BUDGET IMPASSE MAY LENGTHEN TRIP



Donetsk's soccer stadium. Those are moveable "sun lamps" behind us to help the grass grow on the field. The ground is also heated since this stadium is open (and it gets VERY cold here!).

 Friday April 8, 2011

Today S and I found out we would be returning to Kyiv tomorrow on the overnight train. Reason being, we have not yet received his passport here in Donetsk so our agency feels it doesn’t make sense to wait any longer when we can begin some of the paperwork/medical exam in Kyiv. Hopefully his passport will be available Monday and can be sent to me in Kyiv. Our agency does a stellar job of keeping up with Ukrainian and U.S. politics affecting adoptions, so their advice is to try and get things moving on his visa before there is a shutdown at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv due to the budget gridlock back home. Hopefully the House and Senate will be locked in a room together, without toilets, food or water (or pay) until they come to an agreement!!!!! We will sure miss Donetsk though! It’s a much smaller, friendlier city than Kyiv, I know my way around and we’re right downtown, close to everything. Between my knowledge of key words, Google translate, my pocket phrase book and my ability to read Cyrillic, everything is easier this time! For you parents coming after us, learning some Russian, reading Cyrillic and being able to write your and your child's name in Cyrillic, will really add fun to your trip! Thanks to friend and fellow adoption blogger, Richard (http://adoption.lecour.us/201004/basics-of-reading-russian-933.html ),who has a GREAT crash course in Cyrillic, I’ve learned a lot and also have insights into how hard it will be for little man to learn English. The Russian alphabet has letters and sounds we don’t have. One letter looks like a squished bug and also sounds like one (it’s the “zh” sound as in the end of "massage"). They don’t have the “ch” or “th” sound. Our letter “R” is a “P” in Cyrillic. Our “V”s are “B”s, there’s a letter than resembles a lambda, there’s the upside down Pi sign…..…the list goes on. Remembering your Greek alphabet will help. The game S and I play now is I try and sound out Russian words, completely massacring them. He laughs, then tells me the “correct” pronunciation.  When I’m able to pronounce the word correctly, and I can actually understand the sounds coming out of my mouth, I do a victory dance and S thinks I’m a loon! It’s sort of fun, like deciphering little puzzles.

Today was an exciting day for little man. During our last trip, I met a student (Daniyar) who is studying at a University here. He and his family are refugees from Kazakhstan (he’s married with a 6-year-old girl). He speaks English (along with 4 other languages) so did some translating for us and took Scott and I on a wonderful sightseeing tour of Donetsk during our last trip. Today I asked him if he’d take S and I over to the soccer stadium in Donetsk for a tour. I told S about it yesterday, to try and get him ready and give him a feeling of control over his situation. He told me he was excited to go but I really didn’t know HOW excited he’d get. To put it mildly, HE WAS IN HEAVEN!!!

The local team here in Donetsk is called Waxtep Shaktar. “Shaktar” means “miner” in Russian, as mining is the big industry here. The team dates back to 1916 and Ukrainians are VERY proud of Shaktar! (Even though everyone in town was bummed since they lost to Barcelona last night : - (    ) . It’s a strange juxtaposition: the average household income is only $3,000 per year (yes, in U.S. dollars!),yet the town has a stadium that makes Candlestick Park look like a high school. There is a very rich man here in Donetsk who funded this entire thing……and it’s impressive.

When we arrived, we first went in the gift store and I had Daniyar tell S he could get something, as long as it wasn’t too expensive. This is a SWANK gift store, mind you! Nike makes everything and it’s just as expensive as the Giant’s Dugout at PacBell Park! Poor little S was again overwhelmed (but smiling), walking through the aisles of everything from Shaktar underwear to stuffed animals to coffee mugs. He didn't know what he wanted. Daniyar did a great job with him, helping him try on some clothing in the kid’s section. He finally chose a hat that fit him and a jersey that he’ll have to grow into. I bought two handkerchiefs for our dogs. I told S he can put them on Gracie and Jamani – this will undoubtedly help him bond with our pooches. We then walked from the gift shop into the museum which are both inside the stadium. The lobby of the museum was overflowing with kids around S’s age, obviously on a field trip. I was happy I had S here, since I need to make up for all the childhood he’s missed. Since he has only gone to school in the orphanage, I'm sure there were not many field trips like this. The manager of the place remembered Scott and I from our last visit, when Daniyar had taken us here before. He was excited to meet little S since we had talked about him last time. He shared with me that he believes adoption is a great thing (not a feeling shared by all Ukrainians, especially when it is AMERICANS doing the adopting). He went on to share that the team’s goalie had just adopted a child! I had read about this in light of the Ukrainian government trying to thwart the stigma that surrounds adoption by Ukrainians. Anyway, we ended up getting a private tour and little S was let in for free! (Hey, I only play the “orphan card” when appropriate!).  Little man was beaming the entire time!  I’ve also learned he’s kind of shy with other people and stayed very close to me during the tour.

Artificial turf around the sides, real grass on the field.

Daniyar doing a mock interview with the great footballer in front of the "media wall."

A luxury skybox.

S and the President of Shaktar.

In the locker room!!

Locker room.

They had humongous jacuzzis in the locker room (behind S).

The "cleat washing" station for between halves.

The "bench," fully equipped with seat warmers! Our guide was quick to tell us Chelsea (the popular soccer team in England) only has a wooden bench.

Our guide actually let us walk onto the field! We got special treatment!

Tunnel the players run through when entering the field.

This was an interactive soccer game projected onto the floor (shouldn't have used my flash!). We played until we got kicked off!

The cool (intentional) graffetti inside the stadium (F.C.S.D.= Football Club Shaktar Donetsk).

  THE MUSEUM:

A "fog screen" on which a movie was projected. S was leary when our guide asked us to walk through the screen. But once he did it, he couldn't get enough!

Outside stadium. This ball looks like it's floating/spinning on water.

There is a huge park surrounding the stadium with some WWII tanks on display. Like our son G,  S is ALL boy and ran to these tanks and started climbing them! 

A monument to Ukrainians who lost there lives fighting the Germans during WWII on this site. All their names are listed.

Tonight we watched a little of “Stargate” on TV, dubbed in Russian. The good news is the dubbing is terrible; they talk over, and a little behind, the soundtrack so if you listen “under” you can hear the English. He really liked the show (especially the “moon-stars”/monsters)! I put little man to bed around 8. He, of course, didn’t want to go. He finally went, begrudgingly, hugging a new stuffed tiger I let him pick out at the grocery store today. He wandered into the kitchen about 15 minutes later, and asked if he could help me do the dishes! What a cutie! I sent him back to bed so I could begin this blog.

Tomorrow we leave on the train at 6 pm so I will miss a day of blogging. In the meantime, please pray for us that things continue to go smoothly (also pray for those morons in the House and Senate!).