Day 5

I woke up from a sleep that was better than any sleep I could remember in the past. I was greatly relieved, yet I still woke up around 5 am. I stayed in bed for quite a while, wondering when I was going to hear the sounds of pattering feet on the ground to tell me that it was breakfast time. As time went by, I wondered why I didn’t hear anyone. That’s when I remembered it was Saturday. The children don’t have school today, so they would wake up later. Finally, around 10:00, loud conversations made me get up. We did our morning prayer, and we were off in the kitchen. Christina and I first went into the kitchen and immediately turned around. To our excitement, there was pizza. We both said pizza at the same time, and kids heard which increased their excitement. I guess they weren’t supposed to know yet. Oops. The pizza was great. There were lots of toppings on it like corn, sausage (hotdog), pineapple, and tomatoes. It was all very good.

We played inside some, and then outside. The sun was shining at last! We had soup for breakfast, kind of like the Borsch, but this was slightly different. We went outside and I jumped on the trampoline with the kids and swung on the hammock. Then, we made smores. They were very good, and I don’t really like smores. We roasted marshmallows over the fire and put it on a “lamb” cookie J with the other side being a thick piece of chocolate. I ate an apple for the first time since being in Ukraine the last time without having an allergic reaction, and some kids decided to roast one. After playing for several hours, someone ran to me and Lena and said they found something. In the greenhouse, there was a black snake that was stuck. Every time it wiggled, the young children screamed. Finally, after one of the older boys managed to get it out with a stick, a girl thought it would be a great idea to pick it up by the tail. She did, and she played with it for a long time. After that, the children were all sweaty, so they went inside to get a shower. I sat in Esme and Ausia’s room and played with playdough while some went to get a shower. All of a sudden, I see a little naked girl run past the room butt naked. A few seconds later, she ran back. We were all confused. We peaked in the shower room, and there were no lights turned on, but the shower was on. I tried to turn on the lights, and they didn’t come on. A few of us tried light switches in a few different rooms, and none of them worked. Children’s Path had lost power. We learned later that the whole town of Veliky Mosty also lost power. It had just started to rain, but it wasn’t that big of a storm. Odd.

After dinner, I took some of the children into the room for another English lesson. We went over the alphabet, shapes, colors, and numbers again. This time, we learned some objects like chair, table, pen, pencil, and paper. We also learned another shape: heart. The lights continued to stay off all throughout dinner and afterwards, so we sat in the front room on the second floor because that room is almost all windows. I had a book of a program that the children have been preparing for Sunday, and they all wanted to help me read. They were impressed that I could read, I already know the alphabet, I just had no idea what I was reading.

Finally, when it was almost time to go to bed, the power came back on.  We had a snack of fruit. I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, and Sofia wanted to make me toast. Sofi said Sofia loves to make toast, so I let her make me a piece. Butter and cheese were added after. I went upstairs while the children were getting ready for bed. Some were already in bed, while others were running back and forth. Sofia was doing squats, and Ausia and Esme were wanting to play dog with me. Eventually, most settled down and laid in bed. I went off, talked to my parents, and went to bed. Another great day in Ukraine.