Monday, Monday

Monday dawned cloudy and with a little drizzle. We spent 2 hours at the Coffee Life (Coffee As Lifestyle) and changed another $50 into grivnas. I cleaned the apartment (where does all this dirt come from?) and went to the corner grocery for water and a treat for Kai. I opted for a large bar of sunflower seeds held together by sugar. Victor had said it was good so I got one for Kai and one for Kevin.

The cab arrived for me just before 3:00 and it was Vladimir this time. He seemed to have heard about Leonid and his baby in the cab, but he still thinks I can understand Russian and chats away to me. I said, in Russian, that I would like to be picked up at 6:30. I didn't know the word for 30 and he taught me that it's pronounced treet-sit. It's fun to say shaste-treet-sit, which means 6:30. However, around here they tend to use military time so it's really vosim-nat-sit-treet-sit, 18:30.

Kai saw me as soon as I arrived. I told him that Jessica was in the classroom for 1st grade. He didn't quite get it, although he knows the word classroom. We wandered around and asked people if they'd seen Jessica. He finally took me to the other building and there she was, right where she said she'd be, stringing beads with the little kids. It looked like fun, but Kai wanted me to come with him and his friends to a playground far off campus. He thought I'd be bored without Jessica there, but I said I'd be fine. The day had cleared up, it was partly sunny, and probably 50 degrees or more.

All the older boys came; Vitaly, Daniel, Sasha, Lyoutic, Max, Andrei as well as Anya, their counsellor. We walked about 3/4 of a mile to the park. Vitaly was into playing with a hand-held video game thing and was antisocial all day. He sat with his toy in a swing and I began to push him, like he was my baby. The boys laughed at the joke and Vitaly jumped off the swing. The others, except for Lyoutic, too, all ran around on the apparatus playing sort of tag. I took some video with my new camera. I played it back for Kai as he ate and shared his sunflower seed bar with the others. The snack seemed to have energized the kids and they ran around again. A Ukrainian girl, about 7 years old, sat next to me on my bench swing. I seemed to interest her, so I told her, in Russian, that I am an American and that I speak English. Her eyes got wide and she was at a loss for what to say. A boy, somewhat younger than her, joined us and she explained to him what I had said. She tried to tell me something but I said, I'm sorry, I don't understand Russian. So, we swung back and forth and smiled at each other until their moms called for them.

It was around 4:30 when the kids decided they'd had enough. I stated, in Russian, that I wanted to buy a deck of cards. Vitaly and Daniel took off to a nearby kiosk apparently to see if they had any there to buy. They returned to say that there were cards for sale but didn't know if they were any good or not, perhaps concerned that they were not good enough for me. Anya gave permission for me to take Vitale, Daniel and Kai across the street to buy the cards. They cost 5 grivna, about 75 cents. They were cheap, but better that the deck that we'd been using.

We continued walking back to the orphanage on the opposite side of the street as Anya and the other boys. Occaisionally they would yell to each other across the street. When we got to the supermarket, I asked the boys, in Russian, if they would like to buy something to eat in the store. Well, duh. Anya said okay, and we went shopping again. We got bread, mayo, chips, water, juice, and gum. I probably spent $4.00. It's easy to be a Sugar Momma here.

Back at the classroom, Jessica met us and we started a game of cards. Sasha, Lyoutic, Daniel, and I played. Vitaly stayed with his stupid gameboy thing. I had asked Vitaly if he had a mom or a dad. He said he had a mom. Kai said he was 16. His mom obviously can't take care of him because it is Spring Break and he's stuck at the orphanage. We played cards and soon Kai took over my hand, and Jessica took Sasha's hand. The kids are getting really good at the game, but Lyoutic was over-bidding himself into the negative like crazy. He kept saying he was making a come-back and never gave up.

Today Kai shared his food while we played. We had tea and cookies, and he offered his 2 bags of chips, as well. It was quite the party and there was much joking and laughing. It was great that Jessica was there because she could translate for us. They laughed when I would say "Perfect", when Kai was doing well in the game. We deduced that "perfect" sounds like the Russian word for "professional". They thought I was saying Kai was like a professional card player. Later, I was telling Jessica that the buzzer to get into the apartment didn'y work. I guess buzz, or buzzer sounds like some Russian word that is perhaps a cuss word, or something dirty. Jessica was not aware of the Russian cuss word. She's not that kind of girl.

6:30 rolled around all too soon and we had to wrap it up. Kai was very concerned that the PlayStation 2 that they had was broken. He wanted me to buy them a new one. He said they cost 100 grivna, about $12.50 or so. I said that I would ask Kevin. We made plans for me to come back the next day at 3:00 but on Wednesday, he asked that I would come at 1:00 because the step-dad dude was supposed to come then to visit and meet me.

Vladimir was outside waiting for us and we dropped Jessica off at her apartment. Chatty Vlad wanted to know what Kai's name was. He said Kai was not a Russian name, so I said Artem Nikolyenko. He understood that. Then I said Kai was his American name, and enumerated Kim, Kevin, and sistra (sister) Kelly. He got the whole "K" thing. He liked the name Kelly and asked how old Kai and Kelly were. I was able to say 15 and 19 in Russian. Am I cool or what? We arranged for 3:00 the next day and I was home.

Kevin was plugging away at work and would not be interrupted. I had some cheese and crackers downloaded pictures from my camera. For some reason the video only downloaded as one still picture. It shows a "movie" boarder on the icon, but will only play as a still. Once down-loaded from the memory card, the pictures are erased automatically. So, if I can't figure this out, the video is lost. Any suggestions, anybody? I'm really new to this stuff.

Kevin pried himself off the computer at 10:30 and we watched Bones and went to sleep.