Saturday Again

We returned from the cafe, had a little bit of lunch, and went shopping. Kevin has been having trouble getting any Skype or similar program to work on his computer. Either they can't hear him or he can't hear them or something. He said he needed a microphone, so we walked to the Comfy and went into the electronics store. We wandered around cluelessly for a bit and I figured out what to say in Russian to ask for help. I figured microphone was probably microphone in Russian, too, just with some Russian accent added to it. I approached a salesman and asked in Russian if he spoke English. He said yes and I said Hallelujah! They only had headset/microphone combos so we bought one for 79 grivna ($10) and put it on my credit card. I don't know if that was stupid or not, but it felt good to use plastic for once.

Kevin also is in need of some sneakers. The ones he's been using were Robbie's and they're falling apart. We looked in the Adidas/Puma/Nike store upstairs and the sneakers were $100 or more. So we walked about a mile to the mall on Lenin St. and looked in about 8 shoe stores. No better luck there. Shoes are wicked expensive here. Kevin was not about to pay that much for sneakers, so we headed back down toward the river to find the bus that we needed to take to the orphanage.

It was our first solo attempt to get to the orphanage on the bus, and although Jessica explained it clearly, I was just a tiny bit nervous. A number 54 bus came and we got on. We found seats, too! As we rode I peered out the window for anything familiar. To my joy, the first thing I recognized was the McDonalds where we are planning to meet the boys on Sunday for the trip to the Island. That means we can hop on the bus right by our apartment and get there easily! Yay.

Eventually I recognized Mordor and the Mountains of Zapporhyzia. The factory area, with the multitude of smoke stacks either belching clouds of black smoke or great flames of fire, has been christened Mordor by a friend of Jessica's. It is quite apt. The all-seeing, lidless eye never sleeps. The "mountains", we figure, are great piles of factory waste, bigger than Mount Trashmore in VA Beach and probably just as toxic. The bus was passing through this area from another direction, but I soon knew exactly where we were. After I saw the Silko store, the bus turned right and we stood up to disembark. The driver asked where we'd like to get off and I said this is okay (not really knowing one stop from another). I was reaching for my phone to call Jessica, but decided I knew where we were and we headed toward the orphanage. We hadn't taken 5 paces when Jessica appeared behind us. She was walking to the orphanage and saw us get off the bus! How's that for timing?

The kids were outside hanging out. Kai was all excited and very animated. I told Kevin that was because of him. I am old news, he's the attraction. Jessica left to find the 7th graders. One kid was having a birthday and she had made a cake. Kai went inside to get ping pong paddles and brought them out to the table to play. The paddles are made by the kids and Kai showed me one that he said he made and decorated with his drawings. It was by far the best one. The table is made entirely of metal and painted blue. Kevin played a little and the kids took turns playing as we sat on the bench and watched. I think all kids like it when people watch them.

Today we were joined by Alina. This changed the entire dynamic of the group. Alina was very physical with the boys and the hitting, pushing, chasing, and hair-pulling was nearly incessant. She dishes it out and takes it. It was more than annoying to me and I was concerned that this behavior was pretty inappropriate. If kids played like this in an American school, they'd be expelled. I explained this to the kids, using the word "police" and acting out being handcuffed. They understood, but the antics persisted.

After a while, Kai said we could go to the store now. Daniel and Ludwig and Alina came with us. I showed Kevin the little machine there where Jessica purchased minutes for her phone the day before. I told him he can buy more bytes for his modem there. So, he did. We bought bread, sausage, mayo, candy, tea, cookies, chips, and ice cream bars for everyone.

Back in the classroom, everyone ate their ice cream, and 2 games were set up while Kai commenced to make sandwiches. Kevin and Jessica played Rummikub with Vitaly and Andrei. I played cards with Ludwig, Daniel and Alina. I don't know where Sasha was. Alina didn't know how to play but she caught on eventually. Unfortunately, the hitting continued and I had to tell them to cut it out a few times. Kai served everyone sandwiches, made me tea, and then served the cookies. He was the perfect host and I had Jessica tell him how pleased I was at how he behaved. He cleaned up and everyone was tired of playing at about the same time. A couple of kids went up to try to get on the computer and Kai said he'd like to do that, too. So, we helped put the room back in order and talked with him about plans for tomorrow. This ended up being kind of fun, so we just stood around talking with the remaining kids for a while. I guess the computer was unavailable until 7:00 so we all went outside to walk around for a bit.

We walked around the building and out to the playground area. There are some monkey bars and arrays of painted tires embedded in the ground. Kai showed off his prowess on the apparatus while the rough play with Alina continued. It was about 5:40 and Kevin decided it was time to leave. We said our good-byes and I charged Kai to not hit Alina. He said okay and we left. We got some cigars at the Silko and caught a number 14 bus right outside.

Kevin wanted to go out on a "date" and have some dinner. On the bus, we talked about where we should go. After a couple of stops, 2 young men got on and grabbed my attention because something was wierdly familiar about how they were dressed. They were 2 clean-cut, well-dressed men in their early 20's. They both wore black pants, white collared shirt, tie, v-neck sweater and a Russian nametag. One carried a leather bound book. I turned to Kevin and I said, "They look like Mormons!" He said yeah and we talked about other things. Shortly thereafter, one of them said he heard us speaking English and asked where we were from. It's so surprising to hear English in a public place. After explaining what we were doing in Zapporhyzia, I asked the same of them. They said they were here as missionaries. I asked what agency they are with and they said the Church of the Latter Day Saints, you would know as Mormans. HA! What did I say! We chatted about the area and the people and they got off the bus at the McDonalds. Too funny!

We decided to go back to the apartment and rest and clean up before going out on our date. We didn't stand up soon enough to get the driver to stop at our apartment so we got off one stop down and walked back. It wasn't far. Kevin started messing with the headset/microphone on his computer and he Skyped Nancy Kravitz. She could hear us but we couldn't hear her. Kevin wanted me to talk to her for a while, so I talked and she typed. She said she felt like a mute. It was good to communicate, but I would have liked to have heard her voice.

I got cleaned up and put on my nicest clothes. We decided to go to the same restaurant that Jessica and I had gone to the night before. The place was more busy, with 3 large parties having dinner. We got a table and ordered drinks. We both got salads, which were fabulous, and I ordered the same chicken dish that Jessica had, while Kevin got lamb shishkabab (shashlik). The old dude played his guitar thing and the people at the various tables joined in singing. It was all very merry. I forgot to bring the cash I had and Kevin was pretty low. Good thing they take plastic. We charged it on my MasterCard but the young waiter panicked again. It seems you can't put the tip on the credit card in the Ukraine. Well, no problem, except now you're not getting the 20 percent tip because Kevin doesn't have that much cash. He still had enough to make it a good tip, however.

We were pretty tired so no TV tonight. Big day tomorrow.