Monday Oct 13 Report #4

Another lovely day for a visit out to the village where we first had meetingin the home of Stefka, Ola and her husband Orst. They live on what we calla small holding with a large garden of about an acre, a milk cow, two pigsand some chickens. There are a number of fruit trees with most of the fruitfallen on the ground. The fruit does not look good as I don't think they canafford to spray and so the apples all seem to have spots on them. They pressa lot of apples into juice. The potatoes were not good either this year withmany spots mainly because of the very wet harvest season. A grand daughterand husband and daughter also live on the second story of the nice solidhouse. When we arrived they were making cheese and potato pirogues in the summerkitchen. We had brought some winter clothing as well as staples notavailable on the farm. Even though these people live on a holding there isvery little money for such things as cooking oil and cleaning supplies, sowe help out with some of these things. They all agree that it will be a hardwinter for many families who lost all their gardens and do not have anymeans of income. After good meal of borscht and pirogues, we left for Vileki Luben, a homefor mentally challenged children as well as some abandoned orphans. I wasvery surprised to see that a magnificent building that had needed to betotally renovated was now in total use. The last time I saw it, I doubted itwould ever be habitable, but with funds from Switzerland and elsewhere, itwas finished. We were met by the male director and showed into the auditorium where allexcept the youngest children were gathered, along with three staff. We sang"Jesus loves me" to them with a chart then each spoke a little word to themfrom the bible. They were all very attentive, so we gave them all bigsuckers, very generous!! We toured the renovated buildings. What a difference this new administratorhas made: the former lady director had been dishonest with the fundsallocated and was charged and fired several years ago. After a cup ofterrible coffee with all the grounds floating on the top we headed home to asupper of spaghetti and meat balls. God night to all. Malcolm