A Night Out and Speech Therapy

Unless we have given a false impression, we want to let everyone know that Kiev is a very beautiful city. It has a thousand year history and was considered at one point to be the center of Kiev-Rus. Bill and I took Saturday afternoon off from studying to go to an art museum that was located in two side-by-side houses that were a few hundred years old and very ornate. Afterwards we toured the city looking at the beautiful European architecture of the large buildings that line the brick streets. We accidentally stumbled into the large maze of an upscale underground mall while looking for a metro station. We walked for several blocks underground looking at all the stores. Every so often, we emerged like gophers looking for familiar landmarks. Eventually we came up and asked a passerby for help in broken Russian and she led us to the center of downtown. It was decorated for the New Years with a great light display and crowded with families doing last minute New Years shopping. There is much to enjoy here.

I thought my speech therapy friends might be interested in the following story, but it also sheds some light on services that are provided here. A friend arranged for me to tag along when she took her adopted daughter for speech therapy. Alyona was the daughter of an alcoholic mother who died when she was a toddler and so she was raised by her alcoholic grandmother and suffered significant neglect. She spent much time in bed under the covers hiding and had very little speech at five years of age when she was adopted by Andre and Ella. She has been receiving therapy for the last year and has made great improvement. The therapy is provided by a Speech Therapy Clinic here that is free and state-run. However, that does not mean that it has significant resources. They usually request that parents give some contributions (Ella said they suggested 10 grievna which is two dollars in our money). Because it is the end of the year and they have come to the end of their government funds they have had to reduce the number of children they see from 60 to 20. Perhaps because Alyona is adopted, she is still attending.

All Speech Therapists are called doctors here because they provide medical services. I believe that their education is equivalent to a masters degree. They use a holistic approach and see Alyona for a total of two hours every day. I observed a half hour of speech therapy which was similar in many ways to therapy in the states. She was later seen for massage therapy with massage to the upper chest and face as that is considered very beneficial here. She receives a lunch as they are concerned that their patients get good nutrition. Ella warned me not to speak English as we observed the meal as she said it is frequently not very nutritious and she didn’t want them to think we were critical. Alyona also receives a half hour of Montessori therapy for cognitive development and then she receives injections of medicine. I asked what type of medicine was used and Ella showed me some pamphlets. It was claimed that one type of medicine increased blood circulation for help with cognitive and developmental problems. The other was for help with cognition, psychic disorders, depression, anxiety, stuttering and some other problems that I cannot recall.


Prayer Requests:

Pray for our friend, Farri, a young Indian Muslim who has become our friend and now comes to dinner weekly. He calls Bill “uncle” and loves American box cakes.
We start our outreach English classes next week on Wednesday evening. Please pray for the people who will be attending.