Trip Around the World

St Petersburg is the town where Sveta is from, and we wanted to go back to the place where she spent the first three years of her life. I was told that Children's House #11 was closed but our guide told me that he went there with other parents last year. So we went.

It looked very familiar. When we introduced ourselves, a nurse said she did not remember Sveta. When we talked to the Director, she vaguely remembered but we could not find her name in the register. This is when we discovered that we were in The House of Children #11 (Detsky Dom) as opposed to the Children's House #11 (Dom Rebenke) - The Director had no idea where this other place was. Back to ground zero.

We search the internet in Russian and found a list of Children Houses but no Number 11. We called #14 and they said they used to be #11, so we went... Wrong number 11, but there we found a nurse (Valentina) who remembered Sveta and used to work at #11.


We spoke to the Doctor in charge at #14 and they gave us the phone number of the Doctor who signed Sveta's orders 14 years ago in #11 (she is now director at #2) So we went to visit her at Children's House #2

It turns out that Children;s house #2 (they are a lot nicer inside now)


is 200 meters from the original House #11 where Sveta was, which was closed and is now turned into a dental clinic.

Mystery solved. The next day, we printed pictures of the reunions with the Dr, and Valentina and gave then a framed copy as a souvenir.