Well Good news and Bad News. We found out our court date, Yeah!!!! August 11th, What#$@! Boooo!!!! Yes How long does it take to get a court date in Ukraine? Apparently 1 Month! And I thought our Government was slow.
I will be flying home after the 11th to Dallas. There is a chance I will have to come back for a second court date but I will fly back for that if necessary.
Tomorrow we move into the church apartment, something Heidi has been looking forward to since July 12th. More space, Clean, working AC, running water and a Full size fridge! Wow my expectations have certainly dropped in three weeks. Before you know it I will be wearing the same clothes everyday and only showering once a week. Opps to late. just kidding about the Shower. As far as the clothes go I should have only brought two change of clothes it seems to be all I wear.
That segue ways nicely into...
Bathing Suits Every day we go to the beach most days we go twice(I will explain in a little bit why that might not be as nice as it seems). So the majority of everyday we wear our bathing suits. No I have not opted for the European speedo. Yet?!? Everyday we wear the same swim suits. I don't mind wearing the same suit everyday, the lack of decisions is refreshing(like a uniform). Heidi and Jackie on the other hand go through this hilarious ritual every morning where they ponder over which bathing suit they will wear. The one piece or the two piece. Print or no Print, oh and colors, they have hundreds. Each day they put on their swim suits and ask how everyone likes their new outfit. Most days we say we liked the one from the day before better. Of curse all of this is a figment of their imagination because all we have is ONE SUIT! It's like the movie Groundhogs Day, we wear the same thing and do the same thing everyday!
Trash For those who say "Wow the beach is a great way to pass the time". To you I say sure for the first few days "Maybe". At 10 am we get picked up and driven to the beach. We then walk with the 100lbs of beach gear snacks and water for the baseball team of children we have been collecting. We have to then walk down a steep cliff to get to the beach. As you go down the cliff you walk through what seems to be a garbage dump. (Most of the public areas in Ukraine are filled with Litter). Most days you smell old wet cigarette butts, Beer Bottles fermenting in the hot sun, Rotting Corn husks and Decomposing fish carcases but today i got an extra little bonus Three Dirty Diapers Mmmmmmm Yummy! What is wrong with these people!
After you wade through the Bog of Eternal Stench you arrive on what seems at first glance to be soft white sand, but then as you look closer you realize that there are cigarette butts everywhere, the entire beach is one big ashtray. If Only I smoked:-0 So you are just about to set your stuff down in the ashtray when you realize you are surrounded by another kind of butt, the humankind. Big butts, Little butts, Tan butts, White butts, Old butts, baby buts, Butts with Birthmarks, Butts with moles buts with stretch marks. There's something for everyone!
After you get done dry heaving you march down the beach to the Orphan beach ask the teacher in the best Russian you can muster if your son can come an spend time with you. You play for about 45 min and then back through the Bog of eternal stench and back up mount Everest.
One other tid bit. I don't like the beach I am one of those people that does not tan easily. My body prefers to burn. The only way I tan is if I slightly burn myself everyday. not too much or else I'll blister up and have to start all over. Of Course I am in a country where everyone tans easily. So if the flashing sign on my head wasn't enough the pale white, slightly over weight Baluga whale look is a dead give away. After mountain climbing we get driven home.
That leads me to the
Drivers I have described the roads in earlier blogs, and i have compared the driving experience to an old wooden roller coaster. With that said there are no speed limits here, very few working street lights and no marked lanes. the drivers speed up when they see a pedestrian and swerve in an out of traffic, barley missing other cars, trees and small children. It is a death trap every time you get in a car. Does anyone remember a ride called the mouse trap. It was one of my favorites. Remember that you would go along the track and it would seem as if you would fall off and then at the last sec you would turn. the roads are so bad that the drivers are all over the place even up on the sidewalk to avoid the craters in the roads. Between that and the constant brake, gas, brake, gas Heidi and I have been car sick for weeks.
By the way thank you for the comments we really look forward to reading them. It gives us a little piece of home. also if there are spelling and grammer mistakes I apologize. I usually write this before bed and I am too exhausted to proof read.
I have a special blog for tomorrow.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Part 17 Sickness, Siblings and Sacrafice
Make sure to check out the earier blogs, I added Pictures
Day 17 The saga continues and soooo does the Waiting and Waiting and Waiting.
I feel like we have been waiting for days for our court date. I am just dying for some kind of news, news to tell my family, news to tell my company and news to keep my sanity. I feel trapped in this situation and country with no escape. AAAARRRRRGGHHH!
