When I saw the mini pumpkin at the open market I knew I needed to take immediate action to secure some pumpkins. I bought that one and then tried to find out if I could get more. I asked what the word for pumpkin was in Russian, it is Kasha. I called Dave's interpreter and said, "Hi Kate, I am trying to get some pumpkins, some Kasha, can you ask this Babushka if she has some and if maybe she could bring some next week?" Kate agreed to try and I went to hand my phone to the Babushka to see if we could work out a plan. She wouldn't take the phone so I had to bend over and hold it up to her ear. That was not working and Kate wasn't making any progress. I thanked her and hung up and considered my next step.
"Yest balshoy kasha?" I asked about 5 times, "Have big pumpkin?" She didn't seem to understand what I was looking for. Then another lady came over and started talking to me really fast. I told her in Russian that I didn't understand, but she kept on talking and soon another lady got in the mix. They were all three talking to me in Russian, but after a little bit, a few words started popping out. I understood car, pumpkin, house. It finally occurred to me that she wanted me to drive her to her house and she would sell me pumpkins there. She was pretty little and pretty old so I figured I was probably pretty safe. Plus, 15 people were watching us hatch this plan so at least one of them would tell the police where I went with my one-year-old daughter in the event that we turned up missing or dead.
We got in the truck and she directed me down a side street and past the park and over one of the worst dirt roads I have seen in Russia. I drove up a narrow drive and parked in front of a burgundy garage and fence and followed her into her back yard. I think she expected me to leave AJ in the truck because she just took off without waiting for me to get her out of her car seat. I followed her through a gate and down into her back yard. We were still in the city limits but you really weren't able to tell. There were chickens all over the place and random squashes and about 30 pumpkins all piled under a low hanging tree.
"Eureka!" I cried.
Not really."Awesome!" I cried. And then I called Janae and asked her how many pumpkins she wanted. We settled on 8 total and I proceeded to pick out our pumpkins. I think the Babushka thought I wanted to eat them because she kept cutting little divots out of the top of them to show me the flesh. Luckily, they weren't too big, but I did get a little nervous when she walked up with the hatchet. Nervous for the pumpkins. She was pretty nice so I wasn't too worried for me.
I asked her how much they were and she wanted 100 rubles for the little ones and 200 for the big ones. I couldn't understand most of what she was saying, so I just pulled 1,000 rubles out of my pocket and she seemed pretty pleased with that. We hauled the pumpkins back to the truck and loaded them around AJ in the back seat, I've learned not to put anything that I don't want to be ruined in the bed of the truck. I turned to the Babushka and said, "Balshoy Spaseeba!" She seemed pleased with my big thanks but then looked alarmed like I might not take her back to the market. I gave her a ride back and drove home with my triumphant load of pumpkins.
No comments:
Post a Comment