Excursion #2 A trip to Chortiza Island

We planned to visit the museum and fortress on the island in Zaporosia, Maria had checked and they were open until five everyday. However, when we called Tuesday to confirm that they were open they said they were going to be closed... but since Victor was coming with the van it was decided that we could just walk around the area, "enjoying the nature."  Garry, Maria, and I (Teresa) went, along with the father from the boys' group home, Andrey and the seven students (the new Kolya has already left).








Polo came along for the ride- at least it wasn't a trip to the vet, maybe he will like riding in the car better next time.

When we got to the island, we found out we couldn't get near the fort, there were policemen everywhere, even standing about every 20 meters along the woods, facing the road.  We were joking that the president must be there - and it turns out we may have been right, it was the anniversary of the liberation of Zaporosia from the Nazis!

So Victor drove around a bit and we walked down to the river and enjoyed nature there.

Polo, leading the way, was glad to get out of the van

Group photo

Simeon making friends with Polo

Karina and Simeon goofing around

Nastya with Polo

They climbed the rocks

and took photos by (in?) the river

talked to a fisherman

and had some laughs

More than one Kolya

Yulia and Garry going into the dorm

We once again have two Kolyas at school- Nikolai was also a Kolya because it is the nickname for Nikolai! And our school is in Nikolaipolia, or Nicholas' field, so why not have more than one? We are now at eight students with the arrival of the new Kolya on Monday afternoon. We drove to Kiroy Rog to pick him up at the same dormitory the girls lived in, and Yulia came along to pick up the rest of their stuff that was in storage. The back of the van was very full on the way back, and she was telling him all about the classes and stuff, except when they were busy eating their Royal cheeseburger menus (quarter pounder meals) we got at a McDrive drive-thru on our way out of the city. I had never heard Yulia talk as much as she did from the time she got to the reception at the dorm until we were home.

a full load

Kolya and Yulia saying goodbye to some of the staff there

Kolya and Sasha

Our other Kolya went with Sasha to his hometown Rene for the week and we picked them up at the bus station in Zaporosia at 6:30 this morning. They had a good time but were happy to be back in the village. We are happy that they are back too.

Sasha's foster mom was glad to meet his best friend here and bought them some new clothes and things, and took Kolya to the dentist, too.

Coming and going

Garry and the students playing UNO after pizza

Last night (Friday) we invited the students for pizza to mark the end of the first month of school. We have had an interesting two weeks. Nikolai left, because he decided he could not live with the rules after the second week of school. Garry and Maria reminded him that if he left, he could not return, all the boys begged him to stay, but he decided to go anyway. We cannot make them stay in school, if they really want to leave.  Maria was having a really bad day because the two girls were considering leaving also, but had no place to go back to, so they stayed. Yulia, who had been sick that week,  is doing better in class than  Karina now that she is feeling better. The girls seem to be getting over their fear of cows.

We have a new student since last Thursday, Simeon, who had come out with the Agape organization to see the school. We have had another girl and two guys come this week for overnight visits to see the school (one was here for pizza) some may join us, but the guys both seemed to think it was some kind of job, instead of school, until they arrived. Garry drove into Dnepropetroesk to get them. Sasha had to return home to Reni for some official business, so he left with his friend Kolya, since he was going to take him home for a week visit in two weeks when we have fall break, they left yesterday, and missed out on the pizza and UNO game after.

Simeon sweeping down cobwebs in the barn

Garry and I taught dairy farming and English this past week, the group home parents taught the week before and will have their classes again in the coming week. Some of our students are doing well in classes, but a few are not trying hard enough. Hopefully that will improve in the coming weeks. They are showing up on time for class this week after we started handing out candy at 9 am (and not after 9.)

