Today was my last day at the Women's hospital and I was very sad to have to say good bye to those women. They have been nothing but warm and welcoming ever since I first arrived - even singing to me on my birthday and giving me gifts. I have to say, the part that makes me the saddest is the fact that I get to go back to my nice, comfortable life back in America... while they stay in this hospital. They have to remain in this place (which would never pass any kind of U.S. health or building codes) and spend their days wandering the halls, sleeping and sitting out by the ; knowing that this is what their life will be like absolutely breaks my heart. I really hope that any hospitals in the U.S. are better than the one I've seen here; while I know that Russia's facilities are overall not up to American or Western European the standards, thinking of them in that facility, day after day with potentially no hope of release... that isn't any kind of life. I feel like while I am there, working with them and spending time with them I am doing some good... but then I leave and I wish so much that I could do more. I hope, hope, hope that my time spent with them has made their days a little better; that they look forward to my visits as much as I do. I know I can't change the system that's in place but hopefully at least, I can maybe make a small difference in the day of of one of those women.
The children's shelter will be my final placement here in Russia Friday morning - and I think its a very fitting place to end my time here. Every single time my group arrives, these children are nothing but smiles and excitement; you would never be able to guess they've been removed from their families and are living in a sort of limbo - not exactly part of a family and not an orphan yet either. As I've mentioned before in one of my previous posts, I've learned here that no matter where you go in the world, there is one thing that is constant.... kids will be kids. While a majority of the time they're perfectly sweet, loving children, there are of course times that they don't want to share, they're jealous of something another child has and they want to get attention in any way they can. I have to say I can't blame them; being part of a large group of children, not having anything that's just your own - I would probably do the same things.
I just hope that these kids stay the nice, sweet, loving children that I know as they grow in to adolescence. None of these kids will have an easy life - education, a job, family - nothing. I just pray that they will be able to work past the disadvantages they've been given and have a successful life. I so wish that there was more I could do - I wish I could "keep an eye" on them, make sure that they know that someone is thinkging about them and caring about them. While I know that's not possible I will try to make my last day with them fun - helping them enjoy being a kid. Maybe at least they'll remember that fun summer when they had those Americans come and play with them... that's all that I can hope for.
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