Trip 2 Day 11 Wednesday May 26

Julianna called this morning to confirm we were at the hotel and then informed us she would be here in a few minutes. She and Sveta were out to buy flowers so they stopped by for a visit. We gave them some food and then let Julianna go through the post orphanage clothes we had brought for her. To say she was happy and excited would be an understatement. There were a couple items that were too large that she gave to Sveta otherwise the fit was good. She especially liked the white sweater but was worried about it getting dirty. Diane explained that we had a washing machine in America but Julianna corrected her and said that she would wash it in the sink. I also showed her a sleeping bag and inflatable mattress combination that I got from REI for her since I knew we would be short a bed. She tried it out and said “I am princess”.



Diane and Jillian wanted to get Sveta something so the girls headed to the “mall”. I decided to go to the store and try and buy soap and toilet paper. Usually I use hand signals to get my point across which worked fine for the soap but not so well for the toilet paper. The other shopping trip was more successful, and less embarrassing. They found a shirt, necklace and bra for Sveta and another bra for Julianna for the grand total of $17 usd. Jillian also used her money to buy a volleyball for the orphanage as they often use a soccer ball for this purpose.



We were given prime seats for the 3:30 PM show at the orphanage. I’m not sure if there was a specific reason for the show but they brought three kids in at the beginning and gave them some small gifts. Julianna was in a dance skit with Marina and also sang a solo in a different skit. It was a lot of fun and I got it all on video.





After the show we stayed in the large room and entertained many of the kids for the rest of our visit. We had different groups of kids playing games on our laptop computer, our small netbook computer and my Ipod touch. We also had two large inflatable punching balloons that we blew up and batted around. Jillian overinflated one of the them and Julianna wrapped her arms around it and said “Like Poppi (me)”. Of course Jillian thought this was hilarious but I got my revenge a little later when it exploded and scared them both.



Julianna seems to be worried about the fact that she has no fat on her. Jillian assured her we would take care of that when we got home. We’ve been trying to figure out what they eat here. Our conclusion so far is that they get some vegetables, fruit (at least in the summer) and plenty of starches. The older kids go to the store and buy junk food if they have money. The glaring omission seems to be protein. They don’t seem to get meat of any sort and when we asked Julianna she confirmed this to be true. They may get some protein from other sources but we haven’t seen it.




We had a bigger group than normal follow us out to the car for good bye hugs including some boys. Diane and Jillian have completely fallen for an approximately 12 year old boy named Misha and he was there as well. As you can probably tell it was a great day. Julianna told us many times how happy she is to have a family and go to America. We seem to be making some of the other kids happy as well so we have a sense of satisfaction mixed with the realization that we provide no long term solutions.