We had a sex ed class presented by someone (in Russian, all classes except ours are presented by Russian speakers, and Maria translates for Garry) from Zaporosia one morning two weeks ago, and are thinking about having an anti-smoking one, to inform them of the dangers and encourage them to quit. Our students include a couple casual smokers, two real smokers, and the one girl who is thinking of coming wants to quit. We do not require them to quit, just to not smoke in or near the houses, classroom or the barns.


We pray that Nikolai will be alright, he should be able to find work unloading at the markets (which he used to do) and he is in better shape after living here for almost two months, first at our house and then the boys group home, where he had problems adjusting to the rules, like curfews and smoking far from the house. He had been living on the street when he came to us and we had gotten his health checked, bought antibiotics to clear up an infection, paid to have the dentist pull his rotten tooth, took him shopping new clothes from the second hand store and given him one of our suitcases that he had asked for- he then sewed up the tear on it to carry his possessions in a couple weeks ago, and he took it with him.
He had been told he couldn't leave for the weekend after missing the first day of school and keeping with an established pattern of not returning on time every time he went to visit his sister (whom he said was getting married for weeks in a row.)  He would phone Maria and tell her that it was because he had been sad about his mother's death, so he got drunk and spent all his money, (or other excuses, like a death in the family which his brother would not know about) and then he would find a job for the day to get the bus back to the village.
 The next week he came into money, bought one of the other boy's cell phones, and when the group home parents asked where he had gotten all the money... he told several stories which didn't check out or make sense, and so Garry and Maria told him he could only stay if he told the truth about where it came from. An hour later he confessed to taking 900 grivna from our house, so he was told could stay but had to work to pay it back, and one week later he left (after working a few extra hours guarding after school until 7 pm at the new barn.) He said he was planning to stay with the family of "his girlfriend" that he said was 12 (one night that week he was wearing a female shirt which he said was hers out), he is 19. So we are thinking that he may have had more problems than we could help him with here, but hope he lands on his feet. Maria got a phone call saying he was starting a job soon, after one asking if he could come back.  His older brother, Valara, is still here at the school and a really bright student who wants to get perfect marks on every test (and we thought he would be a problem.)

Work study

Two weeks into our trade school program, and what have we done? We now have four boys and three girls, each with their own personalities and challenges in life and learning. All are wonderful people to get to know and teach.

 Garry and I (and Maria, his translator/assistant) taught the first two weeks of school, Monday to Thursday from 9- 12:30, with a couple of tea/smoke breaks (we have 3 smokers, I think). Honestly, it was mostly Garry teaching about cows, with 45 minute English lessons each day by me. Next week the group home parents will teach Math, Ukrainian language, Christian Ethics and computer use, the plan is that from now on the classes will alternate weekly, until December.

Kolya and Sasha have bikes to ride to work and class

Feeding calves- Valara

 Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and all day Friday (for those students not doing medical checkups, getting passports or registering with the government, all of which we are trying to do on non-class days) are farm work experience, right now that is mostly simple supervised tasks to get used to working with cows. Each student is "helping" the ladies with three milkings a week, (the cows are milked three times a day) doing things like dipping teats, brushing cows, and feeding calves milk. For this work they are paid slightly more than they are paying for room and board, so they have some money for spending at the store, however, it looks like Garry will need to pay them more when the winter utility bills need to be paid. They have the option of doing extra paid work on the weekends if they want, some students visit friends and family by bus, as long as they are back for school !

Garry showing Nicholai and Karina how to currycomb cows

They also have to help with household chores, like cooking and cleaning at the group homes, so they will have the skills to take care of themselves and maybe a family in the future. However, it is not all work. We had our first excursion this week, as you saw in an earlier post, and Garry is taking some (maybe all) of them into Zaporosia for a youth outreach event on Saturday night.

There is a ping pong (table tennis) table going into the boys house, and they seem to be a happy group over there.  There may be a few more students yet, we have more visitors coming out on Saturday afternoon to see the school.

The giant box of boys clothing that came form Reni-
thanks to Sasha's foster family who send it to share

Some of the smaller clothing we dropped off for the pastor at the
 village church to give away to the needy.

