Part 22 The Camp

Today officially marks 1 month since we left the states. I can't believe it has taken us more than a month to get a court date. Victor is very frustrated as well and says he is not interested in facilitating adoptions for the Zaporishia orphanage anymore due to how difficult this new judge is. He said he will steer future families to Other regions where the process is quicker.

That is good for future adoptive parents but for us for now here we are WAITING! I feel like we are in a plane circling the airport but never landing. Well We should see Victor today or tomorrow and I am looking forward to having him around Iliah so we can ask him some more in depth questions or maybe Iliah can ask us some.

Lately we have been going to the camp at 4pm everyday instead of the beach. We are more likely to catch the kids there in the afternoon plus my body can't handle anymore of the beach. I feel like my skin is about to split open into gaping wounds. Between the piercing sun, Salt and the Full body exfoliation you get as the sand whips against your skin, I've had enough. I don't even like the beach. I would rather camp or vacation in the mountains.
I have started to look forward to the camp. Although it started off weird a few days a go. Heidi and Jackie decided to stay at the apartment while i went to the camp. When I got there I went to the wash house where I have found Iliah and Vlady in the past. This time Vanya a tall thin gawky kid about Vladys age that has been hanging out with us found me. I asked him where Iliah and Vlady were. He took me in to this Building where Leza was watching TV with Friends and Vlady was kneeling on the floor wit his should pressed against the wall. Like it was some sort of time out. He looked as if he had been crying so I asked him if he was ok. He burst into tears and hide his face from me. I asked Leza what was wrong, I'm not sure if she didn't understand me or if she didn't care. I asked her where Ilah was and she took me over to his cabin where he was with his teacher. Iliah was all dressed up, I don't know where he got the clothes but He was wearing Cream colored linen dress pants and a white form fitting the sweater. He looked like he was ready for church. The whole clothing thing is odd at the Camp. They usually wear the same clothes for about 4 days then they wash their clothes and hang them up to dry. After that its a free for all, all the kids share clothes and it seems that it is on a first come first serve basis. There are only two things that have seem consistent with Iliah clothing( the speedo he wears to swim and this Blue pull over hooded shirt that has an American flag on it).
When we found Iliah I had to ask his teacher if he could walk around the camp with me. Let me tell you about the teachers I have met. They make it perfectly clear that they don't like me, everyday I have to go ask there permission for my Son to spend time with me. We've been here a month for Pete's sake I am there the same time everyday yet they continue to make me go through the process of asking their permission. It is so irritating to be under the control of a troglodyte with nothing better to do then make it difficult to spend time with my son. Even though I would love to take the teacher out in the water and hold them under til they begged me to stop I can't because the reality is I need them, for now! I keep telling myself I get to go home and they will be stuck here forever! Both of Iliah's teachers are men in there early 20's. They are extremely rough with the kids when they are out of line and they look at us as if we are a trespassing disease. I am sure that there are some teachers who are not like this, I just haven't met any at the camp. Also I can't seem to forget what Victor said. He said that many of the teachers tell the children that Americans will take them home and chop them up into pieces or do other terrible things to them if they get adopted. I guess Victor has dealt with this many times. He said the teachers do it because of job security. The less children in the orphanages the less money they get. Doesn't that just make you want to go crazy!?!

Well after I went through the disgusting privilege of talking to his teacher I told Iliah that Vlady was crying so we went to find him. By this time he had left the building I originally found him. We found him in the wash house in the corner crying. Iliah tried to ask him what was wrong but he covered his face and ran away from us. We followed him into his cabin. Wow the cabin, Holy Cow what a stench. This was a tiny one room cabin with about 10 dwarfs beds all side by side. No wonder the kids don't spend a lot of time in their cabins.

After following Vlady and still having no success we went to the Soccer field. This is what I come to the camp for. My daily dose of humble pie as I stumble my way through a 90 min session of Soccer. All though dealing with the teachers is terrible the children at the camp for the most part are a joy. I seem to have become quite the main attraction. If fact Jackie and Heidi were amazed at how many of the boys from 10 to 16 all want to play Soccer with me. I am not sure if it is because they like me or if I am like the court jester of soccer. In fact one of the days this week when we all went to the camp there were about 25 boys who all came out to the field to play soccer with me. It took a good 30 min to organize a game as they all surrounded me tyring to get me to pick teams. There are two fields and I kept getting pulled from field to field by those that wanted me to play with them. Finally we got a game started. I am getting better but then again I don't think I could get any worse. The field is all dirt and within seconds becomes a dust bowl. After about 15 min of play my mouth feels like a beach, about 45 min into the game I need a water hose and mouth to mouth resuscitation. Luckily there is this goalie position. That's my favorite, besides its the only one that makes any sense to me because you can use your hands.

About half way through the game Vlady came out and seemed all better. I did find out that he was punished but I have yet to figure out why?

When I said most of the kids are a joy I meant that there are a few bad apples in the bunch. Yesterday we ran into one of them. He was about 15 blond hair, devious looking and had a horrible home made tattoo on his arm of a skull. He was hanging around when we were first trying to get the soccer game going. He kept staring at us and say things with a smirk on his face. Of course the only thing we could understand was the word "Americans". all though we could Tell it was not pleasant by his body language, they way he and his two cronies laughed after everything he said and the way Iliah reacted. At one point hhe kept calling Iliah over and showing him this shank, knife looking weapon he had. He was very proud of this make shift weapon that you put in your fist and the blade came out between the knuckles. He was pretending to stab everyone around him with it. He called Iliah over to ask him something and showed him the weapon. Iliah shook his head "no". Right after that the Over sized Dennis the Menace came over to me showing me his weapon. I was not sure the point other then for him to look really cool. That and the skull tattoo on his arm that a two year old did. He continued to say things then laugh with his buddies and smirk at me. Finally I thought two can play this game. I may not know Russian but this punk didn't know English. So when he put the weapon in his pocket I told him " If you keep that thing in your pocket your going to stab yourself in the deek!" Heidi right on cue burst into a roaring laugh. I repeated the statement again and all three of us rolled with laughter. This did not sit well with the over sized Dennis the Menace. I think he got the picture loud and clear that we were laughing at him. He and his buddies went off in a hurry.

Okay Okay it was a little childish but it felt good and it was effective at getting rid of him.

Well there are a lot more things about the camp. More than I can write about...

Iliah did my favorite thing a a few days ago at the camp.
about a week prior while on the beach I was trying to tell him that we would have court dates and that we would be going home to America in 3 weeks of course this is when I thought we would have had a quicker court date. It was difficult to communicate and I wasn't sure if he understood.
As I was leaving the camp and waiting for the taxi. Iliah gave me a huge hug, looked up and said with a big grin " 15 days I go to America!" It was awesome! He understood me alright and he is just counting down the days. I didn't have the heart to tell him it would be longer but then again who knows maybe the judge will surprise us on Wed.