Visiting Ina

We were hoping last week would be the last time. For a month Natasha (the counsellor from the Family Home) and I have visited Ina (21) in a mental hospital. She is from the dormitory I visited. We are allowed to go one day a week for thirty minutes – Wednesdays or Saturdays. We go on Wednesdays.

There are about 25 girls in her section of the hospital. All visitors bring food because the food there is not good. Sometimes it is difficult to decide what to take. We cannot bring milk products. We can bring fruit, but not oranges, bread, but only dark bread (which they don’t want because they get that there anyway), chicken, but not fried or baked, only boiled. I add all kinds of vegetables and spices to the water to try and make the chicken as tasty as possible and bring enough to feed hungry teenage boys. They always eat it all.

Sometimes the nurses won’t allow the visitors to give them things that are on the “okay list” – last week it was meat and salad.Our girls cried because they were hungry. We have inherited another girl there, Marina. She shyly approached Natasha one day and asked, “Are you coming to see me?” That was when she became “ours”. I always boil extra chicken for her.

On my first visit, the nurse swung open the door to the visiting room, and there stood Ina. When she saw me, she jumped up and down and cried, “Ooooooo! Neekola! Neekola!” and hugged me and plastered my cheeks with kisses. We sat at a table and I handed Ina the chicken. She gave me four kisses. I handed her the fork and she gave me four more kisses. One of the nurses promptly removed the fork replacing it with a spoon.

Ina put her arm around my neck and proudly announced to the girl at the next table, “She’s mine!” and pointed at me. “She’s mine.” I got a tight feeling in my throat when she looked into my eyes and said, “Mamochka maya” which means “my Mommy.”

We have to keep reminding her to eat – we only have half an hour. This week Ina said she’d had enough chicken “Keep eating Ina!” Marina scolded her between bites, “This is all we get until next week!”

We have an English lesson at an orphanage after we visit Ina. Last week I had some interesting photos for the lesson, and I brought them out thinking they would stimulate Ina’s mind. Soon there were six people gathered around looking at the photos, including a grandma who was visiting.

Two weeks ago we were able to bring a notebook with scriptures written in it, and she told us she’s been reading them. As I alluded to in the beginning, they told us earlier that last week would be her last week there, but now they are saying she will be there at least another month.

When I first started visiting Ina, I cried because of her living conditions. Now I feel blessed to be able bring her nourishing food, encouragement and love. Please pray that the medicine they give her will not have any bad effects on her, also for a miracle when she leaves the hospital. Despite the efforts of many people trying to help her, she has made bad choices, and burned quite a few bridges. Without a miracle, she will most likely go back out on the streets again. We have been talking to her about making good choices and getting connected with the church and people who can help her. Please pray that she will see the need to change and accept our help. We love her very much, and want her to succeed in life.

Something funny happened to us two weeks ago – when we left the facility, a nurse was taking two of the patients downstairs to a waiting car. Natasha and I walked out the door with them, but instead of going down, we went up two steps to take off our blue booties. The nurse yelled at us, “HEY!! Where do you think you’re going??!! You need to come with me!” Natasha had to do some fast talking to convince the nurse we weren’t two of her charges. Phew!