Graduation Day

Thursday was an evening full of eager anticipation as the kids graduating the next morning were ironing shirts, polishing shoes and choosing accessories to go with their dresses.

Friday morning was the formal Graduation Ceremony for the kids completing their 9th and 11th forms (grades).  If the kids are academically inclined, they go on to finish the 11th form and then on to a college or university.  If not, they leave to go to a technical school after completing the 9th grade---which is comparable to our 10th.

Vera and I attended the graduation ceremony which was held outside the school in the courtyard.  Commencement began with a flag ceremony followed by singing the national anthem, a message from the principal, a congratulatory letter from the Education minister, introductions of each new 1st grade student, and the ringing of the final bell---a senior boy carrying a new first grade girl on his shoulders who rang a large bell as they circled the courtyard in front of the students and parents.  But the best part came at the end.  Two students each threw a white dove into the air.  Then all the girls walked into the center of the courtyard, made a wish and released a red helium balloon into the sky.  Lera's and Nastia's were the last two to sail away.  It was very moving as I contemplated what each of them might be wishing and hoping for.

There are 20 kids who will be leaving our orphanage this summer.  Lera, Nastia and Svieta are hoping to attend a university together.  Two of them want to become teachers.  They all scored some 10's out of perfect 12's on the final exams they took last week---which are comparable to the ACT/SAT testing in the US as far as determining their next schools.   Lera was ecstatic.

Last year this school received all new windows.  The concrete sills next to the windows are still falling apart and look terrible, but that will probably be fixed in the next phase.  I asked Vera if we could go inside the school to see the classrooms.  I was amazed at how nice the school is inside----just like all the apartment buildings and houses here that look like dives on the outside, but are very nice inside.

I met Malvina's English teacher and thanked her for teaching Malvina to speak English so well.  She had no idea what I had said------which probably explains why Malvina doesn't either.  I turned to Vera waiting for her to translate what I'd said to the English teacher, and then realized how embarrassing that would be for her.  This lady's husband had built some fun replicas in the classroom of an English phone booth and the London Bridge.  Each of the classrooms had plants, interesting displays on the walls and lace curtains which gave them a really warm, pleasant, homey feel---even chandelier light fixtures.

Twenty, or nearly half of the kids at our orphanage, will be replaced with new kids during the summer.  Because our orphanage is ranked number one in Crimea, the best kids from other shelters and orphanages in the area will be sent here.  As I've gotten to know the caretakers, they're all wonderful people who love these kids so much and have been extremely nice and friendly to me.  I really wish I'd spent more time learning Russian so I could communicate with them better, but they're very patient and always talk to me, assuming I must finally be starting to understand them.  Not.

I made a deal with Malvina last night.  I told her I would say a sentence in Russian to her each day if she will say one in English to me.  This stretches my brain which can only remember short Russian words.  But I can tell I've activated a new part of my brain because my Spanish keeps coming to mind.  Not that that's good---now my Russian is coming out with a Spanish accent.  Seriously.

Eli with his graduating buddies.

Lera and Nastia.

Vera LOVES having her picture taken.

Even chandeliers.

The computer lab.

Malvina's English classroom

Lera just scored a 10 on her exam.

Much more homey than the austere hallways in SLC.

Victory Days

Our first Victory Day this week was at the Passport agency----well, almost!  One small glitch on Malvina's criminal background check.  They ran the check on Malvina Burova instead of Allison Rachel Kimball---who has only existed in their computer system for a few days.  It's not likely she's done too much wrong yet, so we should be on schedule to get her passport in the normal 10 days.

Malvina was delightful----in spite of 4 long hours of driving and several hours of waiting in lines.  She said "thank you" several times and insisted on carrying my heavy backpack whenever we got out of the car.  I had mentioned to Alex how nice it is to hear him always say thank you, and I wanted him to set a good example for Malvina, so she'll learn to do the same.  The next day Alex told me he had asked Malvina if she knew how to say thank you.  She said yes.  He said "Say it.  She said, "Sank you." He said, "Good job.  Say it again."  I think he's rubbing off on her.

