Fights and Injuries. The adventure continues....
Yesterday was full of adventure here in Odessa land.
Our son met us at our apartment in the afternoon. We weren’t sure if he was going to because he had a very bad head ache when we dropped him off the night before. We found out he gets head aches quite often.
We hung out all day and just vegged at our home away from home for the day. My friend made a hair appointment for me at her beauty shop; my age was showing and I had to go get that taken care of. ;)
Igor was nice enough to translate to the beautician what I wanted done and then he and my family left me there and made faces at me through the window and came back in to take a picture.
About 1/2 hour later, as I was sitting in my chair, the door flung open and two men came flying in. One large man threw the other man down on the couch where you wait for your turn. The large man started punching the other man in the face repeatedly....oh, the thud thud sound; I hated it. The other man didn’t fight back-he just put his arms up to protect his face. Then the man would punch his head and ear and kick him. A lady was yelling at him to stop. It seemed she knew him and I assumed he was her husband. He would yell back and stop punching while he yelled but he would kick at that time. The poor guy getting hit was not fighting back at all. I was just sitting there, in shock, watching all this in the mirror. It was going on directly behind me and there was no where for me to go. There was a lady sitting in a chair beside me and she didn’t seem very scared or shocked. Finally, when the wife of the man was able to convince him to stop pounding on the defenseless one, the men ran out. Whew. I was so scared and also so thankful that he didn’t have a gun or a knife. If that happened in my hood, one of them would have surely been armed. My beautician was very shocked and as they all came out of the back room, the fast Russian talking started about what just happened. No one spoke English so I just relaxed that it was all over and drank my tea.
When I called my crew to come pick me up, I told them about it as soon as they got there and Igor asked my beautician to verify that something actually happened while I was there. He and Bill were upset that they weren’t there watching out for me and wanted to know why I didn’t call.
We all went to McDonalds AGAIN for dinner. Out of all the places there are to eat here, that’s “Luke’s” favorite place to eat so that’s where we go. We left Igor and his friend there while the 4 of us went back out into the cold night to play some games at the arcade type place. There is a thing that measures how hard you hit the large hammer, how hard you punch the punching bag, and how hard you kick the soccer ball. Luke and Bill did the first two even though Bill is constantly telling Luke what a waste of money it is to do this stuff. Luke just loves to do it and can’t wait to see the score everyone gets. He and Dana had a kick off with the soccer machine (you may already be able to guess who won that one). The night before, as Luke kicked on that machine, he winced in pain and held his hip. We knew that look and knew he hurt his hip flexer. He seemed to walk it off and be ok. Last night, though. on his last kick, when he was trying really hard to beat Dana, he almost passed out in pain when he re-injured his hip flexer. He couldn’t walk this one off. He was hurt. Very hurt. Dana and Bill walked home so that Igor, and his friend, and I could drive Luke back to the dorm. As we were walking to the car, Igor left us and went to bring the car to us. Luke couldn’t even walk. They decided he needed to go to the hospital. I knew from experience that there was nothing they could do. I also knew from going to the hospital here for Brian’s broken ankle a few years ago, that it would be a waste of time to go to the hospital, but how cold hearted would I sound if I said no, he’s fine, we’re not going to the hospital. And he was in such pain. So, off we go. Igor announces to the car load that Pam will be staying in the car. I announce very firmly that Pam will NOT be staying in the car. 1)it’s freezing and dark 2)it’s not safe 3)mamma bear never stays in the car when her child is injured. I didn’t give those reasons but I wasn’t asked to give a reason....I was just told not to talk so they wouldn’t know I was American. It adds dollar signs. I already knew this, but I agreed to be quiet.
Oh, and as Luke was getting out of the front seat of the car, he had his hand on the car, bracing himself to stand up. I shut the back door very hard (the only way to close it) and it closed right on the poor kid’s hand! Oh my goodness! Mom, good thing he was wearing those new gloves you got him. It saved his poor little fingers!
The doctor examined him and told him the bone wasn’t broken but agreed to do an X-ray, which also showed no break. He prescribed pain medicine (Advil). We got to bring him to the apartment since his dorm is on the 4th floor and he couldn’t walk, much less go up stairs. We iced every 20 minutes/off every 20 minutes. We stayed up very very very late at night just talking and Skyping with family and friends. We had great talks and an awesome night!
This morning, Bill and I met with an American friend to meet a new Ukrainian friend who mentors the friend I’ve been asking you to pray for. Sorry about the no names but it’s the way it is here for different reasons. As we were leaving, I peaked in on my two kids in their different rooms and they were sound asleep. You know how when you peek in on your new little baby sleeping in their crib and you sigh and smile and you can’t believe he’s yours? That’s how I felt as I saw him there sleeping, safe and sound where he belongs. Oh, yes, and Dana looked adorable too and I was thankful that she was sleeping since she has had hardly any sleep since she arrived in Ukraine.