Visitors from Somalia to our home!

Wow! For a week now we have hosted 7 refugees from Somalia. The youngest is 15 and the oldest is 40. Life has changed so quickly for us. For them it was even harder and quicker. They have spent the last 11 months in Olaine, in a detention center for illegal refugees. This was not so much because of who they are and lack of identity papers as due to the fact that Latvia lacks experience in dealing with refugees. It came to pass that these 7 persons ended up on the street in Riga, Latvia with 12LS to their name. That is the equivalent of about 20USD between them all. They had no place to sleep and all institutions were either closed for the weekend or could not take these people in, because they lacked the proper documentation. To make a sad and appalling story shorter, we took them in. Our children took to them almost immediately and new friendships were formed. The picture shows our new friends with some of our children after performing the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" in latvian for our children. It and they were a hit. More to follow...

HEAVEN-SENT HELPERS...

Last week was an unbelievable week! Twenty adults from from Pine Street Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania descended upon Zvannieki and changed our lives and living conditions. Amazing! One of our walls was declared a hazard. It was in danger of collapsing. Our landlord declared that it is our responsibility to fix. We had already paid 1000LS (@2000USD) to have one corner of the building’s foundation be exposed, repaired and reinforced – tenants’ responsibility?! – we did not have the thousands necessary to fix the rest of the wall. Enter Roger, George, Baiba, Bill, Gary, Dotty, Carol, Carol P., Bob, Deb, Kathy… They built their own scaffolding by recalling knots learned in the Boy Scouts and then the real work began. Not only was the wall fixed, windows reinforced and screened, our shed received a floor, new doors, locks, shelves and a cupboard, our attic was cleaned and floored and our laundry room was outfitted with shelving. All we could do was stand back and wonder! Our youngest children were confused – who are these people with the funny names? Our youth asked: who will pay them? Others said – our angels are sent direct from heaven!
Everyone helped – the youngest sang for the workers, and everyone 10 years old and older helped carrying lumber, fetching tools, nailing floors and shelves, cooking lunch for forty and cleaning up. This continued for four days. Truly amazing!
But even more important than learning to lay bricks and shelves and floors, was learning and experiencing teamwork at its best. The work was intense, the weather was hot and tempers did not flare. The days were filled with the spirit of love and mutual respect.
We thank God for Pine Street Presbyterian Church and its mission group that chose to help the children at Zvannieki.

OUR LOVELY WALL...

...before our friends from Pine Street arrived.

Graduation

June was a busy month for us – three of our youth graduated from public school. This is considered a major milestone in Latvia. It is surprising how many people do not have a public school education! Three of ours did it! In the picture you see one of the graduates, a girl who was not expected to get beyond grade 6 – why? because she was from a highly dysfunctional family and had been placed in the remedial school. When she came to Zvannieki three years ago, she begged to be put in the normal stream. It was a struggle to catch up with the others, but she did it! The other two graduates were also ecstatic – another girl was not expected to graduate, but she managed. She also has gaps in her education, but is working to fill them. The third graduate is a bright boy, who is bored by school and life and has a philosophy of life that needs some revision.
While the graduations were cause for celebration, we know that the road ahead will be rough. (In Latvia you can move to the next grade even if you have failed some subjects. I don’t quite understand the system, because if you can’t do grade nine math, how can you be expected to do grade 10 math!) Next year will be a challenge and a struggle for these youth, because of gaps in several subjects. The school system has not addressed this glitch and so we will send these three to a private school where they will join three other of our children to receive the help they need. So, six of our children will attend this school, which costs just under $200USD per month per child… How can a price tag be attached to someone’s future?