Alone with Olya in Челябинск

       Yuri drove down Lenina Blvd through downtown Chelyabinsk. Although the buildings were of interest to me, our new daughter sitting in the back seat with Denise and our interpreter, Julia, had captured the bulk of my attention. I kept turning around to look at Olya. Butterflies fluttered a happy dance in my gut. Denise couldn’t keep her eyes of her. When we approached the 80 foot tall Monument of Kurchatov at the end of the boulevard, (Igor Kurthatov was known as father of the Soviet atomic bomb.) Yuri turned south and continued driving a short distance until he arrived in front of a white nine story building with thin red brick horizontal stripes.
 Click here to see the white building where we stayed in Chelyabinsk

Before getting out of the car, I turned around from the front passenger seat to look at our new daughter. I got out of the car and stared at the building in front of us. The third through the ninth stories had balconies with a view of a forest across the street. I asked Julia if that building was our hotel because I didn’t see any signs on it. She told us that the building in a sanatorium for workers recovering from a stay in the hospital and for their families.

Chelyabinsk had been the “secret” city where the Russians developed the atom bomb.  Since Russian had given up its strict Soviet Union restrictions only two years prior, there were no commercial hotels in the city.

Yuri, and the staff that came with us, carried our luggage into the building. We walked through a lobby that had a color television. Adults and children were crowded in that room, sitting on the available chairs, watching a TV program. We followed Julia and Yuri to a tiny elevator. Yuri and some of the other staff waited with our luggage while Julia escorted Denise, Bonnie, Olya and me into the tiny elevator.

We were given the “executive suite” at the end of a long hallway on the top floor. The door at the end of the hallway opened up to what looked like a lobby, with a carpet and chairs along the walls. A large window looked out onto a balcony, which, in turn, looked out onto the forest across the street.

Yuri brought our luggage and took it into our room. Julia told us that the city did maintenance on the steam lines in the summer and therefore the facility had no hot running water. Denise and I looked at each other. Julia must have read our minds, “Come with me and I shall show you how to heat the water so that you may bathe,” she said as she led us into the tiled bathroom. She went to a corner of the shower and picked up a large metal bucket. She pulled out a large coiled instrument that looked like a tennis racquet with metal coils in place of netting. A long electrical cord came out of the handle. She handed it to me. “Tomorrow morning, when you want to bath, fill this bucket with water. When it is full, place this heating unit into the bucket and plug it in to the electrical outlet.”

“Is that safe?” Denise asked. Her brow filled with worry lines. I was fascinated. The heating unit reminded me of the small heating coils that one can put into a cup of coffee. The one that I held in my hand was enormous.

“It is perfectly safe,” Julia assured us. “You must unplug it from the outlet when the water is hot.”

We followed Julia into the bedroom. She told us that she and Yuri would be gone for a short while and that we should change Olya’s clothes and then get some rest. They needed to return the clothes that Olya was wearing to the orphanage.  They left. We only knew a few Russian words and phrases. Olya didn’t speak any English. Bonnie’s eye were aglow as she and Denise changed Olya’s clothes. They put her “orphanage clothes” into a neatly folded pile on the bed.

With Olya in her new clothes, we all went into the big room that looked like a small lobby. We sat in a circle, in separate chairs. Olya was so short, only 39 inches tall, that her feet dangled from her chair. Olya held a small rubber lion, (about the size of a softball).

Bonnie walked up to Olya and held her hand out, asking for the toy lion. Olya handed it to her. Bonnie used her hands to motion for Olya to catch it. Olya beamed and held out both hands. Bonnie tossed it to her and she caught it. Denise held out her hands and Olya tossed it to her. Denise tossed it back and then I held out my hands. She tossed it to me. We were all aglow with smiles. Celeste chatted away Russian. We had no idea what she was saying. Olya seemed unconcerned by our inability to speak in Russian to her.

We continued tossing the toy lion back and forth to Olya. And then when she leaned forward to catch the lion she fell off her chair and landed on the very thin carpet, cutting her head open in the process. She let out a cry. We all rushed to pick her up.

“Good Grief!” I said. “We haven’t even had her an hour and we already broke her.”

“They’re going to think that we don’t know how to take care of kids,” Denise said as we carried Olya into the bathroom. Denise made a compress out of the toilet paper. Thank Goodness the water was cold.

Yuri and Julia showed up after a short while. Denise and I were embarrassed. When Denise explained what happened, Julia laughed and nodded her head. She told us not to worry because that was to be expected from such a lively child as Olya.” I have to admit, that I was greatly relieved.