End of Day #6

I'm feeling better. I got a call from Drew at 5:00, him telling me that he made it to Kiev safely and without incident. Hooray! That was one thing that I was really worried about.

At 2:30 I started to the orphanage and it took me about 20 minutes to walk there. I didn't see Masha at first, so I just walked around the grounds a little bit and watched all of the kids. Many of them were helping clean up the grounds. Now that the snow is melted, the people around the city are all doing spring clean up. They are sweeping up the dead leaves from last fall and picking up the trash and burning it in the piles located in their courtyards. It is starting to look better, like what I remember it being last year. Same for the orphanage. The grounds are looking better with all of the debris being picked up and disposed of.

While I was walking I had several children come up to me and say hello. One girl that did English with Masha and I on Monday took my hand and led me to where Masha was. She is very sweet, but she does have parents that she goes home to on the weekends. Her name is Anya. She has a very pretty face.

I wasn't in the mood for school and English today, so I told Masha that we should just walk around and get a little exercise. She was happy about this. While we walked I asked if she wanted to buy a treat and she was of course very excited. We walked and walked and talked and talked. When I am trying to ask complicated questions I have to relate it back to something we have already experienced and work from there to explain what it is I am wondering about. For example, I wanted to know if her grandma could teach me how to make the pasta dish that Masha ordered after our court last Friday. How do you ask that, right??? Well, I started with saying we went to lunch last Friday with Oxana, Victor, Nadiya and dad. Do you remember? She nods yes. Then I take it a step further and say I want grandma to teach me how to make the food she ate then. She thought I said I wanted to take her and grandma to that restaurant. So I back up again and we finally make it through the conversation with success. She and I are going to go food shopping on Friday and buy all the food we need to make Borscht, soup, and the dish she ordered last week (I think she called it pamilee). Her grandma is going to teach me how to make it all on Saturday. Yippee! One thing knocked off my list.

I figured this is the best English lesson she can get anyway. Learning how to speak and comprehend what I am saying. It ended up being a nice evening. We bought our treats. I was needing the treat for comfort and it worked. She bought a bag of candy and shared the majority of it with her friends at the orphanage.

I stayed at the orphanage for a little bit longer, but I have a splitting headache today from the crying this morning. I don't know if anyone else has this, but when I cry it gives me the worst headaches. Masha walked me half way home and we hugged and went our opposite ways. She is such a good girl. I am very fortunate to have her.

Yes, I do have three more novels I can read and I have three more scarves I need to knit. I should be able to get it all done over the next week until the 12 days is over. Thank goodness I have something to do. I am so glad I brought it all with me now.

Another manhole that we passed on our walk today. This one went about 10 feet down. Scary!

The kids that all came running up to me saying hi. Anya, the girl I mentioned earlier, is the one in the center.

Spring cleaning. Does anyone remember Tolik from the 2008 group? This is him in the red sweatshirt. He stayed with three different families that year, I think because he was a little difficult. He looked happy and cooperative today.

See, the grounds are looking spic and span.