Day 28

Breakfast served by Kate. She speaks English. Eileen bought some loose leaf tea by mistake and wanted to have it served to us in a pot. Kate was accommodating. We blessed Kate with the whole box trying to explain that it would be great to have for the next 10 mornings. Wonder if we will get it tomorrow.
Washed a lot of socks.

Tanya arrived. We went shopping for food. We took a trolley to the market. There wasn’t the usual money taker and we couldn’t figure out whom to give the money to. Free today! We saw a book store before food shopping, and bought Tanya two cookbooks. It seems like a fitting gift for a girl who loves to cook. Now she can take the traditional and classic foods of Ukraine with her to her new life, and I won’t benefit at all. Purely a selfless act of generosity on my part. I’m glad you agree.

We bought a lot of food at the market. They had some instant soup we had been looking for as well as a small cutting board to slice the much loved cucumbers and salamis. Ah Pringles ,(a replacement for the hamburger). Living in a hotel, we’re eating obscene amounts of instant foods. We generate so much trash that the hotel clerks have taken up leaving us our daily trash bag when they remove our full ones each day. We had so much to carry today, we took a taxi to the hotel. Having packed away the munchies, at 2:00, I went to get the girls. They were not done with school, so I had to wait a few minutes. Other kids came out, wanted to practice their English. “Hello, my name is Maria.” We walked back toward the hotel. We walked with some kids that Sasha and Nastiya knew. They had a guardian that was taking them into town. Tanya was gone by the time I got back. We played card games, watched ‘Mary Poppins’ and munched.