Thursday, April 9, 2009

To save time I have been Pre-Blogging ( and apparently making up new words) in the evening using a word document...then all I have to do is cut and paste!




Yesterday (4-8-09) we got to see Nicholas for the two 90 minute blocks.
Since we first arrived the routine has been the same….
We go through the main entrance of his building, turn to the left , walk down a small hallway, through a small room with a few rows of auditorium style chairs, up two flights of stairs to the room his group is in and ring the door bell. The door opens and we say, “Nicholi.” The ‘Nanny’ who opened the door then yells to the back for someone to get Nicholi ready. This means a Nanny from the other room walks up to the front and asks us for “pampers.” Although we have been told he has begun ‘potty training’ they still insist on putting a fresh diaper on him before he goes outside. We were told to buy size 4+ since he weighs around 16 or 17 kilograms or about 35 or 36 pounds. They then let him walk down the short hallway to greet us….lately he will come right to us and hug one of us around the knees.…always smiling and happy. Since we are taking him outside the Nanny will then put on his shirt, jumper, winter coat, hat and his outside shoes. While they are dressing him they are talking to him in Ukraine and he is answering…we are not certain what is being said unless we have our translator with us….she was with us the first few times but lately we have been picking him up and dropping him off by ourselves.
Once he is dressed we are ready to go!
One of us will carry our backpack and bag of supplies and the other will hold his hand while we go down the two flights of steps. We try to let him walk as much as possible, even though we know his shoes are not the proper size. We recently, on the advice of our translator, traced both of his feet on a piece of paper. We will soon go to a shoe store and purchase some new shoes based on the precise drawings we did….LOL….our translator said this is the best way to get a better fitting shoe for the trip back to Kiev since we cannot bring him to a shoe store.
We then go outside and find a place to sit…usually a picnic style table or a big iron truck (pictures will be provided soon) and have a snack. We give him a juice box, a banana or an apple and a couple of crackers. Once he has finished and we have cleaned his hands and face it is time to play! We walk around, look for cats, (there are several cats around…he calls them Kooshka) climb on various jungle gym structures, slide up and down the slide and just enjoy the outdoors. We also see the other kids from his group, usually about six of them with one Nanny walking around and playing.
(Back to the cats….a lot of the kids have been told that dogs like to scare cats so when they see a Kooshka they like to say, “Woo-Woo,” which of course is their version of Woof-Woof. When we first heard this we thought “this is what he thinks a cat sounds like?” and became very concerned….LOL….once our translator explained it we thought it was cute……and we still do…We are trying to get him to say, “Meow Meow” when he sees a Kooshka.)
Well yesterday was a little different….
When we went to pick Nicholas up he was only wearing a t-shirt, thermal tights and his indoor sandals. Since none of the Nanny’s were helping him get on his outdoor clothes we went to his locker and began to dress him. We helped put on his long sleeve shirt, jumper, hat, jacket and outdoor shoes. Once he was dressed we said good bye to the Nanny and took him outside. I guess they figured we needed to practice?? J
When we brought him back we began taking off his outdoor clothes. When it came time to take off his outdoor shoes we had him sit down on the blue bench in front of his locker (this bench is about 4 inches off the ground…a long way down for grown-ups) While Lisa was helping take off his shoes a Nanny swooped in and told her…”NO Mama!” She then told Nicholas in Ukraine, that he need to take off his own shoes. He first had to pull one of the laces to untie the shoe. The Nanny showed him which one to pull and waited for him to do it himself. Once he untied it Lisa again began to help him take off his shoe to which the Nanny again said, “NO Mama!” The Nanny went on to explain (we think) that he needed to do this by himself. After a few minutes he was able to take off his outdoor shoes and get into his sandals.
We then said our good-byes and went ‘home’ for lunch and a rest.
We came back at 3:30 for our afternoon visit, which went well.
When we brought him back at 5pm we watched the Nanny swiftly change his clothes and watched him take off his shoes and get into his sandals.
A few days ago our translator explained to us that the children in these homes must be taught early to be independent. They are taught to feed themselves, dress and undress very early. The children who do not get adopted are sent to boarding schools where they “get no special treatment and must learn to survive on their own.” The Nanny’s are doing their best to prepare them for what lies ahead.
As we were saying our good-byes for the day one of the Nanny’s informed us that we needed to bring size 5 pampers the next day! This meant two things….1. He is a growing boy and 2. We had to stop at the market on the way home!


MORE ABOUT OUR CURRENT DRIVER
I forgot to mention that our driver is very “connected.” He has two cell phones, (one in a dash mounted cell phone holder and one in a holder that he wears around his left bicep, a Bluetooth headset, a mini HP notebook computer mounted on his dash board with a wireless card and a USB port in the center section to play MP3’s. The first day or so he showed us how he could pull up the Yahoo home page on his computer while we were in traffic. He also showed us he had SKYPE (sp?) loaded as well.
Today he told us he as been a driver for 22 years. He has been all over Ukraine and even spent 3 years in Moscow. He also showed us a picture of his daughter…she looks about 14 or 15 years old, but we could not ask due to the language thingy.. Our translator gave him our schedule so we can continue our daily visits each day while we are on our own. Our current “driver schedule” is the following:
Pick us up and take us to the children’s home: 09:45 am
Take us from the children’s home back home: 11:30 am
Pick us up and take us to the children’s home: 15:15 pm
Pick us up and take us to Internet Café: 17:00 pm
Pick us up from Internet and take us home: 18:30 pm
Did I mention everyone uses military time? Just remember if the first number is a ZERO, it is AM. If the first number is 13 thru 23 it is PM and you need to subtract 12. i.e. 15:15 would be 3:15 pm! (**Bonus info…Midnight would be 00:00)





The Inspector's Office here in Zaporizhzhya. All of our paperwork starts here in this region, goes back to Kiev, comes back to the Inspector and then it gets submitted to the court....You got that?