Diddles in Ukraine :: Oct 4th

[] Diddles in Ukraine Thursday | October 05, 2006 Oct 4th Oct 4 th , 2006 – Wednesday Wow. This is the end of our 12 th day here in Ukraine. We still have not gone to court. Vladimir said he will go plead with the SDA for their decision tomorrow. He said he will be in their sight all day until they give him his requests! Vladimir and Natalie are taking good care of us. We are kept busy. All in all, it is an end of another good day. Our schedule in the morning is fairly flexible since we strive not to arrive at the boarding school during lesson time. The lessons usually begin at 0800 and with breaks for lunch and snacks, the children are fairly busy until 1330L. The weather was overcast most of the day Our first task for today was to find a shoe repair shop that could fix Ruslan’s new shoes. The sole of his new tennis shoes had already separated from the shoe. After wandering around the open market, we were directed down a back alley at the end of the market, and around a corner we found a little 3*3 foot tin booth. We showed him the problem, and he said he could fix it, but he needs the other shoe…The other shoe is back at the boarding school. We walked to the center of town (about 15 minute walk). The internet service to the city was down. It took 45 minutes before we had access. It was great to receive news from our daughters. As far as other news or current world wide events, it is almost a blackout. Which in some ways is good. The taxi driver did comment on the outrageous price of diesel fuel. After 30 minutes at the internet café and we departed and headed north (If the sun was out more I would be more certain it was north!) on foot for about 5 minutes. To our left was McDonald’s and to the right was our destination, a huge supermarket. Our quest was a jar of strawberry jam (peanut butter always goes better with jam). We were successful in finding jam and other packaged foods! We also picked up some Ukrainian chocolate which is good and addicting! We took the van (#4) from the market heading north. (Bus # 3 will also take us to the boarding school). The price is only 1 grinvyna (about 20 cents). Riding the van you get to see the common people, to see how they act, talk or dress. It is also easier to catch germs. One lady had two open buckets filled to the brim with red berries. We arrived later then planned at the school. Zhenya meet us and he said he was getting ready to cry because he thought we were not coming. We then walked to the back of the school and sat at some picnic tables located outside of a small mom and pop store and ate strawberry jam and crackers for lunch! After lunch, the boys and I played another muddy game of soccer. I still lost, but was able to burn a lot of calories trying to keep up with 10 young boys and not being able to pick up on their verbal clues! Several of the boys were playing in shorts and tank top t-shirts. Others had thread bare and ripped pants. The boys are healthy. Just need some family love and you would have perfect children. After 30 minutes into the game, Tolia (Peckham) sprained his ankle and the game was injured. It hurt to see him cry in pain and not being able to comfort him. I offered to carry him on my back, but he was to much of a man. He hobbled across the pasture (soccer field) to the boarding school clinic. Shortly thereafter, he came out smiling and kicking the soccer ball again. Ruslan also had Physical Training today. After we watched him do his warm ups and run, they broke up into groups. This time we played soccer on an asphalt pad. Not sure how the kids did it, especially playing in warn out tennis shoes or sandals! My team lost again, 5 to 0. Boys will be boys. There was some scuffling between a set of brothers, because the younger accidentally tripped his older brother, then the older brother went and tackled his younger brother, forcing tears to the younger child. Later they were side by side being happy and playing with each other! Throughout the afternoon, Natalie diligently tried to get international access to her cell phone to facilitate the Summercorn’s phone call to Bogdan. His birthday was yesterday, and he was looking forward to a call from the states. When the call finally came through this afternoon, although Bogdan is shy, you could see his happiness upon hearing from his family. He even posed for a couple of photos for Nadine. As the day was ending, the boys turned into monkeys. I hope to post one of the several photos of them hanging upside down on a basketball hoop frame. The kids have some much happiness within them, despite their circumstances, and I am glad they are sharing a little with Nadine and I. We returned home by van tonight. For dinner, we are having rice, cauliflower and stewed cabbage. The meal took over two hours to prepare, but it was very delicious. I probably failed to mention earlier that Nadine purchased a belt because she has lost weight over here. I should have purchased a belt as well. But loosing weight is not all that bad! Note: We were given a word of caution. We are told that we are allowed to take pictures of Zhenya and Ruslan. The director has been kind to allow us to take pictures of the school, their friends and environment. I consider all the children that were hosted the same time as Zhenya as friends. If you do not see a picture of a child you hosted, please let us know. At the same time, to ensure that we still have the privilege to take future pictures and to protect the children, do not repost the children’s photo’s to other locations for world wide access. I am unable to password protect photo's on this blog. Please protect the children's pictures. Thanks for your understanding. Posted by at 12:16 in | Link | Comments (0) Comments Write a comment Name: Email: Url: Comment: Remember info? Search My Advertisement Categories Archives October - 2006 September - 2006 Syndication RSS Atom Albums Kiev Sumy Ukraine Part 2 Sumy, Ukraine Random Blog