Day 27 - Another Day with Sergei - Friday Oct. 14

Hooray, we got another day with our Sergei. We already had food that I had gotten the night before, so we had almost nothing to do in the morning. We actually slept in until nearly 10am! I could not believe that I had slept so long. We took our time getting moving. I got lots of blog entries done and caught up to the day before: very happy about that! We had some oatmeal, thankfully there is a hot pot in the room, and some yogurt and the usual breakfast stuff. Then after a while, we got ready to for taxi Sergei to pick us up. We had heard from Ksenia and tried to figure out for what day Darren should try to rebook his ticket. She did not know if he would need to be around for the notary on Wednesday or if we could get it all done on Tuesday. Lots of help there. Then the other complication, Darren's customer was hoping he could have Darren do some work on Thursday. So it was looking like Friday would be the best day. With those worries on our mind, we loaded in the taxi and asked Sergei to take us to the bank to exchange money. The first bank turned us down, the second bank was packed with people. Next, Sergei made a phone call and pulled over by some stores. He had us get out and wait on the sidewalk. I saw a sandwich stand and hoped to get a sandwich. Darren waited with Sergei. A few minutes later, Darren walked over to me. Sergei's contact had brought cash to exchange and they were done. The line at the sandwich place had not moved. I gave up on that idea and we loaded back into the taxi.
It was getting close to 3pm, and even though we forgot to eat lunch and I was getting hungry, I wanted to get out to the orphanage more!

Sergei v Sergei

Sergei with the ball

Another bumpy road and we pulled up to the gate. We heard some kids off to the left playing with a soccer ball. We scanned the group, but Sergei was not one of them. We figured our best guess to be the sport field and we were right. He was there involved in an intense game of soccer with a bunch of older boys and a young man that lived near the orphanage who was friends with most of them. Darren and I took the opportunity to eat a snack of a protein bar and watched the game. The young man was clearly a better player than the younger guys, but they did not give up easily. It was so much fun to watch and cheer them on. Both teams scored several times, however, it was clear that the young man's team outnumbered the other in scores. I shot some video as they played...maybe Darren can use it it inspire his team!
In a while, a sweaty Sergei made his way over to us. Darren got the first hug and Hi Daddy. I got mine next. He was a happy guy today. Since we were still kind of hungry, we asked if Sergei wanted to walk to the little store near the orphanage. He agreed, Dima was tagging along, so we invited him as well. As we walked away from the sport field, Sergei and Dima needed to go ask permission for him to join us. I saw Dima's sister, their American host family had asked me to give her a message. I had typed a translation and saved it on my cell phone. I called to her and tried to get it to open on my phone. After waiting and trying, it did not work. I tried my best to relay the message, but I don't think she understood everything. She asked if they were coming to Ukraine, I know that that is not in their plans, so I tried to convey that gently. She and her brother really want a family, but their chances are slim to none, since the director has closed the doors to the hosting program. By then, Sergei had returned with permission for Dima to go with us.

Father and Son - Coke lovers

The three of us walked to the store. Sergei choose a small pizza bread and Coke, Darren got a hotdog baked in a roll and Coke, Dima choose some ramen noodles and a Sprite, and I chose a poppy seed pastry. We walked toward the orphanage and ate our snacks, except Dima, who needed to cook his noodles. Dima took off and we tried to figure out what to do with Sergei. It was very cold and it did not take much convincing to choose to go up to his sleep room. We had not brought the computer, so we ended up with more Uno. This time Darren won the first two games right off. I guess that helped make him less grumpy about playing. Shortly after, Sergei's friend Artium found us and joined us in the Uno match. We had fun. Then the two boys decided we should play team style...we were not sure of the rules, so we played two hands of this team Uno and team Erica and Artium won a game, and then team Sergei and Darren won a game. It was really confusing, so we decided to get out the chess/checkers game. I thought we could do teams on that too, but Artium wanted to play against Darren. I think he had that in mind since the night before when he had gotten the game board out when we were watching Shrek.
He played by the American rules and after a long hard battle, Darren conceded the victory to Artium. Next he wanted to play me, Ukrainian style. It is a completely different strategy, and I was not picking up the idea. He was killing me! But then he and Sergei had a conference and they decided to let me win.  He pretty much handed me his pieces. They thought it was funny that I won and Darren lost. Although it was so obvious that I had no chance at winning if he had not given it to me.
After checkers we had some more calls from Yarik. He had decided to take the train to Kirkivka and meet us at the orphanage. He came with his friend Vitaly who planned to stay at the house of the young man who lived near the orphanage, also named Sergei. We had planned for our taxi driver to go pick the two boys up at the train station and meet us later. Darren went out to confer with taxi Sergei and had Yarik talk to him on the phone to make the arrangements.
By this time it was getting late, a little after 7pm. Some of Sergei's room mates were coming back to the room. Then his teacher in charge of the room came as well, having the boys put the clean sheets on their beds. We figured we should make our exit. He was very nice to us and greeted us and shook hands. He seemed happy for Sergei. Sergei said he would take us to Yarik's friend's house for us to wait for him. He got permission from his teacher and the three of us left. We walked the length of the school property and through the field that led to the house. Sergei knocked on the gate and soon someone answered the door. They went and got young man Sergei who greeted us, and said that his wife was in the house and tried to explain a reason we could not go in. They had just had a new baby, so later I figured he was trying to say that she was nursing the baby. His little daughter and their puppy came out to see us as well. They were both very playful and after a brief time of checking me out, she decided that I was okay and wanted to play with me. She had me dance her around and she pulled me here and there. Meanwhile, the puppy decided I was a threat to his little girl and decided to bite at my ankles. He was pretty much harmless and mostly playful, but it was a bit difficult to dance with her and repel the puppy. Eventually, I felt my pants leg and there was a nice little tear. Oh well, at least I brought a sewing kit. I only have 4 pair of pants along and two of them are too dressy to wear most days. So I will still need this pair. Soon some headlights announced the arrival of the two guys. Both got out and gave hugs all around. Yarik went into the house to bring his gift to the family and then came back out to go with us to the hotel. We said our good-byes and taxi Sergei brought us back to Oktyrka. We were all hungry, but Darren needed to check in with his customer and I needed to speak to our travel agent about Darren's ticket. I also needed to change pants! So we had Sergei drop us off at the hotel.
We made our needed phone calls, I changed and then walked out to the restaurant down the street. It was cold! We walked fast and arrived to find the restaurant packed. The hostess noticed our dilemma and led us to a side room. We were very thankful for the privacy and quiet. We also had wifi, so Darren was trying to get out some emails to make arrangements for his return home. I helped Yarik order so that he would not choose something he did not like. He and I both had borscht and a French style chicken dish. Darren had the herring salad, mushroom soup and chicken livers in orange sauce. Everyone enjoyed their food as by now it was after 9pm and we were all really hungry!


Darren took advantage of the good wifi and called his parents. Then we paid and went back into the cold to walk to the hotel. We got ready for bed, Darren called his customer and arranged to help them prepare for the work that needed done Thursday. I called the travel agent and changed his tickets to Thursday, because we found out that the Friday tickets would be almost $300 more. Then Yarik and I did a little bit of English and soon we all found our spots to settle in for the night. Our room had a double bed and a small chair that pulled out into a single bed. Yarik just barely fit on that to sleep, but it did not take him long! I read a Bible passage, gave him a hug and he was out. I followed quickly and Darren put in a movie to fall asleep.