End of Day 1 at Matveevka

After the party, we piled back into the van and headed back to Matveevka. At the Internat, we were fairly confined to the canteen area because of Max's leg. I have seen many pictures of it and it is smaller than what I had imagined. Now it is let the games begin time. We had some bounce balloons that have a rubber band handle. The kids used these in every way; as soccer balls, punch balls, volley balls and even ping pong balls. We played games for the afternoon and it was my time to have fun with Maksim.

Midway through the afternoon, Max wanted me to come to his classroom. The class was watching a video of Beethoven (a film with a hero dog character that looked like it was made in the early 1980s). I watched the video with him and noted the different titles in the room. Most were older films in VHS format. Jenia helped me ask the teacher if it was OK to add to the collection. The teacher said it was OK and I made a note to stop by a video kiosk to pick up a variety of kid comedies and educational videos.

Max gave Cindy and me a tour. He climbed the stairs to the room that he shares with 10 other children. The beds are made and the room is picked up. There is a chore chart on the wall, but Max does not want to explain the chores. Also on the wall are new cabinets. These were the fruits of our fund raising last fall.

There are many children at the Internat who live there like a boarding school. One was Sergey. He spoke English well and he was very polite and pleasant with us. In the afternoon, he told us that he was leaving to spend the evening with his mother and that he would be back to see us on Sunday evening. He had only one short day per week to spend with one parent.

Saturday ended with dinner at Matveevka. Maksim was able to eat dinner with us. This was the first day that I had been able to be with him since April 2006.

On the wayback to the hotel we stopped by the mall. There was a grocery store. I bought minutes for my cell phone and we got groceries. We went back to Hotel and crashed.