In the morning, Mukunda das Brahmachari leads a group of devotees — Indra Mohan Prabhu, Dayal Krishna Prabhu, Yudhamanyu Prabhu (no, not our Seva Vikram Prabhu!) — to the fresh produce market just down the road to beg for vegetables and donations for our new ashram.
This is a Ukrainian first! Although they have discussed going out and begging on behalf of Srila Gurudeva since acquiring the Seva Ashram six weeks ago, this is the first time that they have had the courage to do so. They return — all excited! — loaded with cabbages, tomatoes, beetroot, carrots, an assortment of fruit, and two handfuls of hryvnias and kopiykas (the local currency).
I like it here in Zaporizhzhya; the local devotees are so enthusiastic! Alas, our tour schedule only allows us one night in this city, so in the evening Mukunda das Brahmachari, Swarupananda Prabhu, and Gandharva Devi Dasi accompany us to the train station to see us off to our next stop: Kiev.
The overnight express train leaves promptly at 7:20 p.m. Zaporizhzhya and Kiev are both ports on the Dnieper (or Dnipro) River, so the train journey northeast to Kiev will closely follow its course. The Dnieper River has been a major commercial waterway since the ninth century.
We travel north-northeast for an hour to Sinelikovo, and, after a fifteen-minute stop, we proceed west for another hour to the Dnipropetrovsk industrial center. A fifteen-minute stop here as well, then we continue west for just over half an hour to Dniprodzerzhynsk. (Are you tongue-tied yet?)
At 22:50 p.m. we leave this port and major industrial center. We should reach Pyatihatki at midnight, but it's been a long day; I'm off to bed. Goodni... zzzzz.
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