Camp Friendship-Fifth and Last Day

This bathroom was the one we shared with the rest of our building. This kept us from using the "squatty pottys" in the outhouses. It may not look like much, but to us it was a blessing.

Max gives announcements in Russian and (sweet) Dasha interprets for the Americans

Breakfast...see description below...typical table arrangement

My little piece of heaven...a homemade biscuit from Marilyn complete with butter AND honey!

Deanna and her special friend, Dania

BUTTERFLIES!

the finished product drying on the window sill

posing with my roommate Joanne and our new friend, Wes. Wes is the youth pastor at his church in Birmingham and he brought a team with him to serve with ours

afternoon crafts...the last of the beads

(sweet)Dasha and Kayla(right)

looking back down the road from Vala's house in the village.

Our interpreters for crafts...Tonya(left) and Yulia(right). Yulia also interpreted for me at night and Tonya interpreted for Deanna

Another picture with my roommate Evelyn

Due to the change in our flight schedule, this is going to be our last day at Camp Friendship. Leaving is truly bittersweet. We are excited to see our families, but sad to leave camp when the rest of our group is still staying for one more week of camp. We were late for calisthenics this morning, but we made it for announcements and devotion. Breakfast was porridge with chicken broth on it, a hot dog sausage, and cucumbers. I only ate the hot dog sausage but then I found a piece of heaven. Upon exiting breakfast, Marilyn informed us that she had made biscuits at home and brought honey. Their flour is more course than ours, and the biscuits aren't light and fluffy, but they were incredibly delicious dripping with butter and honey. It was probably the healthiest thing I have eaten here (well despite the butter and honey). We finished the butterflies today with the kids which were a HUGE mess with tissue paper and glue. The kids loved it and were eager to finish after yesterday's delay. We have been so so hot! The cafeteria is sweltering. We go back to our room after crafts and sit in front of the fan. It feels almost like air conditioning! Deanna met a little girl who likes to hang around her. Her name is Dania. She can remember Deanna's name because it is so close to her own. If Dania wants to talk to me, she reaches for my name tag because she can't remember my name. Lunch today was soup again with potatoes and a few noodles. We also had cabbage and cucumber salad and some rice with a little chicken in it, no broth. After lunch, we sat down with Shane to make sure our travel arrangements were set and to exchange some money for our trip. We had not planned on a day in Kiev with our original itinerary, but now we would need some cash as we would spend a day there. We have sent some clothes to the laundry a couple of times during camp. The laundry ladies wash them and then hang them to dry. Sometimes we get them back damp, but at least they are pretty clean. After all the sweating we have done, it is a welcome blessing not to have a suitcase full of dirty, stinky clothes. We picked up our laundry and I had my last ice cream. The ice cream here is full fat and delicious! We spent some time packing our clothes and then went to snack which was a big fat piece of fried dough straight out of the fryer. If we had a little powdered sugar, you would have thought they were beignets. They were served plain, burning hot in our hands, but good. We enjoyed our last time with our older kids and crafts. They missed the beads, but we found some more that can be used next week. Tonya will take over crafts for us and Deanna went over next week's plan with her after crafts. I went into the village with Kayla and an interpreter to visit the lady with the sores on her legs. Her name is Vala and she was very glad to see us. We went over how to care for the bandages and keep the wound clean and she is taking antibiotics that Kayla's mother left for her earlier in the summer. A lot of medicine can be bought without a prescription, you just have to know what you need. Vala had told Kayla earlier that she didn't believe that God loved her because her legs weren't healing. Kayla tried to tell her that God was showing her he loved her by sending her Kayla who cared about her. Today she brought me and reinforced that God loved her because he sent people to visit who cared about her. I think it helped for her to hear that I was a nurse even though I haven't practiced in that capacity for some time. I was just sharing basic nursing skills and basically reinforcing what she had already been taught by Kayla's mother. It was a good visit and I prayed for her before we left. We also saw Yosef and his kittens one more time. I prayed for him too. Kayla and I came back to camp almost too late for supper and it was the best one! Supper was simply skillet fried potatoes. That's it, just potatoes and it was good. Although, I think if I never eat another potato again I won't miss them. Night worship was good with Yurok (Yuri) giving the message. It was a message on Samson and somehow he turned it into an invitation for salvation message. It was very interesting. The kids are young and were encouraged to speak to their group leaders if they had questions. Deanna and I did not stay to watch Ice Age 3 (in Russian without subtitles) as we needed to finish our packing and take a shower. We leave at 5:45 in the morning and the showers won't be hot that early. Once again, the shower felt fantastic! Morning will come early but we are pretty well packed and ready for bed.