Again, I woke up early and could not
sleep. I started the breakfast planned for that morning. It was
pretty easy, I was making baked french toast and frying up some
kielbasa. I laid out the bread into the pans. The hardest part would
be trying to bake enough for everyone in the oven that was very
tricky to regulate. I got the first batch of eggs and milk mixed up
and could not find the vanilla. I asked the girls who were awake, and
Annie could not find it. She thought maybe Anika knew where it was. I
waited to see if we could find it when she woke up. In the meantime,
I sliced the kielbasa and put it into the frying pans to cook while
the toast baked.
After we had our team morning
devotions, I asked about the vanilla, but it seems that it was left
behind. So I poured the egg/milk mixture on top without it. And
started the first couple batches baking. After the cookie experience,
I decided to rotate the pans turning them from front to back and also
switching the top and bottom pans. I kept rotating the three batches
and by the time they were ready to eat, the first two pans were done
just right. We served out the french toast and put bowls of fried
kielbasa on the tables. The last pan was just about done when they
needed more servings. We brought it out and it was still a little
runny in the middle, but we had to make due. I also scrambled the
last of the eggs for anyone who wanted them. Nearly everything got
eaten up. There was about one serving of french toast left, and all
the meat and eggs were cleaned up. Now the hard part of that meal,
cleaning the pans. They did not stick as bad as they could have, but
there was still a good bit of bread stuck to the pan. We ended up
soaking them and letting them sit for later.
The Ukrainian adults had left early
that morning to attend their church, so this morning, the worship was
led by the Americans. Brett played his guitar and we did 2 songs in
English. The Ukrainians had the words in Russian, but most of the
kids did not know the songs well enough to sing out. Then one of the
Ukrainian girls played a song on the guitar and the kids sang that
one out in Russian. I tried to sing along as best as I could, but the
English songs were much easier. Next the girl who played the guitar
spoke to the group and read several scriptures. She spoke about
friends. There was some interaction, and she did well holding their
interest. After that the kids had free time and I went to work on
lunch.
 |
| Craft and Card making |
Today's lunch was potato soup, so I
figured I would get right on to peeling the potatoes, as I would need
a lot. I got them washed and started to peel. Lena, the girl who had
given me the ring, volunteered to help peel. I was not turning away
any help on this job! Two more people came to help: Brett, one of the
American guys and another of the Ukrainian boys. With four of us
working, it did not take long to get the potatoes peeled. Then Lena
and I chopped them all up. We put them into the two big pots and then
Brett and I worked on the rest of the preparations. I chopped up
onions and he chopped up the bacon. Once it was all ready, I fried
the bacon and onions together until the onions were soft. Then added
some water and the potatoes. Now I just had to let it cook until the
potatoes were soft. Anika was soon ready to round up the troops for
lunch, so I checked the potatoes and they were just right. I added
flour whisked into some milk to thicken the soup and it turned out
just right. We had also shredded some cheese to put out with the
soup. We served out the bowls and again had bread on the tables. The
soup was well received, although the bacon was pretty fatty and some
of the kids, including Yarik, were not excited about the larger
chunks of fat. Can't say that I blame them, but we had to use what
was available. There was not too much soup left over, so I guess it
turned out pretty well.
 |
| Annie and Sergei at the campfire |
The afternoon we had a fair amount of
free time. First they put out supplies to make crafts. They had paper
and glitter and flowers and decorations to make cards. At the end of
morning worship, they passed out slips of paper with the name of a
secret friend. I took the time to make a card for the gal whose name
I had gotten. Many of the kids were making elaborate cards and
decorated flowers. Katya brought a decorated flower bunch to me. It
was very sweet of her.
 |
| Yarik, Mike and Sergei at the campfire |
The day before, Sergei had asked me to
come outside and play with him, but I had to cook, so today, I
searched him out and asked if he wanted to play soccer with me. We
went out and kicked the ball around a bit. He challenged me to one on
one, but I can not hold my own with him, so it got boring for him
fast. We decided to go back inside and he asked to play on the
computer. We played a few games of Mahjong and Yarik brought me a pen
with a decorated flower attached. Such a sweet son! Soon it was time
to make dinner. The group was ready for another meeting, but Sergei
wanted to help me, so he stayed with me to make dinner. We had
planned to make a chicken and rice dish, but no one had gotten the
chicken, so it was just rice. We also had some spaghetti left that
they had planned to use for a game, but did not and some eggs that we
we could scramble. So that night we had a buffet of the leftover
kasha soup, leftover potato soup, spaghetti, rice with seasoning and
bread.
 |
| Anika and Yarik at the campfire |
Sergei was a great help at making
dinner. It was really a good day of spending time with him. I had
wondered how it was going for him. All of the kids were Yarik's age
and older, so he was several years younger than all of the other
kids. I was torn between wanting him to have fun and join in with the
others and wanting to spend time with him as mother and son, which I
had been waiting for so long to do. Having this time with him was
really special for me and I hope it was special for him as well.
Since we had so much time with Yarik after school each day and on
weekends, it was good for him to be with the others and spend this
one last weekend with his friends. I feel so blessed that God worked
this out for us to be able to attend this retreat. And I still got
some time with both of the boys.
 |
| Partial group photo at the campfire |
After dinner there was more free time,
so Sergei and I played some card games. We played Sequence and some
Uno. We also played a round of Yahtzee. I think he understood how to
play, but it was his first time, so I don't think he understood the
scoring quite well enough. The guys had lit a campfire for s'mores
and after Sergei and I finished up another round of cards, we joined
the others at the campfire to roast our marshmallows. It was his
first s'more. He liked it pretty well. Yarik was out there too,
taking pictures of all of his friends. He was having a great time
around the campfire. I took some good pictures of Sergei as well as
many others. They did a big pose with a bunch of the kids who were
out by the fire and I got some good shots of that with my camera and
a few other cameras. But Sergei was getting bored and wanted to go
back in, so I joined him and we went back to play some more cards. We
played a few hands of Uno and had a few people join us. Sergei
started cheating, so I said I was not playing anymore if he cheated.
He started playing fair and we played a little longer. Then Sergei
wanted to go watch the film they had started. I played one more round
with two of the other kids who had joined us and then went to check
on Sergei.
 |
| Sergei's first s'more |
The film had English subtitles, so I
went back and got chairs for Sergei and myself and a few others who
did not have one. I sat with him and watched the rest of the movie.
After that we both got ready for bed. I found Yarik and gave him his
nightly hug and went to my room. This time I slept in my sweats and
fleece pullover. Finally I did not shiver through the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment