More Experiences to Share

It is still Friday here in Ukraine, I've been attempting to share these blogs with you all morning. What with getting used to using a Hungarian computer and then an outage of electricity, I hope I'll finally be able to get this project finished.

On Thursday our group traveled to L'viv, a very old and historic city in western Ukraine. It is quite beautiful with lots of history, old buildings and lovely churches. Some of the World Cup (soccer) matches are being played in L'viv so there are more tourists than usual. Even so, we were able to see a great deal of the oldest parts of town.  We've also been to the mountains which are filled with trees and loads of green grass, unlike the desert some of us are used to.

I've asked other members of our group to share some of their thoughts, reflections and experiences, so the rest of this post will be in their words.

Charlotte Leeth writes: "I have seen piles of bricks grow into a children's home. It is not an orphanage, but a true children's home. The children live in houses with a mother and father and boys and girls of all ages. Thanks for all the help from the States they have been provided with some necessities they otherwise might not have.

Here's what Suzie Mostoller has to share: "There is so much of interest here that is different from life in the U.S. Our Dewey is something of a farm community, but with new homes being built an acre here 5 acres there. Here in Rát we definitely see a farm community, but it is a community with homes up and down the streets. As soon as the homes stop, farm land begins. We have cabbage and cuke cole slaw daily, so  we know those are big crops. Corn and grains are also big. Sometimes they will grow 3 20 foot rows of cabbage and have 10 pole bean plants in the middle of a huge field of corn. We think that's a private garden in the middle of a "crop for sale." 10-12 cows are herded down the street about 6:30 AM and return about 7 PM. Families have one or two cows and hire a herder who picks up all the village cows and takes them to the pasture for the day. There are no curbs or sidewalks, so we walk in the street and call "car" as they barrel down the street avoiding pot holes. The ice cream man came by in his cart this morning, beeping his horn-no music! Each house has a distinctive wrought iron fence in front. They have lots of flower gardens, veggie gardens and grape arbors down the driveways. People say they make good wine in the fall, but they haven't shared with us!

We've taken two day trips and have driven on the super highways into the Carpathian Mountains. We went to a beautiful lake in the mountains, then stopped for a wonderful shashlik lunch-- grilled veal on sticks, potatoes similar to scalloped potatoes, and the usual cole slaw. Oh--SO GOOD! Along the way we noticed the hay stacks that are so different from ours. A single stack in the center supports the hay that droops down in a sort of shaggy triangular shape to a platform on the bottom that keeps it off the ground and therefore doesn't get muddy. (I hope I have a picture!) They remind me of cousin Itt on the Addams Family TV show.

More later