"Jonai, Stop Eating My Hair!"

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Our weekend of fun adventures finally ended as our first official "work week" began. The house was a little less chaotic this morning since three of the little ones went to kindergarten class, and one of the caretakers took several of the older kids to her home to help dig up potatoes. After an hour of soccer, basketball, and piggy back rides (which is when Jonas thought it would be funny to try to eat Julija's hair), Roma returned from a court case at which she was representing two brothers who live at the house. She called us into her office and began telling us the horrific stories of the kids' pasts. We are going to try to write about one child or family each day.
The two boys Roma represented today, ages 8 and 10, have been placed in orphanages 6 times. Their parents constantly lose temporary custody of the children, and now Roma is fighting to remove all custody from them. The parents are raging alcoholics who leave the young kids to care for themselves. Before coming to the house, the brothers "made a living" scavenging through garbage cans picking out glass beer bottles that can be turned in to a store in exchange for 20 cents. However, the boys knew that if they brought the money home, their mother would take it from them. The older boy would ask the cashier at the store how many rolls of bread their change could buy. He would then plead to be given just one roll and have it written down that he can retrieve however many more on later days. In the year that they have been here, the mom has never called or visited the kids. Yet, she refuses to give up custody claiming that she takes care of them the best she can. For this reason, Roma expects a long legal battle (The mother didn't even show up to court today. Her excuse: couldn't get a bus.). Unfortunately, the brothers cannot be put up for adoption until the mother loses complete legal custody.
Back to our day: Even though we only had time to hear a few kids' histories, we were brought to tears by Roma's stories. Everyday she is going to tell us a few more.
After lunch we taught the children how to make friendship bracelets and helped clean out their storage closet that is overflowing with donated clothing. Believe it or not, they actually have too much donated clothing. Roma said that if we want to send things to the kids, send anything but clothing.
After dinner we met up with Roma's friends and went paintballing. Although we were terrified at first, it was fun and a good experience. After returning to the house, I found out that two of the oldest girls, both 18 years old, go for a jog every evening, so I decided to join them. This ended up being the most live-changing walk/jog I have ever experienced. Not only did I get to see more of the surrounding area, but also, I was given an opportunity to really bond with these girls. Amongst numerous other stories, they told me that they truly like it here at the house. No one can replace one's own parents, but if they had stayed at their homes, they may not be alive right now. Never would they have imagined that they would both actually be attending professional schools to fulfill their dreams of becoming a florist and a chef.
We finished of the day with an intense game of soccer with the boys and Kaziukas, a 23 year-old who is temporarily living here while he studies in hopes of becoming a priest.
To say the least, it was an eye-opening day.
-Daiva

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Comments

[daina Siliunas]

amazing stories
Wow, it is amazing to hear how these poor children survive, and realize how truly blessed we all are!