Update October 17 2008

Hi all,
Today was a busy day. Most of the crew went to the new orphanage to play soccer with the kids, chip 5 coats of paint off the walls, and whitewash the cement. One of our crew has had a sore leg since last Wednesday, so I went to the hospital with her and some others, as well as to buy a washer and some heaters for a small orphanage in the mountains that we plan to visit tomorrow.
While we were waiting, our van driver, Sergei, was playing a tape – and guess what, Ridpath! He was playing O Siem on his tape deck! You can imagine how surprised I was to hear that song halfway around the world. Sure made me think about what you might be doing back home!
Kate loved playing soccer with the kids. When she was sitting, one of the 11-year-old boys kept lifting her ponytail and smelling it – she had washed it and it smelled so sweet, I guess.
Tomorrow we are taking soccer balls to the small orphanage and the more agile of us will be playing soccer with some of those kids.
We picked up Nargiza from the airport today. She is from xxxxxxx. She went through all the hockey bags tonight, and is taking all the baby powder, diaper cream, vitamins, socks and antibiotics back with her. She has 80 babies in the xxxxxxx orphanage, and 84 in xxxxxxx, so she really appreciated all we brought. We are hoping our director can get a deal at the airport to ship them to her orphanages at a reasonable rate.

Must go – others waiting for the lap top.
Love to all,
Shirley, Kate, Glenna, Jenny, Marilyn