Monday, April 9, 2007

Helen, Jenia, Luke and Caroline are in Kyiv, while Tom, Cindy, Maria and Matthew are in Zaporozhye.

Cindy and Julie went to the orphanage to pick up the kids. They had school but Larissa let us take them out of school. We came back to the hotel and bathed them. They found the tub in the hotel delightful. They just soaked in the warm bathwater. Marian Oksana and Mathew Maksim tried on the new clothes that we brought for them. We read books and worked on some English. We ate at the cafeteria at the mall and purchased some shoes for them. Maria Oskana wanted Powder Puff Girls shoes and Matthew Maksim wanted sporty tennis shoes. They were thrilled. We have two nerf footballs and went outside to pass them. Within 45 minutes, Mathew Maksim had two grass stains on his pants. Maria would stop every so often and clean the dirt from her new shoes. The kids liked the time playing in the sunshine.

We tried to take the bus back to the orphanage but one or two for our routes were broken. We waited for almost an hour and no bus. Of course the bus stop has a kiosk that sells everything from candy to liqueur. One a bus stopped in front of us, so we got on, while the driver went to the kiosk to get a drink (hopefully a soft drink). A woman in front said something and the kids got off. We did not understand what she said, so we called Asa and asked her to speak to Maria Oksana. Maria took the phone and was silent. Finally she said Allo and something else and stopped. Tom took the phone and asked Asa what Maria said. Asa translated that Matthew wanted a bad of sun flower seeds and Maria wanted some chocolate!

Tom asked her to tell her about the bus. She said that it was broken and is out of service. We gave p on the bus. So what do we do? Call Jenia! I left all the contact names and phone numbers in the hotel. So we knew that Jenia would save the day. She called us a taxi from Kyiv, and we made it to the orphanage by dinner time for the kids.