Weekend at…

Friday begins with… You guessed it… A whole bunch of idle time.

Fortunately for us, we have been invited to Michelle Maly’s apartment for lunch and an escape from our own apartment. We’ve been in Odessa a week, and still haven’t taken the bus anywhere, so here’s our first experience with public transportation on the local “Mashuka” (bus). The 133 bus takes us from about a block (the city blocks here are a bit longer than one finds in the states) or so south of the Afina Mall (major landmark in downtown Odessa), runs all over creation and winds up probably about 4 or 5 blocks from Michelle’s.

We have lunch with Michelle and the Pretre family, who are also here to adopt. Lunch is fairly simple; pizza toppings on French bread, which actually was pretty good. The apple/raisin salad also did hit the spot with the cinnamon adding some flavor. Conversation was also interesting, discussing anything from lifestyles back home, future for the children we are adopting and some of the frustrations we have all had in the process.

After lunch Alan, Michelle and I sat down to play a different variant of scrabble… Only you’re on your own. You have your own set of tiles, and you build what you can. When all your tiles are used, say “take two” and everyone draws two more tiles, tries to build on what they have, and the process repeats until all tiles are used. After about 3 or 4 rounds of this, it’s getting to be close to 3 pm, and Michelle and the Pretres are off to the orphanage, so Mari and I catch the 133 back.

There is a sandwich shop nearby, so we decide that we will give it a whirl. No English menu, but lots of pictures and the waitress spoke it well enough to get the point across. Wasn’t really impressed with the sandwiches, but they were okay. We tried kvas, which is a honey-wheat flavored beverage (no fizz); best way I can describe it is that it is almost like a real thin syrup. Just a little too sweet for me. The rest of Friday evening is uneventful for us. DVD and no popcorn… The microwave is not the greatest… It takes 10 minutes to maybe pop just over half a bag of popcorn, and it’s burnt at that; so no microwave popcorn until we get a different oven. We have also discovered some unwelcome guests… We have ants. Mr. Landlord will be hearing about this first thing Monday.

Saturday, Vera was supposed to come over, oh around 1:00 p.m. We wait, thinking that she just may be on time and by herself… Nope… 1:00 rolls around, no Vera… Call Michelle… No Michelle (she has her phone bagged up somewhere and can’t hear it… Call Michelle’s other phone… Okay… fill her in on the details… Maybe Vera's just running a little late. Actually call Vera, despite the language barrier, and she understands more than she lets on… I will be there between 3 and 4. Great, it’s now time to avert cabin fever.

Off to the bookstore at the end of the street to look for a Russian-English dictionary that might actually be helpful as far as pronouncing the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet (fat chance). In any event, we can still communicate by finding the word, point & grunt, have Vera say the word in Russian then try to explain it in English… Talking louder to someone who does not understand STILL does not work. But once again, I digress… We have been craving ice cream, and there is a Baskin Robbins just across the street from the mall…

Vera finally shows up with her friend Olya. What to do for dinner? We’re thinking pizza, but the only place we can think of that’s nearby is in the Athena (Afina) mall. We go, it’s packed, we leave and head for Kompot, a nicer restaurant with English menus and English speaking waitresses. Vera & Olya order whatever it is they ordered. It looked like a salad or maybe a personal sized casserole with meat & mushrooms and then got a “personal” size pizza that was big enough to feed two (each). Mari orders three meat cutlets with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables, while I get something called pelmeni. Best descriptor is boiled small meat (beef & pork) ravioli and is served with mayonnaise or sour cream. It is quite tasty. Had I known how filling it was going to be, I would have skipped the mashed potatoes and just stuck with the grilled vegetables.
Broken language and miscommunication aside, it was a pleasant meal and we all had a nice time. And before all of this is over, Vera says something to the waitress, who returns… with ice cream. We finish, head to the mall to pick up some water and a couple other things, then back to the room in time for Michelle to come over for a re-match in dominoes… Before they leave, Vera & Olya invite us to Olya’s apartment for dinner on Sunday.

Sunday… It’s raining and has been for I guess most of the night. One never realizes how annoying rain hitting a metal roof is until you’re trying to sleep. Gloom & doom outside, we think best to stay home (no umbrella – Note for Things We Have Learned -- Bring an umbrella for those inclement days). Vera told us she would be by about 2:00 to pick us up. We are on their time clock, so add at least an hour maybe an hour and a half to that. About 3:30 she shows up. It’s still raining… To the bus stop to catch the 130 bus to the north end of Odessa. The bus ride takes us to, well the best comparison in the states would be, “The Projects”. There are several apartment buildings in the area, most in dire need of paint on the outside and sidewalk repairs (read “mud trails between the buildings”). Who are we to judge? This, after all, is their home.

Into a tiny three room (about 500 s.f.) apartment with few furnishings. Like many of the buildings we have been in, it is in disrepair and needs a lot of help with floor covering, lighting and plumbing, etc. I can say this… It is their home, it is clean, they are proud of it, and we respect them for it.

On the menu is borscht. However, this recipe was not the traditional beet soup we are used to hearing of; instead this was more on the line of a beef stew with potatoes, cabbage, onions, and a tomato base and served with sour cream. Also on the menu are fried chicken cutlets and a big, heaping plate of mashed potatoes… These young ladies are our hosts and they worked hard to prepare this very fine and delicious meal for us. We are grateful for all they did for us with what little they had…