Carsickness

Sveta drove Sarah, Iryna, Anna, & I to the village, Viska, to see Calvin. Remember how carsick Tyler & I have been on our drives to see Calvin? Well, poor Anna was carsick, too. In fact, she threw up in the car about 20 miles outside of Viska. We weren’t prepared for vomit, so it got all over Sveta’s backpack and the floor of the car. Bleah. Sarah volunteered to clean it up, as she doesn’t have a weak stomach. Smelling vomit makes me want to vomit. ::shudder:: Have I mentioned how amazing Sarah is and how we couldn’t do this trip without her???

When we arrived at the orphanage, Calvin was outside playing with the other children. He ran up to me when he saw me and I gave him a hug. From then on out he was playing and showing me toys, etc. I think that he has a hearing problem. When I said his (Russian) name or when other caregivers spoke to him, it was as if he couldn’t or didn’t hear them. Or perhaps he was “in the zone” and didn’t realize we were talking to him. I’m hoping that it will be something easy to fix upon bringing him home. I can hope, right?

The drive back was vomit-free and we learned to have a plastic bag in Anna’s lap to prevent any other spewing in the car. J There was Dr Pepper ($4 per can) at the grocery store in Viska, so I took advantage of that for the drive home.

Calvin is having surgery on May 5^th in Moscow. I spoke with Sveta about going to see him as much as possible before he leaves. However, the director said that he’s leaving either tonight or sometime tomorrow for Moscow – super early! If he will be there tomorrow afternoon, we’ll go back tomorrow to see him. If not, then today was my last visit to see Calvin on trip #1. L

Apparently, Tyler was supposed to arrive yesterday at 7pm in Miami. Sarah’s husband, Rodolfo, waited for 3 hours before going home. It turns out that Tyler’s flight from Moscow was delayed and so he missed his connecting flight in Atlanta. The next flight out of Atlanta wasn’t until 7am this morning, and even with that there was a chance of delay. Tyler left his cell phone at home (wasn’t that a smart move?) and so he couldn’t call Rodolfo to let him know what was going on. How frustrating! I hope that Tyler & Keith will arrive in Miami soon and start on the long 3 hour drive home from there. I’m sure Tyler is exhausted – I hope the airline put them up in a hotel since the flight was delayed…wishful thinking?