October 7th, 2013 half way to Lutsk So this morning we had plans to
leave for Dobre at 8:30 At 9:15 we left Shafarika and it took about half
an hour to get out of the city. We took an alternate route out because
of the heavy traffic. Once on the main highway Gilles and I learned
the meaning of bad roads. Never ever have we seen such bad roads.
Everyone drives wherever, in order to avoid the holes. Not just small
holes, but literally craters, three feet round one foot deet. Simply
unreal. Roads that were in excellent condition three years ago are
literally impassable, unless one slows down to a crawl. The frost of
this past winter caused many of the roads in Ukraine to be damaged.
Well, half way to the half way point of our journey a couple of these
holes did us in, breaking the coil spring on the driver' side. Just a
slight change to the agenda...a pit stop to your local Ukrainian Tire to
get this fixed ASAP. Our five hour trip to Dobre to visit Maria just
got a little bit longer. No problem, Ruslan calling all his connections
and very soon we have the wife of the friend of a friend who calls her
husband and gives us an address to go to in this little village of
Rodehiv. The few kilometers to reach this village were actually
travelled in a field because the road was almost impassable. Thankfully
today is a dry day and the "secondary road" is smoother than expected.
You really have to see these roads to believe it. It's not one hole
here and there, it's more a case of which hole do you take in order to
avoid the bigger ones. So we found the garage, pulled up, a few phone
calls later the van is up, and the mechanic is hammering away trying to
pry the pieces loose. Half an hour after the part was removed, the new
piece arrived by local courier. Another half hour later piece is
changed and we are on the road again! Why the delay? Who knows? Doesn't
matter whether we know or not. It's all good, we are on ours way once
again..
We
visited with Maria and her family for a very short period of time,
Gilles gave a little gospel message and the people who came listened
well. Before leaving we took out the boxes of clothes that we had
brought along and the people were able to take what they needed from the
boxes. They also left with groceries that were brought along for
them. When we go to isolated villages like this we normally bring
barley, oats, rice, tea, oil, canned fish, dry soup mixes. It was good
to be able to help them out with these things.
So
Maria sends her regards to all those she knows in Kap. She says she
regrets ever moving back to Ukraine from Kapuskasing. But at the time
she was adamant she wanted to be with her family. Life is so different
and difficult where she is now. At 86 she says she prays that God will
take her home soon. She is remarkable healthy considering all things.
We
got back on the road and drove home, this time manoeuvering the craters
in the dark. Very interesting! We arrived at 10 pm. In total we
travelled a bit over 600 kms in the day. It took ten hours for our
return trip with approximately one and a half hour at Maria's. It was a
very long day but well worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment