Day 14

Hold Breath. Okay, exhale.

Rest day. Olga was at the paperwork early. She was hoping to see the judge today to get our court day set. She needs to return to Kiev for classes she is taking on the weekends.

Rolan and I slept in. Tanya had more doctors to see. I munched on our provision stash of bread, hard boiled eggs, cheese and an orange. A European continental breakfast. At 10:30, Olga returned with Tanya in tow. She said the other hotel called. Our room is ready. She took Tanya and went out for more paperwork. Hi Tanya! Bye Tanya! We packed. Per Olga’s instructions, the clerk called us a taxi. Our driver Igor, made the mistake of using his only English phrase on us. “Where do you live?” he asked Rolan, then he could neither understand nor speak another work of English. The attempt however, was charming.

Settled into our new old digs, we connected with Olga and discovered she was with Tanya at . . . guess where? The pizza place! Yes, we could come. Trolley to town. Tanya had already ordered and downed a bowl of borshch and was ready to have another. I was ready for something other than pizza. I ordered a baked chicken and veggie thing and a Coke Light. Hey, the Coke here is fabulous. They use beet sugar so there is no gritty teeth feeling or yucky aftertaste.

Olga was still trying to reach the judge. Lots of conversation. Time goes quickly. Almost time for school to get out. Our chance to visit the girls.
Tanya is chatting away to Olga. What is she talking about? Olga says she is just talking. Then she says Tanya is “kind of wild.”

“Wild?”

Like, drinkin’-smokin’-piercin’-tatooin’ “wild”?

She sure didn’t strike me that way. No time to ask for clarification. Olga gets a call from the judge. Can’t see Olga today, judge says, but must wait till Monday. This is kind of a bummer because that means Olga will need to take the train back here on Sunday night just for that meeting and then take the train back to Kiev Monday evening as her work here will be finished until our court day. The court date won’t be till the following week. We won’t need her between times. Bummer for Olga but good for us because we are getting a new credit card hand delivered from missionary friends of Becky’s who are flying into Kiev this weekend. We had the bank mail it to them in the states before they left. They can get it to Olga Sunday eve and Olga will bring it with her when she comes on the night train. See what a small world this really is? (Actually, more like Gods Grace!)

Lunch over, Tanya, Rolan and I padded around the mini-mall for a bit to replace a broken shoe lace, get some more yarn and see if we could find a cheap hot pot. It would be good to have hot water at our disposal for tea, soup and other instant meals. Could ask the clerk but it gets old.

Bid Tanya farewell and headed again for the orphanage for our daily visit. I’m actually sorry we don’t get swarmed with kids when we come. Sasha hunts us down and takes us to a special room where we get a fairly private visit. Sometimes 2 or 3 others join or are enticed to join us by the offer of candy. “Come on, it’s okay.” We share our ‘koo pah choops’ (lollipops) or whatever other candy we brought. They sit close craving affection. Yes, it is that heartbreaking.

This orphanage, for some reason, hasn’t seen many foreign adoptions. We sent Sasha and Nastia home this summer with thick photo albums. Nikolai, the director, shared them with all the adult workers there. Everyone knows us! In some orphanages, you can’t take the kids off the orphanage grounds but they haven’t had problems with us doing that here. It’s nice to get the girls away from the orphanage and take them out for pizza or allow them to shower here at the hotel or just go to a market for some cheese and apples.

There is a little convenience store between the orphanage and the trolley we catch to get back to the hotel. We have gotten into the habit of stopping in to get some more cheese, water or whatever. The young clerk behind the counter likes to tease Rolan and is patient (and no doubt slightly amused) with our attempts at communication. She picked out an excellent salami for us. Most are primarily fat globs with a little meat mixed in. Not this one.

Not mastered public transport yet. You can stand at a stop for a few minutes and busses, mini-busses and trolleys stop by. The price seemed to be the only difference to us. Nope. Hopped on a little bus that costs a bit more and zoomed right past our hotel! Had to take a trolley to get back to the hotel. Olga had been studying there all afternoon and clarified the problem. The little busses cost more because you can tell them were to stop. Ah.

Okay, now for the big question.

Ahem.

“Okay Olga,” I said. “”What did you mean when you said ‘Tanya is wild’?”

She chuckled in her Olga way and said that Tanya sometimes tells too much about herself or jokes too much at the wrong time.

“Oh.” The color returned to my face.

Dinner at the hotel restaurant. Nice atmosphere. Very slow service. Salmon was undercooked. We were seated in a ‘no smoking’ area. Karaoke but we could have a conversation without shouting. They were out of fresh veggies. The red wine from Georgia was fabulous. You win some, you lose some.