Adventures in Transportation

Mary says..

Ok, before we get to the transportation part I want to say something else real quick. Yesterday  I mentioned that we think some of the kids at the orphanage do have parents that come to visit them. I realized today that this is not to unlike our foster care system in America. Sometimes it takes me a little while to process things, but I get there. :) It's sad all around when a loving parent has to give their child over to someone else to raise.

That  being said, let's move on to today's topic. Tom and I are staying about 7 miles from the orphanage. Not too far, but too far to walk. At least for us. :) So, we have to rely on some form of transportation to make it to our visits with Alina. The first day we took a taxi which cost about $5 one way. Not bad, but there are other forms of public transportation here too that we'd thought we would try. Five dollars doesn't sound like a lot, but when you travel to/from the orphanage twice a day that is $20/day for 30 days, now it gets pricey. So, with the help or our English speaking apartment manager, we have been riding the bus most of the time. There are a lot of buses, trams and taxi's in this lovely city.

One of the #150 buses. They have several of every number that continuously come around.

 We have found if we take bus #150 to a certain spot, then walk around a traffic circle to another stop and get on bus #191, it will take us to the street the orphanage is on. The bus rides only cost just over 1 American dollar a day. That's a BIG difference. Of course you have to trade for that. I mean comfort and time. The taxi's are all to yourself, and are faster. By taxi, it only takes us about 15 minutes (with good traffic) to get there. Riding the bus takes about 45 minutes and can get hot and very crowded. Did I mention that they can get crowded? :)
 

 One of the big electric buses.


They have very big electric buses and smaller regular buses. We take the smaller ones. One of them got so crammed full of people yesterday that we almost missed our stop because we couldn't move toward the door. But everyone here is used to it. Nobody minds getting bumped because it's part of the package. I'm not used to being in such close quarters with strangers, but it's what I have to do, so I'm dealing with it. As long as Tom tells me when to get up and move closer to the door, I'm ok. :) Now I completely understand my friend Trina's description of the buses.

One of the smaller buses that we use.

And this is why we take those crammed, hot buses............another day with Alina.

Dad and Alina listening to Mom's MP3 player. She loved listening to the music, we're filling her ears with praises to God. Whenever it would stop playing, she would look around like "what did it stop for, get it back."

My Love and My Newest Blessing hand in hand.

Alina led Dad to one of the playhouses, straight to the bench and climbed up on his lap. She just wanted to hang out and be cuddled this morning. Ok by us!

We found our own corner and Dad read to Alina.  She liked the different textures in the book.

Gotta go, it's time to go find that bus and visit our Sweetheart again.