"No one ever gave me presents before"

Noviy Vestnik (New Herald), Karaganda, Kazakhstan ^ | December 13th, 2006 | Marina Funtikova

[struwwelpeter]

Pledges to the "Grandfather Frost" campaign continue

		Exactly one week ago the newspaper 'Noviy Vestnik' declared the start of a New Year's charity drive. We proposed that all those who wished to feel like a real Grandfather Frost could do so by making the wishes of orphans at the Home for Handicapped Children come true.

The results of the first week of the campaign has been stunning. We must admit, we did not expect such success. Our editorial staff has been visited by a dozen Grandfather Frosts. The Bogatyr food company brought in a large gift. Reader Irina Reznikova also left us a surprise, and some surprises for the children at the orphanage were prepared by Inessa and Diana Sedehanova. University students Yekaterina and Asel also brought in their gifts as well. Yevgeny, who refused to give his last name, left two huge packages, filled with toys, and Grandma Frost Gulya, also preferred to remain anonymous as she dropped off her gifts.
A huge thank you to all who have taken part in our campaign, and to those who still wish to participate!
In our last edition we published the requests of 36 children, and this time we are putting out the rest of the orphans' wish list.
The authors of these messages have been trying with all their might to obey the rules of the old man from the fairy tales.
"I take good care of my things, and I always put them away," writes 11-year-old Dima Parfenov. Like Ayzat Aminev, he dreams about a remote-controlled car. Vitya Fefelkin, however, dreams of a "really big jeep that you can drive."
"I always have a happy face," Artur Botnor reports to Grandfather Frost. In this case he does not request a gift for itself. He dreams about a fir tree and garlands to decorate the playroom.
"How are you, Grandfather Frost!" writes Aray Ibrayeva, an 8-year-old girl. "I have been in the orphanage since autumn. I am the youngest one here. The other children help me do my homework. I am eagerly awaiting the New Year, because no one every gave me presents before. I wish that the children on New Year's can have a lot of candies and ice cream, bananas, and juices. I also want the children to obey the adults, not frolic about, and that they do well in school in the coming year. I also wish you good health. I want to be the most beautiful girl on New Year's. I want to wear a white dress and white shoes."
"I live in the orphanage," reports Adilbek Serikbayev. "Our group of 9 boys lives together very harmoniously. I love New Year's. We will decorate a fir tree, and dance and be glad. We invite Grandfather Frost. Please get us a soccer ball, a DVD player, and please a briefcase for my friend Alpesha."

A reminder
WHAT THE CHILDREN STILL WANT
* Kristina Temeryaeva, Sasha Sidun, Lesha Shishkov, Shura Totmina, Mitya Vrublevskiy and Marina Grosheva hope that Grandfather Frost will bring them tape players on New Year's.
* A tape or CD player with headphones is the dream of Vitya Savkin, Maxim Bonn, Stas Gorbunov, and Kolya Kalachev.
* Slava Kayukov wants to an electric train set from the magic grandfather.
* Semyon Zhorov dreams about table hockey...
*... and Misha Medvyedkin - about table football.
* Myram Ivadilda hopes for two gifts: a chess set and a Batman set.
* "I want a sport outfit with tennis shoes and a soccer ball", reports Kostya Perkhovka to Grandfather Frost (just in case, we report that he wears a size 38-40, is 135 cm tall, has an inseam of 36-37, and a 23 cm shoe size).
* Timofey Vasilyev wants Grandfather Frost to bring a "big picture for the playroom, so that it would look nice."
* Yerzhan Maltsev dreams about a toy helicopter.
* Sasha Agzamov requests a remote control fire engine.
* Large plush toys - a dog, a cat, and a piglet - are what Luba Sokolova, Snezhana Klimova, and Luba Gusyreva desire.
* Gulnur Nurbekova dreams of children's cosmetics.
* A girl named Ayganay, who has no last name, wished for very practical gifts: "good books in the Kazakh language, and a briefcase."

Attention!
WE AWAIT YOUR RESPONSES
If some of you now have a desire to make these children's dreams come true, please contact the editorial staff of 'NV'. We are coordinating the campaign, and together we can discuss just whom you can surprise with your gift.
It is possibile to bring gifts into the editorial offices of our newspaper. We will gather them during all of December, but around the holiday we will bring them to the orphanage.
The results of New Year's campaign will, of course, be published in the last edition of 'NV' for the year.
Our address: Nurken Abdirov Prospect 3, room 412, editorial staff of the newspaper 'Noviy Vestnik'. Telephones 41-26-26, 41-15-45
e-mail: vestnik@nursat.kz.

