New week, new group

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Adrienne here. At the orphanage this morning, we checked in with the director to find out which group we would be assigned to this week. We were given Group 8, which is the group of 6 and 7 year olds that we were unofficially playing with last week, when we were assigned the 2 year olds that play next to them. So there was no need to learn new names or try to break the ice, which was nice.

When we went to their classroom, we noticed that each child had a framed photo of him- or herself above the locker. We started pointing at the pictures, and they all started talking at once, making sure we noticed THEIR picture and commented on it. They had to finish changing to go outside, so Wendy and I went downstairs to wait for them.

It seemed like a good opportunity to break out some of the photos that I brought from home, so when they came outside we called them over. This particular bunch of photos were the ones I had brought, so they consisted of pictures of my family and my dog. As I did with the 4 year olds, I held up the pictures and showed them around first, and then let the kids keep the pictures. I just handed out all of the ones I had on me, so each kid got several. They loved looking at these pictures! I would tell them the names of people in the pictures, adn the kids with the better verbal skills would repeat the names after me. They liked seeing my basketball pictures and Sara's soccer pictures a lot. One little girl, Nasta, had a picture of Mark, Ava, and me. She pointed to Mark and said "pupa" and had me kiss the picture. Then she said "pupa" again and she kissed me (in the photo). It was cute.

Shortly after we finished handing out photos, the 2 year olds came out, and they wanted pictures too. Several of the older kids would NOT give up any that they had, but most gave up at least one, so the 2 year olds got photos, too. Wendy took some excellent photos of the kids holding up their pictures, or looking at them intently, so hopefully when we get to Turkey we can post them for you.

Before lunch today, Wendy and I realized we hadn't had any meat in two days, so we each had veal for lunch. Wendy had a veal kabob that was so good it almost melted in my mouth. (Hey Dad, next time you make shish-ka-bobs, you should try veal instead of steak.) I had veal and mushrooms in a pastry. Wendy's was better.

Thank you for your comments and emails. It is much easier to fight homesickness when you have contact from home!

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