Internet Woes!

Greetings Friends and Family!
We miss you so much! We have had internet woes for DAYS now and it has been so hard! Especially on me (Jenn)! You don't always realize how much you rely on people in your life and those that you are used to talking with daily, until you can not reach them at all. You are all precious to us and we miss you.

That said, and tears wiped, I'm sure you are all DYING to know how it's been going (I've gotten e-mails from several of you - I know exactly what you mean!).

We came into Donetsk on Saturday and were brought to an apartment that was...hmm? How do I put this? We were on the 9th floor of a 14 floor building. It's been falling apart for years. They throw the garbage down a chute from the central hallway and most of the outside windows not in an apartment are busted out completely. We must enter 3 locked doors to get into our apartment and still do not feel safe. Most of the lightbulbs are burned out or knocked out. Even in the apartments only 3 of the 7 lightbulbs in the apartment work. None are working outside your apartment except right in front of our door. At 2pm in the afternoon we run into a guy coming out of one of the two elevators that you knew if you bumped him too roughly, liquer would spill out of his pours! I must say, even though everyone drinks, I have yet to see anyone out of control or mean, etc. I guess it's just our American experiences that make us wary of them.

Luckily, Sergiy could see our aprehension with the place. Also, the next day when he came to pick us up, we had to walk down all 9 flights (in the dark, except when near broken out windows) to the bottom. Joanna - talking about scary! You get to the bottom floor, never been there before, can't see anything, but know the door is in front of you, and you know there is another flight of stairs heading down like to the basement. Where's the door handle? Who else is in there? The smell is enough to make you loose your cookies - Freak out Factor? VERY, VERY HIGH! ... but..... Joshua 1:9! (thanks Pammy!)

The narrow tub w/ the shower handle, sprayed water everywhere and there is no shower curtain or sides, etc. (Sally & Mark, you know what I mean!) Because we were so close to the smelting factories, it smelled horrible and the pollution that high up was brutal. They burn a lot of coal for electricity too. Sergiy found us another place in "downtown" Donetsk. We have a single room apartment with all laminate flooring. It's much, much, much better!

I plan on posting my notes every little bit. This way if we loose connection, all my work isn't lost.

In a bit! Jenn