Travelling

So, I was back in Kyiv/Rizhishiv this weekend. It seems like I am there every other week right now. Sometimes because of holidays or the dentist or work related stuff. The marshrutka (van/mini bus) ride is becoming quite familiar.
Over these trips I've noticed a lot of wreaths like the one in this picture. Sometimes there are boquets or small headstones instead, but each of these represents a car accident in which someone died. I am guessing that most of them are from the last few years.
I did several experiments because I was curious. For ten minutes I would count how many of these I saw along the road side or on the median, then average that out by the speed we had been traveling to determine how frequently we passed these symbols of tragedy. In one area the average was one per mile! Thankfully, the overall average is about one every three or four miles, but still that seems incredibly high. :(
The reason this is so on my mind, other than the fact that we pass so many of these reminders, is that three weeks ago a marshrutka with 10 passengers was hit head on by a semi and all of the passengers and the driver died. The truck driver lived; it's believed he was drunk. That accident happened in the one small area where the road is not a four lane, divided highway.
There were several similar accidents last year, but thankfully not with so many fatalities. So we really do appreciate and need your prayers while we are on the road here.

This is the half-way stop on the run to Kyiv. Many of the marshrutkas and buses stop here. It's a nice little place, particularly the clean bathrooms! I don't even mind that I have to pay to use them, I'm just happy they are clean! :D But they also have a little cafe and some picnic tables.