Well, we knew this would eventually happen: now that we’ve had court, everything has slowed to a complete stop.  Of course, we’re still visiting Audri every day, twice a day, at the orphanage; but life in Kramatorsk is beginning to take its toll on us.

Mr. Na has been a good sport throughout the trip–I’d say he’s even better than I predicted he’d be.  With all of the walking we do every day (two miles total, there and back to the orphanage) he hasn’t complained once.  But he’s been pretty defiant lately–which is definitely a characteristic of being six.  And every time we call him on it, he melts down and wails about how much he misses Oatie.  It’s gotten to the point now where we don’t’ believe he’s mourning the loss of our dog; he’s just using her death as an excuse to cry so he doesn’t get into trouble for things that he knows he shouldn’t be doing.  I know he’s homesick, and I know he does miss Oatie, but that doesn’t excuse him from being a total dork and lean on the asbestos-dust covered walls in the hallway like we told him not to do 8,000 times.

On the plus side, Mr. Na has assumed the role of big brother with grace.  Though Audri’s not quite ready to make the big leap and play with him, we’ve watched her emulate his play, and he’s been great at trying to get her interested in the things he does.  But they are clearly two different individuals.  Na is outgoing and very social.  When he walks into a room he wants everyone to know he’s there.  Audri is the exact opposite.  She is introverted and not very social at all. She prefers one-on-one attention and observes the world very quietly.  So Na doesn’t understand when we come to Audri’s Grouppa during visiting hours and she runs right past him to be scooped up into mine or Pa’s arms, and he gets pretty upset about it.  We’ve tried explaining that Audri just hasn’t warmed up to him yet, but he gets pretty flustered and pouts.  I keep telling him that pretty soon, she’ll be giving him so much attention, he’ll want her to leave him alone.

We haven’t really ventured out much more than our daily walks to and from the orphanage–stopping at the local grocery store along the way.  I’ve gone running twice so far but I’ve learned that it gets pretty hot here by 9:00 a.m., so if I don’t go earlier, I won’t enjoy it.

We’ve managed to find a local flea market that isn’t too far from our apartment building, but unfortunately we came close to closing time, so we weren’t able to see everything.  The market was set up like a public storage space where each vendor had one unit that they could close with a metal rolling door at the end of the day.  Vendors sold everything from clothes and shoes to food, toys, DVDs, cell phone accessories–you name it.  There was a large building adjacent to the outdoor market where people sold meat, fish, baked goods, fruit and vegetables.  Everything looked really good, but as I said, everyone was closing up shop and, quite honestly, walking around with a side of beef in my backpack seemed like a bad idea given the large quantity of stray dogs and cats roaming around!

By the time we finished our excursion to the flea market, it was time to go back and visit Audri.  Perhaps we’ll see more of Kramatorsk on foot in the coming days.  We certainly have the free time!

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