Walmart Shopping

On Sunday, July 11, my Mom and I met the Ukrainian group at the Loveland Wal-Mart for the shopping trip. Each child had $25 to spend on themselves. The Ukrainian children were paired up with families who would guide them around the store. My mom, Margie, and I were supposed to take a kid together. “We can take more than one though, if needed,” Mom kept repeating to anyone who’d listen. “Just let them handle it,” I said in that forebearing way that only a daughter perfects. Her technique worked out in the end though, because we ended up with two kids, Valeriy and blonde Sasha.

Valeriy held my hand tightly and pointed at everything in sight. He wanted this and that and what about that? They both stopped to look at movies. Sasha said he wanted hair gel so we steered them towards the beauty section. My mom and I were a little befuddled by the gels. I don’t usually buy gel. Never had a reason to. Maybe boy gels are different than girl gels. Sasha waited patiently. “I know!” Mom said at last. “There’s a hair place!” So we walked back to the hair salon and asked the ladies there what to do.

One of the women showed us two different tubes of product. One was smaller. She said the small one was like glue, would make the hair very stiff and was good for fine hair. The other was double the size and the same price. It wasn’t quite as thick but still a decent gel. I tried to explain the difference to Sasha. In Ukrainian, I’m really good at talking about travel, food, jobs, playing games and what I like to do in my free time. I haven’t had as much experience speaking on the subject of hair care and hygiene.

I held up the small tube. “This one is like glue… It’s more…” And then I was stuck. Stiff? Thick? I couldn’t think of these words. “It’s like glue and it’s $10.” I repeated. “This one here, it’s not quite as… like glue… You need to use it with water, and it’s the same price.” I stopped speaking sheepishly. Sasha is really good at patiently listening and nodding and trying to figure out what I’m talking about. “So which one do you want?” I asked. He pointed at the bigger tube.

“Does he want to try it on his hair?” the lady asked. “Come with me,” she told him. He followed her back to a chair and she trimmed his bangs (did he cut them himself?) and styled his hair all spiky. “Does he want his hair done too?” she asked and nodded at Valeriy. I translated and Valeriy shook his head because he thought his hair was too short. “No, we can do something,” she said. She mussed his hair and spiked his bangs. “What do you think?” I asked them. Those two boys gave us the biggest grins in the world. Sasha beamed the whole rest of the trip.

We headed for the toy section and found the remote control cars. They each wanted one. Valeriy also wanted matchbox cars, a nail clipper and the movie, Shrek. He settled for the car and a set of matchbox cars. Sasha chose one of the larger cars, $20. “It’s too expensive,” we said. You only have about $15 left.” Clarke was also in the toy section with some kids and said that if Sasha agreed to share his gel, he could get the car. So then I had to figure out how to say, “share.” I looked it up on the dictionary on my phone and came up with a noun. “That can’t be right,” I thought but I showed it to him. He looked at me in utter confusion. So I tried some circumlocution because this is a technique you’re supposed to know how to do as you get fluent in a language. “If you let the other kids use the gel, you can get the car. The gel will be for all of you,” I said. He nodded eagerly so we got his car.

After we paid, we went to wait at the entrance. Children with their chaperones started arriving and showing off their purchases. Natasha bought earrings, Alina had little plastic bracelets that made shapes, Oksana had fake tattoos and stick-on jewels. She and I tattoed each other later. I think I want a real tattoo just like it. It looked cool!

Sasha told the other boys that he’d gotten his hair spiked no charge. Another of the hair stylists had come out to see all the kids and become best friends with Mom, because that’s what my mom does. So she ended up gelling two more boys’ hair.

Then I asked Yulia what the word for ‘share’ is. She told me, daletisiya. (I still remember!) This word was nothing like the word I’d found on my phone dictionary. Had I tried to show Sasha a word for stock? Or maybe a part of something?

That was an amazing afternoon with those children. Just watching them interact with us and meet new people. And the Wal-Mart people were so interested in us, too! It made my heart ache.

-  Jessica Benes

Day 10 – Timberline

“My favorite part of today was to have a family for the afternoon!” says Anna. This feeling was shared by many of the kids who were able to spend several hours “buddied-up” with a family on Saturday afternoon while at Timberline Church. Each family brought several kids to keep things fun, and to guide them through the many activities that were planned for this annual orphan birthday party. There was cotton candy, custom photographs, balloon characters, lots of games, lots of gifts, face painting, and hot dogs. Most importantly though, was a special connection time that made the kids feel special. The Children’s program at church was filled with high energy, and captivated Americans and Ukrainians alike with the story of the Good Samaritan, played by our own Vlad. After the lesson by pastor Mark, Vlad came to me and proclaimed, “If this were real, I really will stop and help!”

Thank you so much Tiffany, Sean, and all of Timberline for all of your wonderful help in such a meaningful day for the children!

– Clarke

Day 9 – Miller Farms, Playing in the Park, and a Little Science

We had such a great, fun-filled day on Friday! We started at Miller Farms, with Andrew driving us around and letting us pick lots and lots of vegetables for Sunday’s Community Dinner. The kids found carrots, radishes, and sweet peas and filled bags and bags full of their treasures. Of course, a few were eaten along the way, and everyone tried something fresh from the farm. We had a terrific crew of volunteers working with the kids the entire time! We couldn’t have done it without them. Miller Farms would not have been complete without lots of dogs, a few frogs, several caterpillars, hungry goats, more snakes than I care to count, and everyone having a go at the go-karts (which the adults swore were not bumper cars, but the kids did not believe us). Thanks so much to the Miller Farms family for allowing us to have such a great experience!

Lunch was a picnic at Willow Farms Park in Longmont. Because it was hot, many of the kids headed for the creek. Splashing around certainly helped cool things off! After lunch, we headed to my workplace in Boulder – the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, for short) to cool off even more – a few hundred degrees below zero that is! The kids were treated to a fantastic display of cryogenics – they learned that molecules shrink when cold and watched balloon after balloon after balloon disappear into a small cooler – only to reappear later when they warmed up. They also learned about magnetic levitation, which makes trains go very fast in Japan. If only the boys could have had this technology with the Miller Farms go-karts!

The kids ended their day with separate (girls/boys) slumber parties. We were so glad to host the girls at our house and had a fantastic time watching chick-flicks, eating strawberry ice cream, and getting and giving manicures. My favorite moment was when Oksana looked at me so seriously and said with a pout “I do not like strawberry ice cream”, only to give me the biggest smile two seconds later and shout “I LOVE strawberry ice cream!”.

- Stephanie Hooker

Boys’ Sleepover

We were blessed with the opportunity to host a slumber party for the camp boys. They stayed very busy with exploring a different house, a different neighborhood and different toys. The boys were excited to play with our dog, cat and bird.  They enjoyed spending time with our kids and eating shish kabobs that Dave made for dinner. Valera found Caroline’s karaoke machine and made beautiful music for us. Sasha T spent some good quality time playing with our old Hotwheels. Vlad had fun making Caroline a new necklace. Sasha V liked blaring tunes on the CD player for the whole neighborhood to enjoy! I think a highlight for them (and us) was when our neighbor, Eric, took the boys on a motorcycle ride on his big Harley. They gobbled up a chocolate chip pancake breakfast before heading back to the Stoesz house.

I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or us. Praise God for UOO’s awesome ministry!

– Heather Stokes