Thursday, May 31, 2007 Part 1

Today started out quite warm again. Our apartment is currently 85 degrees! When we got up this morning, we uploaded some pictures of various kids from the orphanage to a memory stick so that we could take them into town to be printed. We figured we would venture out around 9:30 or 10, however, after talking to Svetlana about it, she said that she would have our driver pick us up at 12. She also told us that she would definitely be leaving today. We all had a lot of stuff to do in a very small amount of time. When 12:00 rolled around, we jumped in the car and headed to a photo shop. It’s not exactly what we’re accustomed to at home. Svetlana explained what we wanted to do and left us with the girl who worked there while she went to pick up Mark and Christine. We gave the girl our memory stick and she led us into a small room adjacent to the store. It had a computer set up and a memory stick reader. It had an Epson photo printer. The photos are 1.30 grivna…or 30 cents. We chose 41 photos to be printed and are planning on giving them to Ludmilla tomorrow. Mark and Christine also had photos that they uploaded after they arrived. When Svetlana dropped them off, she told us that our driver would pick all of us up at 1pm, but that she needed to go buy train tickets. She left and the 4 of us wandered around in the center of the city for a half hour. When we arrived at the orphanage, Amina was outside talking to Svieta. She ran over and hugged us and then went looking for Masha and Khrystyna. Khrystyna came out a few minutes later, but they weren’t able to find Masha. After waiting for a little while, Svieta said that she needed to take some papers to the social worker. She told the girls to look for Masha and that when she got back we would head for lunch. By the time she arrived back, we didn’t have very much time left. We needed to get lunch and get a birthday present for one of the workers from the orphanage. We headed to Amstor to eat at their cafeteria. The food was really good. This is my favorite lunch place so far! Khrystyna was in a little bit of a funk because Fred wouldn’t let the girls get soda. She asked for soda and Fred told her no, that she had to have juice. She didn’t want juice so she decided she would have nothing to drink. We told her that was fine with us. She was quite pouty throughout lunch. When Fred went back to the line to get more juice, Khrystyna and Amina went with him and they each got a juice. Amina had already finished her first juice by this point. After quickly eating, we explained to the girls that they each could have 10 grivna to buy a birthday gift and card. They could either each buy her something small or all chip into buy her something larger. They each wanted to get their own card and gift. Each of the girls settled on a little figurine and a birthday card. All of the girls stayed within the agreed upon price range. When we got back to the orphanage, the girls had to run inside because they were late for dance practice. We said quick goodbyes and the girls hurried inside. Svieta needed to talk to someone in the orphanage, so she asked us to wait for her. While we waiting, Khrystyna came out dressed in the cutest cat costume! She looked adorable. We took a few pictures of her. A few of the other kids came out in their costumes as well. The celebration at the orphanage tomorrow is a very big deal. The kids have all been working for hours on their programs. There will be a concert and a fair and lots of items that the children have made throughout the year will be for sale. We are quite excited. Tomorrow is also the day that we will be bringing all of the toys to the orphanage that we bought for the children. We purchased beach balls, pails and shovels for playing in the sand, puzzles, balls, and Frisbees. I think it will be a very enjoyable day for everyone! When Svieta finished in the orphanage, we came back to our apartment so Svieta could get packed to go back to Kiev. She left at 4:30 and now we are home alone! Woohoo! The TV and DVD player in the apartment our in the room that Svieta was sleeping in so we’ve been watching DVDs on our laptop. We’re quite excited to be able to watch movies on a regular TV! We’re planning on heading to the internet café in a few minutes to update the blog and maybe we’ll grab a bite to eat before we head back to our apartment. I am completely exhausted and am going to try to head to bed early tonight. I know I’ve been asking for this repeatedly, but please pray for the weather to cool off. In the time that it has taken for me to write all of this, the temperature has risen to 88 degrees. We’ll try to update again tomorrow night. We should be able to get tons of good pictures tomorrow…we hope. We were told not to speak English any more than necessary tomorrow and that if we do have to speak to do it quietly. There will be a lot of people at the orphanage and they don’t want people asking any questions about what the Americans are doing here.