So knowing we would not be having court anytime soon, we wanted to get out to see Sergei again. We had not been there since last Friday and did not have a way to call him. So we were missing him. We also had to switch rooms that morning, so we were hopeful to get everything into a new room in time to get to the train station to catch the 10:08am train. We had all our stuff ready and took it to the front desk. She said they were almost ready to let us in. We paid for the room we had been using and waited a few more minutes. Then they let us carry the suitcases to the new room. The receptionist called a taxi for us and he arrived quickly. We had him take us to the train station and we rushed to the ticket window. It was just a few minutes before 10am. We had our friends write out the request for 2 train tickets to Kirkivka, so we did not have to try to ask for them.
We gave the lady the note and she pointed to a sign and said something in Ukrainian. Of course, the sign was in Ukrainian and we could tell the 10:08 and the Kirkivka, but had no idea what the details were. We called Anika and let her speak to the cashier. Then Anika told us that the train was not going all the way to Kirkivka. Another lady came and talked to Anika on the phone again and Anika told us that there was a connection that we could take when the train had gone as far as it could go, but we did not want to try to run the risk of getting lost and not having a translator around.
With our heads down, we walked all the way back to the hotel. I prayed most of the way. We chatted a bit about some different options and how we could get back to Sergei without the 2 hour bus ride each way and expensive taxi everyday, but were not sure what we should do. Along the way we stopped at a toy store to see if we could find a different game to play besides Uno, which was making Darren crazy. We found a chess/checkers/backgammon game and bought it to take with us the next time we went to the orphanage, which we hoped would be tomorrow.
When we got back to the room, we were both pretty disheartened and Darren took a nap while I worked on catching up with my blog entries. I found that I had made a mistake in our Day count, and also had completely missed a day, so corrected part of the messed up count. Then we got our call from Yarik and he came over. In the meantime we prayed and brainstormed. Our new room had no ethernet and the wifi kept dropping. We had two small single beds, a shower that leaked and no space to eat. We even had to request a refrigerator be moved to the room for our food. We had really gotten spoiled by the big room in the basement.We came up with a new plan. We would see if the hotel in Oktyrka with the good wifi had a room available. We called Ksenia to see if she could find out. She called back and had made reservations for us for Wednesday through Friday. We would take a taxi or bus and stay out and visit Sergei the next three days and then come back to Sumy when the big room was open again. We called the Open Arms gals and asked if we could leave our big suitcase and extra stuff at their place while we were gone so we could travel lighter and take the bus. They were willing. But would not be ready for us to come over until around 7pm. That was good for us, so we could get something to eat.
I suggested the hotel restaurant, Darren chose the grocery store. We went and got stuff for mashed potatoes, and Kutletis, and some salads for Darren and Yarik. I came back and made a salad with the cucumber and tomatoes that were already cut. The room was small, so we had a lot of rearranging to do to be able to have a place to eat. We all were full and had happy tummies. Darren worked on the computer a bit, or at least tried. Yarik and I did an English lesson. Yarik was not really into the lesson. After a short time, he tried to get out of it and wanted to call Anika to see if they were ready. It was after 7, but she said she would call. I had him do the lesson a little longer and then we did call, because for us to get out there and get Yarik back to town in time to get to his school on time, we did have to hurry a bit. They said it would be fine to come and they called the taxi for us. We loaded our big suitcase and some stuff in a grocery bag and went over. Yarik had to call Anika to give the driver instructions again. We found their place and got our stuff up the 10 flights, okay 2-9 we used the elevator. They were actually planning a trip to Kiev to pick up some team members for their retreat, so we weren't getting in their way too much. We gave hugs and Melissa led us back out to the bus stop. We took the number 4 back to McDonald's and Yarik stayed on to get back to school.
We were both tired, so we got to sleep at a decent time.
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