Waiting for Passport

The pace has slowed for us here. We are in an apartment in Kiev waiting for Natasha's passport to be done so we can go home to the US. Our facilitator takes us for some kind of outing each day to entertain Natasha and keep me from getting cabin fever. We are a using this time to get to know more about each other. For example I have learned these things about Natahsa.

• She is NOT a morning person! She's night owl. That will be a big adjustment for our family!
• She loves chocolate (but really, who doesn't)
• When asked what she likes to do she responded : "eat, talk, eat ". She is certainly eating!
• She loves TV and cartoons
• She enjoys photography
• She is shy practicing any English words
• She likes a good tickle-fest. I feel a pillow fight coming on

I really have to prod her to come to bed, to get up in the moring, to turn off the TV and to take a shower. She is not shy about saying "no!" with a smile and wondering how far she can push it. With a little more prodding she good-naturedly gives in. Shes does not seem to want to leave the apartment which is a bit puzzling to me. She did not want to talk a walk outside, or make a snowman, or even go to the mall. My facilitator tells me she said she is uncomfortable out in public with me because I am a foreigner and can't communicate with people. Then the burden of communication for us falls on her. It is as if the roles of parent and child are reversed. So for now I am not pusing things too much. I let her sleep in, watch TV and only go out when our facilitator has something planned for us. He has taken us to some arcades in the big malls. We have also seen Pink Panther dubbed in Ukrainian. Still funny, but I missed a lot of the jokes.
Last night I let her call her friends, she had a lively conversation for about 1/2 hour. I am sure, like any pre-teen girl, that she could have talked for hours. I was afraid that she would be sad when she got off the phone, but she was not.


Today we went to the circus. It was the first time Natasha had been to the circus. It was a really great performance. Much, much better than any circus I have seen in the US. The had women lion and tiger trainers that you can see here. The circus is a big deal here and I can see why. I took a ton of pictures. One girl in one of the high wire acts fell, and it was not a planned part of the act. She landed on the saftey net, but on the very far corner. We think she hurt her neck, but she went back up and repeated the manuver perfectly

Communication with us is a challenge. I have a good on-line translation program to use, but Natasha does not see to interested in working on it. So we do a few things, and then let it go for the day. For the most part we get along fine with hand signals, charades and intonation. Mosgt of the time she gets my meaning and I get hers. Tomorrow is Monday and we will go back to the arcade that Natasha enjoys and then have lunch out. I will be anxious to hear how the passport is coming along. I am ready to come home