Well I spoke to victor today and he said that the judge has to schedule our court date by Friday according to the Law.
As everyone knows patience is not a strength of mine. I also am not keen on Idle time. At home I always have a project going on. Whether it be professional or personal, always a project. I never give myself any downtime. Maybe that is the point of this snails pace, no control torture I am in. Maybe in some way I am suppose to learn to slow down an smell the flowers as they say. PS. There are a lot of smells here but none of them are flowers. Phewww!
17 days and we all officially miss home. Miss the house in TX we have yet to live in, Miss our friend s in Williamsburg, Miss our Family(London the most) ad yes it may sound crazy to some but my work. I am dying to dive back in to my hotel. I am just not cut out for this sitting around on someone Else's time table.
I like to be in control, yes I said it finally! Even though I know I am never in control, God is. I still get satisfaction from controlling simple things like, Schedules, working a plan or even the ability to go to the store when I want.
In addition I have been sick for 3 days. Post nasal drip to the point of nausea, body aches and a sore throat. With all our time spent with the children who knows what I have.(Black Plague, Typhoid Fever, etc...) we didn't think to bring any American medicine so I tried to go to the Pharmacy here and get what I thought would help. The only good it seemed to do is knock me out. Luckily the Dipiazzo's had some good old American drugs. Hopefully this is just a routine cold and it will be gone in a few days, although it has eliminated me from the soccer and WWE death matches for the time being. I've slept the majority of the past two days.
This evening we went to the Camp to see the kids. Like always we found Iliah and his brother together. They ran up to us and hugged us like it had been months since our last visit. Shortly there after we were surrounded by a dozen kids as we are the source of entertainment. Just the sight of Americans in the camp is odd to the children. All of them love to get their picture taken and then immediately want to look at it. We played catch and badminton. All of the kids want to talk to us but we have no idea what they are saying. We manage to communicate a little through charades and the use of two translation books we brought. It is a blast to see the kids flip through the books and find words to try and communicate with us. Tonight two of the boys were trying to ask me what I did, they found the word Army to ask me if I was in the Army and then the word for Boxer asking me if I was a boxer. How do I explain that I run a hotel? Heck do any of these children even know what a hotel is?
tonight while we were going through the translation books a couple of kids were playing soccer nearby. By accident one of them kicked a line drive and nailed Heidi in the back of the head. I mean nailed! Heidi tried to hold it in and was successful for about a min. She was able to put her sunglasses on and walk away before she broke out into tears. Super Prego strikes again!
The bot who kicked the ball struggled to find the right word and finally remembered ow to say sorry in English. Vlady, Iliah's brother would have non of it and told the boy something in Russian that made him go away in a hurry. All I know is it did not sound nice. He ten went over to Heidi and hugged her. He would not let go and kept looking up at her face to see if she was okay or still crying. After a few min he walked her back to her seat and helped her sit down.
It was soon time for us to leave and Iliah wrapped him arms around me. Vlady took Heidi's bag and held her hand and Leza went to Gummy(Jackie) and put her arm around her waist. Side by side hand in hand in three different embraces saying the same ting we walked to the exit. Each day the bonds between the siblings and us get stronger. Each day they show us in a new way how much they care for us.
We will take lots of pictures in the hopes that some other family will feel lead to adopt. Maybe even to adopt a sibling!
I feel like we have been waiting for days for our court date. I am just dying for some kind of news, news to tell my family, news to tell my company and news to keep my sanity. I feel trapped in this situation and country with no escape. AAAARRRRRGGHHH!
Well I spoke to victor today and he said that the judge has to schedule our court date by Friday according to the Law.
As everyone knows patience is not a strength of mine. I also am not keen on Idle time. At home I always have a project going on. Whether it be professional or personal, always a project. I never give myself any downtime. Maybe that is the point of this snails pace, no control torture I am in. Maybe in some way I am suppose to learn to slow down an smell the flowers as they say. PS. There are a lot of smells here but none of them are flowers. Phewww!
17 days and we all officially miss home. Miss the house in TX we have yet to live in, Miss our friend s in Williamsburg, Miss our Family(London the most) ad yes it may sound crazy to some but my work. I am dying to dive back in to my hotel. I am just not cut out for this sitting around on someone Else's time table.
I like to be in control, yes I said it finally! Even though I know I am never in control, God is. I still get satisfaction from controlling simple things like, Schedules, working a plan or even the ability to go to the store when I want.
