Ten Minutes of Fear, and You Are Home

     We're in the process of looking for a car right now.  This is a bit tricky because cars don't lose much value (price-wise) over time, but Russian roads are bad and do a number on cars very quickly!  So, of course, we want something reliable that will withstand our village roads.  In the meantime, Nettie has been nice to give us rides, we walk, and we take buses.  And we take taxis.  The taxi system here is actually quite fantastic.  If I understand Uber, it's like that.  A bunch of people with their own cars are signed into the taxi company.  When we want a ride, we just type our starting and ending address into an app and within minutes someone comes and picks us up for a very reasonable price.  This has created many interesting experiences and great conversations. 

       I mentioned in the last blog our connection with a neighbor we'd never met when we ordered a taxi. Leif has since run into him outside and he invited our family over. Another time our driver drove across the river because he wanted to avoid traffic.  Going over the river itself was very smooth, but going over the banks before and after the river made for quite the exciting ride!  One morning, a mom from our village picked us up.  We'd never met her before, but she has a daughter Ella's age.  She gave me her name and number to connect later. 

     The sign above says "Ten Minutes of Fear, and You are Home".  This sign was in the car of one of our drivers.  When we first got in he was helping jump start someone else's car.  He asked us if we could wait a few minutes so that he could help them out.  Then he said, "Don't worry- it'll just take 5 minutes and then I'll drive really fast". 

     Probably the funniest story was from this week.  Ike started going to a local kindergarten and I called a taxi to get home.  The driver looked at us and then said, "Let me guess you're names... Hmmm.... you're Mike, no- Ike!  And you are..... Jami!"  It was a little disconcerting because I'd never met this guy in my life!  It turns out his son in in Ike's class and the teacher sends out text messages each day with class information and had introduced us to everyone in the group.  It also turns out that he is a believer!

     We hope to find a car soon, but in the meantime we are thankful for the many blessings God has given us through this car-less season.