Election Day

1. Waiting for Nastya

2. On the slide

3. Mean skating judge

4. Robin and Nastya walking through the park

5. The boys and Nastya trying to catch me on the swing

[Robin]
It is yet another beautiful day—sunny and probably 75 degrees here. We walked from restaurant to restaurant this morning, attempting to get breakfast after we discovered that our hotel cafй was closed for a party (we think related to the election). It turned out that all the restaurants that we were familiar with didn’t open until 11:00 a.m. We finally settled on buying a bag of potato chips to have something in our stomachs before we started playing with the kids in the orphanage. We also stopped by a children’s store on the way to get some new balloons, since they were a big hit yesterday.
Last night we went with a mother of another one of the prospective adoptees to dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant around the corner from the orphanage. When we walked in, a few couples were dancing to the music from a karaoke singer.
[Phil]
Yes, the "karaoke singer as entertainment" seems to be big here. I also remember it from the Russian restaurant in Houston ("Stoli Grill"). It’s an easy way to have decent musical entertainment at a low cost. Speaking of entertainment, last night when we got back from the hotel we searched the TV channels to find something to watch. To our luck, the Russian version of "Skating with the Stars" was on. I’ll let Robin describe it:
[Robin]
For those of you who watched the American version of this (and I know some of you!), this was the same set-up: celebrities (athletes, actors, singers, etc.) are paired with professional skaters and over several months not only learn to skate, but perform in contests against the other contestant teams. Then they are ranked based on their program by a panel of judges. Their ranking can be helped as audiences can phone in their vote for a particular team. We saw about 10 teams talk about their training and then perform on the ice in front of a screaming audience. Some of the routines were extremely hokey and we had some good laughs as they pretended to be gladiators & leopards, Blues Brothers, or a slave girl and her captor.
[Phil]
Yes, it was pretty amazing how well some of the soap opera stars or former soccer players could skate after a relatively short training period. Speaking of training, there were 2 coaches – one really skinny guy with an amazing mullet, and another more squat fellow with short hair. And then of course there were the judges. I think there were 5 of them. The one we enjoyed the most was a rather severe schoolteacher type, who looked constipated and was at times "very disappointed" or else doled out faint praise. I guess she was supposed to the Simon Cowell type.
[Robin]
With not much to do here, this bit of entertaining TV was really a boost. You can see how sentimental the people are and how much they revere attire with some bling. Phil is really hooked and is hoping it comes on tonight too…next thing you know we will be using our phone card to call in our team choice!
This morning we went to the orphanage and were given permission by the caretaker to take Ana off the grounds. We walked with her through the park and then sat on a park bench and commented on people, dogs, etc. as they walked by. After some time, we pulled out the laptop to show her some pictures. Big mistake. Boy, was she into it and pressing every key she could reach.
[Phil]
In other news, Dasha was caught red-handed with the mineral water that we brought for her. The caregiver asked her, "Dasha, did you ask them to bring this?" She looked at me and didn’t say anything. I told the caregiver that she did ask for it, but it’s no big deal – just a small gift. Dasha helps out so much, the least she deserves is a bottle of water.
Also, this morning, out of boredom, I started swinging on the big kids’ swing. This prompted all the little boys to come running over. One asked me, "Are you big or small?" I said, "I’m a grown-up." Then another said, "He’s big." And one said "He’s the biggest." I looked around and said, "Yes, I am the very biggest." This delighted them to no end. They then proceeded to try to grab my legs every time I swung in their direction. They are easily amused!
[Robin]
The little boys, in particular, are crazy about Phil. He blew up balloons for them and they would all stand in a circle around him screaming "for me, for me". I tried to get a few pictures, they were so sweet. Ana does not seem fazed at all if other kids get our attention. In fact, she tries to share all the candy and things we give her with the others. She is really a generous little soul.
[Phil]
By the way, when we were eating lunch at "Da Vinci" a little while ago, a young man sitting at a nearby table came over to us and asked if we were Americans. We said yes, and it turned out that he is a naturalized American from Denver but grew up in Kramatorsk. He now works for a missionary organization called "Agape" and is trying to work with the orphanages here. He was a really nice guy and told us several times "God bless you" for trying to adopt from here. He reiterated what we already know – it’s a very difficult process and things can go wrong no matter what you do. He gave us the name of his doctor friend that lives here, and told us to call him if we needed anything. Once again, it was another small kindness that we’ve gotten from so many people here.