meeting one student at a time

Garry, Maria, the group home parents and sometimes Max Olyfeski have been meeting and interviewing prospective students for the fall term. Most of these are coming from Christian organizations working with orphans in Ukraine, or social services after Garry and Maria went to a meeting in Zaporosia with them last month. Since most of the students we have accepted so far are guys, there could be a problem if Ukraine starts drafting in case of war, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it, since we would likely leave the country then!

Over the weekend one of the guys showed up in the village for his interview. He had problems getting here earlier in the week. He called Maria to say he was not coming, because he was going to herd cows to make money for the bus ticket, but it had rained too hard and the herd had not gone out that day.

When Nikolai arrived on Friday at six pm, he was in need of a shower and his clothes were in pretty rough shape. Maxim Boradin recognized him, he had been a year older than Max at the same handicapped orphanage, and has a certificate from a trade school he went to for two years. He filled out some forms, ate some pizza and spent the night at the boys house, where he got the shower. He had one gym bag with his possessions in, and had been staying with/near an aunt (who if I understood is a nun). His father killed his mother while he was in the orphanage and he has seven siblings.

Saturday morning he came to try working on the farm here to see if he would be able to do it.  I got some photos of him with Max B, feeding the cows greenchop with the wheelbarrows.
 He along with some of the guys who at loose ends will come to the village soon and do some work and get paid and pay the group home parents for room and  board (part of our new fiscally responsible program to teach the value of working for what you get in life, to prepare them for the real world when the orphan stipend is over at age 23- or if the government cuts it in the new fiscally responsible Ukrainian government.)