A day in the life...

We just came from the orphanage, where we got to spend some time with D today. A is sick, so we only got to see her for a couple of minutes on the way out. We went to the open air market (a big flea market) this morning and bought a puzzle and a lego-like kit that can do a shuttle/plane/robot. Yesterday when we were there, D was very inquisitive about Scott's watch, pushing all the buttons, wondering how things worked and what things did. So, we thought that a lego set might be fun for him.

We were right. He is really bright, and knew exactly how some of the more complicated pieces should go together. Even more so than the 3 adults in the room :) We spent a couple hours working on building the airplane, and he had a great time. He has really opened up and is all about Scott :) A, on the other hand, is all about me. Jumping up into my arms to give me hugs. She likes Scott too, of course, I think the girls just like the women more and the boys like the men more.

So, we wanted to give you a bit of an idea of our little life here. Balta is a town of 25,000 people, but is very poor compared to U.S. standards. There are many buildings that are definitely left over from communist times, and the social agency's building has a big bust of Lenin in front. We haven't taken a picture of it yet, but will post one when we do. Back in the day, this was a thriving agricultural community. Post-Russian split, the only industry left here is a milk factory.

The streets and roads are in horrible shape, potholes, crumbling asphalt and cement, etc. Many of the buildings are completely dilapidated and uninhabitable. Everyone that we have interacted with, though, is very friendly, and eager to assist us. Communication is quite a challenge. Our translator left us Thursday night to spend the weekend at home with her daughter. Fortunately, the little hotel (more like an apartment building) has another adopting American couple staying here. The woman is actually Russian by birth, so we went out to dinner last evening and she ordered for us. The menus don't have pictures, and it's impossible for us to know where to even point our fingers.

Our little apartment is simple, but comfortable. It has 3 rooms: bedroom, living room, and bathroom. It has a hot water pot, so we're able to make oatmeal, tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Since we've been in Ukraine, we've been mostly existing on sandwiches - ham and cheese in Kiev and peanut butter here. Lots of fruit, oatmeal and yogurt as well. Tomorrow, Bob and Lana - the other couple here from Mississippi - will be heading back to Kiev to process out of the U.S. Embassy with their new daughter. We'll be moving into their apartment, which also has a kitchen. I will say that this apartment is much nicer than the one in Kiev - it is larger (the apt in Kiev only had a twin bed), and has many more windows so is much lighter. Like all buildings, it's on central heat, so while it's freezing outside (definitely below zero), it's hot enough inside for tank tops. We've been sleeping with a window open to keep it cool enough.

Once we move into the new apartment with a kitchen, we'll be able to buy plenty of groceries. There are markets/grocery stores about every 10 steps it seems. More grocery stores per capita than NYC. Additionally, the open air market sells meats, cheeses, breads, fruits, etc. There is a better variety in the grocery stores than I anticipated, although definitely not a lot of veggies. They do have frozen veggies, though, so that is fine. We'll make another attempt tonight in a restaurant to order food, which will be interesting.

Before she left, Olga, our translator, wrote down the Russian form of chicken, pork, vegetables, etc, for us to at least point to. We really can't say the words very well. We would definitely be starving if we didn't have the help we've had so far. The restaurant food has been simple and plain, but filling. The food prices are very inexpensive, and we're paying less than $30 per night for our apartment.

There are dogs roaming the streets everywhere here, some pathetically thin. There is a group of roosters nearby that crow at all hours of the day. Apparently, they don't understand that they're only supposed to announce the sunrise. Our apartment is a couple of blocks away from the orphange, and a couple to the main street with all of the stores. The orphanage (there are 3 here) that D and A are in looks a lot like a boarding school - a very poor boarding school. But it's in pretty good shape, and the kids are well cared for. We're fortunate that they're in the same school - it's making things much easier.

The kids were born in this town, which will also make the paperwork infinitely easier on our translator. She'll be able to get their original birth certificates here, petition for our court hearing here, the court hearing will actually be here (which, according to Bob & Lana who just went through it, is a pretty big deal in this town). All in all, we're hoping to be able to shave some time off the trip because we're able to do most everything except apply for the passports here.

The internet cafe where we're at now is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment. It's terribly cold in here, very different from the one we used in Kiev. It's full of teenage boys, just gaming away the afternoons. But, all the kids are very polite, and make room for us to use a computer as soon as we enter. BTW, it is true what they say about the women here - they wear high heel boots and relatively short skirts even on the coldest days. Jeans are extremely popular, even for the professional workers here. Honestly, though, I don't know how some of these women stay warm. Most of the boots and coats we've seen are fur-lined, but very few people even wear gloves. And it's been at least 10 below with the wind chill for the past couple of days.

Our apartment doesn't have cable, so there are only a couple channels we get, and of course, we can't understand them. In Kiev, we had many channels and were able to watch rugby matches, and the Ukrainian versions of American Idol. They also had a good music video channel which was great to work out with. There is a little gym in our apartment building - very 70's style with the weight machines. However, when we went to use it yesterday, there must have been at least 10 kids in it using all the equipment (10 kids makes the room completely packed). But, it's nice to have it. I have been able to work out about every other day doing some cardio, pliometrics and bands since we've gotten here.

We've been spending time reading and playing games, when we're not at the orphanage or traveling. I brought an electronic New York Times crossword puzzle game and electronic Soduku. Scott has a playstation and he is now addicted to Madden football. At night we watch one of the movies or TV shows that Scott burned to his iPod. All in all though, the days fly by pretty quickly. We still haven't quite adjusted to the time change, I think mostly b/c the sleeping accommodations in Kiev were awful and it was tough to sleep at all. It will be much better here, and I'm hoping by Monday we'll have a pretty good pattern for everything down.

We have finally figured out how to post pictures, so we'll post some now and we'll be taking more this week of Balta so that you have some idea of life here. Overall, I think we're really fortunate to be in Balta, and (except for the cold) are enjoying it.