Banana Split

Tuesday, 22 May

After the running documents around all day yesterday, today’s agenda was pretty open at the start of the day. Mark took a walk around our neighborhood to check out the shops, and discovered that we have a lot within walking distance, and we made arrangements to be picked up at 10:45 to go to the internet café and spend an hour or so, and to get our laptop connected.

We were scheduled to meet up with Fred and Lisa, and to pick the girls up around 1:00 for the afternoon….but things don’t always go as planned around here! Just as we were wrapping up at the internet café, we received a call from Sveta, our facilitator, telling us that a driver was waiting for us outside, and we needed to get over to the courthouse right away. We launched into action-mode.

When we got there, Sveta had not yet arrived, so we waited patiently outside for her. Within a few minutes, her car whipped up and she bolted up the stairs to the office where we had submitted our documents yesterday. Turns out that they had a few questions about our documentation, and they needed clarification in order to submit our application for a court date.

After we answered her questions and signed the document, the woman preparing our court application started discussing something with Sveta. They seemed to disagree a little bit, and Sveta asked us to wait in the hallway outside while they worked everything out. After about 10 minutes, Sveta came out of the office and whisked us back outside. She told us that the judge would be back in about a half hour to sign our application and assign our court date.

From the courthouse, we drove to the orphanage. Fred and Lisa had not arrived from their visit to the notary (an adventure of a whole different sort), and so we played Frisbee and volley-catch-soccer with Masha and Khrystyna. What was to have been a 5-10 minute wait turned into over 2 hours, as one thing after another caused us delays.

At 3:30, ready to gnaw our own arms off in hunger, we finally left the orphanage with the girls, headed for the cafeteria for lunch (Note to those following us: Always keep snacks and bottles of water with you!!) . We knew that Sveta had an appointment to deliver some documents at 4:00, and as we sat down, Sveta turned to us and announced, “You have ten minutes.” I’ve never eaten so much food so fast in all my life.

Sveta piled us into our cars and dropped us off at a park while she went with Sasha for her 4:00 appointment, and made arrangements to meet us back at the entrance to the park at 4:45 so we could get the girls back by 5:00. Rush rush rush!

The park was very nice, with many trees and wide brick walkways. On one side of the park, they also had some rides that looked like they had been retired from a 1950s street fair for safety concerns and shipped off to Eastern Europe! Masha and Khrystyna rode a strange little roller coaster guarded by a very large and angry bear-like dog, but the best attraction was a giant inflatable crocodile that the kids could climb into and bounce around. They had a grand time climbing all over each other and jumping around!

We walked around the park a little more, and Masha munched on some chicken-flavored potato chips that we had purchased at lunch. Yes, you read that right. Chicken. It tasted like potato chips coated with the flavor packet from chicken ramen noodles. Seriously. Chicken. There’s a chicken leg on the bag. It’s a strange land.

We dropped the girls back at the orphanage, said our goodbyes, and headed back into town. Sveta left us at a restaurant that was said to have good desserts, and so Fred, Lisa, Mark, and I got to figure out the menu. Lisa deciphered “banana split,” and three out of four ordered that. Fred ordered a chocolate mousse, and while it was yummy, he really got the short end of the stick. The desserts took forever to arrive, but when they did, they were worth the wait! For $2.50 (12 grivna), we got the most amazing ice cream delight I’ve ever seen! Sliced fruits, yummy ice cream, whipped cream, all coated with chocolate shavings….it was heaven!

Stuffed to the gills, we drove back to the apartment, picked up a couple of groceries, and called it a night.