We left for the Tampa airport at 8:30am. My mom drove Jennifer and I, helped get us all checked in and hung out with us until we had to go through the gate before boarding our plane to Newark, NJ. That flight was a breeze! We were blessed with economy plus, which meant more leg room and a little nicer seats. The flight was less than three hours, and went by quickly. We landed after 2pm, so we ventured off to find some lunch. A little Mexican restaurant drew us in. Their water tasted like dirt though...not quite sure what that was about. But, they had free wifi, and we had a three hour layover to kill. Finally, we boarded our eight hour flight to Munich, Germany.
There's always that one child (if not more) that's screaming during at least half the flight. Well, Jennifer stopped this sweet lady and her crying grandson that looked to be no older than two years. He had bright red hair, and big round blue eyes. His poor grandmother just had this face of exhaust. She had attempted to walk him through the aisles because the people behind them told her to cover the little boy's mouth to shut him up. Some people are just ignorant and cruel. But of course Jennifer being a mother herself, and I being the oldest to five brothers, understood and only offered compassion for them. The poor kid was probably just scared! They don't understand everything that's going on at that age. So Jennifer began talking with her, and got the attention of the sweet red head. He reached for her, so she asked if she could hold him, and his grandmother gladly handed him over. He quickly reached back over for his grandma though.
Just as we were getting ready to take off, the plane breaks. It did this several times, and the pilot made us aware that there were mechanical issues but he gave us his word that this time, we would actually take off. Two hours later, they make an announcement to proceed to the gate, and that they were sending in a new plane in better condition. By this time, we knew we already missed our flight to Odessa, Ukraine because there's only one plane that goes through Odessa's airport a day, and we we're suppose to only have an hour layover in Munich before taking off to Odessa. So now what do we do? We're basically stranded in New Jersey, with no phones or internet. We've now wasted over four hours, and the plane that isn't even there yet, isn't scheduled to take off until 9:30pm. After speaking to different guest services, we assumed the only choice we'd really have would be to fly to Munich, and spend the night either in the airport or a hotel, then catch a flight to Odessa the next day. But we had no way of communicating this new plan to anyone back home, or to our facilitator Halyna, whom was waiting for us in Ukraine. There were pay phones, but it was a ridiculous $7 per minute or something. We eventually got to the point where we decided it was necessary. But we had no single dollar bills or change, so we went to one of the gift shops asking to break a twenty or whatever size bill we had, so that we could use it for the pay phone. The cashier was kind enough to just offer her phone to us. We dialed my mom's number, and quickly piled on all the news, because we thought we heard them announce that our plane was boarding. Jennifer said "okay we gotta go! Oh! Call Marty!" as she handed the sweet lady her cell phone back. We heard my mom yell "okay!?" We ran back to our gate, only to find out we weren't boarding yet. We waited just a few more minutes, then finally were able to get on the plane. We watched movies all night and were able to catch some slept eventually. We landed in Munich Sunday morning, Germany time. Now we had to figure out our next move. The people at guest services found a connecting flight to Odessa, from Istanbul, Turkey that day. Jennifer was at the desk talking to them, when she said "Genesis! We're going to Turkey!" I gave a look of confusion I suppose. She gave it back to me. It didn't make much sense, considering Turkey is further than Ukraine on the map. So we actually pass Ukraine to go to Turkey, to fly back to Odessa. Like what?? But whatever. We were just determined to get there. And hey, I can now say I've been to three other countries!
At this point, nothing really was going our way. At all. We were obviously not jumping up and down about adding an extra flight, and I was really annoyed by my ears constantly popping and aching. I could hardly hear out of one of them. While I was in the bathroom stall, I guess I didn't lock the door correctly because someone walked in on me. But by then, I didn't even care. I had one of those "what else could go wrong" moments. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, but Germany is crazy expensive. Maybe it's just their airport? So we split a sandwich, and sat down to eat near our gate. When all the sudden they announce our flight is boarding. So we finished up and got in line. We were some of the last people left to get on, when we were slightly held up by the little catastrophe in front of us. This woman was going at the gate attendants because she apparently did not have a ticket on this plane. We originally met Tracy, while at guest services in NJ. They recommended we book flights once in Germany, because we would be closer to our connecting flight at that point so we'd maybe have more options and better communication. Tracy told us her destination was Turkey. I guess she wound up arranging her flight in Newark though, instead of Munich. This seemed to have caused a big commotion for her and her family, as they were now not able to board the plane. And when I say "going at" I mean full on panic mode. I suppose I would be panicking too. But not quite as loudly. Ever sense then, we've come up with the friendly term, "crazy Tracy".