Marina Funtikova, photos by Valerie Kaliyev

[struwwelpeter]

New Year's over there is the time when presents are exchanged (Orthodox Christmas being 2 weeks later than in the West). Santa goes by the name 'Grandfather Frost', The Nutcracker is 'Shchelkunchik', but otherwise the holiday is the same.

[Red Badger]

Those faces......My heart is melting..........

[CholeraJoe]

"I've got presents?"

Harry Potter's First Christmas at Hogwarts

[struwwelpeter]

This article from the same issue really gets to me...

---

From Noviy Vestnik

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

Journeys to Hospitals

Vika Sidorenko has gotten worse again

		For almost half a year Vika Sidorenko has not left hospital walls. She was treated in Karaganda and Almaty, and once again she is back in the hospital here in Karaganda. The little girl does not improve, however - she is getting worse and worse.

Vika's medical history is a long one, with two rare diagnoses. Last summer the physicians told the Sidorenko family that the girl is being torn to pieces by autoimmune hepatitis, a disease one almost never sees in children. Later the doctors in Almaty reported that Vika had an entirely different malady: aplastic anemia
"It is due to the hepatitis," said Yelena Sidorenko during an in the interview with Noviy Vestnik. "It means that my daughter had hepatitis, but the doctors couldn't say which kind. Her immune system has failed, and the bone marrow is seriously effected. She doesn't have much of a chance."
For five months the girl has been in four therapeutic establishments. First she was the infectious disease hospital in Karaganda. In October she departed for the Askay Children's Clinical Hospital in Almaty. After several days, she was moved to the Almaty infectious disease hospital. From there the doctors sent the child to the Pediatric Research Institute. Yelena Sidorenko stayed by her daughter's side all this time.
In November the doctors let Vika go home, on a "leave of absence", but on the day after she came home, the girl took a turn for the worse.
"I got up in the morning and saw that my daughter's blanket was soaked in blood, " Lena recalls. "Blood was flowing from her mouth, she was vomitting blood, and even her urine was red, with blood clots. The capillaries in her eyes also burst."
After calling a taxi, the mother brought her daughter to the onco-hematological department of regional clinical hospital. The girl's state of health had deteriorated, and it was necessary to transfer her to intensive care.
For now Vika is situated in the onco-hematological department. It was here that she celebrated, if such a thing were possible, her birthday - last Monday she turned eight.
She constantly requires blood transfusions. In truth, according to her mother, the analyses are not improving. Nevertheless, those who desire can donate blood for Vika Sidorenko. She requires the second group with a positive Rh factor (A pos). Requests to aid the girl now hang on many buses throughout the city.
After meeting with us last week, Vika's mother Lena quietly told us how things were doing. At the very end of the conversation, she let slip just how the fight for her daughter's health has depleted the mother.
"You know, it's like I'm in a war... this is a war with death. My child is slowly dying... But I know that it's still possible to help Vika. I saw mothers in Almaty take home children that the doctors had sentenced to death. But they came back. Perhaps, not completely healthy, but without these hemorrhages. But there are also children who are completely cured."
Yelena Sidorenko is certain that the only thing that can save Vika is a bone marrow transplant, which can be only be done outside of the country.
"Our illness is not treated in Kazakhstan. I will go to Astana so that they can send us for treatment in Minsk.

Donations for Vika Sidorenko's treatments can be made to Yelena Viktorovna Sidorenko's account (RNN - 302011147089):
People's Bank
BIK Karaganda region
199900
IR 075890505
BIK № 191801625
RNN 301700030366
RKO № 199913
№ account 1999131021093952

