Sunday Aug. 17th

Hello from Donetsk. What a day we had on Friday. You would have thought Joe was with us from his blog entry! Yesterday Kolya and I vegged out in the very hot hotel room and took well deserved naps. But in the morning we went to the open market which in American terms is a flea market. It sells food and clothing and anything else you can imagine. There I bought Kolya a belt as he has not changed a size since we last saw him 17 months ago. The kid is 11 yrs old and wears a size 7-8! I bought him size 10-12 and the army pants I bought him fell straight to the ground. So I get the belt for 15 Grivnas ($3) and now he wont wear the pants. (the computer is freaking out right now so excuse the lack of punctuation). I guess he doesnt want to deal with the belt. I also purchased 2 pirated DVDs for $10, one Simpsons and one Sponge Bob. He watched the entire Sponge Bob DVD, front and back, in 8 hours yesterday. Today he is on to the Simpsons. He is absolutely loves the Leapster and takes that everywhere he goes. It is a life saver!
Dan and Joyce and another couple from Indiana are staying in the same hotel and it is so therapeutic to talk with them. The hotel we are staying in is called Liverpool and it tries very hard to be English. It is as close as we can get. The rooms have air conditioning but it doesnt work. It is about 100 degrees here and the rooms are like saunas. It does have a free breakfast and Kolya has ordered boiled chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers and a pastry both days. I choke down a rubber egg and eat tomatoes then have peanut butter at 10 am in the room. They do have a cafeteria on the main level but the food looks like someone regurgitated it. No wonder everyone here is thin! They sweat like pigs and eat disusting food! Kolya is eating as if he has never eaten a day in his life. Hopefully he will grow up and fill out the 10-12 pants soon enough.
Dan and Joyce took four giggling girls down to Mariupol yesterday to the Extreme Park, McDonalds, to get her ears pierced and to swim in the sea. I never went to the sea because the water is the nastiest water and only goes up to your knees for miles. I think those girls will be glowing in the dark at night. The factories dump stuff in that water, I am sure of it! Joyce is worried her little girls ears will be infected today. I agree. They are madly in love with Nastia # 2 and plan to call their girls Anna and Hannah. Yes folks, they will be proud parents of 2 hormonal girls. Valentin told them it is his mission in life to get the Matthews Nastia #1 and Ludmilla has said she will do anything to help the Matthews adopt her. Oh by the way Denver group, Ksenyia did not get her Visa and is back at her job. She must wait 2 months and try to apply again. The Ukraine does not easily let their young women out of the country.
The Matthews and Parishs are taking a day off from visiting their girls and are now at the flea market. Another American couple was sent to the same orphanage and are here in Donetsk and we are all planning on having dinner tonight together. We found a restaurant across the street that has English menus as well as Russian. We point to what we want and Kolya orders in his fluent Russian. Last night we ordered, ate and I thought we were done when here comes a big bowl of ice cream! Apparently he ordered dessert when he ordered his meal! What a clever boy!
The plan from here on out is Monday I get his passport in one hour for a bribe of $450. (If you do the math, ten days in a hotel at $70 per day, this is a bargain). We will then fly to Kyiv Monday evening and maybe get to the US Embassey. If not Monday then Tuesday. I figure we will have our exit papers by Wednesday and I am booking our freedom flight for Thursday morning. So I hope we will be on American soil Thursday evening. And Joe, if it is over 85 degrees in Littleton, the airconditioning had better be on full blast!!
I will be calling Joe everyday and he will blog the rest of our adventure out of here. I cant wait to see all of you, and Kolya and I thank the Gates group for all the gifts you have given him! You are very kind and this little boy deserves a little kindness in his life at this point. He will think it is New Years or his birthday! (See previous blogs regarding Christmas vs New Years).