Wow. What a week. Or Two. A lot of stuff has been going on, but on a day by day basis, it is just life unfolding as normal.
Last Friday I was invited to go to Nikolaev with Olya and Sergei K., Vitaly T. and Leonid (the contractor for the church building) to pick tiles for the church floor. Vitaly and Leonid had found some they liked and wanted "the building committee" to approve of them. Well, I am not on the committee, on purpose none of the Americans are on the committee, but since none of the other Ukrainian members could go, they wanted my opinion added to the decision. Hmmmm. Interesting way to go.
Vitaly and Leonid picked me up and then we drove over to the northeast edge of town to get the K's. As we were driving on the highway over there, Vitaly asked Leonid to call Sergei and let him know we were on the way. Leonid got out his cell and asked what the phone number was. Vitaly rattled off a series of numbers, Leonid punched in 2 or 3 and then said, "What is the number again?" This went on for about 3 minutes, back and forth, over and over. Finally Leonid spoke on the phone, then hung up and told Vitaly, "That was Vitaly S.'s phone number. What is Sergei's number?"
Well, we were almost to the turn-off so I dug out my cell and called Olya. Sergei answered and I said, "We are turning off the highway. We'll be there in a couple minutes." About that time Leonid finally got the number correct and called Sergei's cell, so Sergei hung up and answered his own phone.
BUT we did not turn off the highway onto the road that leads to the K's house! We kept on down the road another 3 or 4 kilometers and then turned. I had no idea where we were going, except possibly it was out to the village of Steponovka. ?? Why? Ok, I thought to myself, maybe there is another, easier road over to the K's house from here (the regular road is quite rough, even though it is a city road). Vitaly drove down to the bottom of the hill and there was a dirt road turning off the paved road to the right. He pulled over, looked at Leonid and asked, "Where is Nekrasivi Road from here?"
Well, Leonid had no clue, he didn't even know where the K's live! I know where they live, but I didn't know where we were. So, Vitaly turned off the car, jumped out, ran over and waved down the next car. He apparently asked the driver where Nekrasivi Road was and the guy waved his arm this way and that and said something. Vitaly ran back to our car, being narrowly missed by a big dumptruck that was barreling down the hill from the opposite direction, got in and pulled over. He sat and thought a few seconds, said something to Leonid and then we turned down the dirt road.
This dirt road was really a series of potholes filled with building trash and sand. Bump, lurch, crunch, bang, bumpbump, loud noise, over on this side of the one and a half lane 'road', over on that side. The road was lined on both side by houses in various stages of being built. The east side was mostly old 'village' or dacha style houses, while the west side had a lot of newer houses and houses being built. A couple of roads turned off to the west. I looked up those roads and thought - you know, THAT is where we are supposed to be - up and over there, not down here! Finally at the junction of one of those roads, a boy sat on a bicycle. Vitaly stopped the car and told Leonid to ask him where Nekrasova Road was. The boy looked kind of surprised and said, "I've never heard of that road." I thought he looked like maybe he really did belong out at Steponovka - it is infamous for it's mental hospital. Leonid agreed with me, altho he didn't know that, because he turned to Vitaly, said something, made a hand motion that told me he thought the kid was crazy or something and then laughed. Sigh.
Vitaly started on down the road. We came to the end of the road. To the left was a dirt foot path which had lots of big bumps in it so no one could drive it. It wandered down the small valley and out onto the steppe of Ukraine, somewhere on the northeast side of Kherson. To the left the road took a sharp turn and ended at a very high gate. I mean a VERY high gate - the kind of gate that is used at railroad crossings. About 12 or 15 feet above the road was a red and white striped 'gate' blocking the two-dirt-paths-with-grass-growing-inbetween road. Up toward where the path/road turned a corner we could see a cemetery. Vitaly turned down that path/road.
About this time my cell rang. It was Sergei, asking "Where are you??" I laughed and said, "I have no idea. We are lost." I gave the phone to Leonid. Leonid and Sergei talked for a minute or two and then he gave me the phone back and I put it away.
We drove up to the corner and around the corner to the right and then in a big S curve around the end of the cemetery to the left. At the edge of the cemetery a more normal looking dirt road appeared - but it was a Y, so Vitaly had to make a decision. He started to turn left and I said, "No! I think you should go straight." So he did.
