Controlled Chaos

Natalia Vasilevnya runs things with a strict and firm rule. No one argues with Natalia Vasilevnya and lives to tell of the argument. She loves the children in her class, that is clear. The children know it as well. But she also does not allow shenanigans. We have personally listened to her talk to a child in loud Russian for 15 minutes while the rest of the class keeps their heads and eyes down trying not to be noticed. Every so often one will look up and smile at another - the smile that says - she may be mad but she loves us! After the "discussion" is over everyone mills around as usual, happily calling Natalia mama and asking her for this or that.

Yesterday Natalia Vasilevnya spent her 15 minutes talking while everyone looked directly at her. We were unsure what was happening. Once she quit talking all of the children went into movement. One boy climbed atop the cabinets and began handing plants to another boy, one girl started beating the rug with a small broom, Andrey began removing all the books from the bookshelves, Alex took the VHS movies out from under the TV and everyone else pulled everything out of the closets and placed the clothes on the floor.

Randy and I tried to stay out of the way. Soon it became apparent that it was "spring cleaning" day. Each piece of clothing was inspected for tears, missing buttons, stains or what have you. Some went back on hangers, some went into one pile, others into another pile. Just one day before it had been one boys unfortunate punishment for a verbal transgression to reorder all of the coats in the coat closet by size, smallest to largest. But on cleaning day, all of the newly hung coats came tumbling out of the closet for inspection. Every child was involved in one way or the other. Every so often, a child would become engrossed in something that was not related to cleaning - Alex decided to read every VHS box and then come and ask me "we have in America?" "Da" seemed to be the preferred answer, so I stuck with that. Andrey became engrossed in putting more lego pieces on the lego helicopter which we had brought the children a few days before. Alex decided if Andrey was going to play, then Alex was going to play too. Natalia ignored these transgressions and after a few minutes the children once again would get back to the purpose of the day - cleaning.

We don't know why cleaning became of utmost importance yesterday, we had heard that cleaning usually occurred on Saturday. But Natalia Vasilevnya said clean, and these children who love her and know that she loves them, did as she said, so they cleaned.

We observed until such point that the sofa we were sitting on needed to be moved. At that point we told Alex we would be leaving and would be back for him tomorrow. A shadow crossed his face, but he recognizes that though his new life is very close, he still inhabits the world as run by Natalia Vasilevnya and so he gave us a quick kiss and hug and joined his classmates in moving the sofa. As we quietly walked out of the playroom, we hugged Natalia. She has been a good mother to our boy, caring for him until we can care for him ourselves. We are grateful.

Love, Cynthia