The Night The Lights Went Out In Com.bat

Thursday, 7 June

The cries of a thousand warriors filled the air as darkness enveloped their underground lair. OK, so it was more like about 40 teenage boys hollering when the power went out at Com.bat, the internet café we’ve been frequenting. The first version is so much more poetic, dontcha think?

Today’s internet time was nearing its end. Lisa was copying some photos, and I had just finished uploading the last couple of days’ posts (I hope), and I was preparing the email for distribution to y’all when, in an instant, the room went dark. Gone were the sounds of fans from 45 computers; once the initial moments of shock wore off, the boys began to quietly congregate around the front desk. Our laptop screens and provided the only illumination; and we got the heck outta Dodge before chaos erupted.

Other than that, the day was uneventful. Sasha, the leader of our facilitation team, was in town for a short time today…he arrived on the overnight train from Kiev this morning, and was out again with Fred on the 7:15 train to Kiev. We spent an hour at the notary getting Masha’s passport application completed, and spent a couple hours playing with the kids at the orphanage and then caught some dinner with Lisa before we all headed to the internet café.

We had been talking about sending the girls around the orphanage with the camera, and today it happened. The girls took the camera upstairs and got some photos of their rooms. Their group occupies two large rooms on the second floor of the orphanage. The girls posed in their beds, and we learned that Amina and Masha are bunkmates…Amina on top and Masha on the bottom bunk! They also have a study area with desks, a living room area with a pet bird, and of course Masha posed with her “best friend,” the big TV! We again were impressed with the quality of conditions at this orphanage, and we are thankful to the Director and her staff for taking such good care of all the children there.

Our patience and flexibility (and my snack supply) was tested again today, though. We spoke with Sasha at about 8:30, and he was on his way into town. He told us that we would need to do some paperwork today. We told him that we had an appointment with an artist at 1:00 and planned to go pick up Masha at 2:00, and he said “great. Good to know.” And that was the end of the conversation. He did not tell us when he needed us, or what specifically he needed us to do. We got about 30 minutes’ notice that our driver would be picking us up at 2:00 and taking us to the notary.

The only snag in this plan was that we were planning to take Masha to LUNCH at 2:00. We didn’t get out of the Notary until after 3:00, and then we needed to wait there for Sasha. Needless to say, we didn’t get food until about 5:30 (Masha ate at the orphanage). It’s times like this that remind us that this is NOT a vacation. We are here to accomplish an objective, and we are not in control of any of the activities. We have to trust our facilitation team, know that they are as motivated as us to get us out of here, and follow their lead. And I’m sure you can imagine how tough that is for both of us!

We also learned that we can’t leave the city with Masha until Tuesday morning, but Sasha believes that we may still be able to get home on Thursday. We won’t know until the middle of next week, but let’s all pray that everything goes quickly and smoothly and that we can get flights.