Donetsk

Now there are 6 of us traveling. And at least 10 bags.

Olga got up early and started working the system. Eileen and I had our last breakfast in the Europa Hotel. We packed and were ready to go at 10. Olga came back and we went to get birth certificates changed for Sasha and Nastiya. This place had a door that had no restraint on shutting, and banged loudly with every person that went through. It had broken glass on the bottom half. No wonder. Then we went to the internot. We were delayed by a funeral procession. It was a short procession, but 2 buses were part of it. Out of respect, we stopped and waited. The procession went only 50 yards after we stopped, then they started getting on the buses. We continued to the internot.

We delivered two bottles of champagne, signed papers, and the girls were no longer in the care of the internot. The director gave us some ceramic pieces. Then we went to the girls' classrooms, for one final goodbye. First was Nastiya's class. Anya's (the local translator) mother gave a small goodbye speech to the class, and explained what would be happening. It got to Sasha, and she teared up. Several of the little girls came up to Nastiya and said a final goodbye. Then we went to Sasha's class, and the same speech. Again some tears.

We went outside to our taxi. Before we left, Sasha got out and gave Anya's mother a long, long hug. She obviously loves this woman very much. She also said goodbye to another woman, another teacher possibly. Then we drove downtown, where Olga did more paper work. I got out and checked the exchange rate. It has been rising very quickly over the past few days.

We traveled to the trade school, where Tanya attends class. We delivered two more bottles of champagne, and the director released Tanya into our care. Then we went to the electronics store, to finally pay for some equipment we were buying for the internot. However, the equipment had just arrived. And we did not want to pay for it until it had been inspected. Which was taking a long time. So I had to leave some money with the internot's technical guy, and we left.

Back to the hotel. Now we had a second taxi. Six people plus driver plus bags would never fit in one car. And it was "off to Donetsk!" Which meant 90 minutes of driving through one town after another, on poorly maintained roads, followed by 30 minues of cruising on well maintained roads. When we finally left the towns, we got to see the hills and valleys. It reminded me a lot of Oklahoma.

Then we came into Donetsk. A big city like Kiev. We arrived later than we wanted, and it took a while to find the correct office. And then it took a very long while to get the last birth certificate. So no luck getting on tonight's train. And the train for the next night looks doubtful: there are only upper berths left. This means we would be split among at least three cars. Not a good situation. We were told by the ticket seller that there might be a chance that more berths would open tomorrow at 8 AM. It's going to be a short night.

We booked some rooms at a hotel next to the train station. We went to a restaurant called "Sun City", which even had menus in English if you asked for them. Now the big question is, if we make it to Kiev on Thursday, can we still be home this weekend?