Day 13 & 14

Day 13
We slept a little later than usual because we use Solomiya as our alarm clock. She woke up at 8:30am.
Mike had a teacher's meeting at the English school/Hope & Life office at 12pm and I had two OT sessions (originally 3, but the first one was cancelled). We took a cab into town and then Mike and Solomiya went to the office and I took a #1 bus to a different part of town.
Every week, all of the teachers (Mike, Valya, Yura, Ira) meet with the director of the school (Volodya) to talk about how their classes are going, if they are having any problems and also to pray for the students. Mike said they also discussed and brainstormed ideas for a student 'Course Evaluation' form and ideas for a website for the school.
Afterwards, they all went to a nearby cafe for lunch (you can get a bowl of pelmeny- meat filled tortellini- for about $3). He and Solomiya walked home afterwards and arrived at 3:50pm; thankfully, the little one fell asleep in her stroller during the walk and slept until 5:15pm.
I arrived at my 1st patient's home at 12:45pm. She is doing so well! She had a series of issues in March and April that left her with partial paralysis of the left side of her body. Her niece stays with her during the day, while the rest of the family is working, and faithfully assists with exercises/activities that I give. Yesterday, this woman showed me that she has begun to get movement back into her fingers and toes, and was able to flex them! Awesome! She is also more confident when she walks around the house, is able to get in and out of bed by herself and go into the bathroom by herself. I left them at 1:45pm and on the way to the bus stop went into a huge grocery store near their home. Sometimes this store carries products that we cannot find at the stores/markets near us. I found this -baby 'Dannon' yogurt- there that we had also found when we were in Hungary. It's Solomiya's new favorite.
I got to the bus stop at 2pm and finally a #1 came at 2:15pm. I took this bus into the center of town to see patient #2. He lives off of one of the pedestrian streets right in the middle of downtown. This was the second time I saw this man and he also was doing great! He had some medical issues in October that left him severely deconditioned, weak and with partial paralysis in his right leg. He is definitely stronger, walking better and just looks better overall. I think his body just needed some time to recover from being in the hospital for 2 weeks.
While I was there, this man was telling me about the building he lives in. It is 120 years old and was built in 3 separate stages. He lives on the 4th floor and his apartment has an almost attic-like feel to it. He has lived there for 40 years (his wife too, but she passed away last year).

Random google image of what the street/buildings look like.

I left his house around 3:15pm and took a #3 bus home. After stopping at a small store (Watson's) for some shampoo, I arrived home 10 minutes after Mike and Solomiya did.


Just a random google image for Watson's- but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Mike spent the rest of the evening preparing for Wednesday night conversational group and I cooked dinner and had another broccoli washing session.
I felt pretty good about this day because I was able to communicate with and understand my patients really well- with no translator. I'm finding I can understand a lot more Russian than I can actually speak.

Day 14
I had my Russian lesson from 10-11am with our friend Valya. This morning I learned 3 new tongue-twisters (to help with pronunciation) and a variety of verbs/dialogues about what I do in the morning (i.e. make breakfast, wash the dishes, brush teeth, etc...).
Mike spent the morning and afternoon working on preparing for the Wednesday conversational group and grading tests/preparing for his Thursday night Advanced class AND hanging with Solomiya during my lesson and taking several breaks throughout to play with her :)
Solomiya and I went on a walk after lunch (beautiful fall day; complete with sunshine, 60 degrees and the smell of leaves in the air). As soon as we went outside, Solomiya fell asleep. We went to Cilpo to buy bread, bananas, laundry soap and milk.

Yup, random image, but kinda looks like the one down the road from us.

We then walked around our apartment complex for about 45 mins checking out what was new and/or interesting.
The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, blogging, hanging with Solomiya and listening to our new favorite group 'Mumford & Sons'- I know, we're totally behind. We're grateful Chrissy introduced us to them.