Trip 2 Day 5 Party On, Ukie Style

Julianna called me this morning sounding like she wanted us to come to the Internat (orphanage) and go to the store. She decided rather quickly it was too complicated for me to understand so she called Nastya to translate. Nastya explained that Julianna wanted to have a party with us and her friends to celebrate the favorable court decision so she was requesting that we bring food and drinks. So the early part of the day was spent gathering up stuff for the party. Diane and Jillian, smelling much better today, also bought a few soccer balls to bring along.

We went to a classroom in the orphanage and Julianna and a few friends prepared for the meal. They were very meticulous in every aspect of setting the table. The sausage and cheese had to be cut a certain way. Everything we brought was nicely arranged on plates or bowls. They arranged the desks to form a big table and covered it with a tablecloth. Jillian and Julianna sat at the head of the table on one end and Diane and I were on the other end. During the meal the girls told Jillian “You are very good”. I told Jillian later that I’m fairly sure they meant to say “pretty“. Either that or they meant she was good at eating. We had a nice time and they all said “Thank you” in unison at the end of the meal.



Afterwards we moved to the bedroom area and Jillian started a hemp name bracelet for Valia, who has the bed next to Julianna’s. Nadia was in bed and Diane noticed something looked wrong with her mouth. We took a look and determined that she has a rear molar that is badly decayed. After checking that it was allowed we gave her some Advil. We have Nastya lining up a dentist so we can hopefully get her taken care of but there’s some red tape to clear with the orphanage first.



Last night I was able to reload music on the green Ipod shuffle we had given to Julianna last trip. She thought it was broken so we replaced it with another spare we had at home when we arrived this time. With Julianna’s consent I gave the green one to Nadia. Her look of gratitude is hard to describe. Any act of kindness has a big impact on these kids.

On the way out we saw a young girl standing by herself watching some boys play soccer. Jillian walked up and gave her our one remaining soccer ball. She was awestruck and the expression on her face was priceless.