Until this week, I’ve never seen someone get excited about the gift of deodorant. I mean, at my house, it was one of those practical things that mom gave you in your stocking. For Christmas at the gypsy orphanage, we gave away toys and music, fruit and candy. But deodorant seemed to be the surprise hit in Uzhgorod this Christmas.
I just returned from a 16 hour excursion by railway from Kyiv to Uzhgorod. Unlike last year, I was in charge of this year’s trip. There were eleven of us altogether, representing four different nations; Denmark, Finland, Ukraine, and the United States.
We spent three days at the orphanage, coming after the kids were done with school. The first day, we played games outside. Winter 2005 was record cold for Ukraine. This year is crazy mild. We saw snow in October and it hasn’t really appeared much since. These are the same children we had summer camp with in July, so Day 1 was a time to reacquaint with old friends and make new ones.
Our second day was almost all on stage in the orphanage mini-auditorium. We presented the Christmas story (acted out by the children) and sang Christmas songs. We sang Silent Night in all of our native languages, (and German too, since I could…) I also had it printed in the Klingon dialect just in case, but there were no actual Klingons on the team this year.
The last day I wore a shabby St Nick costume and we gave 93 goodie bags to all the kiddos in the orphanage. (The kids range from maybe 7 to 18) When I was home in America this last time, I returned to Kyiv with two suitcases of teddy bears and stuffed animals. These went to the smaller children and the girls. We tried to make “manly” gift bags for the older boys this year, which is why the deodorant was included. When we handed out gifts in the “big kids” classrooms, the students pulled out the deodorant sticks to see what they smell like. They were happy and it was quite a big deal.
In discussing this afterwards with Ukrainians, I learned that deodorant is really considered a luxury item, and in the villages, almost nobody wears it. Certainly orphans don’t get any. It costs about the same price here as it does in the states, around $2 a stick. That doesn’t seem like much unless you consider that at the best of times, I can buy all my groceries for a week for around $14 equivalent. (Disclaimer: I am considered frugal for an American.)
People are continually asking me about donations for the orphans here. I’ve now got a couple more ideas. Deodorant is a wonderful gift, and if you find it at a great price, we could use lots of it. I’ll certainly give out more at camp this summer. Another idea is teenage oriented Christian music. They listen to a lot of garbage here. I’m ashamed to be an American sometimes when I look at the entertainment we export. For some reason, it seemed these guys gravitate toward boy bands and rap music.
So a big part of my Christmas is behind me. Thanks for helping me celebrate it through your support and prayers.

¶ 12:43 PM

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