Lejasstrazdi
Labrit! (“good morning!”). It’s just before breakfast at the orphanage in Lejastrazzdi. My intern team has joined with a group from Tate Springs Baptist Church in Arlington for the next week and a half. They have been coming to Latvia for several years—Cora, the team leader from Tate Springs, has been here five times. Mr. Bradley, who is about to celebrate his 77th birthday, has been to Latvia twelve times and, starting a few years ago, throws a big birthday party for all of the kids every year since they don’t have birthday parties of their own. It’s really neat to see them continuing relationships with kids that they met years ago! The orphanage has about 30 kids. It’s quite a change from the day center because we’re with the kids all day, but it’s been really great so far. There are a few young children, but most of them are 10 or older.
Yesterday, we went to the school’s graduation. Five of the children from the orphanage were graduating from 8th grade. 8th grade graduation is a big deal because the next step is either secondary school, which focuses on languages, literature and history, or trade school, where the students prepare for a job in several different fields: auto mechanics, culinary, carpentry, etc. It was really special… first of all, Latvians love flowers. They bring flowers on basically every special occasion and, often, just because. When we met the Tate Springs group at the airport, almost everyone who was waiting carried a bouquet of flowers (except for the Americans… we’re a little slow to pick up on the customs!). And, of course, people receive flowers on their birthday. There are two special occasions when people get an especially large amount of flowers: graduation and their wedding.
At the graduation ceremony, the principal called each graduate’s name so they could step forward and receive their diploma, along with a rose. Then, while the student was still standing at the front, people from the audience, friends and relatives, lined up to give them flowers and congratulate them. It was so honoring—as many as 15 people went forward for each student, to appreciate them and the hard work it took to get to this point in their lives. There were only about 12 graduates in all, so the whole celebration didn’t last too long, but it was really neat to be a part of. Afterwards, we came back to the orphanage for a little graduation party and (after changing out of our nice clothes) a water balloon fight with the kids. It was a great time!
