court +8

look. chickens.


washing up.

Yay! We made it to and are halfway through day 3 this week. Hump day. It feels good to have finished one more day of traveling out to Boyarka by train. Today is the hottest day yet – it was predicted to get to 35C (Lesya just told us it hit 36C today). Yesterday on the train with the breeze from the windows and our location in the train (quite shaded), I actually felt quite cool and had to snuggle in to Darren a bit (that hasn’t happened a lot lately!). However today, even though we were in the same location and the windows were mostly all open – there was no coolness to be found in the breeze. Not a good sign for the rest of the day when it’s 9:30 AM (unless you are Brendan!). We got to the orphanage to find that all four groups that are usually outside at that time were already there – and most of the kids were only in underwear and hats (another testament to how hot it was!). We headed over to Ivanna’s group and she came straight over for a hug – I love that! We spent our time swinging (big surprise), going for a walk in the stroller (trying to find shade!), watching the chickens (a lovely, very shady spot – we encouraged her to stay, even though the birds are creepy), having snack and drink (one minor and brief choking incident as Ivanna gulped down some juice too quickly – it helped to clear her nose though – snot everywhere!) and then also spent a little time around her group. Her caregiver (the same one who let us stick around yesterday) asked (I think) if we wanted to stay around the group and I indicated that that was great. It’s fun to watch her with her caregivers and little friends. She took advantage of her freedom and soon wandered into other areas and headed up to the top of a slide that was in full sun. Darren at this point had headed inside with Tatiana to get some documents for Slava, so it was up to mama to follow her up (Daddy’s been the slide guy so far!). It was blistering up there and when Ivanna made a move to go down the slide I checked the temperature and promptly picked her up and took her back down the stairs (even too hot for my bottom with pants on!). She wasn’t too thrilled but was distracted by the snacks and juice I offered her (in the shade – beautiful shade). All too quickly the groups were all heading in and we followed a few minutes later (Ivanna wasn’t too pleased at first - she loves to be out). We got to stick around again to watch the post play-time wash-up and potty time. The same caregiver had fun with the kids sprinkling them with water and they all just giggled and had a blast – she’s really great with the kids. I managed to get a quick picture of her with Ivanna (our batteries are dying on our camera) – unfortunately, I’m not the steadiest and so it’s a little out of focus. Next time I’ll give the camera to Darren! On the train home (it was late again – more what we are used to), a young man was asleep across the bench we were standing beside. A couple of babushkas across from him tried to wake him up by poking him – no luck. They tried again every few minutes – it was pretty funny to watch them - they were obviously unimpressed with his behaviour and weren’t exactly gentle in their attempts to wake him! Eventually one of his legs fell off the seat and he woke up briefly – they made it quite clear to him that he should sit up (and wipe off the seat his shoes had dirtied) so that we could sit down (which he did). He promptly fell right back to sleep with his head lolling backward. The train is certainly never boring if you like to people watch! Being as hot as it has been and continues to be, the scents of the train were somewhat stronger and more ‘ripe’ today. Darren was creeped out by a guy who stood next to him with his shirt undone and fully open, allowing his ample belly to hang out, pressing against his shoulder. He considered getting up to let the man sit down but thankfully reconsidered that option when he realized this fellow would then be sitting next to ME (thank you!!!). He sacrificially remained a gallant barrier between me and the guy, and eventually, the man found another place to rest his belly (a seat away from us). On our way home we stopped at the ‘dungeon’ internet place to briefly check our email. It only costs 1hryvna ($0.20)for 15 minutes – I spent most of the time standing next to the air conditioner which was blowing out beautifully cold air! It might just be worth paying to be able to hang out down there – whether we want to use the internet or not….or maybe we could take this opportunity to get hooked on computer games and spend our hot afternoons down there (who really needs to sight-see anymore?)! We were much cooler when we left there and headed home (but still both had cold showers and again I’m sitting in my bathing suit). The apartment has hit 28.4C (but I think first thing this morning it was 28.9C) – it seems to be climbing a little more (overall) each day. Hopefully this heat wave will break soon and bring some more reasonable temperatures our way (if only we could find a happy medium between Saskatoon temperatures and here)! We’re hanging out here, waiting for Lesya (she has to pick up some $ for the apartment) then we plan to ‘cook’ tonight (that will likely consist of opening some jars of sauce and getting some bread – too hot to actually turn on the stove!) then head to Mario’s for dessert. This has so far been a good week. We are feeling very grateful that we’ve had such good visits with Ivanna, that the trains have been quite bearable this week (despite the heat) and that we have made it to Wednesday. We are finding the commute and visits tiring and we are soooo ready to have our daughter with us.


We hope (?plan) to be a little more adventurous tomorrow afternoon and try to get to the ‘Caves Monastery’ (maybe the underground caves will be cool!). Have a great day! Paka.