Today in Vladivostok

By Chris:

So, interrupting the posts about last week’s activities in Lesozavodsk, today we walked a bit through Vladivostok, got a nice view of the harbor and the big bridge (my inner civil engineer was fascinated) and then headed over to the orphanage to play with the kids. Here is a view of the harbor from the road we walked along.

After crossing the bridge you can see on the right of the picture, we walked a bit to the orphanage. We got there right as the kids were going outside. They were so happy to see us! We played around with kids anywhere from 1 to 3 years old. Some of the kids couldn’t stop smiling. Other kids you could tell were just happy to have someone to hold onto, even if they weren't smiling. Here are some pictures. 

After some playtime we went inside and helped to feed the kids and hold the newborns. One thing I noticed was how beautiful the eyes of all of the babies were. It is weird for me to notice that since I don't usually notice the eyes on people, but these kids just had the prettiest and most innocent eyes. As Rachael put it, "it was like staring into the eyes of God." It brought the team a lot of joy to see how something as little as our presence could mean so much to these kids. At the same time, there was kind of a bitter feeling behind it as we realized that these babies don't get the attention that they deserve. It was sad to hear many of the children crying as we left because they all wanted to be held again.

After the orphanage we had lunch and relax time. In the evening we went to the Orthodox Cathedral for Vespers. It was quite the experience. Though the Catholic and Orthodox faiths seem kind of similar, the churches are very different. In that same vein, the vespers services were very unique. Maybe it was because everything was in Russian, but the whole prayer seemed so foreign to me. It was pretty crazy. That being said, the singing of the priests and choir at the Orthodox Church was unbelievable!! They chanted and sang like we had never heard before. 

Tonight has been pretty uneventful. The dryer broke down, so we have been all creating very interesting ways of getting laundry done. Katie and TJ washed a few things by hand, most people dried things on clothes lines (how old fashioned right?), and I am using an iron to dry my clothes. I wouldn't really care if they were wet, but we have to pack up for another trip tomorrow, so I need all of my clothes dry! The iron is working alright to dry the clothes, but it doesn’t get it quite as dry as you would think. Additionally, as my mother will tell you, I do not like nor am I good at ironing anything. On the plus side, all of my clothes-including socks and boxers-are being nicely pressed and wrinkle free.