The day that warmed my heart (and the day after)

Note - We were unable to get to the internet club last night, so we are posting 2 days worth this evening. Stay tuned for the exciting adventures.

Tuesday - August 5

Today is hot and humid. The air is thick with the stench and pollution from the factories in town and my eyes water. The minute I get outdoors the membranes in my nose and sinuses swell up and the sneezing begins as my body tries to rid itself of the toxins. The children at the orphanage know no different as they play happily amongst themselves without any symptoms. Joe here. We noticed a unique phenomenon today. Flies were dropping in mid-flight. They would grasp their little fly throats, gasping for air, twirl once, twice, three times, and then plummet to earth.

This week a group of about 10 children have returned from the “camp.” They are from 5 y/o to 7 y/o along with 2 older teenagers. We started our day with Kolya playing Battleship as he did not appear to have the full energy to play soccer. We found a cheap travel version of the game along with checkers at the local grocery store. I thought this would be a fun way to teach him the first part of the alphabet and his numbers up to 10. When we first arrived he was reluctant to practice his English. We have slowly been coaxing it out of him. With the help of his 2 new siblings, he beat the pants of Joe and sunk all of his battleships. Joe here again. My claim is that I let him win, and I’m sticking to it.

We then decided to bring out the pirated DVD and watch an animated movie. Just then the group of children came out to play. They were happy to see Kolya and completely fascinated with the movie. As the children gathered around us to watch, I moved so they could see the movie. Kolya said, “No, Mom” and pointed for me to sit down next to him. I tried to tell him it was okay, that I could watch from behind the kids as I was taller than they are, but he would not hear of it. He spoke sharply to the children and he instructed me to sit next to him. During the movie a young boy inched closure to the screen and Kolya felt he was blocking my view and told the child he must back up. I tried to indicate to Kolya that it was okay, that I could see just fine. Kolya then spoke out the side of his mouth to the child and gently elbowed him back. I pretended not to see as this was the first indication that Kolya felt possessive of any of us. He was not going to share his Mama.

Meantime Joe entertained the rest of the kids with cards, magic tricks and juggling. The children are obviously starved for attention. Joe here once again. The kids entertained me as much as I entertained them. One girl in particular, about 6, provided much entertainment. She brought over a “magic” wallet, and instructed me to make things disappear with it. At least I think that was what she was telling with a combination of very rapid Russian and vigorous gestures. She then handed me a leaf. Given my vast magic experience, gained with years of practice using my Marshall Brodine Magic Cards (a gift to me from some special friends when I was in my early 20s), I was of course able to make it disappear by putting in the wallet, yelling “look, it’s the KGB”, pointing behind them, and then quickly stuffing it in my pocket as they cringed in fear. When they had recovered their senses, I impressed them by opening the wallet and showing that the leaf was gone. I then magically produced the leaf from my pocket. The little girl then proceeded to show me her magic tricks with the wallet. With rapid-fire Russian patter, she would put little plastic pieces into the wallet, hold the wallet behind her back and let the pieces drop out. She would then bring the wallet back to the front and show me that it was now empty. Ta Da! It was great fun with the kids. They love magic and juggling. Both seeing it and showing it off.

We saw the little redheaded girl today that I briefly wanted to adopt along with Kolya. She had a bandaged left arm in a sling and one of her older friends had braided her hair into a spiral on her head. It was beautiful and I told her so using our Russian to English dictionary and she blushed and thanked me. I do not know if she is available for adoption as she was not offered to the Matthews. I did not see the Matthew’s Nastia in this group. Ludmilla had told Nastia that the Matthews had arrived to adopt her but because of her mother won the appeal she must stay with her mother. Ludmilla said she cried. Breaks your heart doesn’t it?! It is almost too much to bear.

I mentioned to Joe as we were walking back to the flat today, that you almost get used to the look of poverty around you. These people know no different. Good news though!! They picked up the garbage today and the apartment stairwell doesn’t smell as if someone died recently. We actually saw a woman sweeping the stairs with a wet broom. Graham said, “Either it rained and the building leaked randomly, or the lady was mopping with a wet broom.” Our observant son!
Kathi Metcalf, you promised to lighten my days with lengthy e-mails. What’s up chic? I would actually make the trip up hill both ways to read your rambling musings if you actually sent some. In 2 days I will be living with a stranger (I wanted to say a strange woman but who knows, she may be fun!!!) and I might need some laughter! Get going homey!

