Yesterday Garry and I went for a ride to visit the Nikkels, who work in orphanages in Kirvoy Rog. It's called the longest city in Europe or the world or something- 130 km of apartments/city strung like a necklace along the highway. But first we had to drive there- 2- 2 1/2 hours away, so Garry programmed the address into the GPS the night before and charged it up using the the computer- the external harddrive cables are the right size- (the car charger plug for it broke a month or so ago- Garry tried to fix it by cutting it off and putting one from a phone charger on, but it didn't connect well, especially driving down a bumpy road.) Before seven am we were off with 45 liters of milk, the camera, and a cheesecake I had made for lunch.
The boys had decided to stay home and work on schoolwork (they did get some done- not as much as I had hoped......but Jonah did write a 400 word essay) Anyway the GPS took us cross-country through villages, endangering the lives of a few chickens (the poultry are all on the loose during the day now, looking for dinner)down polehole filled roads- and few that have fallen apart so much you can't really call them paved, some wide enough to paint a dotted line down the middle, and some paved roads so narrow they don't bother (most of which the GPS called unnamed road.) We also saw a large number of milk cans waiting for the milk truck to come through the village to buy their milk and there's the truck stopped in one village- it has the yellow-painted tank in the back of a dumptruck-like truck (you see a few like this- I assume the tank truck broke so they retrofitted it.)
We did pick up a lady walking down one road leaving a village with her purse and a plastic bag, so asked to get out about ten kilometers down the road, in a village where they were having a market. About 80 km from our destination we picked up another older lady who was also going to Kirvoy Rog- she had us stop in another village so so could pick up more of the vitamin supplement stuff she was going to sell there, Garry but her big bag in the back of the car with the milk. She remembered a few words of English from school, but she threw in some German (she had worked in Germany at some time) Garry talked with both ladies a bit in Russian, telling them we were milk farmers. The second lady said she had bought a house for 1000 (US dollars) but it cost 3000 to get the documents for it done. She was on her cell phone telling someone she had gotten a ride all the way there with Canadians.
We were about 13 km from the destination in the GPS when trouble struck- the battery died in it so we drove into the city and pulled off at the first stoplight we found, where we thought someone was meeting us to pick up milk, according to Victor. The lady got out with her stuff since we were parked near a bus/marshshuka stop- I took her photo as she thanked us (bol-shoi spa-ce-ba -big thanks) and left.
No one came for the milk, we talked to Victor, turned around to see if we missed a light, then back around, turned on the street again and wandered for more than a hour looking for landmarks. We did see some mines-iron ore, and found the botanical gardens. We finally stopped at a Comfy (appliance/electronics store) we drove by, Garry went in with the damaged charger and showed it to a salesman, who handed hm one from a bin- three dollars and we were back in GPS business. Turned out the orphanage was 4.5 km from the Comfy (we had been heading back to where we entered the city- which we had decided at some point in our wandering must not be Kirvoy Rog- but was the right city, in fact we drove right past the turn to the street the orphanage was on like a hour and a half before while driving in.
So we met Adam, Curtis and two Ukrainian girls who work with them at the orphanage, the kids they were visiting were outside in the well-mantained gardens, and we played pick me up over your head with some of the boys until it was time to go. We went back to Curtis' apartment for lunch, the people came there for the milk, we ate bowls of veriniki (pierogy) with lovely fixings, and had tea and the cake. We sat around talking untill almost three, and then went with Adam to meet his wife out side the college where she teaches.
Then we headed home via Dnepropetroesk, which we hoped would make for better traveling, since it would be on highways (much of it four lanes) Sadly - not true- Garry was dodging pot holes- all the way, some could be called craters that would eat tires, but we we lucky- no flats.
We also got stopped by the police twice, but Garry sat and waited until they gave up on ticketing a foreigner- or for him to give them money. Once we were speeding in a village zone- the town line was out in the country- and there were the cops, and once they seemed to be trying to enforce the blue suggested speed sign (in Ukraine white signs are law, blue is suggested, when a village has a blue name sign, you can stay at 90, white- slow down to 60 Km.) So we are undecided about which way was better to drive, they took about the same amount of time (and the village roundabout way had no police) but we definitely are glad the GPS is fixed!
Anyway here are some photos to show spring is here (although there are still a few spots with snow under trees, and where the banks where high) Motorcycles and bicycles are on the move- and the dogs are chasing them- this fellow raced along barking as the motorcycle buzzed by while we were waiting for the lady to get her other bags. People are sweeping the streets along the curb into little dirt piles, which are shoveled into the bucket loader and carried away (there is a mechanical streetsweeper in Dnepro- but even there you see them at work) fires from spring yard cleanups, fires from people burning the road allowance off along the highway (I think this kills many of the trees along the highways- but it does get rid of the old grass and garbage next to the fields. Also along the highway, as it the city, people are selling their wares, mostly milk (in the pop bottles on top of the old Ladas- they were there in the morning and afternoon.) or potatoes and apples.
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