Saturday, June 2, 2007

The day started off quite warm again. We arrived at the orphanage before Mark, Christine, and Kseniya. Masha was the first one to come outside. When we asked her where Amina and Khrystyna were, she mimed that they were putting on their bathing suits. A few minutes later, the girls came bounding down the stairs and outside. They were very ready to go to the beach. We went to a different spot on the beach today. It was very close to a large inflatable water slide. We set our towels in the shade of a large tree and headed out to the sea. Fred, Kseniya, and I took the 3 girls in. Khrystyna doesn’t know how to swim, so when we got to the deeper area, she spent lots of time having Fred lift her over the waves and help her float. The girls both seemed thrilled to be able to play in the sea with their dad. I think that Fred will end up being the “fun” parent. Our time in the water was absolutely wonderful. The water was cold and there was a very nice breeze. I didn’t feel hot at all while we were in the water. After 30 minutes, we headed back to the shade for a little while. Mark and Christine had brought apples and Pringles for a snack and I added some chips and crackers. While we snacked, I pulled out some dry-erase flashcards and workbooks and the girls worked on their English. They never seem really thrilled to have to work on English, but they’ve been pretty good about doing it anyway. After bored totally set in for the girls, they asked if they could go on the waterslide. We told them they could go and Mark and Fred headed to the slide with the girls. Each slide was only 1 grivna (20 cents) and they let the girls go a few times each. They really enjoyed themselves. We made them work on English a little more after the slide and then they wanted to swim again. They have all learned the phrase “I would like to swim.” When they started saying Swim…I said “I would…” before I could finish my phrase, they side “like to swim.” It’s amazing which phrases of English they retain. We headed back to the water for a little while longer. I had the brilliant idea that a beach ball would be fun in the water. I headed up to get it and Christine blew it up for me. When I got back to the water with it, the current and the wind were quite strong. The ball flew out of one of the girls hands and what ensued was a swimming/jogging marathon to get it back. When we finally got it back, we started heading back in the other direction, but the ball went flying again and this time, a lady and another child had to track it down for us. Maybe next time it won’t be so windy! When we got out of the water, Mark had the kite up in the air. Amina seemed fascinated by it, however, she didn’t get to play with it because our drivers had arrived and were waiting for us. The girls changed out of their clothes and we headed to Amstor for lunch. We also wanted to pick out a few things for the girls. After lunch, we told Amina and Khrystyna they could each buy a pair of shoes for the trip to America. Amina’s first pair of shoes she picked out were red strappy high heeled sandals with a sequined flower on the top. It appears she has my taste in non-sensible shoes. We told her that those weren’t very practical. The next shoes she picked out were orange sandals with ribbons that tie up the leg. She tried them on and they were cute, but completely impractical. Fred reminded me that we would need to go through security at the airport while wearing those shoes. We explained to our translator that Amina would not be allowed to buy those shoes because it would be too much work at the airport. Something got lost in translation. Kseniya told Amina she could buy the shoes, but that she needed to be prepared for the extra effort they would require at the airport! Kseniya said “She has her instructions and she will do it.” Oh well, it was too late to try to explain that we had said no. It wasn’t Amina’s fault things got lost in translation. Khrystyna originally wanted the same shoes as Amina, but thankfully Masha was able to help her find some black and pink flip flops. The girls seemed pleased with their shoe choices, but by this time, I could tell Khrystyna was exhausted and nearing meltdown mode. Mark and Christine were going to take Masha to the park, but we decided that it would be best for us to take Amina and Khrystyna back to the orphanage. We headed back to the orphanage and Khrystyna wouldn’t even talk or look up at us while we headed back. She could barely even keep her eyes open. We were glad we had opted out of the park! When we got out of the car, Khrystyna rallied for a few minutes and gave us a big smile and a hug. Amina gave us a hug and told us she loved us. Then Khrystyna said she loved us too. It was a long tiring day, but a good one. After we left the orphanage, we headed back to Amstor for a few groceries. While we were there, I noticed that my shoulders were feeling quite warm. Apparently they weren’t joking when they said the air is bad here and the sun is quite strong. In the 1 hour I had spent not in the shade, I got fried! Fred had SPF 35 on for half the time and he got burned as well. After we picked up our groceries, we headed home. We put some lotion on our sunburns and I made some spaghetti for dinner. We started packing for Fred’s trip home as well. Although we don’t know exactly when he will be leaving, we wanted to make sure he’s ready when the time comes. The rest of the evening has been spent the same way we spend most evenings, laying around trying to stay cool. Hopefully we’ll have something different to report soon!