Ukraine- Arrival to Nezhin

It was so sad to leave Tammy. The morning I was suppose to leave was a typical morning for me. The taxi didn't show, we went to the wrong train station, the next taxi got lost, we missed our train and had to rebuy tickets... Tammy swears I must be jinked as she has never missed a plane, taxi, or train and yet things like this happen to me all the time. :)

When we arrived in Kiev (where we were to meet my team) we were met by 2 older men who were like a van taxi service. Seeing these stairs loom before me, I was so glad to see such "strapping" old men. It was like a comedy act for sure, complete with a Robin Williams look alike. My humor quickly faded when they wanted $50US for a 10 minute ride to the seminary, to which they got lost multiple times! Thankfully Tammy was able to talk them down to $25US but still, Kiev is outragously priced.

Our trip into Nezhin began rather late, like 10:45 pm and still not knowing what Nezhin was, a town or village, was rather sketchy. Everything we had been told about the Ukraine so far had been completely false but Tammy had said that what had been described to me was a village so perhaps that was what Nezhin was. We all piled into 2 vans, most of us meeting for the first time, translators and team members alike.

I had to laugh at Kerry, who kept a running conversation with Vladik who spoke a little English but was obviously overwhelmed. Kerry, definately at her most defining moment having lacked 36 hrs of sleep, was hysterical as she was trying to tell him that she was probably the funniest person he would meet, except he would not know that since he couldn't understand her. To prove her point she then began a whole series of jokes beginning with "How do you get a one arm Polish man out of a tree?" Watching her attempt to act and explain that out and Vladik's polite "mm" to something obviously he wasn't understanding was quite entertaining!

Around 2am we pulled onto this rutty road. There was nothing out there except fields and trees and I thought we had finally come to the end of the world. It doesn't matter where you are, things always look bleaker at that hour. When the sun rose a mere 2 hrs later, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we were in a small town that is very similar to where my mother grew up.