Afternoon drive

Yesterday afternoon Garry was going off for another drive and I tagged along. He had already driven to Zaporoshia at 7 am with a couple of the orphan guys staying at our house for more medical tests and to pick up another one who was coming in on the train, and to pick up a few things from the EpiCenter (one of the homedepot like chain stores in Zap) for the work over at the barn. Soon the brothers living here should be at the "boys house" with the rest of the students who have already arrived in the village. This weekend we will be driving down near Odessa to pick up a student from there.

There was a lot of rattling as we passed this truck!

When he got back, around two o'clock, he had to go breed a cow, and then he was driving to Salone (towards Dnepro) to pick up a sample of the sunflowers combined yesterday and then drive it back past the village on the highway to Zaporohia to have it analysed at a mill.

Here are the photos so you can see some of the things we saw in Salone (Sa-lon-neeah) and Zap.

still hard to take photos out the front window of the van

First in the town of Salone, I got out my camera to take a photo of the pigs in the back of the trailer being pulled by a van, after I had missed getting one of the big city sign repainted in blue in yellow. It seems every city and oblast (regional) sign in this part of Ukraine has been repainted in blue and yellow paint this spring or summer.I did get part of the words painted on the wall at that intersection that reads "Glory to the Heroes"  in blue and yellow.

a little clearer when you snap it out the side window!

Combine (in) on the road as we go around town to Vitaly's business

The gate lady who let us in and out at Vitaly's 

Two guys on a scooter- the one behind is holding onto the rack

Garry goes in the store to buy something cold - He has learned to ask for cold
cola, as they often have some under the meat freezer, which is colder than the
the bottles in the cooler, which are cool, not ice cold, most Ukrainians feel that
cold drinks cause illness, so it is hard to get really cold ones.

You can see part of this Glory to the Heroes sign in the pig photo, too.

Hard to get a good photo of the repainted city sign
 out the far side window, but I took one on the way out of town

Photos in Zaporoshia

They had to repaint the letters on the city sign again, it faded 

our destination

 We found the right place and delivered our baggie of sunflower seed for testing at this mill, Garry had a discussion with the lady from the laboratory and had to run back to the car for his cell phone, so he could call Maxim Rudei. They would call Maxim when the report was finished so we drove around to waste some time. Garry was unsure if we had to return there, after talking to her.

Then we went to the famous old oak in Zaporoshia, which is sacred not just to the Mennonites, who talk about meeting under it in the Chortitza settlement 200 years ago, but also to the Ukrainian Cossacks in earlier times. It is thought to be more that 400 years old, from what I understand. We had not visited in a number of years so were surprised to see there is still one live branch on the tree as before but one of the big branches supported by wires and ropes has fallen down. There seems to be more development about Ukrainian history at the site now, as you can see in the photos.

view from the parking lot- there is an Orthodox church at the site

A mix of the old stone statues at every history site and woodcarvings

mosaic over the church doors

 You could hear someone playing an old Beatles tune on a trumpet as we walked into the park, and although we never saw them, we heard several more songs, including the Ukrainian national anthem, before we left. There are many houses nearby.

the old tree is supported by many poles and wires

New Ukrainian atmosphere- a tiny cottage 

the metal horse you can climb up on is a favorite of the children

Me with another new Cossack carving

Kids hanging out near the playground under other oaks

Peeking over the wall behind the restaurant, we see even more new stuff!

We drove to the other side of the city to a restaurant for dinner. Interestingly there was a group of teenagers hanging out near the underpass and what mischief were they up to? Singing the Ukrainian anthem! 

It seems every bridge in Ukraine has a new coat of blue and yellow paint

The new bridge is in limbo again - all road projects are stalled now

that's the 4 Points Sheraton poking up in the distance

downtown on Lenina (street)

A billboard for Ukrainian Independence day  downtown Zaporoshia

a little loving Ukrainian graffiti on the bridge

 Of course the laboratory phoned Maxim, who phoned Garry just as we were ready to order, so after a nice meal (I had salad, Garry had pasta and we shared some homemade bread) we drove back over the bridges and island to pick it up. I guess we needed the official paper, Garry had thought the lady said they would phone with the results, but we had to go back to get them. He had originally told me we'd have to go back to get them, so he must have suspected we'd need to return.

Lots of these billboards going up around the city

If you look closely the Lada ahead of the motorcycle (yes the driver has a
helmet, not the guy on the back) is being towed with a blue towrope strap

 The results were in and according to Max who read the report when we got back to the village, the sunflowers were a little dirtier than Garry thought; but then he did not take the sample either. The sunflowers that were combined are sold to Vitaly in exchange for mookooka - the ground waste after they press sunfloweroil, it is a good protein source feed which will be used next winter during the time that there isn't any pivtravina (brewers' grain) available to buy because the beer plant closes for a month or so for the holidays.