To Russia with Laughter – and Love

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (February 18, 2005) - The orphans are allowed to stay awake roughly eight hours a day. The rest of the time they are medicated so that they sleep. The blank-faced attendants show little or no love to those in their care. Many of the children were placed in the orphanages by parents who could not afford to care for them. There are 250,000 orphans in Moscow.

It was into these settings that Ann Richards, a longtime member of Batavia Covenant Church in Batavia, Illinois, went clowning last November with Patch Adams - the physician whose use of humor to help patients was made famous through the movie of the same name starring Robin Williams. (Top photo shows Richards with one of the children. Lower photo shows the real-life Dr. Patch Adams with one of the other clowns.)

"It was amazing, really amazing," says Richards of her trip. "The children wait all year for the clowns to come. I would hardly believe that four or five clowns for the afternoon could make such a difference." Richards was one of 38 clowns from 11 countries who made the trip and visited numerous orphanages and hospitals. It was a trip that Richards feared she was too late to make. "I applied late," Richards says. "I didn't think there would be any chance I could go."

When she arrived, she found a country that she could not have imagined. "It is a country of phenomenal paradox," Richards says. "There's the extreme poverty and moroseness of the people and the luxury of the palaces. After a while it's overwhelming." Living conditions for many people are hard, Richards says. "You couldn't even drink the water or brush your teeth with it because of the bacteria - it would make you sick."

Most difficult, however, was the inability for people to support their children. Unable to provide for their children's care, parents placed them in orphanages. Of the 250,000 orphans in Moscow, 85 percent of them have families, Richards says. The children must live with the knowledge that their parents abandoned them.

Many of the orphanages are heartbreaking places, without any seeming hope, Richards says. The physical conditions of the buildings often were deteriorated, but it was the lack of the staff's interest in the children's welfare that was most depressing to Richards. "They were scary," she says, "There was not a bit of love showing in the faces."

When the clowns would put smiley faces on the staffs' white jackets, "they would just tear them off," Richards recounts. In some places, the clowns were told not to give the children toys because the staff would take them away.

Richards says she wanted the trips to also bring hope to the children, many of whom face bleak futures. "They are not prepared to leave the orphanage," Richards says, "so when they leave, many of the boys become drug dealers and the girls wind up in the sex slave trade."

But hope is real, as reflected in the story Richards tells of a young girl who had been a patient in one of the hospitals. The girl, Svetlana, was so moved by the clowns that she learned English and traveled 16 hours to clown alongside them and do interpreting.

Christian organizations also have started orphanages that differ from many others that Richards visited. Children's HopeChest works with thousands of orphans in the city, giving them decent housing and teaching them life skills.

Richards considers it a privilege to have worked alongside the real-life Patch Adams, who has made frequent trips to Russia, in bringing joy to the children. "If it weren't for him, this kind of troop wouldn't be possible," she says. Adams also has brought clowns to Tibet, Italy and China. "He believes in humor and healing to lift people's spirits," Richards say, adding that his reputation for being highly unorthodox is well-deserved. "He's pretty much out there."

Richards has been a clown for four years since attending a special camp at the University of Wisconsin in Lacrosse. She often volunteers at hospitals. A regular stop for her is at the Michaelson Center at the Holmstad, an Evangelical Covenant Church retirement center in Batavia.

Richard's character is "Bubbles," a cleaning lady who carries a feather duster, "plunger trombone" and kazoo. Richards says she always brings bubbles with her to show her audience the variety of colors that can be found in the bubbles. Those colors, she explains, are like the rainbow in Genesis, reminding us that God keeps his promises.

(Editor's note: Another story on the clowns ministry in Russia will appear in the March issue of The Covenant Companion.

Printable version of this page.