The Donation

I got up early again and was ready to leave by 8:30. Victor and I left Kevin at home and went to the bus for the orphanage. About a third of the way there, Victor discovered he'd forgotten his cell phone. He might as well have forgotten his right arm. There was no way he could be without it. There was nothing to do but get off the bus, cross the street, get on a bus back to the apartment, and pray that Kevin wasn't in the shower when we got there. Kevin let us in, we retrieved the phone, and I stupidly decided not to grab my parka while I had the chance. I thought it might warm up but the day ended up being cold, grey, and very windy. I was cold most of the day.

We were at the orphanage by 10:00 and Nonna told Kai I was there so I got to give him a hug. Victor and I left with an elderly woman by the name of Zhenya who was in charge of all the equipment and supplies in the orphanage. We took 2 buses to get to a store that sold tools and lawn mowers and hardware. The orphanage apparently needs many new doors. The shop teacher priced them and found the cost out of reach. He determined that, with a circular table saw, he could manufacture or repair doors for the orphanage at a fraction of the cost. They had shopped and haggled already and the saw was being held until the 10th. They even discounted the price a little and I was able to purchase it with my MasterCard, which was really good for us. The price came to 5000 grivna, about $650. Then we waited over a half hour for transportation. It seems delivery is immediate, but you have to wait for a driver to show up. While we waited, we chatted a bit. Zhenya and I hit it off from the start. She said she was 70 years old and I said my mother was 70 as well. She is not a teacher, but she knows all the children. I asked for the inside scoop on Kai and she said he was a firecracker. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. As we continued to wait, I said I needed to exchange some money, so Victor and I left to do just that. We found an open bank and I changed $200. At the bank, Victor showed me a flyer advertising 25% interest for your savings account. What do you think of that?

When we got back, the truck was there. They loaded the table saw onto it and there was only room for 2 people in the cab with the driver. Zhenya and I got in and Victor went to find a bus back to the orphanage. Zhenya and the driver chatted the whole way and I tried to keep my leg out of the way of his stick shift. The drive took a long time because he drove so slowly over all the pot holes.

At the orphanage, he backed the truck up to the building where the new kitchen is. Zhenya left to find someone to help unload the saw (it was quite heavy). While I waited, I said "Skoylka" to the driver, which means "how much?" He wrote 80 in the dirt on the back of the truck and I paid him 80 grivna, about $10. Soon, Kai arrived and he drummed up 2 guys who helped him carry the saw into the building. One of the men produced a key and unlocked the door to the shop department. They put it on a bench and marveled at it. The testosterone was flowing and the guys were obviously excited about this incredible power tool. Kai beamed with pride, telling all who we came into contact with that his mama bought a big saw for the orphanage and it is totally "classna" which means cool.

I was about to fall off my twig by then because I hadn't had anything to eat, or even a cup of tea so far. Victor arrived and we got permission to take Kai to lunch. We hopped on the tram (one grivna) to the Horseshoe restaurant that we went to after court and had lunch. Victor ordered for me crab salad, a meatball soup, and a pork cutlet with dilled potatoes. It was all delicious. Kai ate a ton of food, as usual, and then got ice cream. The meal, for the 3 of us, with tip, cost about $15.

Victor had arranged to meet Marina at 2:00 to run around and show her the court, the passport place, the Office of Vital Statistics, and the notary office so she would know exactly what to do with us after our wait was over. Kai and I walked back to the orphanage. He was tired again today and had said he wasn't sleeping much at night. He was vague as to why. He told me at least 3 times this day that he wanted to go home to America. He expressed impatience about the 10 day wait, particularly about it being nearly 2 weeks in actuality. I said, "me, too".

Victor had given me his modem the night before so while I was hanging out at the orphanage I could perhaps get caught up on my blog. Back in Kai's classroom, I logged on to the internet and became the focus of much attention. Two boys who I had not met hopped onto their Facebook pages and we spent the better part of an hour trying to download their favorite videos. The modem was slow and so the videos took forever to play. It was very tedious, but everyone was enthralled with it, so I sat and just watched. Their favorite video was a rap song about Zapporhysia, followed by a clip from Schrek. Then we had to see the one about the college boys throwing the colored ping pong balls into cups from all kinds of improbable angles, and the one where they make a staircase into piano keys and people stop taking the escalator. It was interesting to see how the boys dealt with the English keyboard, searching for characters that resembled the Russian ones. I'm not sure how that works.

Kai was itching to get to the store and buy food today. I was reluctant to leave my computer unsupervised so we packed it up and went to Rainford. Only the internet kid came with us, Jessica, too. We got the usual food but instead of having the usual party, Kai packed it all away for that evening in his room. I think there were just too many kids around and he wanted to keep it for his friends. It was only after 4:30 and I was feeling pretty beat. Jessica had a piano lesson but we really needed to nail down the plans for the weekend. Jessica, Nonna, Anya and I worked out that there was no way we could take the whole class bowling. It would just be too expensive. Anya was scheduled to work Saturday so it was decided Kai would pick 5 friends and we would go Saturday afternoon about 3:00 or 3:30. Jessica was not sure she could come, having made tentitive plans with the 5th graders to go to Cossack Island, but I thought perhaps I could ask Marina. Kai chose Vitaly, Ludwig, Daniel, Andrei and his best friend Sergei who I had not met to go on the bowling trip. Sergi hadn't been around because he has family to go home to during vacation. I was glad that we'd be able to do something special with him.

Jessica went to teach and Kai walked me out to the gate. I said I wouldn't see him until Saturday and he seemed sad about that. I got the bus and was home before 5:30. Victor was packing up to catch the train back to Kyiv. I fell asleep and Victor left. I was tired and chilled and my stomach hurt so I curled up on the couch with a blankie and watched a movie. Afterwards, Kevin and I watched a crossing Jordan episode and I went to bed by 11:00. Kevin stayed up until 12:00 but I didn't even hear him come in. I was wiped out.