We went first to see Nastia today. I explained to her our new plan, that is that we will come every other day to see her (and Sasha) and the days we don’t come, we’ll be working at our computers. But I prefaced this by saying that in 11 days (count ‘em – 11!) she and Sasha will be with us. We’ll go to Kiev for a few days, I said, and then we’ll go where? Ameriki! And there were smiles all around with that. We read through the English-Ukrainian primer we brought last week that seems to be breaking new ground. (Nastia’s particularly proud of the page where we do arithmetic in English). It’s a great tool for her because it has the English words transliterated in Ukrainian and that’s given her more confidence in her pronunciation. Then of course we played War and Nastia won. She’s so much fun to play with. Aside from the glib asides in Ukrainian (equivalent to g’bye! see ya!, etc. when she loses a card), she does some great sound effects and to our delight, now punctuates her big victories with, “Yes!”
As we were leaving Nastia, Michael decided to take a few photos of the beautiful Veshevitche landscape at dusk. After a few minutes we were accosted by a man who greeted us with all the warmth of a long lost relative. This is where the finer points of my Ukrainian could really use some help. I get the gist very often and I catch a hell of a lot of words. But if everyone could just talk at 33 rpm instead of 78, I’d have half a shot. Our new found friend, who I thought told us worked with Tatiana, the wonderful director of the orphanage, showed us a building or two, gave us a brief history and then invited (read: insisted) we share a drink with him.
We piled into the car and Vanya drove us the three minutes to one of the two store/cafes in Veshevitche. Our new friend, Mikola, ushered us into a private room with a table, and reappeared with a small bottle of Ukrainian cognac and three little plastic cups. (Vanya had coffee – always the conscientious driver!) Mikola is a delightfully jolly and engaging type. He was so happy to meet us and spoke as if we were old friends. He cited that Mikola was Michael and Ukrainian and since his nickname was Kolya, therefore so was Michael’s! And me he kept calling Mary. Vanya corrected him. Oh, Loo-rhen (that’s how they pronounce it here, accent the first syllable). Then he turned back to me and said, Skagit, Mary … (Tell me, Mary …) He made many toasts, mostly to the new year and every time you toast, you have to refill your glass. I protested, as I can’t really drink (I’m on Dayquil today, nursing a beautiful Ukrainian cold), but he insisted you have to at least do “chup-chup”, a tiny drop, to carry on with the toast.
After 15 minutes or so the bottle was empty and we were on our way. But not before he invited us to his home for homemade sausage and pork and shashlik (clearly vegetarians like me are a minority in these parts) on New Year’s eve. And then I realized what he had been saying and when we left clarified with our driver Vanya. Kolya was married to Tatiana! The word for husband in Ukrainian is the same as for man. I just thought he was saying he was her man about campus kind of thing. Now we understood the significance when he said he’d known Tatiana for 30 years!
(A side note about the vegetarian thing. Every day now Michael and I tell Nastia one fact about ourselves. Today I told her that I don’t eat meat. I got a clouded reaction bordering on concern until I said that I know Daddy and she and Sasha like to eat meat so I do cook it. The sigh wasn’t audible but that smile spelled relief!)
We ended the day with a visit with our son Sasha. Now that we know we’re official, we like to reinforce our new family status with the kids. They seem very pleased and proud that we’ve become a family (on paper if not in actuality yet). We did some puzzles and colored a little and Sasha is slowly but surely beginning to repeat English words. And it was a short but as ever sweet visit with our boy. We brought him a banana and taped him eating it (he’s a bit of a ham in the spotlight, seems to enjoy it). When it was time to go, he said as he does every time now, I don’t want! And this time we explained that he is our son, we are a family and the four of us are going to be together soon. And he seemed to get it. At one point I said, you’re the best son in the world. And he smiled like we had just handed it to him (the world). That was the day’s golden moment for me. For all the angst we’ve endured on this trip, these kids make it all worth it and more.