Day 4 - Pokrov Day 1

We left Vladimir this morning.  I had a great experience this morning as late last night I arranged a meeting with a girl I had not seen in eight years.  She left the orphanage shortly after I was there in 2005.  She found me on a social networking site this year and wanted to see me.  I was also able to arrange for one of our interpreters to come and have breakfast with us at the hotel. 

Anna and I were able to meet with her and catch up a lot.  She went to live with her parents and now is a competitive roller skier.  That was a great conversations and she expressed her appreciation to us for even what we did eight years ago when she was eight years old.

The first day at the orphanage flew by as we arrived at about 11 o'clock at our hotel.  We quickly got to the orphanage and had our opening meeting where we introduced ourselves.  We had a nice lunch and then watched two movies made at the orphanage.  One was very funny and made by the kids themselves.  It was very well done, especially for a first effort.  the other was a professionally made film about the loneliness of being an orphan that was made on the orphanage property. 

We then watched a portion of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  Unfortunately, we were not able to finish it and our options are limited.  Many kids have seen the movie before. 

The kids put on a nice presentation of songs about childhood.  It included singing and dancing, mostly by the younger kids. 

After that we had dinner with 18 members of the orphanage staff.  It was a very special evening in a nice setting.