Gorlovka!

Hello!
I am now in Gorlovka. The city of black snow and high percentage of lung cancer! (although the locals have denied the black snow part). We got here by train yesterday. This train was quite different from our previous one from Kiev to Odessa….in a bad way. Similarly to our first train, we were in a compartment room with 4 beds. Allie, Volodya, and I were in a room (we had bought 4 tickets so no stranger would be with us). The beds were alright…although the mattress was a bit lumpy…but it was the temperature which was most unsettling. At first it was extremely hot, then the AC came on and it got super cold, then they turned the AC off at night and it was exceedingly hot all night. Not very pleasant to sleep in. The bathroom was older than the first train so there was just a smelly toilet in which one would go to the bathroom then flush it by pressing a pedal down on the ground. The toilet would then open up right onto the tracks where all your messes would go. I would hope that would not build up on the tracks over time…I can see the news…’Train derailed by crap’…not good. This was most unfortunate for Allie, who became sick during the night. Ephim claims it was from the food we ate on the train (which was quite nice, and no one else got sick…so I’m not so sure that’s what it’s from) or from her chips and chocolate. Whatever the cause, Allie woke up at 1am and vomited into her chip bag. I woke up and saw it….honestly, it was gross, but I helped her out with a light and a towel. But then she was up the rest of the night in the bathroom…not a good place for her to be sick.

We made it through the night though, and made it the next day (17 hours later) to Donetsk. Ephim and his son Kuzma met us at the station and drove us 30 minutes to Gorlovka. We rested for a while and freshened up, then went to Ephim’s house and met his wife Ludmilla and ate a very tasty lunch. Then we went to the church and met some other people there. Our mission here is to help the church people speak English better and encourage the boys to bring more girls to church. So Ephim arranged for us to have sessions twice a day for two hours each and talk about a variety of topics – from war, to philosophy, to history, to our families. So we met some of the people yesterday: Maxime, Slava, Andre, and another Volodya. We had some small talk and then went home two hours later (and Volodya took a train back to Odessa).

So then today, Allie and I went back to the church and met again and we talked about feminism and our families….interesting topics… We had lunch, and will go again this evening to talk more. They promised there will be many people this evening, including some girls…haha…so that will be nice to have some more input on whatever we discuss.

Gorlovka is nice so far (with one and half days impression), Allie and I are in a one room hotel…the smallest place we’ve been so far…but it’s clean and cold…but I must admit it sucks that it lacks security so we have to carry our computers and passports with us everywhere.

I’ll tell you more once we do more! Thanks for reading!

(Oh, and if anyone in the KC area has a futon or a couch they want to give away or sell, let me know! Zenaylor@gmail.com I became HP of Sariah and need more couches! Thanks!)

Til next time!