Rob's Online Moment

Yes, I'm still in Svalyava. But I am having lunch at "LeRoy", the only wireless hotspot in this corner of Transcarpathia, as far as I know. The past two days were mostly a lot of driving around- we went to Perechin (Cosi's birthplace) twice and Uzhgorod (the provincial capitol) once. Maybe once I get more than a few moments of online time in between bites (yes, April, I am eating. And it's the best meal I've had in a while- I ordered steak and rice with vegetables and it's really good! Really!!), I can post some pictures and thoughts on those two cities. I'll simply say that I can't say or even read "Perechin" without wanting to say "Took" after it. Hobbit fans know what I'm talking about. As for Uzhgorod, I have to resist the temptation to say it with a deep, ominous voice. "And then, we journeyed to...Oooooooozhgorod." I did enjoy my short visits to these cities, though.

So the news is not bad but not great. Things are progressing, but slowly. We probably won't get back to Kiev until the morning we're supposed to fly out. But we still need to get Cosi a physical and a US visa, which can't be done on the weekend, so all that will be on Monday, and we can hopefully fly out on Wednesday. More than once I've considered how it might be possible to just sneak her out of the country. That would probably would create more problems than it solves, so I'm still waiting for paperwork. Right now, we're all just waiting for her new identification number. Without that, we can't do anything more.

So the good thing is that while we wait, I get time with Cosi. Next time I'm online, I'll have some pictures or videos ready to post. Today she played really well with Sasha, one of the new orphans in her group. That was great for me to see, because we were told that she's not able to play with other children.

Interesting note before I sign off- Sasha and a few other kids in Cosi's group have started calling me "baba" (daddy), probably because I'm the only guy they see and because they caretakers keep telling Cosi to call me that. Cosi did, however, yell at me when I picked up Sasha yesterday.

And yes, as April mentioned, our facilitator passed her kidney stone while talking to me on the phone. More on that another time. Suffice to say, it will be forever in my memory as my most awkward phone conversation...ever.