Orphanage Visit

7 cups of water can be such a powerful illustration. Today I got to visit an orphanage at Zavodu Uspenka. The youngest person I saw was maybe 9 and the bulk of them were teenagers.

Being an orphan is different in Russia. Many of the orphans actually have living parents, who either don't want them, or can't take care of them. And then, some of them are actually orphans (sirata). Some of them go home on weekends to visit family and then return to the children's house (that's what orphanages are called here) for the week.

Because most of them were teenagers, Victoria and Marina had planned a program for them to talk about goals, healthy living styles and the dangers of STD's.

That's where the glasses came in. 7 of us stood at the front of the room and were given a small glass of water. We were instructed to put the water in our mouths and VIGOROUSLY swish it around. Then we were to spit it back out into the cup. Gross. We were arranged boy - girl - boy - girl and basically, Victoria started with the first person and introduced her to the second, a boy. Their relationship quickly progressed to one with serious kissing and she mixed the water in the cups. Let's just say by the last person, the water was looking REALLY gross.

Turns out on the bottom of each cup was the name of an STD. So, the message was powerful.