Once we boarded, we were told our seats were not together, and we didn't bother trying to arrange that sense the plane was packed full and we were the last to get on. I ended up in the very back of the plane, in between two women. I'm pretty sure one was German and the other was Turkish. They were both really nice. Our flight to Istanbul was fast. So was the layover. We literally ran from gate to gate, and just made it onto our last plane! Thankfully, this was went quickly as well. I spent most of the flight just looking out the window, because the view was amazing. Especially once we flew over the Black Sea. We landed in Odessa at 9pm, now Ukraine time. We waited in a crowded line to show or passports, before proceeding to baggage claim. There was a guard that was followed by a small dog. And then, as the luggage is coming out, another dog comes out on the conveyer belt! Quite bazar, but I'm assuming they were both trained to sniff out drugs. After everyone else had left with their bags, and they shut down the converter belt, guess who was still standing there, empty handed? Yep, us. Of course. Another one of those "what else could go wrong?" moments. So now we're left to fill out tons of forms, by hand, because that's the way they do it here. The people working with us can hardly understand or speak English either. After over an hour of figuring out all this mumbo jumbo, we finally met our driver and headed to our apartment. We were exhausted and now without any clothes.
Monday morning, we got up around 8:30 and went down to this cute little cafe connected to our apartment, where we ate complimentary breakfast every morning. The waitresses there were always super nice. And they spoke English! There was also a cat that came in every time we were there, and actually sat next to Jennifer in the booth a couple times. We met Halyna there, and after eating breakfast, headed straight out to do all the running around needed. We went to visit Edgar and Dunham that afternoon at the orphanage. Their orphanage is one of the "nicer" ones and has a guard right on the inside of the gate. He almost didn't let me in, probably because for the past two months it's always Jennifer and Martin coming in. Halyna had a conversation with him, but he wasn't budging. So she went inside and spoke to some else, and came out to say "I gave you a title. You're her niece." Jennifer and I both laughed because during the whole travel craziness, whenever anyone t would ask if I was her daughter (which was quite often) she would just tell them that I was her niece. Rather than explaining the whole situation. Or saying "No, she's my friend's daughter." Because that's just weird.
Memories are now rushing through my head. Looking over my shoulder to see groupas outside playing, and nannies sitting on painted benches. All the colorful, metal playgrounds that are empty. Vova's (Edgar) group was outside, so we walked over to them. Jennifer scooped him up out of the swing he was sitting in and wrapped him a big bear hug. Edgar returned the hug and held it for a while. Halyna and Jennifer were asking his nannies several questions about his schedule, diet, etc. While the rest of the kids swarmed me like flies. They each had huge smiles on their faces and offered me toys. It always amazes me how the least of these, the orphans that have absolutely nothing, are the most happy and eager to share. One little boy in particular tugged at my heart, as he gently grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. I could have stayed there in the scorching heat all day, just to be with them. We walked away shortly, to go get Dunham inside. The five of us spent an hour outside together, taking pictures, laughing, and swinging. That was probably the highlight of my day. We called the airport and were told our luggage was found in Turkey, and that it would be in that night. Praise the Lord! We can now take showers!
Due to a mistake in the court decree, we weren't able to get the boys out of the orphanage until Thursday. Which could have been Friday, if Jennifer hadn't pulled a "tracy" to make sure she had them out that night. It was after 6pm when we went to the orphanage and broke those boys out. Dunham's nannies really care for him, and you can clearly see that they love him. They were very happy, yet I'm sure torn at the same time to be saying goodbye to him. Edgar's nannies were nice, but we knew they didn't have any favor towards him whatsoever. Both the boys did great. They loved the car ride to the apartment, and seriously acted like had lived with us since birth. They've carried this out through the entire trip so far. They'd both pretty chill and and go with the flow. Which hasn't been much of a flow, considering all the running around, paper chasing they've had to endure already. Dunham and I are already best friends. I assume he's just taken to me because Jennifer has been on top of Edgar 24/7. He's your typical three year old- into EVERYTHING.
Everyone in Odessa is also very chill and relaxed, and kind. Odessa is a very touristy region, especially downtown, where we were staying. Most people are on vacation from different regions or countries. There were a few nights when I would walk around looking for a place to grab dinner from to bring back to the hotel. I felt fairly comfortable doing so, mainly because I had seen several kids, even younger than me walking all over Odessa by theirselves, taking busses and everything. The language barrier was interesting though. I would go from one bender to another asking, "English?" hoping to get a response of "yes" or "eh, leettle". This is also where pictures come in handy. Saturday night, we went to the trai station to travel eight hours to Kiev. We said goodbye to our awesome driver, who helped us big time while in Odessa. The train ride went very smoothly actually. The kids did great, and we were able to sleep somewhat. As soon as we drove into the city, I immediately felt 'at home' so to speak. Sure, Odessa was really cool and I thoroughly enjoyed being there, but Kiev is where I hold most of my favorite memories. I constantly point out to Jennifer, "Ohhh, that's where we walked! Over here was our favorite restaurant! I took pictures of that building!" Which I'm sure she's over hearing by now. But it just feels so good being BACK. It's still a little surreal. It might take a day to two to really sink in that I'm here right now.
