Saturday in the Park

I think it was the 4th of July (that should bring back memories for you Chicago fans).

As we were sitting down to blog, we had 2 power outages in a row. The first one lasted about 15 minutes and the second one about 5. We persevere though; we have the kids using a hand crank generator to power the computer and torch light when we need to go potty.

We took Kolya to Extreme Park today. Think of a cross between Elitch's and the traveling amusements that set up in shopping center parking lots. It had several rides, including a roller coaster, a drop, and bumper cars. The advantage of bringing your kids along to Ukraine is they can ride the rides instead of you. Wendy and Joe did brave the roller coaster and Joe did get on the drop with Kolya and Graham. We all did the bumper cars, which did not seem to have the same restrictor plate that you have on U.S. bumper cars. This must be where the Ukrainian drivers learn their craft. We will post pictures of the park soon.

After the park we had to bring Kolya back to the orphanage. We discovered that Saturday is bath day so we anticipate a cleaner Kolya tomorrow. It is sad to say goodbye to him each time. We talk about the day when we can take him from there forever. We will be able to see Kolya for 2-3 hours tomorrow (Sunday). During the week we can see him twice a day, but it is only once a day on weekends.

On other semi-related news for those who know of the orphanage here in Mariupol. Ksenyia is getting married to a Dane. She met him in Budapest, Hungary last year at a candy museum. She told us today that she will be moving to Denmark. We understood her to say that her last day at the orphanage will be Aug 11. That will be sad for the children at the orphanage. Ksenyia is truly a loving person.

We also learned today that Victor (there are those of you who will cringe at this name and others who will be puzzled; this is for those of you who cringe) did not make any friends here in Mariupol. Apparently, he alienated many people, including the orphanage director, the inspector, etc. Fortunately, our translator, Edward has been very good at mending fences. Wendy describes him as a diplomat.

While Joe claims there is a Russian phrase for "Excuse me," we don't believe they know it here. Or at least they do not know the verbal version. They do use the non-verbal version, which consists of a sharp elbow to the kidney.

That's all for now. We want to save this before another rolling black-out hits.