Michelle Obama Watch

ABC News reports that First Lady Michelle Obama visited St. Dmitriy Orphanage Tuesday in Moscow. Mrs. Obama was greeted by about a dozen students in a second-grade classroom, where she listened to them read several poems in English and sing a Russian folk song. At one point the children asked Mrs. Obama how many children she had. She responded, two girls, including one named Sasha.  Mrs. Obama explained that Natasha is Sasha’s full name, and that it is the President’s favorite name.

“How many Sasha’s do you have here?” she asked the group. There were three in all. Mrs. Obama told the children that her daughters were spending the morning with their grandmother making dolls.

                       Sasha is a Russian nickname for Alexander, which means “defender of men.”

St. Dmitriy’s founder, Father Shatov Arkady, was the First Lady’s tour guide and said he wished she could “stay forever.” Arkady later stated that he’d heard that the First Lady was a record fundraiser when she worked at the University of Chicago hospital. “That’s a very generous title,” he said.

The First Lady choose to visit St. Dmitriy’s in part because it receives funding through USAID and the United Nations Development Program. After meeting with the children, Father Arkady took Mrs. Obama to meet with nursing students, who study in the same building.

After listening to the nursing students speak about their work in HIV and AIDS treatment projects, she said: “The education of the broader public is just as important as taking care of the patients.” The nursing students presented the First Lady with a gift of a traditional Russian nesting doll that was dressed as a nurse.

Svetlana Arzamastseva, director of nursing college, later called Obama “a very beautiful person, an openhearted person” and noted Obama’s experience developing volunteers and fundraising for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Later in the afternoon, the First Lady, along with a group of the orphans, several hundred school children, and Mrs. Svetlana Medvedev, watched the Moiseyev Dance Company perform at the Stanislav and Donchenko Theater. The performance featured traditional Russian dancing and singing, with a live orchestra. First Tweens Malia and Sasha, along with GrOTUS Marianne Robinson also watched the show.

The First Lady, Mrs Robinson, & weeMichelles with Russian First Lady Medvedava & Russian singer Natalia Babkina at the Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Academic Musical Theatre

                      I guess it’s safe to say that The First Lady has charmed these Russians ;-)

Posted by Aminah Hanan