Excursion with the students

Here are a few of our students having fun this week, we plan to have monthly excursions and the group home parents suggested this place in Zaporosia. The guys had a great time, doing both the second and third tier, while Nastya, the group home parents and I watched, yelled encouragement and took photos.

Kolya, Sasha, Valara and Nikolai get through safety instructions before starting

Nicholai reaching a platform between sections

That is Valara in the red shirt up there on level two (they did level three too)

Kolya smiles down at us

The starting point, Nastya is in the pink sweater

Next time we will have to pick a girl friendly activity
Nastya stayed on the ground, the other girls are away for the day

Sasha (in black) and Valara (in red shirt) are smiling up there

Sasha walks a tightrope

The three boys who finished level three can be seen in this photo

doing the splits 

You can see all three levels here (the kids do level one)

Garry decided to do it when the boys were on level two

Garry was going to watch, but when the boys were halfway through level two, he got outfitted, instructed and off he went. It creaked as he went onto the platforms,(and he had to duck a lot) glad I didn't go!

We had brought some candy, juice boxes and cookies so everyone was happy.

across the pond on the zipline

This week at the trade school

 This is the first week of classes for the trade school. We are planning to study in two week modules with classes in the mornings Monday through Thursday, from 9 am to 12:30.

 Right now Garry is teaching Cattle Reproduction and Judging, with a beginning English class by me sandwiched in around 10:15 to 11 am. On Fridays they will be working over at the new barn, or this one. The students are also scheduled individually for some work experience in the barn with the cows, brushing them and so on, during the week. Students who would like to earn extra money have the opportunity to guard over at the barn on the weekends during the day.

The two girls who came to visit Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon attended class and we have heard that the smaller one is very excited about coming, if her friend agrees, Her friend is worried that she will have to quit smoking if she comes, but it is not a requirement of our program. It might be wonderful if they did, but several of our last class smoked (one quit) and a couple of the boys do this time. We do ask that they go out to the street to smoke.

Smoking cigarettes is very common among Ukrainians of all generations, although last year an indoor smoking ban was enacted and most people keep to it, we never sit out on restaurant patios because there is smoking there.

Day one... not quite as planned

Reviewing the parts on a real cow

Day one of class two of the trade school did not go quite as planned... the two students who were gone for the weekend did not come back to the village today.
 It seems Tolik will not come back after visiting his sick grandmother, and Nikolai did not make it back until Monday night. He seems to spend all his money when he goes away, so he has problems getting back, hopefully he learns to make better decisions this year.

 However, the day was a success for the four students who did come!

and in the classroom

Group home parents and students in the classroom

Nastya was late, but the boys showed up right at 9 am for class. They worked on learning all the parts of a cow today. Garry's first module is cattle judging, and tomorrow I will start a short English class mid- morning. They also worked on setting the work schedule for this week,









At left we have everyone who came today for lunch, From Left closest to camera, Suisa (Luba's daughter who may help teach) Luba, girls group home mom, Iera, guys home mom, Nastya, student, Maria Garry's translator/assistant. far right of table: Garry, Kolya, Sasha and Valara, students, and Andrey, guy's home dad.

Kolya really liked the oliveya salad, he had thirds

Anybody hungry?

At 12:30, the end of classes, the foster parents came to help us celebrate the first day of school with a special lunch I made. Afterwards the students had a short time of work experience in the barn with Garry to learn what they were going to do there.

Looking at Nastya's schedule

The boy's showing Andrey their schedules 

Late this afternoon, we picked up the two orphan girls from Kirvoy Rog at the bus station in Dnepropetroesk and after buying some Mc Donalds from the drive-thru for them, we drove back to the village and left them at the girls house overnight.

Tomorrow they will join us for class and then we'll find out if they will be joining our school, so maybe we will have more than six students this week.

Tuesday morning the girls in class (Maria, standing is translating for Garry)

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