Friday, July 07, 2006
Day off today
I don't have any class today, Friday, because it's graduation and the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist. We have class tomorrow, though. To celebrate the feast our family went on an outing last night. There is a group of foreigners learning Ukrainian language and culture, and we worked it out to tag along with them. The traditional celebration entails girls weaving garlands, throwing them out to a river, and boys jumping in after the garlands. Whoever's garland the boy got he was supposed to meet, and perhaps marry. We just went to a pond with these foreigners and their local "tutors", where we had a bonfire and cookout. The food consisted of bread with salo (pig's fat) and tomatoes and cucumbers, roasted wieners, and roasted potatoes with salo inside.
Hollie began her job. She likes it a lot, even though the work is pretty simple. When the "friends" (clients) at the center work on their projects, Hollie helps them. Their work is usually bead work with the girls and candle-making with the boys. Hollie also has fun learning Ukrainian from the friends. After about an hour, all the friends stop their work, and one of the friends leads them in calisthenics. Then they go back to work.
In the afternoons I come back home from class, and we often go on walks. The girls still are not entirely used to city life, so we have to "walk" them to burn off their energy. They are getting to know the park pretty darn well.
Nellie is starting to get a bit braver with her language skills. She always greets people in Ukrainian. And since there are a lot of dogs around, she knows how to say, "Is the dog nice?" Kali is more of a homebody, and feels more uncomfortable with the language and new food. But when they hear a word of English come from *anyone*, the floodgates open. They are as creative as ever with their stories, songs, and plays that they perform. I think they might even be more creative in this environment.
Pictures will come soon, I promise. I'm still looking for a USB port that I can use to upload them.
Hollie began her job. She likes it a lot, even though the work is pretty simple. When the "friends" (clients) at the center work on their projects, Hollie helps them. Their work is usually bead work with the girls and candle-making with the boys. Hollie also has fun learning Ukrainian from the friends. After about an hour, all the friends stop their work, and one of the friends leads them in calisthenics. Then they go back to work.
In the afternoons I come back home from class, and we often go on walks. The girls still are not entirely used to city life, so we have to "walk" them to burn off their energy. They are getting to know the park pretty darn well.
Nellie is starting to get a bit braver with her language skills. She always greets people in Ukrainian. And since there are a lot of dogs around, she knows how to say, "Is the dog nice?" Kali is more of a homebody, and feels more uncomfortable with the language and new food. But when they hear a word of English come from *anyone*, the floodgates open. They are as creative as ever with their stories, songs, and plays that they perform. I think they might even be more creative in this environment.
Pictures will come soon, I promise. I'm still looking for a USB port that I can use to upload them.
