Photography by Sophia

Sophia and Anya

Today we awoke early to try and get the blog updated with pictures, but this internet thing is really quite frustrating.  There are a several cafes near our apartment that have free WIFI so we may have to utilize those for dealing with anything of substance.  Yevgeny was here by 9am as we were throwing various items in our backpack to entertain with at the orphanage.    It was raining slightly when we arrived but Sophia, Anya, and Yulia were standing on the steps of the school building and we got hugs all around.  It never gets old. We walked up to the dorm and sat in the lobby around a small table.  We had decided that today we wanted to Sophia to take pictures of things and places and people that she wanted to remember and we would help her make a memory book.   That might be Tuesday’s activity as we can’t pick up the pictures until Monday and tomorrow we are going to play soccer with the boys down on the basketball court.  Sophia and Anya went off for about half an hour while Lisa and I stayed at the table entertaining the children with paper and pen.  I broke the ice by drawing the face of a little boy next to me.  Forgive me if I don’t remember names as there are just so many and so much happening when we show up.  These children are STARVING for attention and affection and something to do during summer when there is no school.  After I drew my cartoonish portrait of his face, which easily brought a smile, 12 hands reached in wanting a piece of paper and a pen.  Next thing we know, we have origami and drawings happening all over the table.  It was beautiful to watch.  Once that activity was on autopilot, I backed up to try and have one on one chats with a couple of the kids.  In particular, I was hoping to crack Luda’s shell and managed to get a few words out of her and at least a dozen smiles.  She is blond haired, blue-eyed, and a very beautiful girl.  She is definitely not shy but as of yet she has not hopped into any of the activities. Maybe we haven’t found her hot button yet, or more likely, she is watching us for now.  We’ve got time.  One of the boys, and Lisa doesn’t remember who, drew a picture of Lisa as a princess and another made her an origami rose.  It is adorable and maybe I can take a picture of it to post.

Lisa got a great idea to teach the kids the hand movements to “Oh Happy Day” and play the song on the iPhone.  So we went out to the front steps and Lisa ran rehearsals.  Some of the kids were into it, others, including our Sophia just went through the motions.  I videoed this little dance, but with our internet, it may not get posted.  It started to rain again so we went back inside.  We pulled out a deck of cards and set up a game of memory.  This was thoroughly entertaining to watch.  The game started like any other, but after going around the table a few times, the cards remaining started to dwindle.  Normally you would leave them where they are, hence the name, memory.  You have to remember where the match was located.  Well their game takes on a little street hustler version as the cards were moved around the table to fill in the gaps.  That adds a level of additional “memory” as you have to watch the moving pair. I don’t think it was intentional to make the game more difficult, they were just trying to tidy up the remaining cards.  The next game played was drogas(?).  Lisa and I were clueless.  I just leaned over to Sophia and asked for help.  You start with 6 cards and then the middle starts looking like a floor trader’s area as cards are getting tossed and picked up.  No clue, but they were extremely animated during the game.

The children then took off for lunch and we pulled out our big activity for the day, a puzzle.  As soon as we opened it up and she saw the hundreds of tiny, and they were small, pieces she shook her head no.  All right, no puzzles.  So we pulled out the iPad which had a new English memory app that she was rolling through.  Lunch was, well, it certainly wasn’t what I would call lunch.  It was a cube of some meat substance.  The lunches appear merely to be a means of getting calories and nutrients.  In all fairness, the dining hall is being renovated with new tile on the walls so that may be impacting the services.  A bright spot during this time is both today and yesterday, Anya brought Sophia what was served for lunch.  A very thoughtful act that speaks volumes for Anya’s character. Another trait I’ve noticed on Anya is she is very bright.  Anya showed amazing memory skills during both the iPad app and the game of memory.

This was the end of our visit today and Lisa and I walked outside to hop into our ride.  Hugs and waves goodbye.  By the way, when we arrive and leave, Sophia does not speak in Russian, but she uses the English words hello and goodbye.  A small piece, but I’ll take it as she wants to impress us because she is getting comfortable with us. 

The remainder of our day centered around getting the friendship bracelets set up, buying a watermelon for tomorrow’s soccer game, laundry, and we tried to go watch a movie, but it started too late for us to get back in time for our nightly Skype call home.  Maybe tomorrow.

Next week we will take the clothes we brought for Sophia to wear in court so she can try them on and see how well we guessed her size.  I pray they fit as shopping for girls clothes here might be a bit scary.  Women in Ukraine wear really high heels and equally high skirts.  That ain’t happening on this daddy’s watch!