We changed apartments today. The one we are in now is much closer to the
river (yeah!) and our favorite restaurants (YEAH!!). We were picked up a little earlier this
morning so that we could bring everything to the new apartment before we left
for the orphanage. After dropping off
all of our worldly possessions, we went to a different market for our daily
fruit pick-up. We grabbed our required
number of peaches and off we went. After
going through the normal food inspection routine, I think the nurse likes us,
we waited for the kids to come in. Since
it was a cool morning we decided to play outside for a change. A group of volunteers had recently finished
adding some ramps to a giant playground set so that all the children could have
access. Jessa had so much fun stomping
up and down the ramp. We finally got her
to slide down the slide … she didn’t seem overly impressed. Caleb was content to just wander around with
me for a little while, then have a seat on one of the benches and look
around. We think he may have some
trouble seeing right now and probably needs glasses. When we went back inside it was banana
time! As usual, Jessa finished her
banana in just a couple of bites. Erika
was feeding Caleb his in some fairly large pieces in order to try and stimulate
the chewing reflex. While he didn’t
actually chew, he did pause before swallowing which is definitely a step in the
right direction. Erika started placing
the pieces deep in his cheeks to make him use his tongue to manipulate the
bites so that he could swallow them, also good practice for chewing. After the bananas, we broke out the
balloons. Jessa does not like
balloons! She wouldn’t come anywhere
near them and it didn’t matter if they were inflated or not. Caleb thought they were pretty cool. I think he could see them because of the
bright colors. One of the things he
really seemed to like was when I put a balloon against his ear and tapped my
fingers on the outside of it. I got
several smiles that way. He also had fun
when I would bounce the balloons against him; unfortunately, like so many other
things, he lost interest after only a short time. After the balloons, Jessa and I were looking
at a book while Erika and Caleb went for a walk in the hall. I was able to get Jessa to start identifying
the pictures of men as “Man” and the pictures of women as “Lady”; we’ll see
tomorrow if she remembers. Erika and
Caleb finished their hallway walk, or so Erika thought. That little guy decided that he did not want
to come back in the room so every time that Erika got close to it, he would
reach out and close the door! She made
several attempts to get him back in, but he was as determined as she was. That was the most definite and determined
action that we have seen him perform thus far. Erika and I swapped out and I took over Caleb
and the hall which is when I met … the Wheelchair Posse! This is a bunch of 8-12 year old girls, all
in wheelchairs for various reasons, who patrol the hallway like a biker
gang. They rolled up to me and their
leader said “priviyet” which is like “hi” in Ukrainian. I answered “priviyet” and smiled. She then hit me with a flurry of questions,
in Ukrainian of course, so fast that to me it sounded like all one word. I shrugged my shoulders and held my free hand
out palm up in the intergalactic sign for “What?!?” and said “priviyet?” I thought that they were going to hurt
themselves they laughed so hard! Then
there “leader” said to her gang “Amerikanski” which started the laughter all
over again. And that became the
game. She would question me in an ever
more mirthful manner, I would shrug and look confused, and she would state
“Amerikanski” and the Posse would break out in laughter. We must have done this a half dozen
times. By then Caleb was getting to his
usual “I’m done” behavior so I brought him back into the room so we could wait
for the caregiver to come and get him.
When she showed up Erika, through Luda, explained his behavior to the
caregiver. Her response was along the
lines of “Of course he wants to come back to the groupa, 11:30 is snack time”. Mystery solved. We had lunch today in a restaurant that
recently opened. I had rabbit, Erika had
borsht, and we shared a Greek salad and a really delicious potato dish. We seem to be falling into the Ukrainian
eating pattern of moderate breakfast, large lunch, and light dinner. I’ve heard so much from the other RR families
about the “Ukraine Diet” and how effective it is at knocking off 5, 10, and
even 15 pounds while you are in country.
All I can say is that it either doesn’t work for guys, or I’m doing it
wrong ‘cause I’m heading in the other direction! After lunch I went back to the
new apartment while Erika got a Ukrainian style pedicure. Luda recommended that Erika go to the shop
that she uses. 90 minutes and $10USD
later Voila!! Purty Toes! This is one of
the reasons that I recommend that you set up a separate account before you
travel. Erika’s toes, my suit, some
chocolate for our driver’s wife (today’s her birthday; remember that gratitude
thing …?), and our trip to our old orphanage all comes from our personal
account (the trip comes from our family vacation fund).
Our new apartment has
one thing that our old one did not … a Can Opener!!!! Oh yes, pineapple slices, tomorrow at
breakfast you are mine!!! MUWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment