Days 4-11 with Lilya and Alex

We have spent a lot of time traveling to the orphanage to see the kids.  We are not able to go until 2:00 because they are in school during the day.  So, we leave our apartment around 12:30 and walk to the bus stop right across the street from our apartment.  We wait for bus #79 which takes us to another stop about 30 minutes away where we get off and wait for bus #7 that takes us to Vil'nans'k.  We then take about a 8 minute walk across the railroad tracks, to the orphanage.  Usually we get there between 1:45 and 2:00.  We spend a few hours with the kids, doing a whole lot of nothing.  We usually just sit on this couch in the lobby and play with the kids.  We play UNO and let them play the iPad.  Sometimes other kids will come hang out with us, until the teachers shoo them away!  We know they mean well as they want us to have time with Lilya and Alex but it is nice to have other kids around, too.  Most times, Lilya tells us that she hasn't eaten anything for the day because the food is nasty, so we take them to the little market just a few minutes from the orphanage and let them pick something out.  It breaks my heart to hear that they are not eating!!!

I know the food is bad because last week, when we arrived, Lilya was in the cafeteria eating.  Well, she was in the cafeteria with food in front of her and she was just sitting.  She had a bowl of watered down potato soup, some porridge  and brown bread.  She put some porridge on a spoon and said, "Mama, try".  I said, "Sure, I'll try it!"  Oh my word - nasty isn't even the word to describe what that was.  Of course, I didn't want to tell Lilya that, so when she asked if I liked it, I said, "It's OK."  There was no way I was going to let her know what I really thought of it!

I also found out that the orphanage does not have showers.  Lilya said that they just stand at the sink and wash and rinse off with a small cup or a lid to something.  I can imagine that they do not enjoy doing that very often and now I can see why the kids smell so bad.  Lilya took off her shoes and her socks were all crusty.  Geez - I can't wait to get them home so that they can change their socks daily.  I mean really - we take for granted that we get to change our socks daily. 

We really don't do much else - so that is why I haven't blogged.  Well, that and the fact that when I blog from the app on my phone, I lose much of what I write and that is frustrating!  But my photos are on my phone, so that is why I like to blog from there.  Today I am blogging from our MacBook, so no photos.  But there are plenty of photos on our FaceBook page.