Voivodino

Friday morning drove into Mukachevo with Klara, Marta, her son Misha. They went to a tiny bazaar to buy baby chickens. There were all kinds of birds for sale there: chickens of all sizes and different breeds, ducks, geese, quails, doves.

Later, went to Bela Vasko's home. Bela's father was Andrew Vasko, my grandfather's brother. Andrew worked in America for 12 years, came back to Dravtsi about 1932, and bought the home Bela lives in now. Also there was Bela's wife Anna, and one of his sons, Sasha, and Sasha's daughter.

Sasha retired from the police force as a Lt. Colonel after 20 years, and now works as a Customs Officer. He served a year and a half in the Sudan with the UN peacekeeping force there; he was a police advisor for the Sudan's government. Sasha said it was a great experience, but he saw a lot of misery there. Since he had a diplomatic passport, he got to travel all over Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Any time he had time off, he could catch a NATO military plane that had extra space, and fly. Sasha told me that for the entire Uzhgorod region, there were only 10 policemen, because there was so little crime. I don't think I ever saw any police in Dravtsi. There really isn't any need for them. Everyone knows each other, they all go to the same church, went to the same school, and they're all related. If anyone does anything wrong, the entire town would know about it in 5 minutes.

Sasha, Bela, his daughter, Klara, Katya an I got in Sasha's Skoda SUV, and headed off to a resort in the mountains called "Voivodino". We drove through Perechyn, and then through little villages. I was surprised to see a lot of empty, uncultivated land. Sasha said that during Soviet times, all of the land was cultivated. But now the people don't have tractors and machinery to farm all of the land, or money for gasoline. They only farm what they can do by hand.

Even though the Dravtsi people all keep animals and have plots of land they cultivate, the Dravtsi people are town people, not peasants. They all work (or worked) at city jobs. But up in the mountains we saw real peasant people whose primary occupation was farming. They had larger farms, some small machinery, but mostly everything was done they way it was 100 years ago. I saw people cutting hay and stacking it in big piles, loading it on wagons and hauling it by horse. Most of the work was done by women; Sasha said many of the men were away working in other countries, like the Czech Republic.

Got to the "Voivodino" resort, it was deep in the forest and the air was nice and cool. There are small cabins for rent there, restaurants, horses to ride, bicycles for rent, banyas, etc. People come to pick mushrooms in the forest. We had some really good beer there that Sasha said was brewed right at the resort with their spring water. There's a ski lift for skiing in the winter. You can get different spa treatments like massages and mineral water baths. There's also one really weird health treatment thee: you lay down in a room, get covered with bees, let the bees sting you all over, and it's supposed to be therapeutic!

Sasha's Skoda must have an amazing suspension, because he really put it through abuse. We went flying down single lane roads that had more pothole than roadway. He was driving 80 kph like it was nothing. Driving in Ukraine is like being on an obstacle course. You'll see an oncoming car headed straight for you in the wrong lane (to avoid potholes) and then at the very last second they swerve and miss you by an inch. I can't believe how they keep avoiding sideswiping each other.

Dropped of Bela, Klara, Katya, and Sasha's youngest daughter, and went to Baranintsi to Sasha's house to pick up his wife and older daughter. Sasha has a new 2 story house he's just finishing building with the money he earned serving in Sudan. The house is solid masonry construction, outside is in typical Rusyn style, inside looks like any nice American home.  Sasha said one day he'd like to put in a swimming pool. There are a lot of very expensive homes in Baranintsi. I was told that because of Carpattya's location, with Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania just a few miles away, a lot of rich foreign businessmen are building second homes in Carpattya. Foreign investors are starting to build more resorts in the mountains because of the natural beauty. Sasha showed my one mountain in particular that some Austrian investors were hoping to build a ski resort. Sasha and his family ski; they ski at the same mountain I went to where Pavel's family has the cabin. Sasha said the ski run there is 3 miles long.

Went back to Bela's for another feast that lasted until 11PM. Also met Bela's other son, Misha, Misha's wife (who looks a lot like my sister Melanie), and their two daughters. One is 3 years old, and already speaks 5 languages. She sang a song for me in Hungarian. Misha's older daughter is 16, and speaks very good English. As does Sasha's 18 year old daughter. She is studying at the University to work in the travel and tourism industry. Sasha's wife works as a personnel manager for one of the telephone companies. Misha Vasko has his own import business.

Bela showed me old photo's he had of his father, who lived to be 91. Bela has his degrees in Ukrainian language and literature, and recently retired as the Dravtsi school director. His wife Anna was a chemistry teacher. I showed Bela old pictures I had. He was exited to see them, because he had never seen a photo of his uncle, my grandfather. Bela looks very much like my grandfather did when younger. And a lot like my uncle William Vasko. Bela and Misha both have really distinctive blue eyes like I'm told my grandfather had.
Sasha, Bela, and Vasko family planning another excursion for me on Wednesday.