T.V.

3-24-07
Yesterday, 3-24, Cort was still sick, his headache and fever were gone, but he had severe sharp pains in his abdomen still and was very weak, dizzy. Steve stayed back at the apartment with him while the rest of us went to the orphanage/Internat. They were done with their classes and it kind of looked deserted. Some of the kids were out cleaning and raking the yard and burning some of the debris. One of the kids went and told Laina that we were there. She came out with Nastyia. They wanted me to go up to their room and watch T.V. They had a table in their room decorated with a tablecloth with pictures (Steve’s cards) on top. They lifted up the table cloth and under the table on a box was a TV. Laina’s uncle had given it to her, but the Director told them they couldn’t use the electricity to watch it, since there was already a TV for the group. So these mischevious girls have hidden it, it’s kinda cute. Probably something I would have done.
There are so many channels that come in, I couldn’t believe how many music video channels. And there is no one to supervise this much. Those two girls seem to be pretty wise though. They changed the channels pretty quick. One bad one came on and I shook my head and said “Niet” and they understood and agreed and changed it quickly. They didn’t resist the parental nudge which was good. They almost seem glad for the quidance.
Some of the little fun events, I was with her myself and we had to do our own translating. She handed me a lip gloss and said “present”. It smelled delicious and she wanted me to smell it. I asked her who gave her the present, and it was for me from her. The coincidence of that is that I had brought some lipgloss that I had bought for her in by bag and was going to give to her. So I gave it to her. We took pictures in the mirror putting our new lipgloss on. We were both wearing the same color green shirts.
She told me “black hair, blue eyes” pointing to mine, with a look of wonder. When Natalie came in later, she translated that Laina thought it was very unusual for someone I Ukraine to have blue eyes with dark hair.
Laina was much more affectionate with me. She loved to have her back scratched, brought back memories from last fall. She seemed very sad to see us leave. She wondered why Cort and Papa weren’t there. She said “Papa, Cort” then waved and gave me a hug. She missed seeing them and I don’t know if they will today. Cort still doesn’t feel great and hasn’t decided what he’s going to do.