March 7

After having visited Valera for a couple of days (making snegforts and snegoviks) while assorted papers were being pushed, we have come to feel pretty comfortable with our role. So we decided to leave Kramatorsk for Mariupol (leaving Masha behind to enjoy her birthday and her family). We took the Moscow-Mariupol fast train. That means it gets up to 30 km/hr. Pam says that still makes for a rather airy breeze on your derriere when it’s time to tinkle. Stas and Natasha took us to the station, and made sure we got on the right wagon. We could read most of the ticket, but the Ukrainian word for city is almost the same as the Russian word for seat, so Stas enjoyed dramatizing the difference to help resolve our confusion.

The cabin attendant heard us say two words, then immediately grinned and spouted out “San Francisco, Chicago, New York.” He moved out a lady who would have been sharing our cabin into another so we could have a compartment to ourselves. Then he brought mugs of chai and sat down and chatted with us. He hopes someday to have his mug taken in the White House :D.

Officers from the Department of Motherland Security checked our passports. They looked as us and laughed. By comparison, in Germany, they radio in selected passport numbers to some central dispatcher, where I’m sure I’m on the suspiciously dweeby-looking database. There is a lot of room for database work in Ukraine. 5 ½ hours later, we had putzed through all the little ivkas in the region, and arrived in Mariupol, a smoggy port city of about 1,000,000. Pitifully, we were only slightly better at our Russian vocabulary. I think my brain has been smogged over.

We thought the visiting time at the orphanage might be only 2-4 (we don't know the weekend schedule yet), and the train arrived at 3:00 (right on time), so we took a taxi directly to the orphanage and hauled our luggage up to the door. We got some funny looks from the kids. “Gosh, they’re making you move in? I hope there’s enough gruel for all of us.”

The kids at the orphanage know the routine. When parental types show up, whichever child is nearest the entryway runs to get the child you are looking to visit. Sometimes you don’t even have to say the name—word gets around. After the right Sasha came, we asked for a room to play in. An Italian couple, from bella Napoli, was already there playing with a blonde 10-year-old who spoke English pretty well. They were trying to teach her Italiansky.

In some orphanages they are quite strict, and have someone monitor you while you are playing, which seems reasonable but can be awkward. We have not had that experience. In fact, we just kept playing until 6:00 when we figured it was his dinner time. Then Sasha turned out the lights, we went back downstairs, he got the key from the security lady, went back upstairs in the dark, locked up, then returned the key. Electricity is not to be wasted here.

I showed Sasha the video of Valera and his classmates preparing for the March 8th International Women’s Day Program. Valera is in the green shirt and yellow men-in-tights costume below. If you haven’t heard of this important international holiday, perhaps it’s because the U.S.S.R. made it up, and U.S. textbooks only have one line for Ukraine: the bridebasket of the world. Still, since all women get flowers, even beginning at age 3, Pam suggested that I write a very poignant paragraph extolling its virtues.



Anyway, Sasha was very interested in the video of his brother, whom he hasn't seen in some time. The program had poetry, dancing, and contests. And a witch (a teacher, of course), who gave out gifts. Sasha rooted for Valera in every little race, such as a race to decorate a divchinka (girl) or a teacher with a basket full of jewelry or flowers, and he recognized several other children from Kramatorsk.



Here's some leftover footage of his Janga-playing skills from our first visit:



Today I taught Sasha basic camcorder functions, and he enjoyed learning this. We taped handage and footage. We taped inside and outside—terms which we had practiced that morning but had already forgotten :<. Then we played a gummy animal game—close your eyes, get fed a gummy thingy, then guess what color(s) it was. Here’s where we learned that Sasha already knows colors and some animals in English. After that he asked to play with the computer. We mostly played with SketchUp and a little MS Word. I’ll start teaching him Excel tomorrow. Sasha also knows the English numbers at least up to 10, and the Roman alphabet, and can type his name Саша in English. We are overwhelmed.