Back on the paperwork path, Uzhgorod sights

We started the day off by giving an interview to the Center for Civic Initiatives for us to include an article about our family in their monthly newspaper. Our preseence is a useful opportunity to talk positively about adoption and build some community pride in their good orphanage and encourage people to get involved. Everyone in the office had suggested this one by one when I first met them a week ago. Then the writer hurried off to another interview for a companion article about a local woman who heard that a recent graduate of the orphanage who is a single mom was going to be on the street and offered an empty room in her house; unfortunately, this room is not heated and there is no money for firewood for the mom and the baby, but it is inspiring that the lady accepted this stranger into her house.

After that we went on the bus with Sheila and her husband Maxim, who is a professional dancer and theatrical actor, to Uzhgorod. They will be accompanying a Transcarpathian cultural performance team to eastern U.S. in May. Max had to work, but Sheila took us to the Uzhgorod Castle and to the architectural museum (a Transcarpathian version of the Pirohovo museum we saw last summer, with a lot of wooden buildings transported here to demonstrate what towns used to look like) and an cheap but delightful restaurant that reminded us that Perechyn is not the best this region has to offer in style and service. We also shopped at a grocery store as big as a full-size American supermarket for the three class parties tomorrow, as well as some essentials like shampoo and toothbrushes for the kids.

We got back to Perechyn pretty exhausted, although Julie had time to go say hi to our daughters and tell them that we were leaving town on Wednesday. They all got very excited about that and were running around telling their friends. I was planning to go to the office for an hour or so but found it was going to close early, so just ended up working on some email in the room until Julie got back.

Then we met Val for the first time in almost two weeks and went out for supper in our new favorite restaurant in town: Pidkova (the Horseshoe). It has a nonsmoking room (which has been closed 2 out of 4 times for parties), solid Wi-fi, and an excellent banosh. (In fact, when Julie first tasted it, she said "Now we don't have to go back to the chan," which has given me lots of chance to tease her that the only reason she wanted another visit to the chan, 45 minutes each way, 90 minutes in the pot, and 4 dips in the icy creek, was to eat its banosh afterwards.) He had good news: not only did the court release the final copy of the decree to him, but the local passport office accepted our papers early so they can get started as soon as possible. This is leaving a little more room for hoping that we can catch the 4 pm Kiev train on Wednesday and maybe even get the flight on Saturday instead of sometime next week. Getting our paperwork done at the Perechyn passport office tomorrow is going to be critical if we want a chance to dodge what Val fears may be a 4-day weekend.

New vocabulary:
banosh (BAHN-osh) - heat and stir cream until it clots, then slowly stir in corn meal and let congeal into a heavy pudding, then cover with homestyle curds, crackling (roasted bacon pieces), and dollops of sour cream.
chan (CHAHN)- Transcarpathian mountain hot tub, a metal pot heated over a wood fire, with stones in the bottom to keep you from getting burned and scented with large bunches of herbs