Carol Bontekoe

This blog has been keeping track of my adventures since 2004. The stories and the adventures have come from my college dorm room to Uganda, Peace Corps Kyrgyzstan, learning Dutch in the Netherlands to living in the wilds of Homer, Alaska. I went back to school in Amsterdam to study Theaterwetenschap (Theatre Science) at University of Amsterdam. And now my adventures as a Fruit Fly, a Sexy Unicorn, and creating a movement with Team Sparkle in Chicago.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Can I get some help here?

I'm surprised at how un-upset I was. I think it's cuz I knew deep down I don't have very good luck- so sooner or later the bike was going to give. I especially knew it was going to go after how destroyed it was by Scandinavian Airlines people. I'm honestly surprised it got as far it did after being treated that way by SAS.
There really was nothing around me, just an old abandoned house that I figured I could sleep in if worse came to worse. A village appeared to be a kilometer or so away. For some reason I made the executive decision to leave my bike in some tall grass and walk to the village to look for help. Why leave the thing I need fixed? ummm... it was hot..?.. I really have no excuse for that thinking.
I wandered around and practiced the sentence, "Where can I get my bike fixed?" in Russian several times. Though from a distance it had looked like a village it was really just a bunch of house. There were no shops or anything. There also seemed to be no people.
When an old man went riding by me on a bike I asked him where I could get my bike fixed. He pointed to a house and told me there?
da?
Da.

He than said some other stuff, something about Russian and I only realized later that it wasn't that they could fix it but that they knew Russian.
After thinking I had been told I could get my bike fixed in this little havel I went back to the field and fetched my bike. I left my bags in the tall grass figuring it would be incredible if someone found them there and if they were willing to carry the heavy things off they deserved what they got. Alot of stuff I could probably do without....
I had to carry my bike. At this point I was hoping to save the wheel, so I didn't want to put any pressure on it.
My bike... surprisingly heavy.
Unfortunately/fortunately no one was around. It was fortunate because than no one had to see me huffing and puffing as I carried my bike.
After doing two loops around the village I set my bike down in some shaded woodsy area to give it another go at getting the tire off. No luck there but I must have been standing in something poisonous cuz I got a pretty decent rash on my legs and arms. AWESOME! When your stressed over your transportation being broken a very itchy rash is what you want.
I figured this wasn't going to do any good I needed a more public spot, but where is a public spot when the area seems deserted? I plopped down right on the road and continued to bang on the bike. Some people went by in cars and while staring at me heavily they weren't about to stop and help.
It looked hopeless. I was just going to go to a bus stop a couple kilometers away and try to catch a bus into the city 15kms away. As I was carrying my bike out of the villagish area I heard someone talking to me.... That's how I met Pyetr...face down in a ditch.

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