Daily ‘Doption Duties…and Soaring Like an Eagle and Hovering Like a Buzzard

When we were preparing for this trip and talking with other couples, we were warned that there would be a lot of “down time” or waiting time. Other than visiting the kids there wasn’t much to be done. Well, I don’t know if its because the summer, where we are, who we are, or that we are simple folk who can be easily amused, but we sure seem to be keeping ourselves busy. We are finishing up our third week here and we still feel we could catch up on some rest.

So, what the heck have we been doing? Well the day starts at 6-ish with the dogs barking as usual. We are near a single dwelling residential area and everyone and their dog has a dog. The barking can go all night and when we can sleep through it, it wakes us up in the morning. Then it’s a quick walk to the bakery and the market to pick up things for breakfast, etc.-bread, watermelon, vegetables, fresh peaches and so on. Everything is grown right around here. Even pineapples, but they are not quite in season yet. Then it’s back to the apartment for breakfast, maybe some blogging, laundry or whatever. And laundry is almost a daily chore as it depends on how much space is available on the clothes lines on our balcony. Its not like at home where we can easily get 5 loads of laundry, washed, dried and folded away in a couple of hours!

Our morning visit with the kids goes from 930 to 11. It’s about a 10 minute walk over to the orphanage. We go in and ask for the kids to come down. Thanks to Donna’s Ukrainian, we have gotten to know the security guards well so we chat with them while we wait. Our routine with the children is to go outside for soccer, frisbee, or just walking around with our 2 year old. Then we have a snack either inside or outside (banana, cookie, juice) and then its time for inside. Donna has been working with our boy on numbers and abc’s, both speaking and writing. He’s going to get to the letter “r” today. They have English workbooks in the markets here that are a big help. I play with our girl: blocks, tea set, or go for another stroll outside. Then the boy gets into puzzles, and there are some intense card games with his mom-to-be. Before you know it, the hour and a half is over. We do something similar in the afternoon from 4 to 530, but usually less outside because its very warm and humid here, up to 30C or 35 C with the humidity.

During the afternoon between visits, we have our lunch and often go downtown or to the central market to pick up whatever is needed. Usually, we make a stop at the “internet club” to make our postings. We’ve also made it out to the beachfront. On other days we have gone to church, toured the city a bit, or just stayed home out of the heat. After our second visit, we have supper (either in or out) and then go for a walk, visit the internet club, read a bit, or watch Ukey TV. The day always ends with an episode of West Wing on the computer and some tea and chocolate ice cream out of a plastic bag.

Our most frequent activity, besides visiting the orphanage, has to been going to the central market in Mariupol. Again, this is a huge market with close to 1000 stalls, each probably 8’ by 6’, selling pretty much anything you’d want. Small scale free enterprise is alive and well in Ukraine, and with many sellers and many buyers, it works very well. Too bad we didn’t have something like this at home…(WalMart can go to H**L as far as I’m concerned!)

Speaking of WalMart, as much as Donna likes to praise it at home to bug me, there is no doubt that her soul belongs in the markets of Ukraine. It touches some deep, perhaps genetic, Ukrainian element within her. As she slowly walks down the food stalls, the clothes stalls, or (especially) the shoe stalls she carefully surveys the wares, like an eagle soaring high above looking for prey. She is a very fussy eagle though—some nasty gopher won’t do, it’s gotta be a tasty rabbit. As for me, I’m more of a scavenging buzzard that hovers around, spies what I need and dives in on that “carcass”--- gets it and gets out. Of course, these two strategies inherently do generate some conflict during our times in the markets, because as you know eagles and buzzards don’t get along too well. Thankfully, though, that only happens in the markets.