Play Day

A new driver today, “Slava,” the son of Vassily, a carbon copy of his father. The plan is for him to take us on a cultural tour of Kiev. I agreed to the plan, but modified it so the kids would not go berserk. I limited the schedule to only one church, St. Sophia’s, and suggested we stop at “Mister Snak,” a chain of fast food restaurants with quite good sandwiches, to buy what we need for a picnic at one of the many parks. We stopped at a sporting goods store near our apartment and bought a soccer ball and a basketball. We also carried the four softball gloves, neon yellow softballs and Frisbee we had brought from home.

We rushed through St. Sophia’s. Actually, the kids just ran around the grounds and the most interesting thing was the man with the giant hair and equally large moustache who was sitting on a park bench singing folk songs and playing a large lute-like instrument. His voice was really good, almost opera quality. (Speaking of opera, I’m trying to convince the kids or someone to go with me to the National Opera. No takers so far.) Doing their best version of “are we there yet” the kids kept pleading for the park we had promised. Slava very agreeably did just that although Yelana, our translator, told us that it is not a typical practice of Ukrainians to take a picnic lunch.

That wasn’t the case at the park we went to. This one, at the edge of town, seemed to be an old one. The grass was overgrown, the playground had rusted monkey bars and slide and there were several families cooking shish-kabobs on small fires they had built. No one seems to pick up their trash. My guess is that this park was well cared for in the Soviet days, but in the new free enterprise system in Ukraine, no one has found a way to make money from park maintenance.

Pippa got the Frisbee session going right away. She grew up on the Florida beaches and so does a great “Gidget Goes to the Beach” imitation. Andry was very impressed with her mastery of the Frisbee. Tiring of the Frisbee after a half hour of having it bounce off my chest, I got Andry to kick the soccer ball. He has some skills and has obviously played some in Ukraine or Spain in the summer with his host “brother”. He’ll do ok in Miami. But we both had a tough time in the tall, un-cut grass. So we put on the gloves and Olya, Andry and I played catch. Andry has a rocket arm just like his sister. Where did that come from? He’s still got to work on his catching, however. We tried to teach Yelana, how to catch and throw the ball. She was hopeless, but good-natured about it. She had already failed her Frisbee lesson. She told us that she had previously thought most Americans were fat and not athletic. But not this “sporty” family.

Next came a furious game of tag. Both Yelana and Slava were shocked when the children included them by tagging them and saying “you’re it!” When tagged, Slava (he’s in his mid twenties) came as fast as he could after me but I made sure he never came close. I think he was surprised. Eventually we all tired and packed it up to go. We carefully picked up our trash as if we would set a lesson for the entire country.

Pippa gave the kids their choice of another church or a boat ride. (What do you think?) She knew her parents were dying to see all the churches in Ukraine. But the kids saved me, as I think Pippa knew they would when she gave them the choice.

The boat ride was pleasant. The sky had turned dark and a light drizzle began. It was fine with us; we sat around a table inside and had coffee and tea and chatted with Yelana about our plans to help Maria and her struggle with poverty and an abusive husband. It was also an opportunity to ask Andry a few more questions about Maria’s situation.

Apparently, although divorced, Maria lets Nikolai live with her as long as he does not drink and he hasn’t for six months. They had talked about coming to Kiev and finding a job. Maria’s aunt lives in Kiev and offered them some help. Nothing became of this because Maria’s mother got sick and there is still the problem of Nikolai’s invalid father who they need to take care of.

We also learned that Andry’s Spanish summer host family gave him 50 Euro. Andry gave half of the money to Maria. The Spanish family also gave him a cell phone to they could talk with him on the phone but Nikolai took the phone away from Andry.

The hour’s ride came to an end and now it was pouring rain. We rushed toward our van but halfway there Andry stopped and stood for a while in the rain to wait for Jim and Cara who aren’t quite as quick as the rest of the group. (He seems to really enjoy being in this family.) To get out of the rain we stopped at one of the tent booths along the way for the kids to shoot lines of cans with a replica of a Kalishnikov. Both kids are very good with a gun, Andry is super; he won championships in Spain.

The evening ended with a walk from the apartment to a nearby Chinese restaurant. The food was surprisingly good, but we declined the “frog paws” and the “chicken stomachs.”