Monday

We were told that very rarely do they get a morning meeting with the Ministry of Education so we were very happy. Last time we did not meet with them until 4:30 pm so since we had one less day in the region this trip, we were happy we got started early. The morning went like this: MOE at 9am, we received both our referral information which we had already had most of it. Kyley and Greg's turn was next and we then went to the notary to get papers signed so we could visit the orphanage. THen back to the MOE to submit the papers and then on to the orphanage.

We got to meet the director, who was very pleasant and helpful. She had all the necessary people assembled before we started, which made it a lot easier. We had to laugh because she had committed on why my passport was so pretty and not Russ's. Russ said that it was because I was prettier then he was and she laughed. But in reality it was because I had a newer electronic passport that had neat pictures and sayings in it versus the old plan pages. I guess the new US passports now beat out Spain for the prettiest passports!

After massive amounts of information and a brief meeting with both the kids(we got to see them for only a couple of minutes and they were crying. But who would blame them, there were 10-12 adults in a room and it was their lunch and nap times), we waited for Kyley and Greg and then back to the hotel. We would get to visit them again for a longer visit in the afternoon.

Now about our room, for those who are familiar with the Azimut, you will appreciate this. We had the new rooms at the Korvet, the ones with internet access. The were great! They had air conditioning, were up to date and everything matched. No sewer smell, no loud nosies because the windows had to be open. They were really nice rooms, however, these updated technology rooms were not as updated as we thought. When we got back form the first visit to the orphanage, we asked to see the computer guy and were told he would be in at 8pm. OK so we would see him them. Fast forward a few hours, we had decided to eat at the hotel the first night and after we had ordered our dinner, the lady at the front desk brought in the computer guy. So Greg and I followed him back to our rooms to get things set up - GREAT! Well, not so great. First he spoke no english but was familiar with computer lingo enough to navigate a computer. However, he had never worked on an apple. So after a really long time, I finally told him to go over and help Greg out. At this point a was very frustrated because computer access was a must for us here. I played around with the information he wrote down awhile and even called my apple expert (Nigel) back home - I was desparate. But after awhile longer, I gave up and went back to a cold meal. Thankfully, Greg;s computer was working so after dinner, we wrote up information to send to the doctor and used his laptop to send it. Thank you Greg and Kyley!

After everything was done that night and we were settled down from a big day, I decided to try the laptop one more time and by only the grace of God(yes God does have control over computers too) IT WORKED!! So we had internet access, somewhat. We could get on the internet but anything that required a password, we could not get to even the page that we sign in on. So Even though we could look at our blog, we could not post or read comments. No email either. We could only search the web and thankfully, use Skype to talk to the kids. That was the minimum that we needed and so that is what we got. But then again, it would cost us to use too.

THe other technological issue we had was that since we could not use the computer for iver a day, we used the good old phone to talk to our family. THis time we decided that we would not pay for an international phone and just get a calling card, since we used it so little the last time. So when my calling card would not work, I was at my witts end. After some reading through the material, I found a line that said,"Will Not work on rotary phones" Even though this was a push button phone, I could hear the rotary when I dialed. OH NO!! So I had to dig out my papers on making international phone calls and then just charge it to the room! Through all this the cost was as follows: internet usage and skpe calls(over 2.5 hours worth) less then $6.00  - 39 minutes of phone calls $83.00!!! That was about the price that I would have paid for the phone and minutes the last time, so I was not that upset, but it goes to show you that the phone is on the way out and internet talking is the way to got.

To finish up on Monday, our visit with the kids went well in the afternoon. We had fun playing with them and they kept us really busy. Russ and I had to switch off with them because it was too hard to have them both play together - they each wanted to do their own thing. We have medical concerns over the girl but will see what the doctor says.