John H. wrote:


It's a great vacation for the kids, and a pain in the butt for us. But when
they leave, we'll have tears running down our face as we say goodbye. It's
remarkable how strong an attachment can be formed in only a few weeks. They
soon seem like part of the family. One of these boys lives with his
grandmother. His mother's in jail for stealing, his father is not to be
found, and his grandfather is dead. The other lives in a two-roomer with
three siblings, a mother, and a father who's an alcoholic. Alcoholism is
the favorite illness over there, it seems. Every boy that's stayed with us,
and had a father at home, had an alcoholic for a father. Damn shame.

We'll probably have them back next year, but don't tell my wife I said
that!

I have always thought if people knew how much they get back
from
volunteering, there would never be a shortage of volunteers.

Thanks for sharing the photos, hopefully you have encouraged
a few others to look into doing something similar.

John H. wrote in
:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

What's their status? I know someone who brought home a cute Russian orphan
after the bureaucratic fight with the US Gummit, of course. She's going to
be an electrical engineer after graduation....but the boys ARE persistent.

I think they have 3, now....all orphans, adopted.

They know more about the USA than I do!

Firepersons (PC!) love kids. They drive our trucks over in front of
Walmart, suit the kids all up like firepersons and water the vacant lot
next door with a 250', hi pressure ladder truck from way up there!

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:52:12 +0000, Larry wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

What's their status? I know someone who brought home a cute Russian orphan
after the bureaucratic fight with the US Gummit, of course. She's going to
be an electrical engineer after graduation....but the boys ARE persistent.

I think they have 3, now....all orphans, adopted.

They know more about the USA than I do!

Firepersons (PC!) love kids. They drive our trucks over in front of
Walmart, suit the kids all up like firepersons and water the vacant lot
next door with a 250', hi pressure ladder truck from way up there!


These first two sites give some information about our local program. Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx

(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems the
program is facing.)

http://moran.house.gov/list/press/va...n/Angels.shtml

This last site provides a little more detail about what actually occurs.
This is not from our area, but we do about the same things.

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and then
attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright kid.
After his first visit he went home and began taking English five days a
week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the English teacher
to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He absolutely loved
this country.

John H. wrote in
m:


These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx



A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:



John H. wrote in
:


These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx



A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch


The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.

This year the rift between the two governments caused our local program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.

John H. wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx


A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch


The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.

This year the rift between the two governments caused our local program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.


These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.

John H. wrote in
:

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and
then attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright
kid. After his first visit he went home and began taking English five
days a week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the
English teacher to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He
absolutely loved this country.



The young people in the whole region are becoming unisolated by lots of new
TV stations in the region. There is MAD TV:
http://mfile.akamai.com/45346/live/reflector:59936.asx
which is just as American and British as MTV....and FREE on the net!

There are many others. My little Linux tablet has over 600 stations across
the planet from broadband. About 20 are Russian.

The rapper crappers are on Mad TV as I type this...(c;

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:47:54 +0000, Larry wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and
then attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright
kid. After his first visit he went home and began taking English five
days a week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the
English teacher to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He
absolutely loved this country.



The young people in the whole region are becoming unisolated by lots of new
TV stations in the region. There is MAD TV:
http://mfile.akamai.com/45346/live/reflector:59936.asx
which is just as American and British as MTV....and FREE on the net!

There are many others. My little Linux tablet has over 600 stations across
the planet from broadband. About 20 are Russian.

The rapper crappers are on Mad TV as I type this...(c;

Larry, you can't include Belarus in generalities about the 'whole region'.
Belarus is still your basic Communist dictatorship without many of the
freedoms found elsewhere in the region.

John H. wrote in
:

Larry, you can't include Belarus in generalities about the 'whole
region'. Belarus is still your basic Communist dictatorship without
many of the freedoms found elsewhere in the region.



Oh that's pretty easy to see, even in Russia, where just a different set of
Mafioso warlords run the country than the Soviet warlords.

Nothing much has changed. They all still rattle those sabres....

On Jul 25, 9:16*pm, John H. wrote:
...had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

Man, they are grinning from ear to ear!