A Rope and a Wrench

Wednesday, April 25th

Today we had some time in the morning before we were to meet Dimitry, so Ed and I walked a bit around town.  It had rained last night so the roads were very filthy and muddy.  We ventured into a couple of shops, a toy store and a couple of computer stores.  Then, we browsed in the grocery store scoping out what we would buy to eat on our train ride back tomorrow.  We stopped in at a cafe that we were told had internet and grabbed some coffee and at 11:00 we met Dimitry in the lobby of the hotel. Alexander was our driver again and we headed out but first stopped at a baby home nearby to drop a delivery off.  When Alexander got back into the van and tried to start it it would not turn over.  He kept trying the key, but no luck.  He hopped out and grabbed a rope? and a wrench? out of the back.  What was he planning on doing with those?   He disappeared for a few minutes and when he came back, a delivery truck was backing up to the van. Alexander took the rope and tied it to the other truck and then rigged it to our van with the wrench so that the truck could tow it.  When we saw what he was planning, Ed and I quickly got out of the and watched.  Alexander hopped back in the van and as the truck pulled the van he was able to start it.  Ed and I laughed, hopped back into the van and we were on our way to the orphanage. 

As I mentioned before, many of the roads were dirt roads including the road leading up to the car ferry.  Well, with all of the rain last night, there was thick, pudding like mud down by the ferry.  It was disgusting!  But worse than that was that once we arrived at the ferry, the van stalled again!  Alexander tried to turn it over several times again with no luck and Ed and I just looked at each other in disbelief.  Then, Alexander and Dimitry were conversing in Russian and Alexander gets out of the van and goes up to one of the other cars waiting to go on the ferry.  We see him talking for a few then he walks to another car.  That car pulls around right up next to us and Dimitry says we are to get out and hop in that car.  What?!  Basically, Alexander asked the stranger in the other car if he could give us a ride across to the orphanage and then take us back to our hotel after our visit.  Wow!  Well, thank goodness he agreed but, we had to step out into the muddy mess to get in his car and Dimitry, Ed and I all had to squeeze in the back seat of the car because the gracious stranger's daughter was also in the car also and she had to hold a small flat screen television in her lap that had been in the back seat.  I can't make this stuff up, people.

the gracious stranger and his daughter holding a tv

So, we made it to the orphanage and once again they had lunch prepared for us.  Some kind of fish soup (eh, it was ok), sausage, peas, mashed potatoes and apricot juice.  Then, we were taken to the small playroom again where we could spend time with Grisha.  A girl who looked about 15 years old came in and we were told she was the doctor and would review Grisha's medical history.  She had an unorganized pile of papers that supposedly was his medical file and she pointed out some things in  she thought might be of interest to us. She did say Grisha needs to have his adenoids out but everything else in the report was pretty insignificant, thank goodness.

the doctor

Sadly, soon it was time to go.  Grisha said something and I asked Dimitri what he said and he told me he was saying he did not want us to leave.  My heart melted and I told Dimitry to tell Grisha that it may be a little while before we come back but, be patient because we will be back and can't wait to take him home with us.  Grisha smiled and gave me a big hug.  He accompanied us to the car and waited with Irina on the orphanage steps as we pulled away.  I waved and blew kisses to him and he did back and all I kept thinking was how I needed to get him home.