Teaching English

Good Morning Everyone! Do you have your coffee? Okay lets start.

First, lets talk about the fluent access in this country to drugs and alcohol. Tayna told me yesterday that anyone can buy any type of drugs (percocet, ritilan, heavy duty pain and psych meds, antibiotics, etc.) from the local pharmacy without a prescription from a doctor. And there is a pharmacy every 20 feet, just like Starbucks. That is why there is such a bad drug problem here in Ukraine. As we have pointed out before, beer is more accessable than water or Cola Light and the grocery stores have 2 entire isles devoted to Vodka alone, then they have isles for the rest of the alcohol. It is like our liquor stores, just WAY cheeper.

Today, Tanya andI slept in then watched Hitch with Will Smith. She loved it. We also watched the opening of the Olympics last night and I was highly impressed with the Chinese! They way out-did the Utah/US opening ceremonies.

Anyway, we arrived at the orphanage at noon today and explained to Kolya we would work on the English alphabet for a while then do fun things. We got to the letter "O" and tears started streaming down his cheeks. He said it was too hard to learn and he will never learn it! Remember, he hates his English class. It took Tanya and I, 20-30 minutes to convince him it is okay if he doesn't learn it all in one day! I explained that I could not learn Russian and Papa only learned a little bit to survive over here. I explained that I could not be left alone in his country because I did not know the language or know how to read the signs! I had to hire Edward and Tanya to help me. I think what eventually sunk in with him was that I explained that I was not planning on throwing him into school all day and leaving him. I planned on being with him all day in school and would be his interpreter until he felt comfortable on his own. The poor child broke my heart, for a while.....keep reading!

After a very short session in English we watch the Fantastic 4 on DVD and ate popcorn, gummy bears and drank Coca Cola for lunch. The smile returned. We then played cards with a 14 y/o boy named Denise. This was hysterical as the game we started with was Concentration/Memory and Kolya, who usually wins, lost every hand. He then decided he wanted to teach me one of his card games. Tanya was very helpful as it seems the rules change when it is Kolya's turn! Kolya would hold his cards down and Denise could see them and asked Kolya for everything that was in his hand, making Kolya very pouty. I laughed as it is dog-eat-dog in the orphanage and you need to learn to keep your hand close to your chest if you want to be a good player. Denise would laugh and just play on. During this game Kolya accused both me and Denise of cheating. Tanya was helping me with my hand and would explain to Kolya that I did not have the card he was requesting but Kolya would argue with her. She was shaking her head and smiling looking at me for guidence. Long story short, I won the game by sheer luck and Kolya and Denise got into a heated/laughing discussion about cheating. Kolya then told Tanya he only cheated once...okay maybe 4 times!

They then wanted me to play the Ukrainian version of War, which they call The Drunken Man. Since Kolya never shuffles the cards, even though he sits there and insists he does when we know he has not because we never left the area, I was delt all the 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's. In War, the highest card takes the trick. I was out of the game in 2 minutes flat. Tanya and I preceded to watch Kolya and Denise play and Kolya cheeting outright. Denise was a very good sport laughing his a-- off at Kolya's outragous behavior. I explained to Tanya that if he plays this way at home in America, we will stop playing the game and just walk away from him, telling him that if he cheats the playing is over for the night. It will fix that problem real fast. We left today with our sides hurting from so much laughter, mostly towards Kolya. I left the deck of cards with the boys as they do not have any in the orphanage.

Oh yeah, more thoughts on what these kids need as far as donations. Our soccer ball lasted 2 weeks before a stick impaled it and it went flat. The beach balls lasted 2 days max. We have "lost" 4 frisbees. Any type of ball is most needed, but every ball turns into a soccer ball! The kids do not have cards but love to play. The problem is, I can see the deck not being complete for long. The kids need shoes very badly. Just like American kids, the average pair last maybe 3-6 months then they are trashed.

I know this next piece will not surprise most of you but, Tanya told me today that I am not like most Americans she has met. Okay everyone, pipe down! She said in the 8 years she has been doing this we are the first family that has not wanted to eat out for every meal. We have been visiting the supermarket close to the flat everyday to get supplies and we have eaten most of our meals in. Tonight I fixed beef and vegetables for dinner and she said it was good. I told her she didn't have to lie, even after I gave her the Hymlick (sp?) maneuver then mouth to mouth to revive her. I told her I do make a mean Margarita if she ever had to live on that alone!

Joyce and Dan are in Kyiv with the rest of my brood and they called from a mall to rub it in about how much fun they are having. The Matthews fly down to Donetsk on Monday to visit an 11 y/o girl the SDA recommended. If they bond with her, they start the adoption process in that city. If not, it is back to the SDA. They are determined to come home with a child which I am very happy about. They have gone through the ringer with emotions here. Joyce told me she thinks it should be a requirement for all Americans to travel out of the country so we would be less selfish. She said she will literally bend down and kiss the ground as soon as she lands. She promised never to complain about the dogs barking in the neighborhood, blah, blah, blah. I laughed as I have been to Europe before and know how lucky we are!

Got to go, I want to read about the news in the US. See you tomorrow at breakfast! Wendy