We're here!

Welcome to Lom! 

We finally made it to Lom! After a 3 hour van ride through the mountains with (almost) all our luggage we arrived safe and sound at our hotel.  Zoiko and Steffi were there to greet us--and Zoiko happily carried our luggage upstairs...perfect timing!

After settling in and showers, we headed down the street to eat.  Eating in Bulgaria is always an experience in itself.  First, rarely do you find a menu (or a waitress) that speaks english.  Second, you don't get your food at the same time.  Some may get their salads after their main course....some may not get their food at all...and sometimes they just change your order because they don't have a certain item.  It's really odd and with 18+ people, dinner usually takes awhile...  But tonight it was unusually easy and really good after a long day of travel.

See something appetizing on this menu?

While we were out we saw quite a few kids from the orphanage.  Rati and Cassandra, as well as many of the guys that worked on the construction crew came by to say "hello".  Lucho, one of the younger ones who has been there since the beginning, was actually eating at the same restaurant with his new foster mom.  He was pretty surprised to see us, but was really excited and walked by several times just to say "hello".  Rarely do these children get adopted or get placed in good homes outside the orphanage--Lucho is definitely one who could use a good home with lots of individualized attention.

Tomorrow we are going to church in the morning and then we will head to the orphanage after lunch to see the kids and hang out for the afternoon.  We've heard there have been quite a few changes in personnel and with the number of kids so hopefully after our visit we will have a better idea of what to expect this week.

Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 106.  Thank goodness for church fans...

The whole group + Zoiko making important decisions..aka where/what time we are going to eat