Wednesday, June 6, 2007

We decided that we would spend our morning getting some new 5 x 7 cards, getting Khrystyna’s sunglasses fixed, and spending whatever time we had left at the internet café. Kseniya called and told us our driver would pick us up at our apartment at 12. We told her that our cleaning lady was coming and that we were planning on heading into town when she got there. We asked if our driver could pick us up at the internet café at 12. She said she would call him and then call us back. She sent us a text message telling us that our driver would pick us up at 10 at our apartment. Unfortunately, we were out of minutes on our phone (all phones in Ukraine our pay as you go) and we had no way to call her back and tell her that we didn’t need a driver until 12. Our driver took us to the internet café and then we walked from there to get flashcards and to get Khrystyna’s sunglasses fixed. By the time we made it back to the internet café, we didn’t have much time left before our driver would be arriving to pick us up. We quickly checked our e-mail and uploaded some more photos to Picasa. When we arrived at the orphanage, Kseniya told us that we needed to have lunch somewhere in the center of the city (either vivattime or Papa Karlo) and then we would walk from there to the park in the center of the city. When we asked the girls where they wanted to have lunch, Khrystyna and Amina both said “Amstor.” Kseniya told them they had to choose between vivattime and Papa Karlo and they chose Papa Karlo. When we got to Papa Karlo, Amina and Khrystyna were able to translate what was in certain foods to us. We’re always curious as to what different foods are…is it chicken, potatoes, fish? They now have been telling what each item is in English. We’re so proud of how hard they are working on their English. After lunch, we headed to the park. We told the girls that they needed to play at the playground first and then we would let them go on one of the inflatable bouncy things. We decided that we would give them money again today since they did so good with it yesterday. Also, there was a vendor outside the playground who sold necklaces, blow up Scooby Do and Shrek, and various other inexpensive toys. The girls have asked many times if they can get one of the toys, so today we told them that if they wanted to use their money on one of the toys they could, but that money had to also pay for the bouncy thing and ice cream. The girls went on the bouncy thing first, then bought ice cream, then headed for the vendor with the cheap toys. After spending a while asking about the various prices, the girls walked away. I asked Amina if they were going to buy anything and she said “No mom, these 10 grivna, that (and she pointed to the bouncy thing) 10 grivna. We go that.” Although we still have some work to do on her grammar, we have been pleased at how well she has been able to communicate what she is thinking. After one more time on the bouncy thing, it was time to head home. We headed back to the orphanage and dropped the girls off. Then we decided to share a driver with Mark and Christine and go get circus tickets before heading to Amstor. After doing some grocery shopping at Amstor, Mark and Christine were going to go back to our place with us and then our driver would come back later to pick us up. The only flaw to our plan was that after buying circus tickets, we only had 20 grivna on us…$4.00. We were able to buy crackers and pretzels for Fred’s train trip back as well as bottled water. Mark and Christine only had a few more grivna than us and we were all thrilled to go back to our apartment where we could walk somewhere to get some money changed. I’m at the internet café now and I haven’t had a chance to write about the circus, but it deserves it’s own space. I’ll update tomorrow.