them.

Sasha and Valera

This is Sasha (or Makarena like the dance, it's his nickname, he's closest to the camera) who I wrote about early in the year, you may remember he left us in the fall to live with his sister and brother, that did not go well, and he ended up very sick in the hospital. After a time recuperating at his foster home, he returned to us two weeks ago. He is currently living at our house instead of the group home. Our youngest student is a happy guy, loves to socialize and help his friends and knows more English than the other students. He has a Moldovan father, and his Ukrainian mother died, his has several full and half siblings, and is from southwestern Ukraine.

and Valera (with glasses) and Sasha 

Valera is twenty. He has been here since a couple weeks before school started, his brother Nikolai was here for the first month of school, but left. Their mother was murdered by their father, I was told. They have several siblings, and he lived in a Christian foster home at one time, he is very familiar with the Bible we have been told. Valera is our most promising student in class, he really wants to get the best marks and often does. He has a tough guy exterior but likes to draw, and can be a little lazy at times, but gets along well with the other students. He spends too much of his extra cash on smokes, but gave up drinking when he came because he realized it was a problem for him.

Sasha with Bear

Our second Sasha ( the diminutive for Alexander) came when the first one left in November. He is 22 and has the most trouble with academic work but is a very hard worker and  when it's time for practical work, he often volunteers for extra. He has a ready smile, even when I make him say something in English, which he really has trouble with. Garry invited the students to come with us to church in Dnepropetrovsk when I was home sick, and Sasha has gone several Sundays and I noticed he really seemed to be listening to the sermon last week (we had both Sashas and Valera).

 Here is Maria, (or Masha) Garry's translator and assistant (she spends a lot of time on the phone, talking to contacts, prospective, current and former students, group home parents... and even helping with building projects. She lives with her parents and grandmother in Zaparosia and stays out in the village (at our house) from Monday to Thursday every other week when we teach this winter, because the bus service from the village to the city was cut back, making it difficult for her to commute. She is a Christian like all of our school staff.

Maria and Yulia

Yulia or in English, Julia; is a happy  girl who will be 20 on Wednesday. She came to us early in the school year with her best friend since they were in the orphanage, Karina.
 Yulia is our female student most interested in the cows and working with them. She is a hard worker, even though she is maybe 5 feet tall, and a good student in class, too. She does not smoke, either, unusual for orphans.

Karina is also 20 years old

Karina has changed a lot since she arrived, but she is a tough nut to crack, you might say. She was afraid of animals when they arrived, cows and dogs both. Garry had trouble with her name, he thought it was Kalina, so she has become Karina-Kalina, which she thinks funny. She is a very unambitious student in class, you have to push her to work. She smokes and likes to roughhouse with the boys, hitting and kicking.
 Her dream in life, we found out recently, would be to become a nurse.