Fun in the Sun!!! 8/7/2011
Here's another update we only posted to Facebook, so sorry! Better late than never, right?
We started out our day today here in Berdyans'k (near the Black Sea) with a walk to find the nearest supermarket. After stocking up on some bread, cheese, moloko (milk) and cream (slivka) we headed back to our hotel and proceeded to get ready for the beach. We're staying only about 3 blocks from a sandy beach here so we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spot to bide our time until the afternoons when we are allowed to visit the children. The water was a little chilly since it was morning, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They had a wonderful time swimming and splashing around. The beach was quite crowded, and there is a lot of skin showing, which we are not used to. I think we probably stick out with our modest swimwear. Of course if we were hanging out in LA, it would probably be no different. While we were at the beach, we noticed some other "white" people (being from Oregon, we haven't had much time in the sun and everyone here is tan) that walked up, got in the water for about 5 minutes, then stood up and gradually turned in all directions with their eyes closed and their heads bowed. We think they were covering the beach with prayer. It was a neat thing to experience. After the beach we came home, cleaned up, had lunch, waited for 45 minutes for a taxi then finally made our way to the camp to see the children. We had an amazing time with them, first walking for a very long time back to the area where our hotel is to hitch a ride on a boat. The children really enjoyed the slow ride around the bay, making shadow figures and feeling the wind on their faces, and then when the boat took off and zoomed through the water, it was a joy to hear their squeals of delight. After the ride, we headed back to the camp walking arm in arm, just enjoying the time of closeness. We don't have an interpreter with us now, but we have managed to communicate fairly well using gestures and by looking up words in our Russian phrasebook. Sasha (10 yr old boy) loves taking pictures, in fact he has taken most of the ones we have of all of us. We ended our day by visiting with a local here that speaks English. She showed us where another grocery store was (bolshoy) a "large" one, directed us to the internet cafe, then showed us how to order pizza, not exactly what we're used to, but delicious nonetheless. We love experiencing new things, so we are having a wonderful time here. There are fruit and vegetable stands lining the streets here and all the produce is deliciously fresh from the farm and inexpensive. We have enjoyed melons (dinas) and watermelons (arbus), cucumbers and tomatoes so far. We haven't worked up the courage to try the hanging, dried fish, yet but we are working towards it. We'll let you know how it tastes. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement! We are blessed beyond belief!
We started out our day today here in Berdyans'k (near the Black Sea) with a walk to find the nearest supermarket. After stocking up on some bread, cheese, moloko (milk) and cream (slivka) we headed back to our hotel and proceeded to get ready for the beach. We're staying only about 3 blocks from a sandy beach here so we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful spot to bide our time until the afternoons when we are allowed to visit the children. The water was a little chilly since it was morning, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They had a wonderful time swimming and splashing around. The beach was quite crowded, and there is a lot of skin showing, which we are not used to. I think we probably stick out with our modest swimwear. Of course if we were hanging out in LA, it would probably be no different. While we were at the beach, we noticed some other "white" people (being from Oregon, we haven't had much time in the sun and everyone here is tan) that walked up, got in the water for about 5 minutes, then stood up and gradually turned in all directions with their eyes closed and their heads bowed. We think they were covering the beach with prayer. It was a neat thing to experience. After the beach we came home, cleaned up, had lunch, waited for 45 minutes for a taxi then finally made our way to the camp to see the children. We had an amazing time with them, first walking for a very long time back to the area where our hotel is to hitch a ride on a boat. The children really enjoyed the slow ride around the bay, making shadow figures and feeling the wind on their faces, and then when the boat took off and zoomed through the water, it was a joy to hear their squeals of delight. After the ride, we headed back to the camp walking arm in arm, just enjoying the time of closeness. We don't have an interpreter with us now, but we have managed to communicate fairly well using gestures and by looking up words in our Russian phrasebook. Sasha (10 yr old boy) loves taking pictures, in fact he has taken most of the ones we have of all of us. We ended our day by visiting with a local here that speaks English. She showed us where another grocery store was (bolshoy) a "large" one, directed us to the internet cafe, then showed us how to order pizza, not exactly what we're used to, but delicious nonetheless. We love experiencing new things, so we are having a wonderful time here. There are fruit and vegetable stands lining the streets here and all the produce is deliciously fresh from the farm and inexpensive. We have enjoyed melons (dinas) and watermelons (arbus), cucumbers and tomatoes so far. We haven't worked up the courage to try the hanging, dried fish, yet but we are working towards it. We'll let you know how it tastes. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement! We are blessed beyond belief!
Comments