Oct. 24

I have to stop saying which day it is in Ukraine because I cannot remember how many days, but I do know the date.

Today was our first day alone taking the boys to school.  I got the easy part of the deal.  Bill got up at 5:45am and woke the boys at 6:00am, they get up, get ready, eat breakfast, do Bible reading and prayer before they get into the van to go.  I had the easy part, I slept in.

Bill came home and got me so we could go get some breakfast that was close to American food.  A big thank you to Felix (Cafe Monia).  It took us a little bit to communicate, but it worked, yeah!!  We were able to relax and do a bit of soaping.

After breakfast we walked around town for a bit.  We found a street that had many people selling variuos things, and we bought some bananas for the kids.  

When it was time to pick up the kids from school we messed up a bit.  There are two stops in the morning so we figured they were the same stops for the pick up.  We were wrong.  After waiting 15 min we called American Andre and asked him to call one of the boys.  It turns out in the afternoon we only go to the second stop.  The boys we drop off at the first stop get themselves home.  We were 35 minutes late picking up the boys.  Other than being a little worried they were okay.

We got home and guess what we had?  Yes, it was borsch.  Oh well.  In the morning some Babushkas (Grandmothers from the church) came and spent the morning making a fried apple turnover type bread.  I did take a little bite to taste it and Bill ate two.  That was Bill's dinner.

After dinner we took some of the boys to Friends Club.  It is a fun program for the orphans to learn about God through games.  Very cool.  At one point they did a little skit about man being created and how worldly things can take ahold of you and God is no longer in your life.  Then how repentance and forgiveness brings you back to God.  There were no words said and it was very touching.  

Some of the kids wanted to meet us and some were more reserved but we got a lot of smiles.  In the future I can see us getting to know a lot of these other kids.  We took 5 boys there and going home we had 13 people in an eight person van.

We got home and were settling in for the night when Yasha and Marina knocked on our door to tell us Marina needed to go to the train station.  This is where patience comes in.  Bill called Alex to make sure this was o.k., and off they went.

A funny for today.  The roads here are horrible.  Even the main roads have deep dips and huge bumps. There is not one smooth road in this entire country!  Today we saw a street sign warning you about a small dip in the road.  Bill and I spent time laughing and joking about which hole or bump they were referring to.

Another funny; I did laundry and thought I did okay. Well, you know the term whitey tighty; we now have purpley blackie tighty and sockie.  Maybe when we get home we can do some bleaching.

To answer a question that has been asked a couple of times.  We fly home starting on October 31st and arrive home on November 1st.  Then we leave again around January 26th for the six months.

I guess you can tell the difference when it is Bill or me that writes.  I am the wordy one.

Until tomorrow,
God Bless and Goodnight
K & B