Dearest Alex (?),
I am wondering whether I should start calling you Alex now. I guess I will try to think of you as such until I can ask you again. But you said that is what you wanted the last time we asked you - so that is what I will go with.
Today was very hard emotionally, having to leave you behind. I know that G3 has to do work, and I know that we had planned ahead of time to travel some, but now that we have been here and spent time with you, it doesn’t seem right to leave without you! We did stop by the orphanage to try to see you one more time before we went but you were not out of school yet. Bummer.
We spent the morning packing up and getting ready. We had taken a bag filled with clothes for you, but we really don’t need to be taking it all over Europe, so our driver, Sasha, was nice enough to take it and another bag we don’t need and store it for us while we are gone. We packed up the rest of our stuff and I did the last load of laundry since we will be in a hotel for a week in London. No laundry facilities there.
Sasha (driver Sasha) picked us up and took us to Donetsk to catch our flight. It is about a 1 and a half hour drive and we were making excellent time until - boom. The car started swerving all over the road and we heard a flapping in the rear of the car. We had blown a tire! We were in a 5-6 year old Chevy Aveo that had been converted to run on natural gas. (My environmentally conscious self liked this fact.) So half of the trunk was taken up by the other gas tank, and all of our luggage was thrown in around it. So we pulled over to the side of the road (highway?) and got out hoping that he had a spare. Which he did - yay! Boy, he must be used to this as he whipped the luggage out of the trunk, got out the spare and in less than 10 minutes we were back on the road. We got a look at the old tire before he put it back and saw that it was just plain worn out - almost bald.
So no delays! We were lucky, getting to the airport at 4:30 for a 5:40pm flight. We managed to get checked in and on the plane in record time and made it to Kiev just on time. We met Alex ( the other Alex - or as he says - the 1st Alex) at the airport. He had worked a morning flight but had gotten back at 3:00pm and was able to change and relax before meeting us. The hotel (Hotel Korona) had a shuttle service that wasn’t too expensive, about 70 hrivnas (about 9 dollars) so we were able to just hop in and go right to the hotel. We were tired, so Alex joined us for dinner right in the hotel restaurant, before heading back to his apartment.
I just want to make a plug again to the other adoptive families to bring an earth bag!!!! Trust me - it will be the best few ounces you carry here. I have used that thing every day: to go the market so I don’t have to pay for a bag, to take things back and forth to the orphanage, and make you look like a local since everyone carries some sort of satchel. It has been so handy! Also, the toilet paper and wipes I had thought were so important have somewhat not been as needed as they were on my last visit to Ukraine 6 years ago. Most places believe it or not have had relatively clean facilities. I have only seen the holes in the ground once. Even the airport in Donetsk (which is like flying in and out of Provo) had a very clean bathroom with nice toilet paper (not the brown stuff they used to have). I still have carried them everywhere and I would recommend bringing some - but if you forget - not the end of the world.
We have to get up early tomorrow for our flight to London, so I will end it here.
We love you,
Bethany, G3, G4, & Amanda
Our poor tire - all blown out!
An intersection in Mariupol near our apartment. Really pretty city - they just need to fix the pollution problem.
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