Spring is coming....maybe...hopefully....oh please, oh please come!!!!

So I thiiiiiiiink that spring might be on its way here to Ukraine...There are just the slightest signs of flower buds poking up through the ground and more and more now when I talk my daily strolls through the city I get to un-button my parka and let myself be cooled by the wind. It is all everyone can talk about here and I am more than willing to join the conversation :)

Yesterday I had a fun experience...I was invited by a private english teacher to join his class of 7th grade students as we discussed (in english of course) gift giving traditions in our respective countries. I learned so much from the children about what kinds of shops they can buy certain things in (apparently the post office here is more like a bookstore/magazine shop than it is just a vehicle for letters and packages). I also had fun watching their reactions to information about shops in the US...they were SHOCKED that our drugstores house things like film developing stations, makeup, toiletries, and -gasp- food! Their only idea of a drugstore here has strictly medication and nothing else. It was also hilarious when I described...wait for it.....a MALL to a room full of 7th grade ukrainian girls (only one boy in the class and I am pretty sure he was dozing off by that point). The excitement in the room as I described the glories of first, a mall and then....again wait for it....TARGET stores, was so thick you could almost taste it! haha! it was awesome...they all said they wanted to come to the US just to see a mall...I promised I would take pictures and send them...ha!
I was invited to return to the class in the future and I am really looking forward to it.

Work at the orphanage is still going well...I am in a room with little ones this week...the youngest is just 5 months and the oldest is just over 2 years. I am kind of surprised I am still healthy given that the kids I am working with this week are all fighting nasty chest colds and so far I have been peed on twice this week and puked on once (HA!) I love it though...there is one little boy that I am falling in love with right now....he is hard to describe but in a nutshell he is what you generally think of as autistic...over 2 years old, not talking, doesn't sit up by himsel (for those of you with medical knowledge this kid is the most hypotonic child I have ever held...no exaggeration here), makes strange motions with his head and hands, doesn't make eye contact very much..etc. They all kind of ignore him and let him "entertain himself" with his repetitive self-stimulatory behaviors. It is amazing (almost brings me to tears) what he will do if I actually try to engage him though...today I had him playing the most delightful game of catch. He had been "buried" in this little ball pit they have in the room by one of the caregivers and he was just spacing out and tossing ball after ball out of the pit and ignoring everyone's verbal commands to stop. So I went over and kind of caught a ball as he was tossing it out and sort of batted it back into his lap....he just stopped and started giggling in the most adorable way! This went on for about 10 min and progressed to the point of him actually trying to change the place he would throw so I would miss! He was making eye contact watching to see where I was going to block him next. All this cognition from a kid the caregivers all told me was mentally retarded...-sigh- I love my job.