recap part 2- our first train ride

Well it`s not raining but it`s supposed to. We got to the train station with Luba and didn`t know what to expect. It was not very well lit and with the drizzle, darkness,cold and all the different looking people it was like a scene out of a Dickens story. We met up with Dr. Yuri and proceeded down the walkways between the trains to find our car. We got to where we were supposed to be and a lady guided us up into the car and pointed us to our berths. These cars are all sleeper cars where the "rooms" all have 4 bunks in them with a small table on one end. Total size of the berth was probably 6`x8`. We all climbed in and sat on our bunks and we all introduced ourselves to the doctor. He is a very pleasant low key individual who took a great deal of interest in our family and life back home. After we had made our introductions the train started moving and we were off!! The train travelled at about 40-45 mph I`m guessing and stopped every so often to pick up more passengers. The tracks there are not what I would call smooth. The cars would rock back and forth which made sleeping difficult at best and made a trip to the bathroom very interesting to say the least. I had said in an earlier post that trying to sleep on the train was like being pulled on a wagon behind a four wheeler and laying on a sheet of plywood while driving under the yardlight once in a while to mimic the lights in towns as we go through them. It still is the best description that I can think of to describe the ride. Not only was the ride rough but we could not settle in knowing we were about to meet a child that could change our life forever. The anticipation was to much for us to sleep and it hit home that we were actually doing this" for real." Anyways, at the start of the trip and about an hour before the destination the "stewardess`" would come around and offer you a hot tea for I believe 2-3 gryvna (about $.35). These were actually not too bad if you didn`t stop and think if they ever washed the cups. After a very fitful night in the bunk we finally arrived in the train station in Donetsk. We unloaded our group while Luba was on the phone with the driver and we went down a long walkway where he was waiting for us. The first thing we noticed was the lack of any sign of wealth that we had seen thus far in Kyiv. The buildings and homes were very bleak and dingy looking. We were headed to Mariupol which is an industrial town towards Russia from Kyiv. As we were travelling down the road we noticed the rich black dirt in the fields. It was much like southern Minnesota. The roads in MN.are rough at times but are much better than the ones in the country in Ukraine. After an hour drive we arrived in Mariupol and we drove by a steel mill that had to stretch for 2 miles and was extremely "Russian"looking". The town itself looked to be very poor and the roads were downright awful in the inner streets that we travelled. The main roads weren`t wonderful but were better than the little side streets. The first stop we went was to the inspector of orphanages to sign in and from there we were to drive to the orphanage. As a side note- Our friends from Blaine, MN, Brent and Cath had gotten two children from this very orphanage a number of years ago. We arrived and went into the directors office and listened to a high speed conversation in Russian between Luba, the director, a nurse and Dr. Yuri. What it boiled down to was the director wondering why the SDA kept sending people to see this little girl that they didn`t feel was adoptable. We did get to see her and Dr. Yuri did a quick evaluation and quickly told us this would not work. The little girl did have some real obvious problems and at that point we were wondering what the rest of the trip was to be like for us. We headed back to the inspectors office and signed off on the referral and headed off to a little deli type place to grab a bite to eat before we went back to the train station. This was the place where we all four had a very nice meal, dessert, 20 oz pop and the total bill was I believe about $8.00 for all four. And then we were off to the train station. This whole journey to Mariupol and the orphanage had taken the whole day and by now it was about 6:00 pm so we were pretty wiped out. We bought train tickets and were off on another great train ride. This time we were actually able to grab quite a bit of sleep. Let me wander a bit here, I forgot a few things!! The train tickets that were 2nd class were about $27.00 each and that got you about 1/2 way across the country. The other thing that I forgot to say was the train bathrooms. The only word that I can think of that comes close is NASTY. But anyways, about 13 hours later we were back in Kyiv to await our second appointment. This time we had an apartment about three blocks off of the main square in a different direction. We slept in basically all day to recoup from the non sleep type train ride and just hung out. ( this was Sunday) On Monday morning Luba called and told us that she would try to get us our second appointment as soon as she could and would let us know. Stay tuned for part three- police issues, Kentucky friends and our second appointment.