Getting nowhere fast

It's almost midnight but I wanted to post this before I sleep because tomorrow I think I'll be able to have some pics to share.

Getting places seems to take a lot longer than necessary.  My flight to Donetsk was scheduled for 13:45.  I decided to check flight status before I took a bus to the airport.  I was up early and wandered on down to McDonald's for a cappuccino.  When I finally was able to get to the airline page for flight status, I saw that my flight was delayed 285 minutes.  What?!?  So I didn't go to the airport.  I hung around the house, then Rostek and Danny (Denis) and I picked up some stuff at the market for lunch which Rostek cooked:  chicken breasts in smetana (sour cream) and mashed potatoes and a cabbage and dill salad.  Then I dozed for half an hour and decided to pamper myself and take a taxi to the airport (120 Hrivna as opposed to 20 Hrivna for the bus), so $15 as opposed to $2.50.  I got to the airport and the departure board was showing an 18:30 departure.  I had alerted Roman in Donetsk that I would be late.  We finally took off at 19:00 and arrived at 20:00. So we ended up delayed for 315 minutes.  I had booked with Aerosvit Airlines which has a basic monopoly on all in-country flights and a not very good reputation.  Imagine my surprise when our airport bus (domestic flights park out on the tarmac and people are bussed to and from the terminal) took us to an orange and teal plane with the huge word Windrose on it.  It was actually a fairly comfortable plane.  They served us a sandwich and drink (water or juice) on the short flight to Donetsk.  It's a one hour flight but a 12 hour train ride. I was taken a bit aback when we arrived and the baggage cart rolled up to the terminal entrance and everyone went and got their own bags of the baggage carts.  It was pretty efficient, actually. Roman, the leader of the LGBT Christian group in Donetsk and his friend and colleague, Andrey, met me at the plane.  They are both taxi drivers.  I am using Andrey's apartment while I am in Donetsk until Tuesday.  We are less than 100km from the Russian border here and Russian is the common language.  Both Roman and Andrey speak pretty good English.  They took me on a tour of the city.  Donetsk is the capital city of the Donbass Region.  The primary industry is coal mining.  The city is very young by European standards, only 150 years.  It arose around the coal industry.  It has a HUGE new stadium for futbol (soccer) built by the riches man in Ukraine. He also owns two 5 star hotels.  Donetsk will be the site of the 2012 World Cup of Soccer and the city is in a fever to build hotels and prepare for the huge influx of foreign tourists supporting their national teams.  We stopped at a market and picked up some things for me to have for morning, and then came to the apartment to have tea and poppy bread.  Andrey will drive taxi all night and Roman for a few hours.  Roman will return in the morning and we will make a 2-minute video to send to my church for the weekly "mission moment".  Before I sign off, I should say I love this apartment and wish I could translate it to Kiev for the month of June.  There's a hall, a large kitchen, a large living room and a bedroom, and toilet and bath of course.  The only drawback is that it's on the 4th floor with no elevator!  So I go slowly up the stairs.  No big deal.  Signing off.  It's late.  Oh, the good part, the Christian group will come to my apartment for fellowship and worship tomorrow.  I'll go out to the market in the morning to pick up some refreshments for them.  Everyone loves a party!