Day 26 - Soccer with Sergei - Thur Oct. 13

Not much hurry for this day. We had arranged with Sergei to pick us up at 2:30 in the afternoon, so the only agenda was to try to find some food for lunch and dinner supplies for the evening, maybe some oatmeal packs for breakfast the next day. We had seen an EcoMarket on our way to the hotel from the bus station and we knew it was not far, so we thought we remembered how to get there. We walked down the street. And we kept walking and kept walking...nope...this was not the right way. Back to the hotel where we knew there was a small store to at least get some sandwich supplies. We got some noodles in a bowl that you just add hot water, some instant mashed potatoes and lunch meat, cheese and some yogurt for the morning, just in case. We got some cookies to take with us to the orphanage as well.

Sergei doing his favorite thing

We went back to the hotel and made our lunch of sandwiches, then got things ready to go see Sergei again. We had about 30 minutes, so Darren napped while I blogged some more. Just before 2:30, I looked out the window and saw Sergei's taxi. I woke Darren and we took our loaded backpack out for the ride. Another bumpy ride for half an hour and we were there. We heard kids on the sport field and hoped to find Sergei. He was not there. I asked a couple of his friends if they knew where he was, but no one knew. Dennis suggested the sleep room, so we headed in that direction. I tried his phone, but it said not available. On the way there we saw Dima and he seemed to know where he was. He directed us back toward the class building. On the way there I spotted two boys kicking a soccer ball. One was Sergei. He saw us coming toward him and waved. We got there and got our hugs. He was ready to play more soccer. He walked us down to the big field below the one the teachers were using. Once there we realized why the kids don't use that one more. There was a line of cow patties right down the middle of the field...yuck. We tried to avoid that spot, but still ended up with the ball rolling through it a few times. At least the goals were closer to the right size for the older kids. We had fun kicking it around and trying to score on the keeper. First Boris was in goal and then Darren traded with him and went in goal. It was fun passing around and trying to get the advantage to score. Soon a young man stopped and set his bike by a pole and joined us for a while. We gathered that it was Yarik's friend who lived by the orphanage. I think his name was Sergei also. He had a powerful kick, but was a good sport and passed a lot. In a while, we heard some shouting from the direction he came. He shouted back and after a few more passes hopped on his bike and took off away down the rode again. A while later I saw him riding back toward the house with a little girl on the bike. I am guessing he was supposed to be picking up their daughter and got sidetracked by our fun and his wife was wondering what was taking him so long!
After playing a little more, a teacher came out and yelled for the other boys to leave and go do something. We were left alone on the field with Sergei.First we had a snack of apples and cookies, then he wanted to play 2 v 1: with Dad and I against him. Of course, he still had the advantage of youth on his side and even with Darren in goal and me on the field he scored 4 or 5 times on us, while we could only score if one of us held him back for the other to get the ball to the far goal. I loved hearing him laugh as I pursued him and he just dribbled with his fancy footwork toying with me like a cat and mouse. It was so good to see him smiling and happy. If only we could have had him home before the end of soccer season!! I guess we will have to wait for spring and get him on a team then. At least I got my workout in. I wish I had a scale, I think I am getting smaller, my jeans are very loose, although it may be because I wear them over and over and they are getting so stretched out?!?
So as the sun was setting and Darren and I were getting worn out, we asked if he was up for a movie again. Of course, he was, so we went to his sleep room to see if we could get in. It was locked. He checked the room where the 9th grade boys sleep and it was open. We set up in there. One of the older boys came in for a while. He was getting his stuff to go take a shower. After he came back he watched Shrek from his bed while he was looking through clippings of soccer players. He gave Sergei a stack of Shevchenko clippings. He is the Ukrainian star player. About half way through Shrek Dima and 2 other younger boys came to find us. They wanted to stay and watch. The older boy hassled them a little, but in the end they stayed. Most of the laughs in Shrek are universal, so the kids enjoyed the movie. At the end it was time for us to leave again. We hugged all the boys and went out to the our taxi. More sadness as we said good-bye to Sergei and promised to be back the next day, same time.
Darren had arranged to work with his customer at 7pm Ukraine time, so he had Sergei drop him at the hotel and take me to the EcoMarket. I got some food for dinner and breakfast and more cookies. This was pretty small and limited compared to the one in Sumy, but we had enough to make due for another day. Back at the hotel, Darren was working, so I got sandwiches and soup ready for us to eat. I had also gotten some Nutella to put on our apples for dessert.
I cleaned up from dinner and washed socks in the sink. We gave our load of dark clothes to the gals at the hotel to wash, but the only white things we had were Darren's socks and it did not make sense to pay for a load of just those. I am not sure I understand the laundry pricing here. At the other hotel we did not send that much but they charged us over 300 grivna, it seemed expensive to me especially since they don't even use a dryer and most of it comes back damp. I think she said here it was 10 grivna for one load. Of course, I could be wrong. I guess we will see when the bill comes. Socks and undies are not bad to wash in the sink, but jeans and sweaters are pretty difficult! After that, I got to do a little more on my blog and then Darren put in a movie to go to sleep. We ended up watching all of Mr Smith Goes to Washington, another classic Jimmy Stewart movie. It was very late when we finally went to sleep.