It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood !

Day 10
              Today we went to visit Lincoln and he was not there. So a worker went to find the director. In Russain the director was trying to tell us something but we had no idea what. So she went and brought a worker to us and she took us on a 15min. walk thru the neighborhood. Before you knew it we were at his school. There were two ladies that came outside to meet us. The one was Lincoln's teacher and the other was the English teacher. So she translated to us that Lincoln was not there but two boys would take us to him. She also wanted to know what we were going to do with Z child. We just looked at each other and we told her we did'nt know we could take him from the home grounds! She said the director said it was ok. So picture this ...we are in a foreign country with not alot of language skills, in a strange neighborhood, know nothing of our surroundings, and are asked to come up with an outing on the spot. So I say to the English teacher....what do you suggest?  She recommeded the museum or the botanical garden near by.  Boy was I relieved !!!!
              We then went on another 10min. walk to meet up with him. Here he was swimming. We felt bad he would miss out. But he didn't seem to mind. On the way we stopped at a store that had some shoes. We need to get him his own clothes to leave the orphange. When he leaves all the clothes he wears are property of the orphange. We brought him clothes but not shoes because of not knowing the size. Thinking we could get his shoes today, we stop in the store and the lady comes and I'm expecting to find a pair and she will see if they have his size. To my American thinking I was suprised to find out these few pair of shoes was it. No ..."do you need this in a size six or seven?"  If they have something that almost fits ...that will do!!  Maybe we can look another day for shoes.
              It's off to the botanical garden. We first stop outside the museum to look at some excavation equipment displayed there. We are still not sure of what is in the museum. We get to the garden and come to a big iron gate with a sign on it in Russian. We both look at Lincoln as to say is it open or closed? The verdict is OPEN!! Good!! The funny thing about Kivy Rog is everything looks closed even if it is open.
We proceed to the builing on the grounds in search of a place to pay, a person to pay, some kind of formality or procedure. We finally found a person and payed. Off to the garden we go.

            We are only there a few minutes and can tell he has been here a few times before. We had our own personal tour guide, how nice!!! The garden was beautiful and nice to see in the middle of  old concrete buildings, broken down sidewalks, and  near people whom hardly ever seem to smile. We tour the grounds and smelled the roses. I thought to myself ...."It's a  Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!!"