It was the end of month 2, and we headed to Moldova for our team debrief. We knew we were going to be with our squad for five days to debrief, and process everything that has been happening on the race so far. As we said our very hard goodbyes to all of the Ukrainians we fell in love with, we embarked on a long journey from Crimea, Ukraine to Singeri, Moldova.
READY…
After our first short leg of 3 hours to the bus station in Ukraine, we were set off on our own as a team to get to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. We were taking a 16-hour bus ride to Chisinau to meet with one of the other teams on our squad. We were expecting to be hot, uncomfortable, and get little sleep, but I don’t think many of us were expecting how it would really feel.
SET…
Two families fighting over seats on the bus delayed our bus departure. They became outraged, and quite loud. Of course they were speaking Russian, therefore we didn’t really understand anything they were saying. We judged by the use of hand motions, and body language, and of course their loud voices that they overbooked the bus and someone needed a seat. The driver came on, and joined them in their yelling and arm flailing and finally settled them down. A couple of guys were forced to stand for the beginning of the ride (eventually some people got off and they got their seats).
GO….
When the bus finally started a few more tears fell as we waved to our contacts and friends from Ukraine. Our minds were in a jumble from all the good-byes, and thoughts of getting ready for debrief, seeing the whole squad again, and realizing another month has passed us by, and a new month was soon to begin.
The bus was off, and we noticed a T.V. screen maneuvering from the ceiling to hang down in the aisle, my seat was right next to this screen, and there was also one all the way in the front of the bus. The very first moment was a moment of joy, and excitement. My thought was “OOO! Maybe we will be watching a movie!” Well I was wrong, and quickly my excitement fell. The T.V started to play a Russian soap opera with horrible acting, and even worse background music, not to mention, it was all in Russian so we didn’t understand anything they were saying. We started to try and get comfortable and find a good position to sleep. Some of us read, talked and ate snacks for a little while, but we all drew very tired, really quick.
STOP… …GO
We were told that the bus was going to stop about every 2 or 3 hours, because there was no access to a bathroom on the bus. After about an hour and a half the bus stopped, and we were confused. Only the boys got out from our team. It was a very short stop, and most of us were too tired to leave. I again nodded off and fell asleep.
STOP… …GO
30 minutes later we stopped again. We were confused as to why we stopped again, but this time everyone on the bus got off. We followed and most of us got off. At this point it was very hot and uncomfortable, as we expected.
Since we were still in Eastern Europe the public bathroom cost money. Being poor missionaries, 2 hyrivna was too much to pay for a squatty potty (essentially a hole in the ground), so being the ladies we are, we went for behind the dumpsters (good thing we packed those extra napkins from lunch!!). After a nice stretch/bathroom break we all got back in, and tried to get comfortable again.
STOP… …GO
The bus started and right on cue the T.V show started again. I finally started to doze, and the bus stopped again! It had only been another 30 minutes since the last stop. AS I looked around, no one else woke up. I looked out the window, and we were not at a stop, we were in the middle of a road. I kept asking myself “why are we stopping?” I realized I was so tired I kept falling in and out of sleep. The second time I woke up, we were still stopped; at this point I was just annoyed. I was uncomfortable and hot, it was around 2 a.m. and that darn show was still blaring through the speakers, and I hadn’t gotten much sleep. I look out the window, and noticed the baggage door was opened and a guy was loading things. I squinted and realized he was loading a bunch of watermelons underneath the bus. Watermelons?! We stopped for watermelons!? I was so confused. I kept falling asleep and next thing I know we have started driving again, finally.
STOP… …GO
Our next stop everyone got off. Not really for any reason but to just get off the bus. We were so uncomfortable, and in our discomfort we were irritated. We began to just vent to each other about why we hated the travel day so much. At that moment our team became united. United in our suffering, and our irritability turned into full laughter.
STOP… …GO
We finally had to get back on the dreaded vehicle and try and stick it out for the rest of the ride. We had to go through two border crossings, one where we held up the whole bus just because we were from America, and a Communist border patrolman took KJ off the bus to intimidate him, and ask questions.
After 16 hours we arrived in the capital and met with the contact. The original plan is that we would wait for the last team, and meet all the other teams at our debrief site. Change of plans, all the other teams missed their bus/ a bus broke down and no one was there yet. We went from supposed to being the last team to arrive, to being the first and only team to arrive to the debrief site. We did however enjoy our alone time to take showers and pick the best bunks and hammock trees. Unfortunately we all know this won’t be our last extensive, exhausting travel day!
Future racers, do not expect anything during travel days, or you might just get watermelons!
