While some of us were off delivering more books to schools today, Colin and Pat were busy at the Chausy Orphanage working on a project of their own.  Oleg, the Orphanage director, had mentioned that it would be nice for the children to have some shelves in their rooms for a few books and maybe some personal items like pictures or awards. Colin and Pat, both carpenters, got a little help from some of the boys at the orphanage as well as Ivan, one of our drivers and started building the shelves yesterday. Here are Dima and Zhenya work at applying stain to the finished shelves.

Here are Ivan, Colin and Pat helping the boys finish up.  By the end of the day today they had constructed and stained 18 new shelves.

Meanwhile a larger group of Canadians had travelled to the village of Volkavichi to deliver another batch of approximately 250 books.

These children were so excited to recieve these books that they were eagerly flipping through them and showing each other their favourites.  When household incomes are measured in hundreds of dollars per month it is easy to see why books for reading pleasure would fall pretty low on the family budget!

Next we went to the village of Gorbavichi where we were eagerly welcomed by a larger group of students.  The children here were every bit as excited!

The day today started out sunny and warm but it did cloud over and we had a few scattered showers.  While we were getting in the van in front of the school a man and woman drove by in this horse drawn wagon hauling what looked like seed or grain, undoubtedly for one of the many nearby collective farms.  These wagons are a very normal site in this region, especially in the more rural areas.

As a bonus for sticking with me all the way to the end here is your cuteness quota for today. These are some of the children at kindergarten #5 where we delivered 24 beautiful man-made guilts.  These quilts were lovingly made by our own “Chernobyl Quilters” of the Brockville area, headed up by Mary Bernard.

Tomorrow will be a big day as we start to deliver family parcels as well as attend two concerts, one at School #1 and the second at the Chausy Orphanage.

Eric McKenzie