The Adventure Begins

February 25, 2011- 

Happy birthday to myself!

Our alarm woke us at 4:00. . . our last morning at the MTC.  This really is quite an adventure!

Early this morning there was a mix up with the shuttle drivers.  We waited right where we were assigned until it was getting so late that we were forced to conclude that we had, indeed been overlooked.  

When the front desk realized that we did not have a driver to take us from the MTC in Provo to the Salt Lake City airport they were still reticent about waking someone in “travel”.  We were irritated.  A security man volunteered to drive but he was not authorized and so we waited for another driver to be awakened.  When he finally arrived we were certain that we would not make it in time for our flight and who knows when the next connecting flights to Europe could be made?   It was snowing and the new soft snow stuck to my suit and hair as we carted all our bags to the pick-up place.  Our nice young driver thought he could reach the airport before our plane boarded, and we could check-in curbside . . . but there was a lot of snow on the freeway. 

We arrived at the airport at 7:40 for our 8:30 departure.  "Curbside" could not check our luggage all of the way through to Donetsk because we would be switching from Delta to Austrian Air in New York. . . so we had to go inside.   The lines looked long, but a wonderful man from Sky Cap circumvented the lines and wheeled our luggage right up to a check-in window for us. The short story—after much worry we got through security right as the plane to New York was boarding…not a minute to spare and we were off.  We thanked Heavenly Father for answering our prayers.  

Somewhere over Pennsylvania we had to fly in circles for a half hour waiting for a storm to settle before we could land.  At the JFK airport we had to show our passports and remove our shoes etc. once again and go thorough security since we had to change terminals.  At 5:40 PM the plane was scheduled to take off but we sat, grounded onboard until 7:00 PM.  Now we were concerned about making our connecting flight in Vienna.

We flew north for awhile.  Somewhere over Nova Scotia we had a very good chicken supper.
We are now somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and people are walking up and down the aisles but most are trying to sleep in funny positions.  There are a lot of empty seats.  It is dark.  This plane is seven seats wide with two aisles.  We are in the middle.  There are a lot of foreign languages surrounding us . . .  mostly German.  We are on Austrian Airlines and English is only one of several languages the stewardesses have to repeat.

*   *   *   *   *

Now we are over Dublin.  It is still dark. 
We are over London now and there is a faint pinkish-orange grey in the sky. It is now the 26^th.
We are now over Luxemburg and just finished a good breakfast on triangular plates.
Now, to the right, the tops of the Alps are glistening in the bright morning sun.

We landed in Vienna, went thru another customs/security check and found the terminal where the Austrian Airlines has a flight to Donetsk.  This was a very international place.  As we waited on the lime green benches we could hear lots of Russian.  We were fed lunch on the two and a half hour flight to Donetsk and were very tired.  As we approached Donetsk the ground below became more solid white.  I could see the fields all were all outlined with rows of trees.

 The airport in Donetsk was very desolate, lonely and windswept. All you could conjure up in your imagination would not rival what we found.  A frozen blast of icy wind greeted us as we stepped off the plane and underscored the 12 degree temperature.  The snow drifts were long, pointing in the direction of the wind.  We walked on packed slippery ice to get into the station.  I felt like I was in a 1940’s movie.   As Mom looked at the line of people in their parkas and fur hats, documents in hand, slowly moving across the icy snow-pack toward a little window where uniformed officials sat, she thought of the exiles sent to Siberia.  I am sure there was no heat in the little station as we stood in line in the tracked-in crunchy ice and salt waiting to go through customs.  It was like a big warehouse.  There was a guard in a green uniform standing outside a glass encased ticket-taker kind of booth where two brass-covered officials examined our passports.  I was surprised to find that all four of our 50 lb. suitcases . . . the last four on the snowy trailer under the canopy, were waiting for us.  (One had been inspected.  We found a very polite note inside.)  Then we saw the office elders and VladEmir, a branch president who works as the mission chauffeur and his son Maax.  They helped us lug our bags through the X-ray machines and to the van.

I was too tired to notice much as we dodged the funny little cars and snow piles on the drive to our apartment.  We approached a combination warehouse/tenement looking building nine stories tall…the pictures will have to suffice for the description.  

The concrete front steps were crumbled off and the heavy metal doors looked like any other big city “freight loading” or “moving and storage” facility.  A token activated a code to let you into the vestibule and then we summoned the elevator – a small two or three person one that took us to the ninth floor (penthouse). 

 It required several runs to get all our stuff up.  The stairways and halls are unfinished and very rough looking.  To enter, there is a six inch key with an inch on the “in” end hinged so it will drop down as you turn it to lift the heavy bolt.  Then you have to turn it again so the hinge opens once more allowing you to pull it out.  This effort allows you to enter a 4’x4’ hall with two more doors.  One is for another apartment.  Another 4” old-fashioned looking brass key with a large grooved paddle opens our door.  

     

 

Where will I carry all this key stuff?!!

Surprise!  The inside was really nice. (We were told we had one of the nicer apartments.

It feels and is decorated like maybe the time my mother was growing up.  There are wood looking laminate floors covered with rugs.  Sheer curtains, dark wood molding and antiquated pictures on the walls. There is a tiny kitchen with a tiny stove, a sitting room/study and a bedroom.  There is one little room for a tub/shower and a tiny clothes washer and a room a few foot square for a toilet.  All the rooms are separated off from the entry hall by nice French doors.  The doors to the kitchen, sitting room and bedroom have obscure glass panes.

We put everything away and I went to sleep at 4:30 pm.  Mom stayed awake another two hours organizing things.  Sister Fry (mission president’s wife) prepared food for several meals and did some shopping to get us thru the weekend but we had too much food on the airplanes.  We are all mixed up on our sleeping but we are here!  We really are very happy to be here.  We feel that all of the way along, we have been blessed.  We thanked Heavenly Father for getting us here and committed to be valiant.