Quite a few different things happening today, but there was a lot of activity at the Chausy Orphanage.  First thing this morning Peggy stopped in to see the infirmary.  In the past we have done a lot of work to renovate and equip these rooms and a nurse is on duty 24 hours a day.  The Campbells of Ridgetown, Ontario provide vitamins for the children as well as other necessities.  There is a main examination room as well as two isolation rooms.  Of course for anything serious the children are taken to the Chausy Hospital.

Work continued today on the Orphanage bedrooms that we are
renovating.  In this picture we see Vika and Oleg filling a gap in the floor with cement.

Vika lived for nine years at the orphanage as a child and remembers clearly in 1998 when Canadian Aid for Chernobyl delivered the first container of aid to the orphanage.  Vika eventually came to Canada where she completed High School and graduated from college as Registered Practical Nurse.  She now lives and works in Alberta.  Although we had already renovated several bedrooms using funds raised at our Gala/Auction last summer, Vika wanted to give back and managed to raise over $1,500 which is allowing us to complete these additional rooms and give the delegation a great project to work on.

Here Dave Shaw pulls up some of the old trim:

In this picture Canadian Cathy Boone works alongside Vika, a girl who she previously hosted in Canada.

Jon Schuler, Mary Cleary and Pat Yuille are working prepping a room for paint and wallpaper.

Aiden Cleary gathering up some of the old trim.

Of course most of the delegates are working here or on other projects that we have on the go.  One of those projects is a cooking class set up by Jann Smith with the help of her daughter Kylie, Annis Moreau and Mary Cleary.  Today’s menu was chicken fried rice and to add a real international flavour they had the children try eating with chopsticks!  Here Kylie shows Tanya how to hold her chopsticks.

The children prepared the whole meal under the Canadians supervision.  Here Kylie watches Yana and Andrei prepare the salad.

Kostya tries his hand at frying while Yulia waits for her turn.

Here Dima cuts out cookies while Karina looks on.

Of course the short term reward is getting to eat their special creation.  They all enjoyed trying the chopsticks, but when asked if it tasted better with the chopsticks or a fork, they all agreed that the fork won!

Being raised in an institutional environment where their meals are prepared for them and served in a cafeteria, this opportunity to learn to cook some simple yet nutritious food is absolutely invaluable and will serve them very well in the long term!

Eric McKenzie