But at this time...
THE COLLECTION FOR 30 THOUSAND DOLLARS CONTINUES
Little Volodya Tereshchenko needs your help as before
A month ago 'NV' wrote about a three-year-old Shakhtinsk resident named Volodya Tereshchenko.
When the child was three months old, his parents noted that he did not react to noise.
Later, doctors confirmed the most terrible fears of the parents: child was swiftly becoming deaf.
At the Aksay Children's Clinical Hospital where Volodya lay, his parents were given the diagnosis: fourth degree bilateral neurosensory auditory defect. The pathology would not respond to conservative treatment, and surgical treatment was supposedly not being performed in state pediatric establishments in the Republic of Kazakhstan. They were told that the child needed cochlear implantation abroad.
Cochlear implantation is an operation to insert a small hearing device. Only by accident, the parents learned that they need not go outside the country, that he could have his hearing restored in Kazakhstan. The operation is being performed in a special clinic, but costs 30 thousand dollars, a sum which the Tereshchenko family cannot collect on their own.
If you can contribute even a tiny amount for Volodya's treatment, transfer the funds to Anna Viktorovna Tereshchenko's account:
AO People's Bank,
Karaganda branch 191899
MFO 191801625
RNN 301700030366
№ account 1918991001792953
Special collection boxes were placed last weekend in TsUM state department store.

You may contact the parents of Volodya Tereshchenko:
Shakhtinsk
Abaya Prospect, 70a, apartment 52
Telephone: 8-701-315-66-49.
The address of his grandmother and grandfather:
Zhartas village
Garden St 15, apartment 2
Telephone: 8-231-9-13-36, 8-701-32-41-536.

Marina Funtikova, photo by Olga Tropynina

[struwwelpeter]

Oops, working link: http://www.nv.kz/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=5894&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0


The author of both articles, Marina Funtikova, is in the middle, looking down on the weird American.

[silverleaf]

These children are the most lost of the world's lambs- virtually unadoptable due to their ages (Russians and most other adopters seek young children) and their being in a "handicapped" institution ... Russians and virtually all the rest of the world's adopters seek "healthy" children. Theur letters show that kids are kids and that these children have very sweet natures considering what their lives have been, are like now, and will be in the future (very high mortality rate before age 20's as they are thrown onto the mean streets with nil support)...

God Bless the children.
(don't suggest I adopt - I already adopted 2 and would adopt more if I was able)

[nw_arizona_granny]

I pray God gives you a special blessing.

Thank you, for taking the children and how lucky they are to be loved by you.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.......

Sick and needy, wonderful children, and even more sad at Christmas time.

Come and bump Struwwelpeter's thread, please.

[nw_arizona_granny]

"It is due to the hepatitis," <<<

This poor child, this is a horrible way to die.

My son-in-law died with it 3 years ago, he reached the point of pain, that he asked them to let him go, no more treatment.

My heart goes out to all your children.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Marina Funtikova, will she one day take Anna's place in the writing world?

She can bring one to tears, the proof of a good writer.

Tell her thank you for a job well done.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[struwwelpeter]

Here's another orphan story from the same paper:

Noviy Vestnik

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

Her second mother

Five year-old Angelina has wandered between the children's sanitorium and hospital for almost a year. After becoming the orphan of a living mother, the little girl unexpectedly found herself a new mom.

		Angelina Zavorochai ended up in the children's tuberculosis sanatorium last winter. Her mother at that time was being treated in the district tuberculosis dispensary. After being released from the hospital, however, the woman simply disappeared, and never came back for her daughter. For almost 10 months the little girl has lived at the sanitorium, but now Angelina is being treated for pneumonia at Children's Hospital No. 3 in the Maikudusk region of Karaganda. Where the girl will be sent afterwards, is a big question.

Enormous vividly-blue eyes, light curls, and an infectious smile - Angelina could not be any more similar to her name. The girl approachs us strangers without hesitation, greets us and cheerfully replies to our questions.

"Does anyone come visit you?" we ask the main question, almost as a by the way.
"Yes," she smiles. "Mama."
No, not the one who 'forgot' the girl at the sanitorium. Angelina found herself a new mother at the children's hospital. The girl shared a room with the son of Karaganda resident Liliya Rylskaya, The young mother's heart found a connection to the lonely girl, and now she visits her constantly. When Angelina is better, she plans to take her home for the holidays. In the bottom of her heart, she dreams of making the little girl a part of her family forever.

"SOMETIMES PEOPLE JUST STICK TO EACH OTHER"

The physicians at Children's Hospital No. 3 quite often run into small "homeless" patients. Most often, these sick children are brought in by the police, and the report often includes the remarks that: the mother takes no part in the upbringing. As a rule, the hospital workers do not deal with the fate of these little ones.

Director of respiratory therapy Ludmila Yelyakina cannot imagine where she will be able to send little Angelina Zavorochai after her recovery.

