Friday, July 27, 2007

Train Surprise




We had been told that we had a big surprise waiting for us Wednesday night, but no one had any idea what it could be. When we finally met at the hotel to go drive to the church where we would eat, a small train pulled up outside with loud music blaring. Our ride, and our surprise had arrived. I must confess that even though I've seen a lot of mission trips, I have never seen any mission trip group ride in a party train like that. We drove to the church, with several of the girls dancing along to the music mst of the way. It was actually a lot of fun! At the church, there were kids waiting that switched places with us on the train. We got out to have dinner, and they got on to go for a fun ride around the neighborhood. I was a bit worried that the pastors had payed for the ride out of what little money they have, but it turns out that a candidate for mayor had payed for it. Besides that, he has promised to pave the streets in front of the churches, pave the street in front of the Mikruts' house, and has already given each of the churches a large water storage tank.

Anyway, for dinner we had mostly very tasty food. One thing we had, too, was some sort of bean soup with an unidentifiable meat in it. Later we found out that it was pig's nuckles, and possible some tripe mixed in. Not the most appetizing thing for the majority of American kids, but I think most of us ate enough not to offend anyone. Later we had sang some songs for the pastor that hosted us, and he sang for us. When we were all done, we drove back to the hotel in the train, again with the loud music blaring, cars honking at us, and people waving. The train even had a horn like a train. A very, very loud horn that the driver kept on blasting, even though it was already past 10 PM. We must have been quite a spectacle, a group of lively American teenagers riding through the city in a train like that!

Picture 1: The front of the train.
Picture 2: The back two cars of the train.
Picture 3: Kids from the church, excited to be on the train.

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