03/23/2007

Then at about 4:15am they knocked on our door to tell us it was our stop, we only had a few minutes to gather our things… we had to exit the train quickly, as they only stop about 10-15 minutes, and we had 4 suitcases to haul around (1/2 of which are gifts for the orphanage and staff, which are customary).

We were then greeted at the train station by our coordinator’s (Bulat’s) staff. They were very polite and helped us carry our luggage to two vehicles, and they had a translator to great us. Then they drove us to our hotel, were we were able to shower and get ready and eat breakfast.