"They told us that she used to live in the children's tuberculosis sanitorium." Later, when Angelina is better, Yelyakina will again contact the sanitorium. "The girl needs to complete her therapy. That is the best alternative, conditional on there being space, and that they take the girl. It is still unknown, however, for how long they will take her. Angelina is a bright girl, and well-developed mentally. Someone just needs to take care of her. There is a young mother here who is very close to her."

The two year-old son of Liliya Viktorovna (Rylskaya) came down with pneumonia in October, and so Liliya stayed with her child in the respiratory pathology department of the hospital. Angelina was brought there the next day, and immediately caught Liliya's eye: the five year-old washed, brushed her teeth, and went to the dinning room all by herself.

"At first I had no idea that this child had no mother. I thought maybe that the girl was from a dysfunctional family. Later they transferred her to our room, and I wanted to know more about her."
Liliya Viktorovna immediately took the little girl under her care. She looked after the girl, and washed her meager clothes.
"One of the other mothers objected: 'how could you? the child is sick from Lord knows what kind of infection'," Lilya recalls with a smile.

After her son was released from the hospital, Liliya Viktorovna continued to take care of her little ward. She brought her clothing and toys. They doctors grumbled good-naturedly that the little five-year-old's "dowery" could now barely fit in two suitcases.
"She now has five pairs of shoes," says Liliya Viktorovna proudly. She speaks dreamily about the possibility of adopting Angelina.
"You know, sometimes people just stick to each other," she smiles thoughtfully and yet a bit sadly. "My husband and I always dreamed of having a lot of children, but making such a decision is very difficult. It is nevertheless a spiritual act. Our family is Orthodox, and before we do this, we have to go see the Holy Father, and have a talk."

"WHERE TO FIND THE MOTHER IS UNKNOWN"

Angelina Zavorochai lived at the Salyut children's tuberculosis sanitorium from December 27th, 2005, to October 18th of this year. She was sent there, as they say, 'just in case'.
"The girl was treated here as a 'contact' risk, because her mother was sick with tuberculosis," explains Dr. Zinaida Kolesnikova. "The village medical worker from where she lived sent her in. The mother, in turn, was hospitalized at the tuberculosis dispensary at Uzenka."
Nothing is known about any other of Angelina's relations. Her term of treatment was lengthened. It was assumed that the mother, after release from the hospital, would come and pick up the girl.
"The mother was at the hospital until June 20th. She was released, but never came here. At present her whereabouts are unknown," says Zinaida Mikhailovna (Kolesnikova).

It would seem to be a dead end. By law, the girl's status needs to be determined. Perhaps her parents have died, and the girl is now an orphan? Or are they alive and well, and they have simply left the little girl to the whims of fate?

Doctor Kolesnikova tells about how the physicians tried to search for the "coo-coo bird". The departent director called out to the last known address - the girl and her mother had lived in the Asyl section of the village of Karazhar. She was supposedly told that the house in which the family lived had been torn down. And where to find the mother is unknown.

"SHE WON'T SEE ANYTHING WITH THEM, EXCEPT VODKA"

Liliya Rylskaya went looking for Angelina's family: "We had to find her relatives and determine what their plans were." She found out that the little girl's grandmother is still living in the Asyl section of Karazhar, in the Bukharzhyrau region.
Liliya Viktorovna provided us with the address: Garden Street, house number 1/2.

A thin, little man met us in a cluttered room. His eyes were almost invisible under his overgrown beard and eyebrows. Right away he informs us: "Sveta (the grandmother's name) doesn't live here. I was given the apartment and chased her away. She has tuberculosis and I was scared. I'm already getting on, and I have an elderly grandmother to worry about."
"Svetlana's granddaughter remains in Karaganda. You don't know where we can find the girl's mother? I heard that she was treated for tuberculosis, but later disappeared."
"Natashka or something? She's already all done for."
"She died?!"
"No, but she's dying."
Uncle Volodya (as the little man calls himself) explained where to find Angelina's relatives: "Over there, you see that house?" he pointed to a cottage that long ago may have been white. "Go there, but don't expect me to go with you."

