4-5-16

*written by Ry in country

Getting lost is typically a great way to see somewhere that you have never been, but it is not ideal when you have a schedule to keep to.  I went running this morning to try to get a breath of crisp air and enjoy the sun and hopefully run by a church or two.  The air smelled more like diesel exhaust, but the sun was nice.  I ran by St. Nikolai Church on my way back to the hotel, but for some reason the hotel was nowhere in sight.  I somehow made it to the grocery (Billa’s) that we went to yesterday, realized I was too far West, went back to the main square and tried to get back to the hotel again.  A ten minute delay proved to be no problem for my 9:15 meeting with Maggie to go to the orphanage, but it was nerve-racking for a little while, anyway.  With the addition of bread and butter (khelab and mosla) to our Bulgarian vocabulary, breakfast was much more successful, and I made it to the hotel lobby to meet Maggie, showered and dressed, at 9:15.

After another 4 lev for a short taxi trip, Maggie and I were welcomed into the orphanage to meet with the director and psychologist again, as well as meet the local social worker who would be reporting back about my visits with N.  I tried to follow the conversation along, failed miserably, then tried to show off with a “Hi, how are you?” and proper response (that went OK), but eventually, after showing my passport to the social worker and getting complemented on my cute family, N entered the room.  His face was flushed and hair was matted and his eyes glazy-he had been woken up from an atypical morning nap for me.  Apparently the little guy was worn out by all of the playing we had done! There’s no rest for the weary, however, and we immediately went back upstairs to the room with the toys.  This time, I started by holding him and he was very receptive to that.  He wasn’t interested in coloring, and he was somewhat interested in the block puzzles, but most of all he was engrossed in his door obsession, trying every door in the hall until he found that one with enough give to hit the wall behind it.  We took advantage of the moment to try to learn open and close, at least.

As a distraction from the amazing doors, we walked N to the slide at the end of the hall.  What was a fearful, annoying experience yesterday became a memory to be cherished as we rolled the little yellow Chevy truck done the slide and watched it go (davai).  We squeezed onto the slide (purzalka) and went down together, and the end of the slide was met with a smile, every time.  It wasn’t long before he started to try more doors again, and as other distractions, we began flipping lights as his mind worked over the relation between the switches and the lights coming on an off.  We rolled a beach ball back a forth until he could legitimately claim “just crawling around” and not “I am heading towards a door”.  We did some acrobatics today (flips, flying, and sitting on my shoulders), but we DID NOT like sitting on my neck-that was too high and dangerous for his liking.  But, I got to cuddle and calm him down in about 30 seconds.  Soon he’ll know that I won’t drop him!

With lunch being at 12:00, we were responsible for moving him back downstairs so he could eat with the rest of his group.  Bye Bye (Choa Choa), N!  Thanks to Billa’s grocery store, lunch was on the cheap using our fruit and lunch meat form yesterday.  I couldn’t stop thinking about being with N that evening, so in the mean time I learned how to count from 0 to 10 for fun countdowns with N. 

Another 4 lev brought us to N, who we met outside.  He was still physically tired, so we sat at a gazebo, and I showed him water (boda).  I poured it on my hand, and as it pooled in my palm he put his forefinger in it, flicked it, started “washing” his hair and splashing the water.  He also drank very well from the bottle, but otherwise showed no interest in the bottle itself-he was more like “Get to the point, I’m thirsty, please (molja).  Again, N loved kicking balls, going down the purzalka, and being just being silly. He loved watching the cars (kolati) go by, too.  The only distraction during the car (kola) time was a French-made hubcap with a lion (wolfche) on it that we threw away like a frisbee.  Back on the swing (lulka), he almost fell asleep, laying his head on my hand for a pillow as he was rocked for one of the first times in his life.  I got more smiles today that I could have ever asked for, and between you and me, I am calling myself tatko (daddy) whenever I want. 

Dinner was courtesy of “Burger Point”, and thanks to the help of a ten year old who could speak a little English, we got two (dve) double cheeseburger meals with Pepsi.  We even got a surprise for free-fly by bird poop!  Right on Dad’s head!