Wednesday, August 6

It was cloudy and cool when we woke this morning. It rained early, then let up. It rained again in the early afternoon. Then the sun came out, the humidity rose, and we felt it.

In the morning when we went to see Kolya, we brought the DVD player. Yesterday, Kolya had borrowed one of the DVDs we had bought. Using gestures and pointing, he indicated that his group had watched WALL-E last night. Today, because it was so wet and muddy outside, we stayed inside the orphanage and watched one of the other movies on the disc. It was from one of the Scandinavian countries, either Norway or Denmark, the closing credits were not too clear on that. You could barely hear the Scandinavian diaogue. Over it, a single voice did the translation. We were able to follow the story somewhat, and Kolya enjoyed it.

After we returned to the flat at lunch time, Graham and IJoewere going to head to the internet club. But Joe received a phone call from Edward, letting us know that we had to get pictures of Kolya for his passport and Visa. So our driver, Alex, picked us up at 3 to take us to the orphanage. There, we would pick up Kolya and one of the orphanage workers, who would take us to the photographers. While we were waiting at the orphange, Alex talked with Kolya. Loyal readers may remember (if we remembered to blog) that he had promised to take us to see Kolya's village which was just outside Mariupol. So it was decided. After the photos, we would all go to see Kolya's village. Wendy was nervous. The last thing she wanted was for Kolya to see his mother. She was afraid it would bring up too many bad memories.

We went to the photographer and then headed out of town, NE by Joe's reckoning. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get there. We realized once we hit the village that they were asking Kolya for directions. As far as we knew, Kolya had not been there since he was 6 (5 years ago, for those of you not keeping count). We then realized that there were no street signs, so it would be difficult to find an address. We crossed our fingers that Kolya would remember. Knowing our kids' memories, they can barely find their way to the school they were at the day before, much less find a place they hadn't been to for 5 years.

Finally, Kolya pointed down a road, and the driver turned down it. There were some people sitting on a bench underneath a gnarled tree on the right side of the road. The driver stopped. He and the lady from the orphanage hopped out. We heard the words "Katzy" and "Kolya"bandied about. The old women on the bench stood up, with amazed looks on their faces, noding their heads. The driver motioned for Kolya to get out of the van. He did and the women hugged him and pinched him.

Then they pointed a little ways down the road. So we all got out of the van and walked that way. As they were leading us, Wendy nervously asked the orphanage lady if this was Kolya's Mama. "Nyet", she said. "Grandfather." We approached a whitewashed house with blue trim. It looked like it had recently been painted. We came around the side of the house, past a pear tree and underneath a grape arbor. The old women had now been joined by a woman who looked to be in her fifties. They started knocking on the side door and calling into the house. After a minute or 2, the door opened, and there stood an old man with a grizzled grey beard, wearing a threadbare dark suit with a red rope in place of his belt. The ladies pushed Kolya forward and started speaking rapidly. After a few dazed moments, a small smile broke out on his face as he realized who it was. During this time, we were capturing the moment on the camcorder so Kolya could remember it. Apparently, it was explained to him that we were adopting Kolya and taking him to America. He seemed happy. We were not able to verfiy the realtionships of the other people there. We had no translator with us. So we are relying on the video record to help us sort that out once we are able to show it to a translator.

As we were thus engaged, our driver was collecting pears from the tree. He presented them to Joe, who had nothing to carry them with, so he was forced to resort to making a small basket with the hem of his t-shirt.

We eventually said our farewells and headed back to the orphanage. We dropped Kolya off and Graham and Joe (that's me by the way) headed to the internet club to get our blog posted, which is what Joe is doing at this very moment.

Thanks to all for the kind words. Joe, Graham, and Elizabeth head to Kyiv tomorrow night. Joe has to pop in at the US Embassy on Friday, and then they fly back, leaving Wendy. Wendy will have a translator we have not met yet. Edward had to go home for several days. His wife was having surgery. He will be back in Mariupol in time to get Wendy and Kolya on their way. In the meantime, Wendy will have a translator named Tanya who will stay with her at the flat. Wendy wants to let people know that she may not blog regularly because the walk to the internet club is not easy in the heat and humidity.

By the way, for those at the rubber works, Joe thinks he will be back in the office next Wednesday the 13th.