It was miserably hot and made even hotter and more miserable by the fact that Ukrainians whole-heartedly believe that too much wind or any sort of cross breeze will make you sick. And, in the presence of any young child, they hold militantly to this principle. So with Veronika -- our 18 month niece -- in the house, let's just say the “open window situation” was less than ideal.
The only thing that saved me from loosing my mind during the hot spell -- besides the fact that I'd lived here and was aware of this strange, cultural wind phobia -- was that Roma was also losing his mind. A year in America where he never once heard someone question a cross breeze had a strong effect on him. I'd go so far to say that he's a cross breeze convert.
A couple days ago, a big thunderstorm rolled in and cooled things way off for us. The thunder and the lightening was spectacular. And the rain was SUCH a nice change from the heat. We lost power during the storm and it took about a day and a half for the power to come back in full so we were off-line there for awhile. But fear not, we are back in action.
Since the weather has become more bearable, Roma and I have tried to resume our workout routine. Yesterday we went and played basketball outside near the sports center. Only two other people showed up, but we played anyway. Back when Roma and I first met, before I could speak any Ukrainian and before we ever started dating, he used to take me to open gyms at the sport center. (What can I say, his plan worked --he totally wooed me with his jump shot.) Back when we used go to open gyms together, there'd be at least 10, 15 even 20 guys there, but it seems that sports have fallen by the wayside here. The coach told Roma that he's lucky if 5 guys show up now.
We are off to the village either tonight or early tomorrow morning. It is Roma's grandparent's turn to walk the cows and Roma and I are stepping in on their behalf. Here, everyone in the village sends their cows out to graze together and they rotate the responsibility of supervising the herd. When my parents came to visit back in 2007, we were picnicking out by Alona's village. We'd been swimming in a lake and were relaxing by the shore when a big herd of “supervised” cattle tromped on by us and into the lake for a bath. To this day, my dad likes to tell this story. I guess it is a strange experience. I remember that later that same day, I got back in the water with Roma and a couple of friends. And I was almost able to forget the fact that there'd recently been cattle in the lake... but then a cow-patty floated by me and I was forced to jet out of the water. Poop is pretty much where I draw the line, just so you all know.
Roma's grandpa is doing well. He is very sore and a little unsteady on his feet; but boy did he pop out of bed when he saw his grandson. It was touching. Not only was grandpa able to join us for lunch at the table, but he managed to hobble outside to the garden and pick strawberries for us to munch on. It was a relief to see that he is doing so well. He and grandma sold the horse that trampled him. I guess they'd been talking about selling it for awhile because it was so much extra work. I believe the plan is to sell the cow next year too and then to just have small animals like chickens, geese, turkeys and the pigs. While having a full farm is a lot of work for such an old couple, I know that it is also difficult for them to give it up. It's the only life they have ever known and being so busy gives them purpose.
Here are some pictures from the week. They are of our niece Veronika, Roma's Godson, Dima and our adventures in the woods gathering mushrooms with Sasha, Alona and Sasha's brother, Yura.
No comments:
Post a Comment