We woke up this morning to a fresh blanket of snow.

I decided to sit up front with the driver today. I thought it might be easier to take pictures this way. I was proud of myself for being able to ask if this was okay and tell him I wanted to take pictures, in Ukrainian.

I tried to take pictures of some of the things I wrote about the other day. I want to be a story teller, to share this reality with all of you. There are many little details I wish I could capture.

I can’t effectively describe this place to you. I try to write about the things we see here, and it’s hard to put it into words, except to give you the most simple description.

This is the village before the village where the orphanage is. It’s significantly bigger than the orphanage where the orphanage is.

Similar to the picture I took the other day, but we stopped and rolled the window down this time.

Sign that says “School Internat”. Internat is what they call orphanages for older children.

Our visit today wasn’t too exciting. We were in a different room– a classroom for young children. Lyuda’s friend O joined us again– her hand looks about the same, but she’ll be going to the hospital tomorrow. We played Uno for the long time, until O was called out by a teacher, then we played Skip-bo. The male psychologist sat in with us the whole time. He seems nice, and seems to like the kids and us.

The director, giving one of his 4PM speeches.

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day here for this trip. It went by surprisingly fast. I have mixed feelings about going home. I’m looking forward to seeing Reed, Lena and Gus, and the comforts and luxuries of home, but I think if it was possible, I might stay here. That’s easy to say because it’s not possible– and I was just complaining a few days ago about how awful this place is. I won’t miss the food (maybe the cabbage salad), or the necessity of an ethernet cable, or the bumpy roads, but I think I might miss these people and places that are beginning to be familiar.