Whew! What a roller-coaster of emotions! Looking back on prior blog posts over the past 10 months I find it kind of interesting that I end up with the same titles in different stages of the process. There are waiting stages, BIG emotional stages, faith stages, and all sorts of unexpected things along the way. The last 3 days have almost driven me bananas wondering when in the world I would ever get home!
Monday morning, we headed down to the market for socks and a few other odds and ends. We grabbed lunch down there at the really cheap restaurant by the bus station. There‘s a reason it‘s cheap, haha. Later, Aleksey came in on the train to M so he could pick up the social number. It was finished, thankfully, so he got that and came here to P. We didn’t really do much on Monday since we had planned on running around most of the day Tuesday.
Unfortunately, Tuesday’s to-do list barely got started. We had hoped to have the local passport information done by 2pm (since he was there when they opened to submit it). If we could make it to the regional office on Tuesday to apply, there was a good chance we’d have the passport by Friday. The hours ticked away and I got more and more down about the fact that we wouldn’t get the passport this week. The time finally passed and I had to get over it. I lucked out with some hot water, took a bath, and we went to eat.
Today was MUCH more eventful! I have gotten to recognize all the taxi drivers here in P. There’s the guy whose trunk will only open with a flathead screw-driver. Another guy has a car where only certain doors open (thankfully he doesn’t make you jump in Dukes of Hazard style). There are several other very friendly, crazy drivers with old, old cars. The guy who took us on our exhausting world tour last Tuesday has a nice, clean, roomy, older Mercedes. Today’s driver looked like he could not have even been 20 years old. The car was very tiny and uncomfortable. He needed directions to EVERYwhere! At one point, he was pulled over by a policeman and put in the police car for about 5 minutes. Yeah, that happened… Another guy took us on our castle tour and has been our driver several times. He has a super-clean car with a decent amount of room. He is by far the craziest driver and must have received his taxi education with “Ern” at the “Knight Bus Driver Training Institute” (Harry Potter 3 reference).
We started off today with Aleksey saying we “might” be going to Ki*v this afternoon. WHAT? Totally threw me for a loop. I was pretty stressed wondering how much/if I should pack up. I started with a suitcase of things I knew I wouldn’t touch until Ki*v even if it wasn’t until another 3-4 days. Once I was done with that, he came and said we needed to go do documents. Okay, so off we went! After we got the local documents, we headed to the regional passport office in U. After waiting in a hall for a little while, the power suddenly went off. We went in an office with a lady who fed us apples and practiced her English. I realized I’m waaaaaaay remedial on small talk. Please forgive me when I return if I can’t hold a conversation… It was thought that the power would return within an hour. Aleksey talked to the director, I went to the bathroom by flashlight (glad I’m still carrying that one around in the backpack), then we decided to go on to the doctor in M since we couldn’t do anything else there with no power. After some turnarounds (including a three point turn that slammed into the curb - lol), we got to the hospital where they re-bandaged miss C. She cried this time. A LOT. I don’t understand WHY they won’t let me stay with her! I know it would help! After that, we raced back to U in order to get the passport photo. The power was back on, so we got the photo and signed some documents. Aleksey went to talk to a few people and while he was doing that, the power went off again. REALLY thankful we got there when we did! Hmmm - wonder if the photo saved? Okay, crossing that off my worry-list. I’m not going to think about it. Somebody else pray about that, please??? We stopped at the train station where he bought tickets for TOMORROW!!!! Back in P, we finally ate our first meal of the day at 4:30pm. Everybody was pretty hungry!
C has a low fever now. Isn’t that how it always happens? RIGHT after you go to the doctor and say “everything is fine,” they get a fever. Boo. I’m going to keep monitoring it and we will go to the doctor in Ki*v if needed. Tomorrow, we will say goodbye to V*ktor’s friends, pack up, and head out of here. It’s kind of weird. As much as I want to get home, I wish I could just go straight home from here. This is not a four star resort (probably not even 1 ½), but I at least know it and I’m comfortable here. Ki*v will be change, big city, getting used to a new place. At any rate, off we go tomorrow!
Even with the “expedite,” the passport won’t be done until Monday, but it can be sent to us. We do not have to pick it up like we originally thought. Theoretically, we could go home Wednesday. I’m not holding my breath. Nothing else has been ready the day it should, so I’m just planning indefinite and taking it a day at a time. Thanks to all you prayer warriors! Miss you all!
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