Saturday, March 5, 2011

Joy! We talked to Sasha this morning. He was pretty excited to tell us that tonight (it was dinnertime) he is going with some friends to a discotheque. We perked up on that one. Immediate thoughts: Is he sneaking out of the orphanage? What kind of security does Cradle of Children's Hope have anyway? Do they know Ukraine is a center for human trafficking? Calming down enough to ask more questions and putting on the best nonchalant voice (managing tone is crucial with the language barrier) we gaily ask what friends and what adults are going. He names a long list of kids and one adult. Phew! It's then we remember that Jenn said in Korea the favorite thing for kids to do is go to the Karaoke cafes. Does Eastern Europe have dance cafes for kids? Hmmm....another thing to add to the list of must see in Kiev.
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It's not the packing that's stressing for long overseas trips - it's the preparation of home and business. Taking a mental break and thinking of simple things is refreshing. Last night the mental break was: How will things look when we get back from the first travel phase - April 9th? The snow should be gone. The stack of mail (mostly junk) will be huge. The 6 new houses being built in the next sub may be done with families moved in. Daylight hours will have increased - that's right - Daylight Saving Time! Thanks to internet search engines the discovery is that we will experience two DST this year - one in the U.S. on March 13th and one in Ukraine on March 27th. So glad to know this advance - would anyone think to tell us in Kiev? We couldn't tell from watching TV or the radio. What appointment might we have missed? Hey! This is supposed to be a mental break........