Unwashed windows, a door half off the hinges. The owner, Svetlana Aleksandrovna, turns out to be home, as well as the mother of the little girl, Natalya.
"My daughter is doing poorly. Very poorly," the old woman shook her head sorrowfully. As if to confirm her words, a cannonade of dry coughs erupts from the depths of the house. "She was getting a little better, but when I bathed her she started coughing again."
"Natalya was released from the hospital this summer. Why didn't she come get her daughter?"
"She's weak, right now she can't go anywhere."
With a sad smile, the grandmother told how she 'misses' her granddaughter.
"So, you never even went to visit her?!
"I wanted to go see her, but I had no money, and I'm going to the hospital myself, in Tokarevka. But Natalya, she'll probably be sent to Uzenka. I don't know how long I'll be in the hospital, but when I am declared an invalid, then I'll go get my granddaughter."

This idyllic picture, this sketch of a 'worried' grandmother, was wiped away by a neighbor. At first the woman who went into the yard on the other half of the cottage simply listened to our dialogue silently. Not being able to restrain herself, however, she began to shout:
"Sveta! What are you lying about now?! Fine, you'll get your money, but you don't even have a house! You had money last summer, and you could've gone to see the girl, but you just had to go get drunk! It'd be better if you'd just sign a declaration and give up rights to the girl. I saw on the news that a woman wants to adopt her. And that's how it should be, let her take her!"
Roza Temirgalievna is not shy in the presence of her neighbor, and explained why she supports the possible adoption of Angelina: "I let Sveta and Natalya into this house. No one was living here, to take care of the place, so I gave them the keys. There were some things left by the previous owners. And so they started to sell it all. I don't even know if I'm going to let them stay, or if I'm going to chase her and her daughter off, so that they didn't sell any more things. Angelina won't see anything with them, except vodka. Don't lay any hope on them."
"Would you give up Angelina?" I turn back to the grandmother.
"But how could I..." she does not change her expression, but simply shrugs her shoulders. "It depends on Natashka."

by Marina Funtikova, photos by V. Kalieva and O. Tropynina

[struwwelpeter]

Marina Funtikova, will she one day take Anna's place in the writing world?

Anya was a loud voice in the middle of Moscow, with awards and recognition throughout Europe. Three presidents, a chancellor, and a prime minister mentioned her in speeches, and expressed their disappointment to the Russian president.

Masha, OTOH, is a journalist at a tiny little paper in a little town off the beaten path, in a country that itself is off the beaten path. The highlight of her week is to see one of her articles in English ;-)

[struwwelpeter]

Here's one last Kazakh orphan story, also by Marina Funtikova, from Noviy Vestnik:

---

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006.

Born in a hut

Eight year-old boy searches for his family, which disappeared without a trace more than month ago

		All summer a family of four lived on the steppe in a hut made from from improvised materials. That August they became five when the mother gave birth to a baby girl. In September, however, the family disappeared, and the oldest boy, Sasha Grigorev, was left alone. For almost a month he wandered among acquaintances, then ended up at the Center for Temporary Isolation, Adaptation, and Rehabilitation of Minors (CTIARM), in Karaganda (Kazakhstan).

The tiny girl came into the world under "field conditions". That hut on the steppe was her maternity hospital, the obstetrician was the new father, and the nurses - young members of the family.
"She was born at 4 in the morning," says eight-year-old Sasha matter of factly. "She was about this big," he says, holding his hands about a half-meter apart.
Was it scary?
The child shakes his head indulgently.
What did you name your sister?
"Tomiris."
A royal name.
Once they had a normal roof overhead. Back then, they lived in a suburb of Shakhtinsk. Senior inspector Olga Rabskikh states that 'Mama Lena' and her roommate 'Papa Bulat' were well known to the police:
"The mother drank, and Sasha has no idea who his real father was," says officer Rabskikh. "In a word, a dysfunctional family."
Why his mother and stepfather went to live on the street, Sasha does not know. Naively he explains that at home "everyone was drinking and bothering mom."
They built a temporary dwelling on the steppe, not far from Mineshaft 20. They got by, in Sasha's unpampered point of view, pretty good. They slept on the metal frames of old cots: the adults on one, and Sasha and his little brother on the other. They cooked on a campfire, and begged water from the mine.
Did you go to school?
Without any trace of regret, he shakes his head no. He only made it through the first grade, and did not go to second grade. By then he had already begun to earn money - he collected and sold scrap metal.
In August his little sister was born. He remembers the details of her birth just like an adult: at what time his mother gave birth, and who received the child.
In the beginning of September, mother, stepfather, brother, and tiny Tomiris disappeared. According to Sasha, that day he went to the mine. He says that sometimes there they would let him use the boiler room to wash up, and afterwards he "went out walking". He did not return home immediately, but at first hung around with "Auntie Vera, who keeps track of cars" and "Uncle Vitya, the security guard" at a parking lot. Then he went round to see a friend of his mother. In the end he found himself at the shelter. The police then went looking for Sasha's family, but found only an empty hut, with no sign of where the family could have gone off to.
Sasha cannot talk quietly about his mother. In rapid gestures, he continously wipes away tears that run down his cheeks. He has made himself at home at the shelter, and has even started school again. He misses his mother terribly, and he waits for her to come back for him.

