Well, we are finally back from Western Ukraine. We arrived in Lviv on Wednesday evening and took a harrowing taxi ride from Lviv to Chervonohgrad (The Red City, City of Miners, City of Red Slag, City built like Soviets). We stayed with Joe’s former teacher-mentor when he was in the Peace Corps. Jaroslava, her husband Petro, her son Igor, his twin sister Ira, husband Sergey, and their sons Volodya and Markian. Only Igor still lives with his parents. Ira’s family lives down the street. (Note to Noah, Caleb, and Evan: Jaroslava is a Busia (called BabaSlava), and true to form, Grandpa and I saw many legos and matchbox cars at BabaSlava’s house. Markian and his friend, Bogdan, were busy one afternoon making truck and firestation sounds in Ukrainian. It sounds the same.) We had a delicious meal with Jaroslava and her husband, complete with all sorts of interesting and tasty Ukrainian dishes, some homemade Vodka (made by Jaroslava’s father), and some tea with cognac. We slept well that night……until
…..Around 8 a.m., Joe came charging into our bedroom and said…”Is that what I think it is?” I, still groggy from sleep, thought I was dreaming about a Porky Pig cartoon since I was sure I heard a pig squealing. Coming forth to consciousness, I realized, like everyone else, that yes, indeed, a pig was squealing, five hundred dogs were barking, and bunches of roosters were crowing. Gene thought he heard an electric drill. Right again. For, right next door, Jaroslava’s neighbors were butchering a hog! Fortunately, we didn’t witness the actual murder, but we did get to watch the blowtorch singing the hair off, and then the sharp knife skinning the hog. Their dog was barking a visibily nervous bark, certainly concerned that he was to be next. Likewise, the rooster scooped down, perhaps thinking he could find a tasty morsel, but the neighbor, Luba, threatened him with a knife and last we knew, he had hunkered down with his many chicken wives. And that was how we started our first full day in Chervonohrad. (Note to readers: I’m having trouble uploading the picture of Porky into this blog. I’ll work on it when we get home.)
