Tuesday - SOS Children's OrphanageSep 22, 2009
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Joe and I began our day by going to SOS Children's Village - Sarajevo. This is an orphanage that takes care of abandoned children, children's whose parents are not able to take care of them for medical, financial, or other reasons. The village was built in 1995 after the war. Many children lost their parents during the war and had no where else to go. At present there are 28 houses that have "mothers" tending to up to 6 children. Each house has 3 bedrooms upstairs with a bathroom. The mother has a room downstairs. We got to visit in one home and one of the children, Madja, stayed home from school so that we could meet her. She was excited that we were coming to visit, but she thought that we were from Italy and that she could practice her Italian with us. We told her all the Italian we knew was "Ciao!" Madja showed us her room and her computer. She has a "sister" that sleeps in her room. Her biological sister is 11 and sleeps in another room with a "sister" her age. They have a brother that also lives with them and on Tuesday they were expecting a new brother that was 14. The children stay at the village until about the age of 16 and then they move to the "Youth Home" in the city. This enables them to interact with youth their age while going to school but living in a controlled environment. Joe and I were very impressed with the organization of the village and intend on supporting them financially. If you are interested in helping us, please contact Joe at the Hospital. To my school students, I spoke with Lamija, who is the Public Relations Director, about possibly having pen pals among the children at the village. I told her that I would support the cost of mailing the letters to and from Sarajevo. I hope that many of you will be interested in connecting with these kids. I want to thank Lamija and the administration of the SOS Children's Village for the gifts that they gave us. They are bowls that the children made in Craft class and we are very fond of them. We took the children many gifts, which they were excited to receive. This took up our entire morning, we returned to the apartment and rested a while before Joe was ready to hit the streets again!!! Sara and I are beginning to run out of steam. Just one more day in Sarajevo and then it's home again, home again.... Until tomorrow.
