The Home Stretch

Sunday, 10 June

Our stay is drawing to a close…and time is running short!

Today, we left the apartment at 11, picked up Kseniya and Lisa, and then met the second car at the orphanage where we picked up the girls. Our arrival is becoming a little more routine for them, too. They don’t drop what they were doing and race to us like they did the first couple of days; I think they are feeling much more secure with us, and beginning to trust us.

During the summer, many of the kids at the orphanage attend various camps in the area as well as going on trips for hosting programs in other countries, and last week, about 30 kids in the 7+ age group were at two different camps near the sea. Several of the girls had returned from camp yesterday, and came over to greet us. Anya and Masha’s best friend Lena had sneaked over the fence to pick wild blackberries, and Lena shared hers with me. The girls reported that they had a great time at camp.

We had heard that there were some charter boats that did tours, so we headed down to the seaside to check things out. After stopping at three different places that could loosely be called marinas, we learned that the only charters were for large groups at a rate of 1,000 grivna. At $200, it’s something that we might have considered asking about arranging for the girls’ whole group if we had known about it earlier.

We decided to take a pass on the boat, and offered the girls the choice to go to Extreme Park or the Beach, but they all had to agree. Masha got vetoed, and we ended up at the beach (with a much-improved bathing suit). We had lunch at a great but slow restaurant overlooking the beach, then spent the afternoon swimming.

After we dropped Masha off, we headed back to the apartment and tried to get packed up. We *think* we can get everything back into the luggage that we brought, even with all the chocolate that my dear husband decided needs to come back to the US with us!