Wednesday was the official Victory Day celebration here in Ukraine.  Vera and her husband drove Malvina, Kristina, Nastia and me to Sebastopol to watch the big military parade and then on to Balaklava.   It's illegal to put 4 passengers in the back seat, so each time we came to a city with Militia directing traffic, we had to hide one of the girls on the floor under our legs and cover her with a sweatshirt.  Not the most comfortable way to travel, but in between cities the girls had a great time singing along to songs on cell phones and my laptop.  It's surprising how quickly the long drive went.

Malvina's father and girlfriend live in Sebastopol, and she wanted to visit him one last time before leaving Ukraine, so she made arrangements for us to watch the parade together.  We found a high wall and perched ourselves there for a nice view of the marching troops and military vehicles with the beautiful sea in the background.  Sebastopol is a major tourist town and even had a large cruise ship docked in the bay.  Malvina was so happy to see her dad again.  They enjoyed looking at photos on each other's cell phones for a while, and then we had lunch together at an open air cafe with a spectacular view.

Malvina hadn't seen her father for at least 4 years and was so anxious to spend some time with him.  He's a pretty weathered looking 36-year-old guy with a great tan and some big tattoos.  He and his girlfriend disappeared during lunch for quite a while.  They finally re-appeared when we received our check---- which looked like we'd been charged for  more than we ordered, so the waitress explained those were the sandwiches and 8 beers her father and girlfriend had been drinking in the bar.  They just added it to our tab.  Malvina was devastated.  She wanted so much for her father to love spending this last time with her---instead he was drinking in the bar.  She decided not to give him her contact info and that she never wanted to see him again---or her grandmother (his mom), who we were planning to visit this next weekend near Dzhankoi.

Malvina was pretty quiet as we drove on to Balaklava which is breathtakingly beautiful.  It's a small bay where military submarines were hidden in a tunnel that enters and exits the bay.  We went for a 30 minute boat ride in the bay and saw lots of dolphins and jellyfish.   Artists were painting scenes along the shore and booths were filled with spectacular photographs for sale.  President Yanokovich's son has a huge vacation house next to the water.  We hiked a little and took lots of photos.   I turned the girls loose with my cameras at the beginning of the day, so we have at least a million photos of our fun day.

Then we began the drive back to Feodosiya so we could watch the fireworks at 10.  Unfortunately our car broke down in Simferopol, so we had to take a bus for the final 2 hour stretch.  It was definitely more roomy but not quite as convenient.  We missed the fireworks by 15 minutes, but I felt blessed the car hadn't broken down and left us stranded in between cities.

President Yanokovish's son's house is the one with the green roof.

Passport Application Day

Tuesday is critical.  It's our passport day.

The good news is that our document from Ichnya finally printed out and was sent by bus to Kiev on Saturday.  It should arrive by train in Simferopol on Tuesday morning at 10:45 ----- and Tuesday is the only day passport applications are accepted.

Because the age law was still in place when we prepared our dossier last fall, Dick was too old, so I am adopting Malvina by myself in Ukraine.  Although the adoption decree states this clearly, it doesn't mention it on the final page where the court decision is found along with all the official stamps.  That was a big problem in the mind of the Ichnya City Inspector.

Now we're worried it might be a problem at the passport agency as well.  They could require us to petition the SDA to request a new court decree which could become a lengthy process.  Vera and I were discussing how important prayer will be in making this go smoothly.  She's a believer with a great testimony of the power of prayer.

In the middle of this, Malvina called to say she's worried about her hair.  I asked what happened to it.  She said she's worried that after the 2 hour bus ride it won't look nice for the passport photo.   Well, I guess I haven't been around a teenage girl for a long time, but I couldn't stop laughing.  If that's our biggest problem, this will be a piece of cake.  Her hair always looks fabulous.

