Banya 4, cold weather and the final extension

I am now on my third week at the baby hospital and it gets better every day. I go to the same group of kids everyday but the counsoler in charge rotates among three ladies. I think they work 24 hours and then have 48 off. Each one of them runs the class very differently so it takes a little getting used to. One of them immediately sends me outside for the first hour and a half with Danya, Soma and somtimes Gailia. Then we come in, change into "indoor clothes" and join the other kids for an hour or so before eating lunch. Another one puts me in a different room with the older kids for the first 90 minutes and then we rejoin the group. And the third one just lets me join all 12 kids and play with whomever. All of these are fine with me it just takes some getting used to especially with the langague barrier.
Lunch is always fun. An assitant and I have a table (picture a small table about 12 inches tall) of the 4 smaller kids. I usually end up feeding 2 or three of them since she is also serving the food to all three tables. I have almost reached the point where more then 50% of the food is being digested by the babies in lieu of being worn by them or me, but it has been a real challange. After lunch they all go to the potty and then to nap and I head back to the van.
I also started going to the boarding school this afternoon. I liked it a lot. There are a lot of kids and then satya there all week and then go home for the weekends. So they all have parents but many of them have abuse problems. I heard that the school started fixing a big breakfast on Monday morning because so many of the kids were coming back so hungry. I had a good time there today, made a lot of new friends, and look forward to going back tomorrow. It is always nice when they ask you if you are comeing back to be able to reply "das vadanya"--see you tomorrow. I will be sad in a couple of weeks when I have to answer "nyet". Speaking of which.......

I extended through Oct 31st..the last day of my visa.

We went to the banya Friday night to celebrate Dasha's birthday. It was a lot of fun, as always, and everyone had a blast. I took several pictures of the spread of food and the festivities and I will post them soon. The outdoor pool has gotten a lot cooler. Speaking of which....

The weather has begun to turn cool. The high this weekend was about -1C with the lows around -5. I had to break down and go buy some gloves and a cap.

Till next time.....Carpie Deim