Staying in Ukraine - Day 2

Today was quiet and pretty uneventful, as I expect the next 9 days to be! But, I got to see Dennis, thankfully! I had a bit of a scare when I arrived to find the school doors were padlocked! Yes, I forgot until JUST NOW that today is Sunday! Surprisingly they let me into the dormitory to see Dennis, but not into his bedroom, just an outer room to play together.

Dennis making foam gingerbread men tree ornaments

and chillin' with the ipod

For those who care about the "boring" details of my staying alone in Ukraine (scroll down if you just want to see pictures of Dennis):

I woke up at about 9:30am and chatted online with Brian as he was waiting to board the plane in Germany to return to the states. Then I went to the market to get air freshener for the stale hotel room and snacks for my visit with Dennis.

I had lunch at the sushi cafe that Brian's been avoiding since arrived back in Lugans'k! I was bored of the cafe we'd gone to every day since we arrived here the 2nd time, so I thought I'd try something else. It certainly wasn't good sushi, but I'm not nearly as picky as Brian, so I thought it was fine. Besides, I don't use wasabi, so his main complaint about it not being spicy enough in Ukraine was not relevant to me.

The "California roll" was interesting ... certain things need to be inside and outside for it to be called a "California roll." The first issue was that the seafood inside was uncooked SALMON rather than imitation crab ... a KEY ingredient in this roll! And, although Wikipedia states that it can have orange-red colored fish eggs (known as Tobiko) on the outside, I've only ever had a CA roll with toasted sesame seeds on the outside. My only real complaint about the CA roll was that it didn't have the avocado! I know that sometimes there is a tiny piece of cucumber along with the avocado, but I've never seen a CA roll that only had cucumber!

Ok, enough about sushi ...

Dennis so proud of his finished work

Driver picked me at up 2:40pm and took me to the school. Before I could verify I would be allowed inside, he was gone. PADLOCK ON THE FRONT DOOR TO THE SCHOOL!!!

I called Snezhana ... no answer. I sent a text ... no response.

I knew which direction Dennis' dorm was, so I went that way and found several doors also with padlocks on them. I found 3 doors that were wide open, so I went inside one and called out "ZDTRASVITCHA" (Russian for hello).

A women came to the door and I called Sergey to help translate. She took me to one of the other open doors, and brought me to what seemed to be a nurses station, handed the phone to the other woman and left.

It was a small room and the woman inside wore a long white coat (like a chef or doctor) that covered most of her clothing. The room had a desk in the middle surrounded by chairs on all sides, and a sofa against the wall next to a refrigerator. It had several glass door cabinets, some had magazines and books, others had medical supplies that would be found in a first aid kit ... cotton balls, rubbing alcohol, band aids, creams, and even something that appeared to be Chloroseptic throat spray.

The woman motioned for me to sit on the sofa and went to get Dennis. I waited about 20 minutes for her to bring him from upstairs. He was wearing the same clothes we've seen in him almost every day ... and slippers with Mickey Mouse on them. There was some blood on his sleeve, I assume from the scabs under his nose from his cold.

We made 10 dolls total, and he counted all the way to 10 with no mistakes

(in Russian), then I helped him in English

She took us to the next room, motioned for us to sit at the desk, closed the door behind her, and left. The room had two other desks with no chairs. It also had 3 sets of bunk beds ... and a door on the other side going to ... ? I'm not sure if it was the "infirmary," or a storage room, or both!

I offered Dennis the snacks I brought. He opt'd for the chocolate bar right away! I had brought two, intending to give one to Sneza because she had asked for it last time we saw her. I didn't see her today, so I'll bring it back tomorrow. He also had 1/2 a bag of chips and a snack size bag of peanuts, plus two juice boxes! Later a woman brought him a banana, which he didn't really want, but ate it during the movie. I brought Frosty the Snow man on DVD and played it on my computer.

We made the rest of the gingerbread boys & girls from the kit I started with Violetta the week before last. I made one while he watched. Then I handed him one and he completed it in the exact same order I had made mine ... I was actually quite impressed by this.

He used mine as a sample and pointed to the correct spot and confirmed with me before placing each item onto the doll's body. After about 3 like this, then he was able to do them on his own ... with minimal help from me if a piece got stuck. I tied on the strings and then hung them on his ears - he thought it was hilarious!

Ain't that da sweetest face?

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