I made a new friend last week.  The lady who works in the Samsa and Hot Dog booth on the corner near my apartment is one of the warmest, most friendly people I've ever met.  Giyana and her 14 year old son are from Armenia, and they're spending the summer here working together.  I don't have a clue what she's saying to me, but she's always so friendly I decided to take Vera to meet her and translate.  She told us from the first moment we met she felt like we were sisters and wants me to come visit her in Armenia---and be friends forever on the internet.  Sometimes I just poke my head in her booth to say Hi, knowing I'll get a big friendly smile and a nice hand squeeze in return.  Some days I need that.

Alex returned from Dzhankoi today.  It's so good to have him back with us.  Amazing how the family chemistry changes when one of its members is missing.

Malvina was great tonight.  She sat by me at the orphanage for nearly 2 hours and then walked me to the bus stop.  Vera translated for us for over an hour.  Malvina was anxious to show me a hand painted Nativity scarf that one of her Ping Pong friends had special-ordered and given to her.

My new friend Giyana.

Cutting it Close

Whewwwwwwwwh!  I can't tell you how glad I was to get off the final marshrutka. I was wrong.  The train ride was 14 hours each way--except something was wrong with the track on the way back so we had to wait for two additional hours while it was fixed.


That said, it was a beautiful ride.  Tons of forests and lakes and bright yellow flower fields.  I loved seeing wagons full of people being pulled by horses, and large white crane-type birds which make 5' wide nests balancing on the tops of telephone poles.  My favorite was a little babushka walking along the road behind a giant turkey and cow.  I sometimes feel I've warped back in time a few hundred years.


I even got to see Alex and his sister, Nastia while our train stopped in Dzhankoi for a few minutes.  Alex tried to get a train ticket to come with me, but wasn't able to because of the all the holiday travelers.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll get back to us.  I was dreading seeing him.  He was planning to stay for 2 days, but ended up staying for two weeks---in the same underwear and socks and outfit --- and no toothbrush.  Well, he was wearing new clothes and even had clean hair.  He and his sister looked so much better than I did after 44 hours in trains and buses---but I had clean underwear and a toothbrush.


We planned every detail of this trip down to the last minute allowing 4 hours to pick up the new birth certificate.  Only one problem---the head lady left town with the official stamp our birth certificate required.  She was picking up some kind of computer code in another town.  We offered to meet her there and drive her back to Ichnya in our taxi so she wouldn't have to wait 4 hours until the next bus.  With a little additional incentive she agreed, but this was off our course and meant we only had 2 hours to get the new birth certificate prepared.  She had never done the new computer system of registering a child and couldn't get the system to accept our information.  We finally left 20 minutes behind schedule without the new registration document.  Hopefully they'll solve what was wrong and fax it to us by Tuesday, the only day that passport applications are accepted in Simferopol.  Not sure if faxed documents are even allowed or if she'll be able to figure out what's wrong. 


Anyway we high-tailed it in our taxi out of Ichnya back to Kiev knowing that our train would leave in 2 hours at 8:20 pm.  I kept watching the distance signs and tracking our progress.  There was just no way we could be there by 8:20.  Vera called her daughter who lives in Kiev and asked her to get our bags out of the locker and put them on our train.  The driver said if he took us to the metro station 10 stops from the Voksal it would be faster than battling car traffic in the city.  We had 15 minutes to board the metro, ride 10 stops, run up the longest escalator in the world and then find our track and board car #14.  Oh, and Oleg needed to meet us at the metro to get the new birth certificate.  There was no way it was possible, but Vera kept saying "Just pray, Christie, just pray.  I never give up 'til the last second."  


