Did I say why John and I had to take the stairs the other night, down 9 flights of stairs? It was because the elevator wasn't working! Whenever we would hit the down button, it sounded like the elevator doors were shutting on something a couple floors away - like something was lying in the way of the of it shutting. It took us a while to find the stairs. We had to go out through the doors to the balcany (good thing the windows were broken out, we could just "walk through" them). We prayed the old concrete balcony would hold while we wondered around to try and find stairs. We finally budged another door open, into the building, and found the stairs.
We had an opportunity to go to a Ukrainian Football game & root for the home team - WAXTEP (pronounced shac-tar; translates from "Coal Miner" the local occupation here). They are one of the best professional teams in Ukraine. Their only rival, we hear, is Kiev. Football (known as soccer in the US) is very, very big here. It was exciting and fun to cheer for the home team, who were excellent. We were able to go to a brand new, state of the art stadium complex, the best in Ukraine. It was very nice. We bought a penant & scarf to hang next to our BSU stuff. The girls will be proud. :) We'll upload photos soon.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
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
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
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Oct. 17th -in Donestk
Greetings to all of you!
Yesterday we showed up early for our SDA appointment and went window shopping at the local tourist vendors near the SDA building. Mark & Sally told us that would be the best place to buy souvineers when we come back through Kiev to head home.
If we bought them yesterday, like the vendors really wanted us to, we would have to pack them around for the next month! We are trying to make things as light as possible.
We successfully received our Referral from SDA to see Valentina - Thank you Lord! It's been a long time coming. There was an Italian couple there waiting for the same thing. She was in near tears at receiving their referral. John and I weren't quite that emotional. I suppose it's because we know Vala could accept or reject us. We'll feel the real emotion when she actually says she wants to be adopted by us. That will be the triumphant moment!
At 7pm we met Sergiy and his family at the train station. We weren't able to get the economy sleeper car, they were all taken through the entire weekend. John and I were able to get a 1st class car though with Sergiy and his family just a couple of doors down. His sweet daughter and son accompanied his wife Vicka and him. She knows very limited English so communication is hard. His little girl gets car sick and they give her medicine before the hour long car ride into the station. She was pretty groggy when we met last night, poor thing.
Here are some pics from our train's sleeper car last night...
This is an old Soviet train car. It felt like we were riding in a bit of history. And I suppose we were. The first class is very nice. It has only two beds, instead of 4. The four beds would have given us more room to put our luggage on the upper bunks, but we were glad there was storage we could stuff our suitcases under the bunks. They had the nice velvety type backs to make setting up comfortable. Also, in first class, the train staff makes your bed up for you.
We got coffee (very strong) that evening and the next morning. We brought bread and some sausages from the market to have as a dinner snack. The coffee costs 4 greivna a piece (at the exchange rate now, that's only about 50 cents, not bad).
The heaters kick on when the train starts moving. It cooks you out! You have to stuff blankets and pillows over the vent to keep the heat from radiating in. The windows do not open.
Smoking is very prevelant here. It appears everyone smokes and they smoke everywhere. Including on the train! We eventually had to close our sleeper car door just to try and block out the smoke, as we're not used to it. But when you shut the door, you shut in the heat. Have to pick the lesser of the two evils, I guess. :0)
We arrived in Donestk at 7:20am this morning, right on time. Train travel is very popular as well as using the Metro. Our apartment, we found out, will not be ready until 12noon. Sergiy's in-laws (where he's staying) do not have room for us. So he dropped us off at the Pirate Ship restaurant. (Since I can't read Ukrainian, that's what I'll call it for now) Mark & Sally have eaten here several times and used the internet. Thanks for the recommendation. Although the internet is constantly going off line. We were able to IM Sarah for 1 1/2 hours - she should have been in bed sleeping, though! lol
John took a picture of me checking our e-mails. We are trying our best to stay in contact with those watching our daughters and managing our business while we're gone. Unfortunately, there are no apartments available with internet right now. So we'll have to come to places like this in our free time. It's really important people e-mail us if they need to get in contact with us - not to wait until we contact them. That way, we can respond as soon as we can get on the internet - thanks to all of you who are filling in for us! We can't tell you how much we appreciate it!
This is a cool ship like restaurant that's open 24hrs a day. It's got some really neat decor, although it, like everywhere else, is pretty smokey. It's not well lit, the pirate theme, you know mateys!
Much love to you all! We look forward to seeing you all soon.
John & Jenn
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Meeting at SDA
We had our appointment at SDA this afternoon. We were hoping to receive permission to see both girls at once, but we are going to be allowed to see just one. Tomorrow around 3pm we'll meet again at SDA and they are suppose to be giving us approval letter to see Vala. We'll leave on the overnight train Friday night. We will meet with the Inspector on Monday and see what goes from there.
