Friday, July 3, 2009

One Week Until Court!

Our court date is one week from today. We thought it would never come, but now it is almost upon us.

We don't do very exciting things. We visit the orphanage every day in the morning. We have gone shopping at the large market a few times looking for shoes and used clothing for the kids. Shoes are fairly cheap, but also not great quality. Someone gave us some money to buy things for the kids, so we are trying to spend it up. We can buy a lot with it. We also brought a good bit of donations with us as well. Now that we've donated all the shoes and clothing that I had collected, we're down to all our belongings fitting into one large suitcase. We brought three large suitcases, two duffels and Karina had a backpack. We were so glad to get rid of our load. We've bought over 60 pairs of shoes and I don't know how many shorts, skirts and shirts for around $300.

The kids really need the shoes and clothes. Most of the boys' shoes barely cover their feet. some of the boys have no shoe under their toes. The little boys wear thick underwear as shorts. Some have holes in their shirts.

One thing they do have to look forward to is three above ground pools of various sizes. The kids have the pools for something to do since there wasn't enough money to send them to camp this summer. About 10-12 kids get in the big pool for maybe five minutes at a time. They can't do much with that many children in the pool. But they have fun anyway. Many times when it's not swimming time, an adult caregiver will have to come and fuss at a couple of kids that have gotten in the pool without permission. Can you tell I sit on a bench for about 3 hours and watch what goes on?;) After a while, you just have to learn to relax here and just enjoy your stay.

Well, that's pretty much how we spend our time at the orphanage. The other part of the day, we find places to walk. Today, we rode the marshrutka from the orphanage into town. We ate at our little pelemini cafe again. This time, we had just pelmini instead of fancy pelmini soup with mushrooms, dill and sour cream. It was good and cheap! The three of us ate for 31 greevna, with drinks. That's a little over $4 total.

2 comments:

Tami said...

So glad to hear that court is almost here! We'll be praying for the week to go by quickly! :)

S and T said...

It's almost here! Did Denis get another pair of Ukraine shoes for himself? I know how much S appreciates the donations. It sounds like you are enjoying your time at the orphanage.