In addition I have been sick for 3 days. Post nasal drip to the point of nausea, body aches and a sore throat. With all our time spent with the children who knows what I have.(Black Plague, Typhoid Fever, etc...) we didn't think to bring any American medicine so I tried to go to the Pharmacy here and get what I thought would help. The only good it seemed to do is knock me out. Luckily the Dipiazzo's had some good old American drugs. Hopefully this is just a routine cold and it will be gone in a few days, although it has eliminated me from the soccer and WWE death matches for the time being. I've slept the majority of the past two days.
This evening we went to the Camp to see the kids. Like always we found Iliah and his brother together. They ran up to us and hugged us like it had been months since our last visit. Shortly there after we were surrounded by a dozen kids as we are the source of entertainment. Just the sight of Americans in the camp is odd to the children. All of them love to get their picture taken and then immediately want to look at it. We played catch and badminton. All of the kids want to talk to us but we have no idea what they are saying. We manage to communicate a little through charades and the use of two translation books we brought. It is a blast to see the kids flip through the books and find words to try and communicate with us. Tonight two of the boys were trying to ask me what I did, they found the word Army to ask me if I was in the Army and then the word for Boxer asking me if I was a boxer. How do I explain that I run a hotel? Heck do any of these children even know what a hotel is?
tonight while we were going through the translation books a couple of kids were playing soccer nearby. By accident one of them kicked a line drive and nailed Heidi in the back of the head. I mean nailed! Heidi tried to hold it in and was successful for about a min. She was able to put her sunglasses on and walk away before she broke out into tears. Super Prego strikes again!
The bot who kicked the ball struggled to find the right word and finally remembered ow to say sorry in English. Vlady, Iliah's brother would have non of it and told the boy something in Russian that made him go away in a hurry. All I know is it did not sound nice. He ten went over to Heidi and hugged her. He would not let go and kept looking up at her face to see if she was okay or still crying. After a few min he walked her back to her seat and helped her sit down.
It was soon time for us to leave and Iliah wrapped him arms around me. Vlady took Heidi's bag and held her hand and Leza went to Gummy(Jackie) and put her arm around her waist. Side by side hand in hand in three different embraces saying the same ting we walked to the exit. Each day the bonds between the siblings and us get stronger. Each day they show us in a new way how much they care for us.
We will take lots of pictures in the hopes that some other family will feel lead to adopt. Maybe even to adopt a sibling!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Part 16 The Adventure
Its been three days since my last blog. I was hoping i would have news of a court date today but no such luck. Since we arrived in Berdyansk last Wed. Things have been sort of a routine.(Kinda)
The Children go to the beach @ 10am and 4pm Sometimes. Sometimes they are not allowed to come to the beach and the reasons have no reason or logic. So it is a Russian roulette game as to weather the kids will be at the beach or not. The first couple of days tested this to the Max as we marched the mile trip for Beach to camp multiple times with our 100 lbs of beach gear.
If we are at the camp then it is non stop games from Ping pong to Soccer. The other day we played two straight hours of soccer. Holy Cow! I am out of shape. Luckily I watched some of the World cup this year so I wasn't completely clueless as to what was going on. I may not love the game but you have to respect what kind of shape you have to be in to play. With a limited diet and calorie burning workouts to rival Micheal Phelps no wonder these kids have a 0% body fat.
When we are at the beach its like WWE RAW with Iliah, Vladic and a couple of other friends. Its a 4 to 1 wrestling match to the death everyday for two straight hours. I must say I can't remember the last time I have been this exhausted. I need a massage, a hot tub and a sleeping bag full of bengay! I got bits and parts hurting I didn't know I had.
We spend from 10am -noon and from 4pm - 6pm everyday with Iliah and his brother and sister.
Actually everyday it seems we add one more child to our entourage. They are friends of the siblings and come over to hang out. We walk down to the beach and as we walk through the orphan section they all just start following behind a couple more each day Like the Pied Piper!
We are up to about 6 or 7 most of which refer to us as Mama and papa.
In the evenings we go to Dinner with the Dipiazzos and perform an episode of SNL as we try to order off menus that have no English with a waitress who understands about as much english as I do Russian. My favorite is when Lisa Dipiazzo wants chicken and starts flapping her arms or when I wanted pork and made a pig nose and snorted.
After dinner Heidi and Jackie's entertainment consists of people watching out our hotel window to the Bar across the street as people dance, sing and vomit.
