We're Alive, Wild Party, Mushroom Hunting

After several days without the internet, we are back! We received our court documents today - hurray! Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Bachmach - several hours in the car (adults only, we are not allowed to take the kids yet) - to pick up the two birth certificates. We are going to ask if we can bring the kids back to the hotel tomorrow evening, after the adults return from Bachmach, to have them spend the night with us and then possibly leave Wednesday morning. The main purpose is to throw them in the shower and scrub them really clean! The bottom part of the shower can hold water (I have used this for laundry) and would make an ideal small bathtub (6-8" of water) for Misha to just soak in! This would be ideal - but nothing ever goes as planned here, so we may not be able to leave until Thursday.

We have the option of waiting here in Gorodnya for the Ukrainian passports (in the children's new names) to be issued down in Chernihiv (may take up to 20 days) or heading for Kyiv for the wait. Although we love our little town, we are more than stir-crazy and tired of the same food morning, noon, and night! Kyiv will be much more expensive but there is so much to do and so much Ukrainian history there to show the kids! Misha may be too young, but Mari is not.

Yesterday we spent several hours with Mari's group and played cards in her room. "Go Fish" is a new game to many and I lost as what I had in my hand was verbalized in Ukrainian to other children who would ask for something, even without one of that kind in their own hand! Mari's roommates Alina and Marina played as did Alina's brother Sasha and another boy named Sasha. The other roommates Christina and Ina (home from the hospital) played with Barbies.

Last night when we came down for dinner, a huge party was going on in the dining room to celebrate Teacher's Day. We realized, after 20 some days here, that we recognized several of the participants and when they saw us, they added two chairs and sat us down for a feast! We tried to beg off, but they would not hear of it! The tables were groaning under all the weight of the food! You eat some, dance some, eat some, toast, eat more, toast, dance, go outside and talk, eat more, toast, dance, and toast! My neighbor gentleman made sure my plate was always full, often times with stuff I would have never selected or knew what it was, and that my glass stayed full. I tried everything and pushed the things I didn't like around on my plate alot to be polite! The evening finished with fresh fruit added to the table (huge green grapes from Turkey, small purple grapes from the Crimea in Ukraine, and watermelon - where is Duncan?) and several cakes (tortas).

What a night and what a headache this morning! Vodka is drunk by the shot and sipping is considered rude - finish it in one gulp and then chase it with juice or water. After several obligatory toasts, I had John hide my little shot glass and then told our host that I don't drink. They tried to switch me to wine or beer ... no luck. They then poured what I thought was grape juice from a soft-sided box ... I took one gulp and yup ... wine! John was fine and held his own. Dancing is one-on-one or in a group circle. There was no folk dancing, which I hoped would occur, but you just sway and move your feet in place while facing forward into the circle and talk to your neighbors. Very convivial!

We finished up the evening showing pictures, to our end of the table, of life at home on John's computer and they asked questions such as how much money John makes, how much gas costs, how much our house is worth, how much our mortgage is. All fairly private questions in the US - but par for the course here. We had read that these questions are normal and just a way to level set their understanding. They often ask each other these same questions. We answered as honestly as possible and I think they understood the salaries are comensurate with the cost of living after hearing how much our mortgage is a month.

Before the evening ended, our host, Victor, invited us to come mushroom picking (more like cutting) in the morning. After breakfast, they arrived to pick us up and drive us to the forest several miles outside of town. The woods are very thick with pine, oak, birch, and other trees. The leaves are turning in earnest now and the oranges, golds, greens, and browns were beautiful! Victor brought his daughter Nastiya (11) along. She is learning English and we were very touched that she missed school to come with us on this outing! She did a very good job with her mushroom picking English lesson - she taught me all about the mushrooms and we spoke entirely in English! Victor is a champion mushroom spotter and Nastiya came in second. There were around 20 varieties of mushrooms in the forest around us. We were shown which one single variety was edible and how to cut it away from the ground. There are several "imposters" that look very much like the edible one and Victor was very careful at the end to inspect our bags to be sure we had only safe mushrooms.

Nastiya spotted a little grey-green snake with orange cheeks and called me over. I saw a woolly-caterpillar and some black beetles. There are no bears left here, very few deer, a few foxes, some wild boar, and some beavers. Heavy hunting over several hundred years or more has pretty much decimated the edible wildlife. Except for the chirp of a few birds the forest was quiet and beautiful. The moss is so thick and cushiony under your feet it was like walking on pillows most of the time. The mushrooms peek their heads just up through the top of the moss and look like little brown nuts poking out! It was an experience we will never forget and a very special memory of the motherland of two of our children!

Tonight we are invited over to Victor, Larusa, and Nastiya's home for you guessed it, mushrooms! We will have to find out what is appropriate to bring to such an occasion and pick something up!

We will blog again as soon as we can. We hope everyone at home is healthy and safe. We miss you all and look forward to coming home! I get to call Aimee once a day on our Ukraine phone and hear what is up in Mariupol and that helps keep me sane!

PS Misha is being treated daily for lice and he still has his hair!