Day 20

The day the world melted.

Woke tired and took a nap after breakfast. It was helpful to remember we are on vacation.

English teacher Anya called from school around noon to tell us the girls have a concert at 4pm and could we come and pick them up soon for the day?
Oh, all right. We will cancel the committee meetings, the important conference calls and lunch with the president to see our little darlings!

Still in our sleepy stupor, we gathered ourselves together and crossed the street to catch the trolley. It had been raining all morning. The outside world was a sopping mess! I wanted to flag down the trolley and yet not get too close to the street to get sprayed with the small lake of water in front of us. The 6 inches of snow was being quickly removed by a slight to moderate rain.

The trolley saw us and stopped but it was in vain. It was packed to the gills. The doors opened but I don’t know how. There wasn’t room for another single skinny body. Okay, head cold and laziness aside, we will walk the half mile to the internot. Rolan’s boots weren’t as waterproof as we hoped but they were never intended to forge the rivulets we crossed on our way. Surely they must sell waterproof here in Slavyansk somewhere. How do you say “Mink Oil” in Russian?

Tanya met us in the school foyer. There is such a beautiful mural in the entry to their school of a small house in a wood with a creek running next to it. We were waiting for the girls and watching people bring stuff in for the concert which we quickly learned was actually a circus. Nastia’s class came out with the teacher and the director’s wonderful assistant, Illiona. The class sort of clustered around us and asked questions in English. “What is your name?” “My name is Freya.” I started to point to the individual children and asked them their names. I felt their excitement as they discovered they could communicate with someone else in another language. When the game started to get old, the teacher lined the children up and we left in a taxi for the clothing store.

I was hoping for something larger than what we found. The biggest one store we have seen here so far, is the market on the edge of town that is just a bit bigger than a regular Seven-Eleven. Other stores are tiny stores inside a bigger building. This one was self contained but was two rooms about 10x10 with children’s clothing. Again, priced quite high.

The clerk picked out two coats. Both a practical down to keep the girls warm on the coldest day. Nastia’s is a dark, purple-gray color and Sasha’s a blatant gold. I keep teasing Nastia now, asking her if she is cold.

Oh, because we are using this satellite internet, it’s always available to us but very slow going downloading photos so we are just putting them into our photo album. Click the icon on the left side of our blog ‘Picasa’. Please keep commenting but we will have to wait for a better connection to read them! Thank you.

After our coat purchase we went to a little café that caught the girls eyes but hasn’t been open at the right time. Café Sokol. We were the only ones there. Lunch took awhile anyway but everything was delicious. It was a nice change from our pizza place. I discovered a hamburger hangout that we should try too. Okay! Alright! Yes, I miss hamburgers! I can see why many of our dear fellow travelers to this country resort to the likes of McDonalds. We are just lucky Slavyansk doesn’t have one. I stopped short of buying a hamburger a few days ago at the super market. It was a fully cooked patty with bun, cheese and pickle sitting cold behind a deli glass. I just couldn’t do it.

Anyway, lunch done, we caught a cab back up to the hotel for fresh camera batteries and up to the internot for the circus. We were ushered into Nastia’s class already in session. They were reciting something but stopped for a quick English lesson. We sat in the back. Nastia showed she could count to 20 (that’s my girl!). They recited the months and the greeting we heard earlier in the school foyer.

Over all, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the classrooms and general upkeep of the internot. The buildings remind me of old inner-city high schools. The rooms are vacant of most furniture. The floors are clean as are the walls. No peeling paint or broken glass. I noticed new lacy curtains on all the windows and plants on all the window sills. The buildings are not any worse off than many of the buildings in town. The school and internot are detached. They are each 4 or 5 stories high and the stairs, though made of stone or cement, are chipped and worn where thousands of feet have given them cause for repair. The rebar shows but not yet a danger. Nastia’s classroom had a comfortable feel. I liked it. Everyone we see obviously cares deeply for the children and gives them positive attention. When we rose to join the kids for the circus in the school auditorium, several girls were fighting to hold my hands. I asked Sasha and Nastia if they could share their Mom for the day. They were fine with that. We ascended several flights. The auditorium wasn’t large but it was big enough. It was colorfully decorated with hand-made flags strung across the ceiling. The children sang to recorded music as they waited for each class to arrive and be seated. The girls on either side of me snuggled close.
The curtains opened. There in the middle of the stage was one of the oldest men I had seen yet in Slavyansk. He looked to me to be about 70 if not more. He was slender with long, shoulder-length hair. He became animated talking and joking with the kids. There were several things on stage all intended to be used for magic tricks. I recognized some of his magic tricks as stuff my brothers did in Boy Scouts but there was one thing he did that was amazing to me. He balanced himself on his head. First on a single hand moving his legs in the air like a true gymnast, then sticking his head in a padded cup, he did the same without hands. The kids were thrilled and entertained the entire 40 minutes. What a great gift.

The teacher said we could keep the girls until 8 this evening. It’s hard to feed the girls with access to just the hotel room. Sasha and Rolan were sent to the market. Ukraine has some great cup-a-soups, cheese, butter. We will have to be careful not to try and feed them real meals here. Rolan and I aren’t eating that well. They will probably get better meals at the internot but one evening won’t hurt them.

Nastia asked me if she could take a shower. After a few minutes I went in to see if she needed help and discovered she was washing plastic cups and plates. Okay. In her hand I noticed some paper but she was trying to hide it from me. It was toilet paper. She had rolled it off the existing roll. “Please,” Nastia said. I got down on her level and told her she didn’t need to be afraid to ask me for the things she needs. The brief glimpse I got of the orphanage bathroom made me wonder where the girls get paper. This was another moment I had to hide my tear filled eyes.
We’ll put toilet paper on the shopping list.

(Rolan)
It is heartbreaking to see the little kids at the internot. One girl whom I have played with before, Dasha I think, grabbed my hand as we walked through the halls. I squeezed her hand, she squeezed mine. She sat by me during the circus. A small boy sat on my other side. During the circus, I made sure I touched them, and let them know they are loveable. Some of the older kids become sarcastic, unpleasant, teens. But other older kids are just like the younger ones. They badly want a family, and they would work very hard to fit in. Of course, this call goes out to others who care as much as we do. But if you can possibly do it, rescue some children. Make a difference to a few.