I thought my walking and volleyball would have prepared me better, but I nearly had a heart attack shoving people aside and flying up those nightmare escalator steps.  I had to pause two thirds of the way up, but managed to quickly recover for my OJ Simpson sprint down the hall and up the stairs over the tracks to our train.  She was closing the door, but we jumped onto the last car any way and worked our way inside to car #14.  My chest and throat were pounding for 30 minutes, but we made it.  It wasn't possible, but we did it.  It's those small moments that confirm in a big way we're not doing this by ourselves.


If we hadn't made it, I have no idea where my backpack with laptop inside would have traveled off to.  The Lord was definitely with us.


Today was spectacularly beautiful and perfect.  There was even a jet ski having fun out in the sea.  Malvina and Kristina walked to my apartment.  They had only one hour before chores at the orphanage, so we just went to lunch.  The chemistry began changing today.  I had a new mindset to just love Malvina with all my heart no matter how she responded.  I stopped worrying if I should be more or less physically affectionate and just had fun.  I even got Malvina laughing---not because I said something funny and clever---because I said it funny.  She actually couldn't stop laughing, so apparently my Russian pronunciation isn't improving any more than my fitness.  

View of Kiev train station from Celentano's

View of Kiev from Celentano's

Yellow flower field

Crazy bird nest

Alex and Nastia

Labor Day Movie

I made a movie of our Labor Day activities and posted it on YouTube. You can view it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYx8fg3V6sM


Today Vera and I travel to a city up north of Kiev to get Malvina's new birth certificate.  If all goes well, we'll be back on Saturday afternoon.

First we take a 2 hour bus ride to Simferopol, then ride the train to Kiev from 6 pm to 7 am, then hire a driver to take us 3 hours to Ichniya.  We grab the birth certificate and repeat the whole thing to get back.

That totals 36 hours of buses, trains and taxis during the next 48 hours. Ughhhh!

Horses, Jeeps, Beach & Planes

Well, it's hard to top shashlik and ultralight planes, but we did our best to take advantage of Valery's last day of entertaining and chauffeuring us around.  He lives in a city far north of Crimea.

We found a ranch and decided to try horseback riding.  The plan was to ride horses early in the morning, then drive about an hour to Novis Sviet on the seacoast and hike to the king's wine vault located in a huge cavern next to the sea.  Because we only have room for 5 people in the car, Eli came to translate instead of Vera, and Malvina brought her friend, Nastia.  Valery really loves to talk.  He could go on for hours repeating himself over and over, and Eli really doesn't like to translate.  That combined with the fact that Eli is still mad at me for not letting him ride a bus for 6 hours to have a birthday lunch with his new girlfriend of 2 weeks, made communication a bit difficult.

They saddled up our horses with a mixture of English and Western saddles (I knew that was a bad sign) and then gave us instructions.  I have no idea what was said.  All I wanted to know was how to say Giddy Up and Whoa, but when I asked Eli, he just shook his head and rolled his eyes.   None of the kids had ridden horses before, so it was probably good these were slow-walking, old horses who knew exactly which path to take regardless of where we tried to direct them.  The guide put me on the lead horse in front of the pack and started yelling Prava at my horse.  I assumed that meant Get Going, so I kicked my heals and yelled "Prava, Prava,"---- the entire ride.  I hoped at the end, when the horse saw the barn, I might get a little trot out of him.  I stroked his neck, told him I'd come half way around the world to gallop along the seashore, kicked my heels in his side and yelled Prava one last time.  Not going to happen!  It was still beautiful, and we had fun going through a herd of sheep and goats, across some small streams and through some steep gorges.  Later I found out Prava means right.  It didn't matter because I don't think my horse understood Russain any better than I do.

It didn't take long for this horse to put me to sleep.

