I am so tired, I really should go to bed but time has very little meaning here, so I'll stay up and blog. Maybe time is messed up because my body knows its ten hours ahead. Maybe because there is somehow no clock of any kind in our apartment (just stop and count your clocks for a minute-I dare you to have less than five, ours are-wall, stove, microwave, coffee pot, alarm clock, 2nd wall clock, Evelyn's room, DVD, and third wall clock!) Maybe it's because each day is the same and the date is not important so I no longer remember what day or date it is.
Maybe time is really important regardless and I should go to bed. Ha!
But there were two special things about today and I want to capture them because there may be more special things tomorrow and then what would happen? Not enough time!
The orphanage had guest entertainers today. A lady dressed up as a dragon did a puppet show and her team led the kids in a game if Limbo, Simon Says, playing with a parachute, and bubbles for everyone. Of course my children were perfectly perfect ungrateful Americans, but the orphanage children were thrilled and it was so sweet to watch them watch the show. Afterwards we were all outside with each other. If you have seen the pictures, you know the outside is fairly large and broken up into little play areas, each with its own doma-house-and little play structures. Each group (broken up by age, and maybe ability) has an assigned "yard" and the children play there during their morning outside time. So, we are always in someone's yard but have checked many times and have always been told, it is fine, we can go where we want, which is very gracious of them. I'm not sure which group we were with today but sometimes they just kind of do their own thing and this group was not that time! They were interested in everything we had, and Evelyn, whom I taught "Come here" in Russian so I could call her on the street and not be so American, quickly turned that around for her own benefit and was calling those poor children to her and in minutes had created her own world government in this tiny play yard.
Meanwhile, I met the most darling little brother and sister and have decided to put them in my pocket and bring them home because it's simply wrong that they should grow up in an orphanage when there is an America. Oh, and you, you are American.
Enough said.
Anyway, it was a very sweet visit. Then little man's nanny came and took him away from me.
After a bit of rest time, in which Cici fell asleep on my lap-her first nap since arriving in Ukraine-we picked up more pictures and a few gifts because we were having a dinner party! I think I mentioned that one of our connections here is the brother of my dad's bookkeeper, he has been our taxi driver which is convenient, since he is a taxi driver! He's a great guy, speaks no English and is very patient with a preschool level of conversation-"What's that?" "A red car. A big red car." His wife speaks English very well and they have three lovely daughters, ages 5, 4, and 2. So, between the two of us there were 5 girls under the age of 6. One, that's a lot of flouncy dresses. Two, when the waitress saw us walk in she immediately led us to the back room. They make 'em smart here in Ukraine!
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| Devuchki! |
All in all it was absolutely hilarious, entertaining, wonderful, and a much needed play-time-for-all of an evening.
Tomorrow we have a morning visit and then as the weather climbs into the 90s, we will decide what we want our afternoon outing to be-the museum or Dream Town-the massive double children's mall that has a different theme for each floor, indoor bowling alley, fairy tale ice skating rink, movie theater, video games, water park, curling (yes, that curling), and every possible shop and restaurant that you could possibly want in one location the size of a city block.
Tune in tomorrow to see what kind of mom I decide to be!
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