We have about 5 more days before the church apartment opens up and it should be just in the nick of time. The walls are closing in and we are losing our minds!
we walked along the boardwalk last night. what a sight. some beautiful, some odd and some disturbing. It was similar to an American boardwalk with snacks, games, rides and of course the beach but the differences were astounding. Live animals to get your pictures with. Snakes, Turtles, parrots and Alligators. Filth, Filth, Filth. Dilapidated buildings and trash everywhere.
The amusement rides had 17 layers of paint on them and it seemed to be the only thing holding them together. Characters of Spongebob Squarepants, Homer Simpson, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and various other Disney characters. Somehow I don't think Walt has given the copy rights to the Ukraine boardwalk for the use of these characters LOL!
One thing that was amazing was the artists, Great talent. their ability to draw portraits of people were amazing. It was something to watch.
Lets talk a moment about child nudity. Yes I know a touchy subject in the states but not here. They are everywhere. OK so On the beach any child under the age of 2 is naked. even if they are crawling over the seashells Ouch! But on the boardwalk we were just minding our own business when out of nowhere come a naked toddler pressing herself up against the window in her apartment. She was just tickled with her self, proud as a peacock. Earlier that same night we were at dinner and another, this time a boy in his birthday suit was running around the restaurant. No Shoes, No Shirt, No service? What about the PANTS!
The Children go to the beach @ 10am and 4pm Sometimes. Sometimes they are not allowed to come to the beach and the reasons have no reason or logic. So it is a Russian roulette game as to weather the kids will be at the beach or not. The first couple of days tested this to the Max as we marched the mile trip for Beach to camp multiple times with our 100 lbs of beach gear.
If we are at the camp then it is non stop games from Ping pong to Soccer. The other day we played two straight hours of soccer. Holy Cow! I am out of shape. Luckily I watched some of the World cup this year so I wasn't completely clueless as to what was going on. I may not love the game but you have to respect what kind of shape you have to be in to play. With a limited diet and calorie burning workouts to rival Micheal Phelps no wonder these kids have a 0% body fat.
When we are at the beach its like WWE RAW with Iliah, Vladic and a couple of other friends. Its a 4 to 1 wrestling match to the death everyday for two straight hours. I must say I can't remember the last time I have been this exhausted. I need a massage, a hot tub and a sleeping bag full of bengay! I got bits and parts hurting I didn't know I had.
We spend from 10am -noon and from 4pm - 6pm everyday with Iliah and his brother and sister.
Actually everyday it seems we add one more child to our entourage. They are friends of the siblings and come over to hang out. We walk down to the beach and as we walk through the orphan section they all just start following behind a couple more each day Like the Pied Piper!
We are up to about 6 or 7 most of which refer to us as Mama and papa.
In the evenings we go to Dinner with the Dipiazzos and perform an episode of SNL as we try to order off menus that have no English with a waitress who understands about as much english as I do Russian. My favorite is when Lisa Dipiazzo wants chicken and starts flapping her arms or when I wanted pork and made a pig nose and snorted.
After dinner Heidi and Jackie's entertainment consists of people watching out our hotel window to the Bar across the street as people dance, sing and vomit.
We have about 5 more days before the church apartment opens up and it should be just in the nick of time. The walls are closing in and we are losing our minds!
we walked along the boardwalk last night. what a sight. some beautiful, some odd and some disturbing. It was similar to an American boardwalk with snacks, games, rides and of course the beach but the differences were astounding. Live animals to get your pictures with. Snakes, Turtles, parrots and Alligators. Filth, Filth, Filth. Dilapidated buildings and trash everywhere.
The amusement rides had 17 layers of paint on them and it seemed to be the only thing holding them together. Characters of Spongebob Squarepants, Homer Simpson, Mickey and Minnie Mouse and various other Disney characters. Somehow I don't think Walt has given the copy rights to the Ukraine boardwalk for the use of these characters LOL!
One thing that was amazing was the artists, Great talent. their ability to draw portraits of people were amazing. It was something to watch.
Lets talk a moment about child nudity. Yes I know a touchy subject in the states but not here. They are everywhere. OK so On the beach any child under the age of 2 is naked. even if they are crawling over the seashells Ouch! But on the boardwalk we were just minding our own business when out of nowhere come a naked toddler pressing herself up against the window in her apartment. She was just tickled with her self, proud as a peacock. Earlier that same night we were at dinner and another, this time a boy in his birthday suit was running around the restaurant. No Shoes, No Shirt, No service? What about the PANTS!
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