For Wednesday, we visited the hospital administrator and he indicated they are in pretty good shape with their medicines and supplies. If we make a humanitarian donation they have a lot of paperwork and red tape to go through. Also, the orthodox priest makes a visit two or three times a week. Since many or most of the patients are actually from out of town our presence there may not reach the group we want it to reach. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that he suggested we might be able to get the names of patients in Antipovka from the mayor’s office. Actually that plays into our hands because we get to reach the people we really want to reach and the local congregation gets to be involved.

We stopped by the mayor’s office and she was agreeable and asked one of her assistants to compile a list for us. The only catch that I know of is that you will have to have tea with her next week. That shouldn’t be too bad because she seemed to be really nice.

We decided the “Leprosy Bears” [These are the stuffed animals our ladies have been making. Andre affectionately calls them "Leprosy Bears" due to the pattern that covered one of the bears we brought with us last year, D.K.] would be better put to use in the orphanage in Kamyshin. We can just take them by one day next week without an appointment. I don’t know of anything other than the Neosporin that you need to bring with you. Any supplies for the school can be purchased here.

Our schedule is going to be really tight through the rest of this week so I don’t know if we will be able to email you again before you leave.

We really need that itinerary. We are assuming that you will be arriving in Volgograd the
same time that I arrived – around 7:00 pm. on Saturday. If that is not the case then please let us know because we will not be there to meet you. Andre also needs to confirm the nights in the hotel. They have other guests waiting.

It has been a really good week thus far and I hope it carries over to next week also.

We are looking forward to seeing you. There is a lot of other news that will be more easily explained in person.

Richard