After our surprise encounter with the rental car company's geo-fence, we immediately returned to the border. I dropped Mark just a few meters before the border checkpoint and he was able to grab a bus quickly with very little delay. As I proceeded forward alone, out of the dozen or so Ukrainian border guards present, I happened to land the same one who had processed me on the way in, just an hour earlier. When he saw me he asked (thru Google Translator because his English is as scant as my Ukrainian) why I was back so quickly. I informed him what happened and he asked to where the cargo had been intended, and I told him. Turns out it was his home town! So, you can imagine he excitedly wanted to see it all get there. He was quick to offer me a warehouse to offload it, and called my contact in that town. Between them, they will arrange for someone to come pick it up. GREAT! Just one problem... the warehouse was 200m behind me, back upstream of a hundred vehicles lined up and on the opposite side of all six in-bound and out-bound lanes. "How we gonna get it over there, boss?" Then an amazing thing happened. The man came alive with authority and did the impossible! With the Don Demando of a drill seargent, he started blowing his whistle, backing cars up, moving cars forward, scooting some over that way and others this, stabbing his finger at each driver behind me in turn, pointing at them and then directing them forcefully into tiny little spaces they wouldn't normally fit. He tightly Tetrised about 20 cars and a couple of semi-trucks behind me like the parting of the Red Sea and made an open space about 2 hairs wider than my van for me to back up all that way. He then removed the barriers between lanes and stopped ALL incoming traffic at that border crossing to allow me to cross 90 degrees to the flow of the road across 6 lanes of traffic plus the barrier median. The dude wanted that food! Then, he directed me to the warehouse and appointed two officers to unload it.
Out of the van and into the border warehouse.
When we were done and the van empty. He and I shared a smile and a BIG abrazo that we didn't need Google to translate. I gave him a Ukranian language card of 2 Cor 4:7-10, and I can tell ya... I'll allow the man his dignity and just say that it was an intensely emotional moment for him. So intense that it demanded an even bigger abrazo that sucked the wind righr out of me. He stuck one of his banana fingers into my chest and another pointing to the sky and paused. Then with a tear and a half smile thru a quivering chin, he said what was probably the one English word he knows - "Brother!" No other words needed.
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