Monday, December 04, 2006

 

Cars and Furniture

There are so many things that are difficult and challenging to do here. An example: Richard left early to take the van to Zhitomer-- 1 1/2 hours away--to have the belts, oil, etc. changed. He thought he could be back by mid-afternoon but he called and said the mechanic told him it would take all day. So he probably won't be back until 7 or so.

We are so happy to have the van. It is a panel van and came straight from Germany. It had about 100,000 Kilometers on it but it is diesal and I guess the engine goes a long time. (I'm not very mechanical.) Anyway, we have a temporary registration and must register it as a panel van. But this can only happen if we get registered in Ukraine. We went to the district office with a translator and they told us we didn't need to be registered. (You are supposed to unless you go out of the country every 4 months and come back in.) We told them we had to register because we had bought a house and a car. Finally a lady gave us some papers--this was an hour and half later--but said we needed another paper from the purchase of our house. We called the Realtor and they said that wouldn't come for three or four months. So, we heard of an attorney in Kyiv that could register us. It cost $390 and he got us registered in a week but with a Kyiv address. Now we find out that the papers on the truck were sent to our district and that is where the car must be registered. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After registration, then we will take it to Zhitomer and they will put in windows and seats-in one day--costs about $1500. Then we re-register it as a passenger van. I guess this saves us a bundle of money but it is very frustrating. I wanted seat belts for the passenger seats (we have them in front) but they didn't know where to get them. So we have to try to go to the auto market (there are many, many small stalls that sell things) and look. But that is one and a half hours on away. And then we may not find them. People just don't use seat belts here. It is NOT easy to get anything done.

Yesterday, Sunday, some furniture we had ordered was to be delivered at 3 o'clock. It arrived at 6:30 and the delivery guys had to assemble it. They spoke no English but were nice. They left about 11:30. A piece from the desk is missing--a top piece--and a whole piece that contains drawers was also missing. The chest of drawers for the bedroom had clear tape holding it together and they tried to get it off but couldn't. So there is sticky stuff all over it. We will have to go to the "showroom" in the market place tomorrow and take it to the lady who sold it to us and see what she will do about it. Another piece was not the right size--we had ordered a wider than normal size. So I sent that back with them. There were also black felt tip pen marks on several pieces and pencil marks. They told me to remove them with Acetone--of course, I don't know where it is sold. I removed them with facial astringent--at least most of them came off. It gets really silly after a while. I think God is working on my Type A personality and trying to get me to learn patience. I actually did quite well yesterday with His help.

These kind of things are the reason that not much gets accomplished in a day. But it certainly keeps life interesting.

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