The Weekend

Saturday we spent the day without the girls. They are at their grandma's for the weekend, which they were a little upset about. They wanted to be with us.

We arrived at the orphanage at about 11:30 with the Lawrence's to pick up Ruslan. We went to lunch at the "Potato House" again then let the Lawrence's head their way while we went through the market. There wasn't much there we were interested in. So we decided to head back to the apartment. It seemed like a pretty pointless day without the girls around.

Later that night we went to the market for groceries and that was the whole day! Not much news.

Sunday, on the other hand, was quite eventful. We were met by George at 9:30 and were driven to the orphanage where we met up with the girls. He had picked them up for us. They were in dresses and all ready for church. We traveled to the city called Dnepropetrovsk where the branch was located (found by Wendy, a few months back). It was a nice meeting with three female speakers. The missionaries translated for us. The girls were both ready for the meeting to end though, I guess they didn't find it very interesting. I had the missionary tell Masha that we do this every week in America. She replied that she knew and that she liked it more in America. We'll see how that goes!

After church, we headed back to the orphanage where we dropped Masha and Nastia off to catch the tram to go back to their grandma's house. George took us to his and Nadiya's home. It was a house (most people live in apartment's here) and it was beautiful. They had muriels painted all over their property. She served us lunch, which was very kind of her. She told us she wanted to take as good care of us as we took of her when she came to America! We ate a tomato, green pepper and celery salad, borsch, a stuffed green pepper (with chicken and onion, it was REALLY yummy), pastrami links, sliced sausage, sardines, and bread. It was a lot of food and Nadiya kept filling my plate without asking if I wanted more! Yes, I ate my first sardine ever!!! And I didn't like it! I was so stuffed by the time we were done eating. The funny thing about the lunch, though, was that they didn't eat with us. They left us there by ourselves (besides coming for a minute and refilling our plates, then leaving). After we started talking, they left one by one and ate our leftovers and again left us alone with the translator. It was kind of funny. I thought we would all eat together, I wonder if it is a cultural thing. They didn't want us to feel pressured while eating???

The translator was the English teacher from the special education school at the orphanage. She was there with her husband as well. I made a comment about Nadiya's garden and she took me all around the property showing me all of her plants. They decided they would show us the ranch that the translator's husband's family owns. It was probably near 10 acres of nothing but harvest land. They had all kinds of berry plants including raspberries that were to die for! Wow, they were so good! They gave me a fresh cucumber and carrot straight off the plant. Then they started their water pump from the well at the end of their property. It was really cool, yummy water. While back there, they showed us the shower they use to wash off with after a long day of work. It is the kind where the barrel of water is full above you and you pull a cord to release the water on top of you. One of those things that you only see in the movies.

Then last, but not least, they got some eggs fresh from their hens in the coupe. They ask, "Who wants to drink an egg?" I politely decline, but I guess they didn't hear this. They put the egg in my hand and say "drink!" I don't want to be rude, so I try it and gag. That was about the nastiest thing I have ever eaten!!!!! They took it from me and fed the rest to the dogs. I was really glad that they stopped making me try new foods after this. I was done being a trooper. George and Nadiya brought us home after this. It was really a nice visit. We probably spent 4 hours with them today.

We went to the orphanage with the Lawrence's after this. We walked to and from there, with a little weaving both ways...good exercise! :)

We see the girls in the morning. Lawrence's are headed to Kiev. So Drew and I are taking Masha, Nastia and Ruslan to the pool. We'll update tomorrow.