Visits to the Orphanage

Andi and I stand outside of the front doors of our hotel. We watch the parking lot for the familiar silver van. There are others milling about, sitting on their haunches by a shrub, huddled tightly talking about something in hushed mumbles. We feel safe. Our driver is never late, and like clockwork he pulls up and our translator opens the door. We greet each other as we get in the van and then sit back for the Russian rollercoaster ride to the orphanage. Our translators are young college age adults and are very friendly. We talk to them about all sorts of subjects as the van weaves between potholes. Our orphanage, baby house #3, is among an apartment complex. The van turns up and down streets past children playing in the cinnamon colored dust that is the ground here. It is soon that we see the faded multi-colored fence that surrounds the orphanage’s playground. The playground is made up of a few monkey bars and several tires half buried on end. We open a loosely chained gate and ascend 3 steps into the orphanage. We walk into the entry way, where an old black couch sits against the wall. Also a desk is in the corner were a worker usually sits. They know us there now, because when we walk in they mumble something in a questioning tone then go get Lilia. When she arrives, she smiles and reaches for us, then we take her outside. In the playground, she walks holding our hands and babbling a little. After about 30 minutes we head inside to the music room. Today, Lilia was so excited to go into the music room that she almost leapt out of my arms when the door opened. The music room has 2 pianos, a puppet theatre, small chairs, musical toys, stuffed animals, etc inside. We play, dance, walk, sit, crawl, throw balls, and wipe her nose, since she has a cold. After about 1.5 hr we head back down the long, narrow hallway to hand Lilia back over to the caregivers. We wave byebye (pa-ka, pa-ka) and she is taken down a different long hallway to her group’s room for lunch. Today she was more talkative, jibber jabber mostly.
Now, we head to the grocery store to find some lunch and get more bottled water. The heat is back, which makes the trip more difficult. Maybe we’ll see some more exciting stuff on the way. Yesterday, there was a fire at the “theatre” and the entire Lenin Square was filled with smoke.