Meanwhile
"LIVING CONDITIONS NOT GOOD ENOUGH"
The Tashanov brothers are very young: Damir is 4, while Daniyar is only 3 years old. Their grandmother brought them to the Center for Temporary Isolation, Adaptation, and Rehabilitation of Minors (CTIARM).
"She said that her living conditions were not such that she could support her grandsons," says senior inspector Olga Rabskikh. "She explained that her daughter brought the kids to her last spring, and hasn't heard from her since."
Granny lives in the village of Koktas, in the Karkaralinsk region. The mother of the boys, Aisusu Tashanova, now lives in Karaganda, or at least, that is where she went in order to find work.
The shelter workers searched for the woman. It is not known whether the woman simply decided get rid of her children by sending them to live with their grandmother, or if she really intends to show up one fine day, little suspecting the "surprise" that her own mother has cooked up for her.
While there is still no information about the whereabouts of the boys' mother, they continue to live at the CTIARM. They have been here for almost two weeks.
Nothing is known about little Katya Bogdanova's parents. Not long ago she was found in the heating conduit that runs along Pichugin Street. The only thing that this girl with deeply sad eyes can tell about her family, is that "Mom drinks".
What awaits Katya, and many other "clients" of the shelter, is an orphanage. Nevertheless, workers at the shelter are obligated to do everything in order to find the girl's relatives.
Anyone who has any information about the parents of Sasha Girgorev, Damir & Daniyar Tashanov, and Katya Bogdanova, are requested to call the CTIARM at 43-80-02.

By the way
LIVING NUMBERS
During the first ten months of this year, the Center for Temporary Isolation, Adaptation, and Rehabilitation of Minors (CTIARM) has taken in 988 adolescents. Workers at the shelter say that this is "an average number", that this many children end up at the shelter every year.
It is interesting that every year more and more boys and girls enter the shelter who have had experiences with narcotics. As the head of the CTIARM, Marat Sulymenov, told 'Noviy Vestnik', from January through November of 2006, 32 such "experienced children" entered the shelter.
From November 1st to the 10th, the region is holding a "Say 'No' to to narcotics!" action. There will be lectures by physician specialists, and for the children there will be a movie about child addicts in the city of Temirtau.

Marina Funtikova, photos by Valeri Kaliyev

[little jeremiah]

Thanks for the ping, Granny...my screen's getting all blurry for some odd reason...

A well deserved BTTT.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Yes, it does produce blurry screens.

So little, to suffer so much.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Masha, may surprise you one of these days.

She writes with feelings, just as Anna did.

There is no reason that Masha's type of feelings and writing, to stop her from winning fame.

In a way she is also exposing the needs of people, just not the same ones that Anna choose.

[struwwelpeter]

I agree, she has a gift. As you can see by the picture below, I was quite stunned by her journalistic talents ;-)

I am pessimistic about is her paper. The front page on the wall over her shoulder reads: "Noviy Vestnik (New Herald) - Extraterristrials in Karaganda".



But she continues to do her best anyway.

[silverleaf]

There are at least 600,000 sad stories, number of kids in Russian institutions, some so horrid the kids run away by age 10 and live on the streets- an uncounted number. We adopted one child from a home where other 9 yr olds stood out front smoking their days away. There are MANY wonderful Russians but there are also many whose depravity due to alcohol abuse - and a Russian cultural antipathy toward the abandoned and abused kids as the products of inferior genetics- is hard to fathom by our standards.

Here is a clip of an award winning documentary on some Russian street children- "Children of Leningradsky". Watch it and try to sleep well.
http://www.activechildaid.org/

[nw_arizona_granny]

I laugh every time I wander into the Russian and their space ships.

I would bet that there is an Air Force pilot in every one of them.

Disinformation, Russia would rather have space ships over the towns, than an American spy ship.