
Forming a family through international adoption.
Today was fun. I went to the internet cafe for breakfast and to read emails. Terry and Mike met me there about 1:00 p.m. (Canadian couple). They spent some time doing emails while I finished breakfast. We chatted a bit over coffee then headed off to orphanage 12. Mike took their new son, Sasha, back to the apartment for his nap while Terry went with me. Mike was initiated via changing his first diaper.
We took a taxi to the orphanage. The drive was interesting. He said he use compete in motorcross before becoming a taxi driver. So he knew some English, French, and I think Italian. Its about a 20 min drive to the orphanage from the cafe. I didn't think he was going to let us out of the taxi. For knowing a lot of languages he didn't seem to understand "Pull over here. Really this is fine. That's the orphanage.. Really, that IS the orphanage. Pull over!". It was rather amusing.
Bogdan gave us a tour and introduced us to several classes of kids. I think Terry was impressed with the size of the orphanage. She seemed interested in helping the children out. We ended the tour at my class (#5). We hung out there for a bit as we discussed what to do about shopping. The weather wasn't very good today so instead of taking the entire class we would take the biggest girl and boy. I guess they are out growing their clothes. Bogdan was going to babysit the rest of the class while Lanna went with us. He also arranged for a graduate named (Luda) to go with us as a translator. She knows English fairly well but its still awkward for her. Another graduate named Maximus bumped into us while we were heading out the gate so he tagged along. He knew English very well - including slang. He was practicing on me by saying.. "What's up dude?" Kid wise.. Vitalik and Vera joined us. Vitalik is very quiet and carried the packages for me.
We hopped on the public bus which costs 0.50 grivena to ride. We were packed like sardines on the bus. Thank god Lanna knew where we were going because there isn't any street signs around here and I didn't know the bus routes. I wasn't too worried though because I had my "cheat" notes on how to get back to familiar places. We went to this "department" store. The first level was house hold items like washing machines, cosmetics, dishes, electronics. The 2nd floor was boys/men's clothing. The third floor was girls/women's clothing. On the stairs between the first and 2nd floors was a video booth. It was like 4' wide and maybe 15' long, completely enclosed with glass. It had a small window where the transactions were handled.
So we bought 6 boy's shirts that were oxford style (school clothing). The shirts ran 45-75 grivena. Then we went to the next floor for the girl's shirts. These were a bit more expensive because they were more stylish. We picked up 3 shirts there at 72-75 grivena. On the way back down we bought 3 movies for the kids. They ran 22 grivena each. We tried to find some dishes for the class but Lanna felt they were too expensive here. They ran 250 grivena. I tend to agree with here. I will see if I can find some cheaper tomorrow. What they need is something like Corelware.
Washing machines here were about 2000 grivena or a bit more. They are also 1/2 the size of what the standard USA machine is. Bogdan was telling me earlier that they have 1 wahing machine for 96 students. So when the class sends clothing out to be washed its a week before its returned. When the kids were showing me their lockers they maybe had 2 changes of clothing in it not including what they were wearing. All of their personal items fit in a locker that is about 16" wide by 5' tall.
When we finished with the department store, Terry had to take off. Her son was due to wake up from his nap and she wanted to be there. Lanna hailed her a taxi and told the driver where to take her. I was trying to get Lanna to go find the dishes she wanted but I guess she didn't understand. We ended up back at the orphanage. I spent some time with the class while they watched one of their new movies. I headed off at 5:00 p.m. to meet Terry & Mike. They were nice enough to invite me to dinner.
Lanna helped me with taxi and I took off to the internet cafe where I called Terry for directions to get to their apartment. It was about a 8 minute walk from the cafe, towards the center of town. Their apartment was nice with a lot of updates. By nice, I mean with respect to other apartments that I've been in while in Ukraine. It had a small kitchen, bath, entrance hall, living room that doubled as a sleeping area, and then a bed room. None of the buildings here have been handicap accessible. Mike and I joked about the elevator. You had to walk up about 6 stairs to get to it on the 1st floor. You could fit 2 people in it comfortably. I would bet it hasn't been inspected for safety in MANY years.
I had a good visit with them. Mike cooked some Ukraine pasta (looked like tortellini), green beans, and mashed potatoes. The food, wine, and conversation was great. Terry & Mike are a great couple and I'm very happy for them in that they found an adorable 15 month old boy to adopt. Sash is adorable and seems very healthy. He's a tad underweight but Terry is already working on fattening him up. Spending time with Sash made me miss Chris though. I can't wait to pick him up from Donetsk.