We continue to occupy time here in the best way we can. We have always believed that any uncomfortable situation can be turned into a fun one. It's all about attitude. It would have been very easy to blow off the young college student who wanted to practice English. Or send off the Peace Corps worker who came up to us in the internet café, but we took the time to stop and talk and have made wonderful new friends.
Lera (the college student) is one course away from her master's degree in mathematics. She will be a high school math teacher (qualified to teach at university, but prefers high school). She is from a town 2 hours away and was convinced by her mom to become a teacher. (it was her Mom's dream to teach, but was unable to get the education.) College here is a deal by US standards --$500 a year or so—but that is 5 months wages in Ukraine.
The Peace Corps worker is a 27 year old LA kid who has had working for the Peace Corps on her life list for some time. Oddly enough she teaches at the same University that Lera attends (this is not like a US university with thousands of students—maybe several hundred) but one in Math and one in languages and they had never met before tonight. Hopefully they will become friends during the last 6 months for each of them in Slay'vansk.
We had PIZZA!! Not really like you think of pizza—it was a good crust with catsup, olives, peppers, ham, chicken, tomatoes, canned mushrooms, green onions and cheese.
I loved it—Mary did not. Catsup for pizza sauce takes some getting used to!
We had a great meal for the 4 of us, including drinks for about $10 bucks—again, great by US prices, but way more than most Ukrainians could ever afford.
We had 2 good visits with Daniil today. It was too cold to go outside in the morning so we played in the "motor room" at the orphanage. Lots of balls and hoola hoops to take out and put away (his favorite game). We took the computer and watched a Kid Songs DVD and listened to some music with him. It was still cool this afternoon but we were able to go outside. We took food for Stimpy and Daniil got to feed her—it's a good thing we take food fit for human consumption because usually the way it works is Daniil takes a bite and gives the rest to the dog. Stimpy will let me (jim) come up and pet her but is still not sure about Mary and Daniil yet. We played with the beach ball and took a stroll around the grounds and our time was up.
Tomorrow we need to go to the notary in Kramatorsk in the morning so we will only get to do our afternoon visit. Tomorrow is also our big day (hopefully) with the judge to try to get the court date nailed down (sooner than June 14 that she offered last time)
We'll post more as soon as we get word from the judge!
Peace,
Jim and Mary
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