Valery had heard about a car race he thought the kids might enjoy.  Malvina loves cars and had asked him lots of questions the day before about cars.  She even has a stack of car magazines in her locker.  Oh great!  We all thought that sounded fun.  It was actually a 4-wheel-drive off-road competition in the hills close by.  There were lots of people watching from vantage points at the tops of hills along the course----and many of them were cooking shashlik.  We arrived while the drivers were testing out the course before things really got going.  It was hot and sunny, and Eli got bored.  He wouldn't sit by us.  But after an hour, the races started, and it got very exciting.  Two vehicles would race against each other, one starting after the other completed the first half of the course.  The course began with a 2'-3' ditch, followed a steep downhill embankment with a mud hole at the bottom, then a flat curvy road, up a steep, curvy mountain and down again, a big ditch, another steep hill with a 2' deep pond to cross before the finish line.  We watched for 2 hours, then left sunburned and hungry.

Valery took us to his favorite Tartar cafe.  We had a traditional food that was similar to a scone the size of a plate that's filled with meat and cheese.  You fold them in half to eat, and they're delicious.  Then we made the long drive to Novis Sviet.  Valery suggested a 30 minute boat ride, but I thought we'd been sitting for too long, and you can't drive the boats yourselves.  Eli refused to go hiking, so we watched the many people out sunning at the beach---a few of them even swimming in very cold water.  We began the long drive back, but I was disappointed we'd traveled so far and not done anything much different than we could have done in Feodosiya.  

I felt badly we hadn't been able to take Nastia flying with us the day before (because only 5 people can fit in the car), so I suggested we stop at the airport on the way home and let her have a turn flying.  I thought Eli would love that too.  Nastia was thrilled.  Eli was mad.  He was anxious to take a nap, and was ready to get out of the car and walk home.  

The plane we'd flown in yesterday was being serviced, so Nastia flew in a little larger bi-wing plane that seemed to be able to make much sharper turns.  It held only one passenger and looked even more exciting.  I had to commit to pay for two rides, so Malvina flew a second time while Eli napped in the car.  She had an especially wild ride and said it was much more fun than the day before.  I'm making a movie which I'll post soon.

Valery left town this morning.  He really went out of his way to show us a great time.  It's going to be so boring without him today.  

Labor Day Fun

Yesterday was Labor Day holiday, and we packed about as much fun as it's possible to have in one day.  Our new landlord, Valery, along with Malvina, her friend, Christina, and I began the day at the open air market shopping for supplies for a Shashlik picnic in the mountains.  I love the open air markets here.  Words can hardly do this one justice, so I took pictures of the pig's head and hatchets used to chop the various meats.

This cat lays patiently staring at the catch of the day--right on the counter next to it.

Shashlik is Mongolian-style chicken shish kabobs.  In Crimea, it's the standard food for picnics --- much like Kentucky Fried chicken in the US.  Also sliced bread topped with cucumber slices and radishes and something like a sour cream dip.  I believe Shashlik is my absolute, favorite food.  We bought chicken that was already seasoned and cooked, so all we had to do was let it smoke on our metal box cooker. Vera told me you marinate the chicken in mayonnaise and seasonings for a few hours, but she didn't say which seasonings---just which ever ones you like.  I hate it when good cooks say that.  I just hope we can duplicate it back home.

You can't go on a picnic without a phone.

We found a beautiful little lake in the mountains and hiked up to a secluded spot over looking it.  Valery brought folding tables, stools and table cloths as well as a hammock which the girls loved.  He got the wood burning in the little Mongolian cooker while the girls sliced the veggies and spread the table.  It was a delicious feast!

We tried to go to the Dolphinarium on the way home, but it was closed, so instead we ate ice cream bars while enjoying the view of the sea.

Then we stopped at a tiny airport on top of a hill to watch the hang gliders and para sailers that were dotting the sky.  There were all kinds of cool, ultralight, motorized planes that were taking off and landing, and when we asked the prices, it was so much cheaper than it would be in the US, I just couldn't resist how much money we would save by letting the girls go for a ride.  And there wasn't a single paper to sign.  (I would have expected a release form that had to be notarized, apostilled and expedited.)

After the girls landed safely, I had to try it too, and I think it was as fun as anything I've ever done.  We had a blast!  I'm so glad the Dolphinarium was closed!