Chernigivka

We have settled in here at the orphanage. Our translator has left us and gone back to Kiev to start the paper chase. We will see her again on Monday.
We are really enjoying our time with the boys. They are with us as much as they can be. Today was the last day of school for them, so the last two days they have had celebrations and parties. Just like in the States, parties and awards ceremonies. We were very happy that Ivan came on Tuesday afternoon and asked Lesya (our translator) to ask us if we would attend a party with them Wednesday night and come to the awards ceremony on Friday morning. We of course said yes and enjoyed both celebrations very much. Ivan was excited to use our camera and take pictures of everyone. Anatoliy was happy to have us there to watch him perform in the play. Today was the last day of school and the boys picked us up in their finest clothes at 8:15 to head to the awards ceremony. They have an indoor gym here at the school. Please do not think of a gym at one of our kids schools - think painted hard wood floors that are buckled and broken everywhere, with two broken basketball goals at each end. This is a very "bare bones" school and town. Anatoliy received an award for math and art for the 7th grade class. They announced the graduating class. I couldn't help but think where are these kids going to go now. They truly have no options in life at the end of their school years.



Two kids who performed and their teacher.



Anatoliy in his play.

The people in the town are nice. Everyone here knows we are the Americans adopting from the orphanage. Honestly I can not think of another reason that a tourist would visit this town - there is truly nothing here. We have been to the grocery store a couple of times. Our boys and their friends LOVE to eat and they all really need to eat too.  We fed four boys Ramen soups today and they still all went to their assigned lunch and ate there too.  Trying to find a fruit or vegetable in the grocery store is non existent. Then today we visited an outdoor market - think flea market - and there were farmers selling some apples, vegetables, raw fish (which I refuse to eat), clothing, shoes, etc. It was a fun experience. We have had lots of boys in and out of the apartment all day. It is fun to spend time with them. They love to look at all of the electronics and just "stuff" that we have.

I went with Anatoliy to his class party today. My sweet boy asked if he could bring in cookies to the party and maybe some drink? Of course this meant, "Mama, can you go buy some things, so that I can bring them to the party." So two bottles of juice and cookies were purchased and I am sure it is the only time that Anatoliy has ever been able to bring something to a class party. He asked if he could carry it all in - and my sweet boy walked in with the biggest smile and so much pride that he got to bring something to offer. His art teacher was very friendly. They gave me a gift from the class, that was handmade by one of the students. It was very thoughtful of the class. Matt has been working all day, so he missed out.




Anatoliy's class party.

Origami crafts that the kids made.

Last night a restaurant opened just for us to eat. They cooked us a nice chicken cutlet and fries. I just couldn't get out of  my head that the chicken I was eating was probably the chicken that I saw in the street the night before!! We are staying in for dinner tonight. We bought some frozen raviolis, that we will attempt to cook and eat!

Making lunch for the boys and their friends.

They love Ramen noodles.