Peter Khoma takes me on tour

Monday night - I seriously do not want to go back to America! Can you all please take up a collection so that I can stay here longer??? Slept in late today (8 AM) because of hard time sleeping in the heat. I think Ivan and Klara were up at five, hoeing and scything and feeding animals before it got too hot. Misha and family should be arriving at the Black Sea today; it's Sasha Maximovich's 19th birthday today, too.

Went to Marta's for a small lunch (it was only 4 hours long, so not much to talk about) except for one new food I'd never even dreamt of: They have this food named after the Ukrainian word for "Easter Basket"; it is a "bliny" filled with a mix of mushrooms and meat, tied up in a bundle with a green onion stalk, and smothered in a mushroom and cream gravy.  It tasted good, but just to rich for my taste, especially after eating everything else. Got on "Skype" with my mother, so all the relatives at the lunch could see and meet her. Every day, the Dravtsi relatives ask " How's your mother?" " We want to see your mother and brother and sisters!"

I'm in really big trouble now. I used my "rolator" walker to go down the street to the next village. I stopped at the "Khoma" house, just to say "hello" and let them know that I was staying in Dravtsi. I wasn't expecting the welcome I got. I was met by 17 year old cousin Peter, who welcomed me in, introduced me to his mother, father, grandmother, dog, cat, cow! I assumed they might be a little curious about an American distant relative, but I never expected them to drop everything to welcome an unannounced, unexpected distant relative!!!

The very second they found out I was a distant relative, I got a royal welcome. They dropped everything to take me to the Uzh River for a little fishing, took me to some really scenic and beautiful spots. They took me to the Slovak border, where there's a huge Soviet statue. They took me on a tour of different sections of Uzhgorod I hadn't seen. Ended up at a really beautiful lake which was once a stone quarry!! And my camera batteries went dead!!! The quarry is 50 meters deep, and has 100 Kilo fish in it! Looks clear; looks like a great place to dive!

( Dear Microsoft: can you please make a stupider OS than Windows 8??? Windows 8 isn't quite stupid enough. I would have been finished with this blog in half the time with Windows 7. Thanks a lot, Bill Gates, !!)

Young Peter speaks English; I thought he spoke pretty well, but he said his sister Tanya tells him he has very poor English (but then, Tanya is an English Teacher. I can understand Peter perfectly well). Peter's mom told me that this was the first time she heard her son speak English! Peter is very athletic; snow ski, soccer, basketball, weightlifting. Has quite a few medals in sports. His father (also Peter), is a skilled woodworker. I saw doors, tables, chests that he made in his workshop.

Back at the Khoma house, had another treat: they ordered pizza from a place down the street. The pizza had SALO!!!!!!I wonder what "Papa John's" will think when I order a salo pizza back home.
Here's the part where I'm in big trouble: when I dropped in on the Khoma family unannounced and unexpected, I thought they would, at best, say something like " so you're a distant relative. So what? What do you want from us??" Instead, they immediately (without even thinking about it, rolled out the red carpet for me. After showing me their hospitality, older Peter drove me back to Klara's. I found Ivan sitting outside his house, waiting for me. Klara and Marta  came home - they were out on a search for me. Then I saw the pretty Ukrainian Law students; Klara had them out searching for me too!!!!