Women's Day - Friday, Mar. 6th

This coming Sunday is ‘Women’s Day’ here in the Ukraine. Turns out this is a pretty big holiday and it is celebrated all weekend. So this was the big event that Elona and the other children in the orphanage have been practicing for and we got to attend the performance today in the Music Room.

We arrived a little early, so went into the library to wait. Elona came in. She is all dressed up with a big bow in her hair and pretty little flowered dress with full skirt and puffed sleeves. It was a little small for her and something that would have been more stylish when I was her age, but she looked adorable. We took pictures and then one of her friends, Janna came in dress very similar and Elona asked that we take their picture, then the rest of her dorm came in and we took pictures of all of them together. There are 9 girls total, Elona is the oldest, most are 7 or 8 and a few younger. I said to the girls ‘you all look very beautiful’ and Elona translated. She is already picking up bits English. She was so proud of herself, more that once she said “Mama say in English, Elona say in Russian”.

The performance was for the employees and some of the older children were there. Seven girls from Elona’s dorm and the same number of boys in the same age group preformed. There were a couple boys that spoke several times and sang. Then the girls performed in small groups. Elona sang a song with four other girls and then later did a dance with 9 other boys and girls. Two other older girls sang also, we could tell they were thrilled. Following the performance they awarded the Director and the counselor with card and flowers and then a woman that we had never seen before, made a short speech and handed out small gifts to the women and girls of the orphanage.

After the performance, Elona changed clothes and we went outside. A bunch of other children were out, so we mostly watched Elona interact with the other children until it was time for us to leave.

We cooked dinner at home and then planned to meet our new friend Kevin somewhere. He invited us up to his apartment, with the ‘Women’s Day’ celebration he said everywhere would be packed. He also had another friend Kostya, who is with the Ukrainian Navy and has been to school in the US. They are both very nice, interesting guys and we enjoyed lively conversation. It got late, so we Skyped Ben from Kevin’s computer…..good job - Ben would not start up his video until he knew who was calling.

Saturday we have Elona for the afternoon. I’ll report in tomorrow.

Kelley and Roger