Cruella Devil

I will start this blog by saying I have taught my entire family how to wash their own clothes so I am sure they will eventually be clean. Hopefully by the time I arrive home!! (hint hint).



The next day after the tearful "English is too hard," Kolya sat down and recited the alphabet almost perfectly. Tanya and I were very impressed and asked him if he had been practicing over night and he said yes. We then progressed to another book I brought with me and flash cards I purchased. He is doing so very well and has participated with excitment. I told him about the Leap Frog I bought for him and told him as soon as he gets the alphabet down and some basic words he could play it non-stop until we get home. I gave him a goal of Tuesday or Wednesday. (Today is Monday). We continue to play cards with the rule that If I catch him cheating, I will go home immediately. The card games always start off honest but the last 2 games end up with Tanya telling me the 2 boys are ganging up against me and telling each other what they have in their hands and trying to get my cards. Tanya then tells me what Kolya has in his hand because he never seems lose a game! We all end up laughing in the end and my strick policy of no cheating seems to be bent just a little.



Now on to the shocker of the day. Ludmilla, the director, is Cruella Devil (101 Dalmations). Today she came into to chat with me via Tanya. She loves to give parenting advice which I just nod and agree to, all the while I am rolling my eyes back in my head thinking Yea right! She told Kolya that his cheeks look bigger and that he is eating too much. She said he needs to speak more English and eat less. I wanted to smack her. Next she very sweetly told Tanya that Kolya's parents had a pension and when Kolya's father died and the mother's right were relinquished, the money was put into a secure bank account and he would get it when he became of age or when he was adopted. Ludmilla proceeded to tell Tanya that on Thursday after we pick up the official documents from the courts we are to bring them to her and she will send a representative of the orphanage with us to the bank with Kolya's account number. I am then to sign paperwork to have his money transferred from his account into the orphanage's account immediately. No I am not kidding. He has 12,000 grivna or $2,400 in the account. That is a fortune to these people. Tanya was so angry she was shaking for 2 hours after the little chat. I have left a message for Joe and e-mailed him asking his thoughts on this. Most of you who know me well, know what I want to do! I actually will be calling Edward and Valentine to see if there is anything they can do to assist me when dealing with Cruella. I wanted to say to her that we already gave her $1,000 which went staight into her pocket, and if she thinks I am nieve enough to think this money will be put towards the children than she does not know me at all. Which of course she does not, I am a good a__-kisser. Nothing is easy here in Ukraine.

Speaking of nothing is easy.... I remember David telling us that we may have to teach our children that they can flush the toilet paper instead of putting it into the trash. We were shocked and awed by that piece of information. Well....the toilets here cannot handle TP being flushed so everyone puts it into the trash that is provided next to the toilet. GROSS! I think number one on my list of things I miss about America will be the toilets and #2 is the ice cubes. What do you think?

Thats it for today. Tanya just told me that Ludmilla can keep Kolya's birth certificate from me if I do not transfer the money. That is what Edward told her. Unbelievable. Stay tuned!

Wendy

Joe here. I've just talked with Wendy on the phone and this has been cleared up. This is an orphan's pension from the government that some orphans get. Wendy talked with Valentin and he said it is traditional that the money be given to the orphanage. But it can be designated for specific things. So Wendy is going to specify matresses, shoes, a new DVD player, maybe TVs, and definitely more soccer balls.