Although this messes up us seeing them on Friday, it will allow us the weekend to get on the overnight train to Donetsk and get settled in to the apartment and do some shopping for food. We've been too busy to get much to eat and drink. We'll want to make sure and stock up on stuff like water. We've not purchased enough lately. With the language barrier, it's been pretty difficult. There are very, very few who speak English in the serving trades like stores and restaurants. We've already been ripped off at one restaurant. We confirmed that with Sergiy. But we are a little wiser now and are getting the hang of it. Food is very inexpensive here. Lunch for two is 1/3 to 1/2 of what it costs in the States. That's very helpful.
It's about 11:30pm and we're finally getting tired. I've adapted well to the time change - John's getting there. Thank you all for your covering of prayers - we appreciate it very much!
Love to you all,
Jenn
Although this messes up us seeing them on Friday, it will allow us the weekend to get on the overnight train to Donetsk and get settled in to the apartment and do some shopping for food. We've been too busy to get much to eat and drink. We'll want to make sure and stock up on stuff like water. We've not purchased enough lately. With the language barrier, it's been pretty difficult. There are very, very few who speak English in the serving trades like stores and restaurants. We've already been ripped off at one restaurant. We confirmed that with Sergiy. But we are a little wiser now and are getting the hang of it. Food is very inexpensive here. Lunch for two is 1/3 to 1/2 of what it costs in the States. That's very helpful.
It's about 11:30pm and we're finally getting tired. I've adapted well to the time change - John's getting there. Thank you all for your covering of prayers - we appreciate it very much!
Love to you all,
Jenn
Oct. 15
We slept well last night with the exception of John getting up for a bit in the middle of the night. He was able to Skype and talk with Joanna and Ryan. Joanna was thrilled. When I heard her voice it woke me up instantly. So I was up for a bit, then went to back to bed while John Skyped Ryan. It was good to talk to both of them.
We slept in until 7:45am and were so grateful. It was nice to finally sleep. I've included a photo of the bathroom. It is the most beautiful room in the house, with small blue tiles on the floor and walls, including in the shower. There are also fancy deco tiles in there as well.
We ordered pancakes (flat ones like Blinz) with Russian cheese and tomatoes. They were very tasty! We ordered the ones with ham in them too, but did not get the ham. We also ordered two cappuccinos, but didn't get them either. We'll have to talk with Sergiy and see what our receipt says we actually ordered. We also gave 100 grievna and the bill was 80-50 (80.50). They asked for a 50 coin, which we didn't have any yet. So John gave her a 20 grievna. The change we got was 20 grievna & 50 coin. We think we were shorted 19-50. Again, we'll have to clarify the currency with Sergiy or we'll be broke really in no time. :)
We are currently at McDonalds. We came here first for breakfast, but at 10:00 when we walked in, they changed their menu to the lunch one and we were really wanting breakfast. We've come back to get some coffee, which is pretty good. And use the WIFI.
John's computer won't go on-line here either. Please pray I can hook up with our computer guys back home to try and fix it from here. They can get into the computer and fix anything remotely, but only if it's on-line. Right now, if I can't figure what's wrong, we're dead in the water. At least we've still got mine.
Much love to you all. We are going to get ready to meet Sergiy in about 30 minutes. We are preparing our family photos for SDA. Jenn & John
P.S. The spelling's bad...sorry to those who can spell! The spell-check isn't working well either. lol!
We slept in until 7:45am and were so grateful. It was nice to finally sleep. I've included a photo of the bathroom. It is the most beautiful room in the house, with small blue tiles on the floor and walls, including in the shower. There are also fancy deco tiles in there as well.
We ordered pancakes (flat ones like Blinz) with Russian cheese and tomatoes. They were very tasty! We ordered the ones with ham in them too, but did not get the ham. We also ordered two cappuccinos, but didn't get them either. We'll have to talk with Sergiy and see what our receipt says we actually ordered. We also gave 100 grievna and the bill was 80-50 (80.50). They asked for a 50 coin, which we didn't have any yet. So John gave her a 20 grievna. The change we got was 20 grievna & 50 coin. We think we were shorted 19-50. Again, we'll have to clarify the currency with Sergiy or we'll be broke really in no time. :)
We are currently at McDonalds. We came here first for breakfast, but at 10:00 when we walked in, they changed their menu to the lunch one and we were really wanting breakfast. We've come back to get some coffee, which is pretty good. And use the WIFI.
John's computer won't go on-line here either. Please pray I can hook up with our computer guys back home to try and fix it from here. They can get into the computer and fix anything remotely, but only if it's on-line. Right now, if I can't figure what's wrong, we're dead in the water. At least we've still got mine.
Much love to you all. We are going to get ready to meet Sergiy in about 30 minutes. We are preparing our family photos for SDA. Jenn & John
P.S. The spelling's bad...sorry to those who can spell! The spell-check isn't working well either. lol!
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