Leaving Sevastopol

We have the Passport. Yesterday at 4:00 Galya called and said we should meet at the passport office just in case it comes in. So the three of us walked over, it was about a 10 minute walk (we made a wrong turn, so it took us 20) and a beautiful day. There are about 15 other people waiting, all standing around the door. That is how they wait here. There are places to sit, but they all stand around the door. We were only there about 15 minutes when they start calling people in one at a time. Roger and I are not hopeful, we have had so many delays, no way will it be here. But, we are called in, Galya give me this look of ‘I can’t believe it’.

Ten minutes later we are out the door with Elona’s passport and running to the travel agency to buy our airline tickets to Kiev. I think Galya is more relieved than we are, she is all smiles. She called Sveta with the good news. We found out late last week that Sveta is very sick and will not be able to make the arrangements for us in Kiev. Instead George will be taking care of us. He is the guy that helped Pam and Len when they were here, so we are in good hands, but sorry we will not get to see Sveta. We will be leaving Sunday morning for Kiev, it doesn’t seem possible. Then we leave for Cincinnati on Wednesday morning. Can’t wait to be home.

Last night we got together with Jaimee and Andy, their friends Amanda and Jarred, and Galya. Elona was very existed to see Jamiee and Andy, and another friend Tanya that she knew from the orphan summer camp. We also ran into the Canadian, Jason, that we had meet weeks before. It was Friday night and every place was busy and smoky. We finally crowded into a corner at a small pizza place, Fiesta Pizza (wish we had tried it sooner, we liked the pizza better that Potato House, but let atmosphere).

Kevin joined us later with a friend, he was busy keeping track of the US sailors in port, but stopped in for a slice. It gave us a chance to thank him again. While we were there several more sailors stopped in for pizza. Jamiee and Andy had meet Joe the day before and he was making arrangement to donate clothes to their Operation Lazarus.
It was a nice time, and we happy to get to see everyone before we leave. As much as we miss Ben, home and family, we are going to miss Sevastopol and the wonderful people that we have met here.

Kelley and Roger