Getting the tractors out and serviced for some area ministry. Our friends from Kiev plan to come down with a team in the next two weeks, weather permitting, to bless the poorest of the poor by plowing up their gardens for spring planting. Most Ukrainians here in the country live off the land and with the current economic crisis, getting their crops in has never been as vital as it is now.
I grew up on a farm in Eastern Ontario, started driving tractors and combines at the ripe age of 8. I had to take them for a little spin before handing them over, the neighbors were quite perplexed as I drove around – I’m known as the foreigner in the neighborhood who can’t weld, make cement, and generally fix anything himself. You are supposed to take specific courses and have a permit to drive a tractor here – but I couldn’t resist. Hopefully they will let me plow a bit as well, get some better video then.
As a side note for the real farmers out there, the Belarus tractor had me baffled for 10 minutes. Nothing made sense intuitively. Funny how even tractors built over here reflect the unnecessary complexities which have evolved here from communistic thinking. After switching to the New Holland, it was like stepping off the plane from Minsk to Canada. Ah, home!