Utter Chaos

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Today after breakfast, the three of us stayed in the kitchen and learned how to make "kugelis", another famous potato dish, which was served for lunch. I don't think I have ever peeled so many potatoes in my life. In the time between lunch and dinner, everyone was making friendship bracelets-even the caretakers and cooks joined in. For dinner, we helped make a crumble cake which was made with "uogiene" or fresh jam. What we soon figured out was that in Lithuania, and most European countries, lunch is the main meal with the most food, and dinner is either a light dish or dessert.
Today was probably not the best day to have dessert for dinner, because the kids went WILD. Kids were jumping from swings, racing chairs down the hallways, tickling us, locking eachother in rooms, hiding behind couches, shooting eachother with plastic guns, and doing anything but being calm. It didn't help that the weather couldn't make up its mind today either-it downpoured about 5 different times today, forcing us to stay inside. Fortunately, when the rain let up, we ended the day by playing another intense soccer game and watching a movie.

Now another story of a child:
At every meal, all three of us noticed that one of the girls closest in age to us always fed the youngest baby boy, who is only 1 year old. Today we found out that this was her son. This girl had loving parents when she was younger, but when they both turned to alcohol, her once safe home turned into a dangerous one. She was taken from her home, and switched orphanages multiple times before being returned to her father at the age of 15 after he claimed he was sober. Everything seemed to be fine until one year later, her father found out she was pregnant. He began to abuse her physically and mentally up until her fourth month of pregnancy, at which point she was sent here. Thankfully, the baby was born safely and now she is able to pursue her dream in becoming a chef. However, she has major issues with her self-esteem, as her father destroyed her self-image. On the other hand, she takes wonderful care of her child, and does everything in her power to make him feel safe and secure, and does not want to be separated from him in any way. We also found out that she cannot be adopted anymore as she is of age, and her son is rightfully hers. All three of us know and believe that she has what it takes to brighten her future.
-Julija

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Photos

Mother with child
the little boy currently has a case of the chicken pox. The medication they are putting on the spots is tinted blue which is why he looks like he's covered in blue/green marker

Comments

[daina siliunas]

wow
Another interesting day and sad story with hopefully a very positive ending.