Headed to Kiev!

Monday June 11th

Our last full day.  We had recently become less diligent with our “shower whenever you can” strategy; the water hadn’t gone off in nearly a week. However, we woke up to find that our hot water was out again.  We made do, and Lisa arrived at our apartment about 10:30.

We all met with Olga, the matroshka artist, and then wandered out to show Lisa the bookstore and a couple of shops near our house.  When we got back to the apartment, we gobbled up the leftover borsch…it was really nice to have a lunch guest!  Lisa’s driver picked us up just before 2:00 and we headed over to the orphanage. 

We have learned that several of the kids in the girls’ groupa attended a week-long camp near the sea last week, and were leaving again tomorrow for another camp…It sounds like these camps are pretty common summer activities for the older kids, and from their reports, they have a great time.  Last summer, Masha won a swimming race!

Because so many of the kids would be gone later in the week, it was decided that Masha, Khrystyna, and Amina would have a joint going-away party.  Normally, these parties include a dance/singing performance for the parents, and then some fruit and juice for the kids.  Since we had been able to see the big 1 June celebration performance, everyone decided it was best to forego the performance, and just have an informal “hangout” time in the girls’ rooms.

We also brought gifts for the key people at the orphanage, including the Director, Assistant Director, Doctor, Nurse, Psychologist, and Social Worker, and the six caregivers for Masha’s group.  We began by meeting with the Director.  She shared some thoughts and best wishes for us, and asked yet again that we be sure to keep in frequent touch and keep her updated on how Masha was doing.  We presented her with a gift to show our thanks…we gave her a handmade necklace that we had brought from Fort Wayne, as well as some chocolates and a couple of other small things.

After that, we presented the Assistant Director’s gifts (similar stuff, but a little smaller) and then we took the fruit and juice up to the girls dorm area.  As soon as we walked in, they swarmed us!  We put all the fruit down on a couple of tables, but the kids found us much more interesting!

We gave Masha her clothes for tomorrow, and a small purse with some hair ties and a new watch—She had broken a watch early during our trip and we got her a pink bangle watch to replace it.  Since we knew that she would need to leave that at the orphanage, we picked another one up for her. 

As this was all going on, we noticed that Masha’s best friend wasn’t in the room.  We stuck our heads around the corner and found her sitting by herself in the next room looking very sad.  Masha went in with her new stuff, and we gave her friend a small stuffed toy that said “I love you” when you squeezed it.  We all hugged on her a lot while she cried.  When Masha saw the new watch in the bag we had given her, she got the other one and put it on her friend’s wrist (along with the Dora watch from Masha’s US trip).  They seemed connected by their matching watches, and her friend started to cheer up.

Mark had brought the laptop up, so he fired it up and let the all the girls look at the photos and videos that we had taken during our trip.  They really enjoyed the videos, and watched some of them over and over again.  Then Masha and her friend grabbed our camera and started running around taking pictures and video clips. 

Several of the girls grabbed their photo albums from various trips, and all of them showed us pictures of their respective families and friends.  It looked like the kids had done a little bit of trading, and had a few photos from the other kids mixed in with their own photos.  Masha had all the letters and photos that we had sent her saved in a little box, and she pulled all of the out to show us, and to make sure we took home with us to pack.  Masha decided to take her photos, but leave the album behind for one of the other kids; she pulled them all out and handed them to me in a big stack.

We horsed around with all the girls for a couple of hours, and then it was time to leave.  Several of the girls promised to write letters for their families for us to bring home, and we should be able to get those in the morning when we pick Masha up.  We said our goodbyes and headed for the internet café and then a final trip to Amstor to pick up some sandwiches and snacks for the train.

We packed pretty much everything up, and I am very worried that our bags are overweight, but we got everything down to two duffels and a rollerbag (plus, of course, two backpacks, a giant purse, a laptop bag and a bg Amstor bag. 

I think we are ready to hit the road!

Our internet connection options will be very limited, so no photos and we’ll post when we can.  We hope to get home by Friday night….please pray for everything to go smoothly!

Thanks for your support and encouragement, and love to all!!