Which is really good, because who knows where we would have ended up if he'd turned left - Snigorivka? (a village way out on the train route) Zelinovka? (another village that we hear about way out 'there' somewhere) I really didn't want to find out that particular day, altho I'd love to go back and go exploring just for the joy of exploring.
We went straight. We came to another junction and Vitaly turned to the right again. By this time I had absolutely no clue as to where we actually were, just hoped that we would be able to find our way back to Kherson before I desperately needed a toilet. I didn't recognize anything, but apparently Vitaly suddenly did because he made a sudden (understand that I said "sudden" twice in this sentence) turn and we were on the road above K's house. He turned right again, then immediately left and voila! There was the K's house, nestled inbetween all the other houses in their part of town.
Whew!
Finally we were all in the car and headed back out to the highway. We were only half an hour later than I expected to be at that point.
My mother once told me that I drive "like a bat out of hell". I am a mild driver, really I am, Mom. I refused to sit in the front on purpose. I gave that joy to Leonid. Olya sat in the middle in the back. Olya got the fun and joy and exhilaration of watching everything happening. If I drive like a bat out of hell, Vitaly drives like - well, actually I have no apt description! I thought Andrei R. drove wild and fast. Ha! He's a beginner at it!
Vitaly swerved into the other lane suddenly. Whiplash! He passed big trucks doing the real speed limit while other big trucks, also doing the speed limit, were coming toward us at an amazing rate. We squeezed inbetween cars and trucks here, passed willy-nilly, sped down the at times pot-holed and under construction road - all at speeds ranging up to 180 km per hour - over 100 miles per hour.
I chatted with Olya in the back seat, trying not to look past Leonid sitting in front of me, trying to get her attention off the road in front of her. I always knew when it was especially dangerous because her face would pale, her eyes get very big, her mouth drop open and she would pound her chest with her hand, saying "Bozhy moi!" (My God!) in prayer.
We finally turned off the main highway and onto what might be called a service highway. We passed the Sandora Fruit Juice processing plant at a blurr. The road at that point was a series of concrete slabs with metal U shaped 'handles' that had been pounded down to be mostly level with the concrete. These slabs are quite commonly used as paving blocks, poured someplace else and brought in on big trucks, then spaced a few centimeters apart down a previously dirt road. Needless to say, it was somewhat like riding on a vibrator and talking was useless as only every other syllable could be understood.
This service road also included a 90 degree paved corner, which Vitaly came to at about 50 miles per hour, slammed on the breaks and we literally screeched around it. First time I've been in a car where the tires are really truly screeching like they do on tv. I really did not think we would make it - I had visions of the car flipping and rolling off into the field. There was more - like the paved road that turned to huge dirt potholes through a village. HUGE potholes.
We finally came to the outskirts of Nikolaev and onto a 4 lane highway (I'm not sure how the road turned to 4 lane - I wasn't looking at the road if I could help it). We started passing big new stores of various kinds, but don't think shopping district in America - think more warehouse district. Finally we came to a big long building and Leonid told Vitaly to turn "here".
Ha ha ha ha ha! We were going at least 45 miles per hour at that point. Ha ha ha ha ha. Vitaly slammed on the breaks, we passed the driveway and were almost past the divided highway barrier, put there on purpose for precisely drivers like ours. So there in the middle of the highway we kind of did a back up and turn really, really sharply and almost drive onto the steps that lead down to the parking lot before we actually make it into the actually driveway.
Driving through the parking lot - who would think a person could get whiplash from driving through the parking lot? Well... the whiplash comes from the almost turning into a parking spot but then seeing one farther down that might be better while you're almost in the middle of the turn already - two or three times. I kid you not.
Finally - we parked. I unclenched my hand from the handle above the door (does that thing have a name?), opened the door and got out and stood on my shaky legs. I wondered, "Do I have more gray hair now? Do I have anxiety lines around my eyes that were not there 3 hours ago? Will I be able to get back in this car again or will someone have to give me a 'happy pill' first?" heh heh heh
We 5 went shopping. This should probably be another post, so I'll stop here and continue in the next one.
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