Good Friday

Kevin slept in so I blogged on his computer. Then we lost power and I decided to finish getting ready. When he got up he was keen to go to Coffee Life (Coffee As Lifestyle). Just as he was gonna shower the power came back on. Yay! We were at the coffee shop from 11:00 to about 12:30. We left after they lost power. The Wi-Fi still worked but there was an annoying beep from one of their contraptions. Besides, I was done on line and was just playing Freecell. We had some lunch at the apartment and hung around until I left for the orphanage. Kevin was so sweet and said, "I'm really glad you only go for a couple of hours."

I decided to get off the bus one stop early so I wouldn't have to fight with the driver. I stopped in at Rainford (market) and put 100 grivna on Kevin's modem. I saw Alina and Marcia in the courtyard, but no Kai. I went inside but couldn't find anyone. I decided to sit outside and wait. I was praying for the kids when Jessica arrived. We hadn't had 2 minutes of conversation when Kai tried to sneak up behind me. He was so excited to see me, however, that he couldn't keep quiet and I heard him a mile away. He said he had been practicing a rap song with his friend Sasha, the one who could Cossack dance a little. He explained that he had written a song about his mom dying and being in an orphanage and how God sent him a new family from America. He said some of the lyrics to Jessica who was impressed, saying they rhyme and everything. I wanted to do a video recording of them doing the song. Kai said he needed the soundtrack and that they had not memorized the whole thing yet, and so needed to look at the words.

We went inside but it was decided that we would do the video later for some reason. There was a puppet show performance that I would have liked to see, but the boys wanted to eat, so we all went to Rainford and shopped. Today the menu included 2 loaves of bread (one garlic bread), string cheese, sausages, beet flavored mayo, horseradish and beet spread, super hot mustard, 2 kinds of cookies, chips, Spider Man cheese puffs, green soda and 2 kinds of nasty dried fish or squid things. I told Kai that this will not be the way we eat in America. He said we would eat bananas. Jessica and I each got one of those cheesecake little treats, too. At the checkout, Jessica asked the boys what are they gonna do when we leave. Without missing a beat, they said "Cry!" I said, me too.

Anya was in the classroom and made tea. We sat around and ate for about an hour. It was quite fun. Sandwiches were made and the various spreads were sampled. It was determined that the horseradish and beet spreads were wimpy. But the hot mustard was as hot as you get in a Chinese restaurant and the kids were putting it on their bread until they were crying and sweating and laughing. Andrei had to leave the room after eating nearly a teaspoonful. He was hysterical!

I had moved on to the cookies which, by the way, are very good here. But Kai broke out the calamari stuff. I told him I would not even try it, but he pressed Jessica to give it a go. She hesitated for quite a while, the smell alone was a deterrent. A small nibble was all she could muster and eventually had to wash her hands again to get the smell off them. Kai, however, relished the little nasties and said that Kevin would like them. I had to agree. Kevin eats anything. I found out that Ludwig's last name is Calamari and that he is so dark because he is gypsy. He is also only 14 and his birthday is April 19th. He is one totally sweet kid, usually the first one to spot me when I arrive. He prefers to hang around me and Jessica even after the others run off, and watches to see if he can get me a chair or carry a bag for me or help me in any way.

I wanted to make plans for the weekend so the boys wouldn't take off when Kevin showed up on Saturday. We decided that we would come around 2:15 or so, just after they get lunch, and if it was nice we'd go out and play soccer or something. If it was not, we'd play games inside. Then we'd go to the store and get food and eat for a long time. I said that Kevin will make a big bunch of ham salad and bring it. They were very excited about that.

Once everyone was full of food and sugar, they wanted to go outside and run around. We cleaned up and Kai put on the rollerblades. These rollerblades are the cheap plastic kind with wheels that don't turn easily. They were cracked and broken and the straps don't stay closed, but he was happy to use them and skated all around the courtyard. At about 5:30 Kevin called. I said I was just fixing to come home, but he said he realized that he had the day off today because it was Good Friday. He couldn't figure why none of his co-workers were on line (the slackers) until he gathered it was a holiday. He wanted to hop the bus and come to the orphanage so I said hurry up if you want to.

Jessica had made plans to give a girl an English lesson at 7:00 after I left, but decided to do it while we waited for Kevin to show up. Kai seemed nervous about us being there so late, because there was nothing for us to do. I told him to not worry about us and go play with your friends. They were all out in the playground area, just hanging around. Marcia and Alina were there, too. I sat on a tire and watched from afar, and then decided to walk around. After a couple laps around the buildings, I went to the bus stop to wait for Kevin. He called after getting off a few stops early. I said I would walk toward him and meet him, but he decided to get back on the bus. It costs only 2 grivna, about 25 cents. He was there in no time, and we went back to the orphanage. I gave Jessica her phone back and Kai came to give Kevin a hug. The kids were running around playing a game like Kick the Can, using sticks to represent those who were captured. If you could out run the kid who was "it" and kick apart the pile of sticks, those who were captured can go free. If not, you were captured.

There really isn't anything to do around the area of the orphanage and Jessica and I were pooped out from the afternoon with the kids, so we decided to call it a day and meet tomorrow. Kevin and I got off the bus at the Comfy and we bought a couple of beers, toothbrushes, more ham and an onion to make ham salad, and hair color for my increasingly gray roots. It is very tricky buying hair color when you can't read the box. I made as good a guess as I could and hoped for the best. We pretended we were Ukrainians and walked home drinking our beer. It seemed really odd to me, but we certainly fit right in.

Back at home I decided to go ahead and put my filthy white parka in the laundry. I had been concerned that it would not be dry in time for me to use it the next day, but the kids were making comments about it daily. When the washer was done, Kevin (my McGyver) hung it up and put the space heater on next to it. In the morning it was dry and beautiful again!

We watched a little TV and went to bed around 10:30. It was good for Kevin to get to bed at a decent hour for once.