Back on the road

Well, if you read the last post, where Garry's car was "arrested" you might be wondering when he got his car back...

It took three days from when the fine was paid - Saturday- until the official notice of payment was available- Tuesday mid-morning, Victor brought it out to the village around 11:30 and took Garry to the checkpoint to retrieve the car.

What did we do in the meantime? Sunday we walked to the church in the village, Max Boradin told is what the scripture was for the message, and we are pretty good singing hymns in Russian (even though I can barely say anything in Russian I can sing phonetically, strangely enough I can sound words out). We spent a quiet day at home. Our Canadian guest left on Saturday afternoon after a walking tour of the trade school program, they had a quick bite of lasagna before Garry got him on the 1:30 marshushka to Zaporosia.

Sunday evening Garry talked to Masha, and told her to take the afternoon one here since they are still not running the regular routes, the alternative would be for her to leave the city at 4:30 am. Garry taught without a translator on Monday and was pleased with the students progress at balancing feed rations, they can all do the math involved in the process. I had English class midway through the morning as normal. Masha arrived just before 6 pm, and then her and Garry walked down to the boys house for a group parent meeting, in the dark and drizzle and puddles of the melting snow piles (which you jump into when there are cars coming since there is just two tracks to go on... and then back home.

Tuesday since Garry was going for the car, he taught (with Masha) straight through to 11:30 and then I did English class. At 12:15, Maxim Rudei, walked into class and asked if I could find the keys for the car, because Garry had phoned he had forgotten to take them. I made lunch which Masha and I ate at two, Garry was still in the city, buying a suitable replacement wheelbarrow.

So Wednesday evening Garry was able to drive to Dneiperprojisk for his English book club, and a somewhat slow drive it was, the warmer temperatures and piles of snow are creating a good amount of fog! But we had a lovely time meeting with the people there, they surprised us with a new year party with tea and goodies... and we made it safely back to the village.