Keith and Erin are home from Russia!

My name is Erin Thompson and my husband and I just spent the last week with the children in the Solotcha Orphanage. We spent time with most of the children that are coming with the Bright Futures Camp and let me just tell you they are VERY excited about coming! They talked about it often and can’t wait to get here. Because we lived in their orphanage for a week, we saw some things that we thought would be beneficial for us who are hosting to know. First, the children are on a schedule. They know what time they are to eat and sleep, which is really good for them.

The little ones (7 yrs and younger) stick to a very tight schedule. The caretaker wrote it down for me:

7:00 Wake Up
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Games
10:00 Second Breakfast (fruit and cheese, milk or juice)
12p.m. Lunch
12:30-3:30 Nap
4:00 Snack
4:30 go for a walk
6:00 dinner
6:30 go for a walk
7:30 Snack/ Second dinner (fruit and cheese, milk or juice)
8:00 Bath time
9:00 Bedtime

The older children (8yrs and up) are on a schedule but not quite as strict.
8:00 Breakfast
10:30 Snack (fruit, cheese, milk or juice)
1:00 Lunch
4:00 Snack
6:30 Dinner
8:30 Snack
9:30-10 Bedtime

Some of the foods we ate while we were in the orphanage:

Breakfast:
Something similar to cream of wheat or malt-o-meal
Bread (wheat and white)
Milk yogurt or cheese or fruit
Milk
Hot tea with sugar

Snack:
Cheese and fruit or yogurt
Milk or juice


Lunch/Dinner:
Chicken
Hard boiled eggs
Bread
Potatoes or rice
Cheese
Noodles
Sausage/hot dog
Fish
Lots of soups: vegetable soup, soup with chicken
*Salad with cucumbers and tomatoes (they love this!)
Not a lot of junk food. Sometimes they had cookies.

Their foods in the orphanage are very bland. Very little salt or seasoning. Nothing was spicy.

I know that we will not be able to completely stick to their schedule or fix all of their foods but I do think familiarity will be good. I know that when our son gets off his schedule he is a little cranky. I also think it is good for the children to try new foods if they want to, but for us not to be surprised if they want the same things that they are used to in the orphanage.

Time Difference and Sleep: The time where they are is 9 hours ahead of us so when it is 3p.m. for us it is midnight for them. We were walking zombies for a couple of days because our time was so off and I think we can expect the same for the children until they get used to it here.

Some of the activities that we did with the children were:
Art activities – older and younger kids loved doing this
Face painting
Hair
Jewelry making
Sidewalk chalk
Playing games
Bedtime stories
Volleyball, soccer, basketball
Throwing the frisby or football
Just spending time with them. These children get very little one on one attention. Every chance we got we would hug them or hold their hand.
Going on walks




Like I said before the children are very excited about coming and I’m sure like the rest of you, we can’t wait for them to get here! The kids that are coming are so sweet and full of energy and love.