Making fresh apple juice.

Klara has not been feeling well; her leg is very red and swollen. I don't know if it is from an insect bite, or if it is some form of celulitis. She went to the hospital, and they have her on antibiotics. I've been taking over some of the chores she regularly does, like feeding the chickens and pigs. I didn't realize how heavy the buckets of pig feed were!.....and you have to be careful that the pigs don't step on your feet, as they have done with me!

I helped Ivan kill two roosters. I held their legs and wings, while Ivan cut their throats. Naturally, the roosters struggled a bit; I didn't know how strong they were! It was tough to hold on to them.

I went to the bazaar to look at some bicycles. While there, a clothing store, selling men's suits, caught my attention. I asked the price of one very nice looking suit - wool blend. The shop owner told me it was $83 USD. The same suit in America would have cost maybe $300. The labels on all the suits had an Italian sounding name. I asked if they were from Italy; the shop owner told me that they were all made in Ukraine. She could easily have lied to me, but she was honest.

I found a bicycle I liked - the asking price was $125 USD. Back at Klara's, I asked Misha to go back to the bazaar with me and help me buy my own bicycle, because I did not want to be responsible for breaking a bicycle I had borrowed, or be responsible for having it stolen. Misha insisted I save my money and use his bicycle.

Misha and I started cleaning the wine barrels in preparation for wine making. Filled them with water and rinsed them several times.

Misha had bought a dozen sacks of apples from some children. He said he paid 10 hrivna for each sack ( or 10 hrivna for all twelve ????).  Ten hrivna is less than one US Dollar. The apples were to be made into apple juice. First we cleaned and assembled the wine press. 

I had thought that we would toss whole apples into the press, and squish them. Misha set an electrical device similar to a wood chipper on top of the press, and we fed the apples into it. The machine turned the apples into a pulp, and then we pressed the pulp. The hardest part of the job was sorting and cleaning the apples, and cutting out the rotten parts. This took the most time. The actual pressing didn't take long, but it was hard work. It took some effort to turn the screws and press the pulp. We started about 1 o'clock; by eight about half the apples had been pressed, to produce about 50 liters of juice. 

At six o'clock, I left Misha to press by himself while I went to class at the LT Language School. This was a new class, young adults, a mix of professions. There were several university students, an engineer, a computer programmer, a waitress, an insurance salesperson, and a hotel manager. Sam taught the class. For the first part of the class, Sam showed clips from films, without sound, and students had to take roles and improvise speaking lines for the characters. (role playing??). The idea was to get them to speak English without thinking about it. Was interesting....and funny. Some of the students were quite creative.

This is a great opportunity for me to meet and talk with Ukrainians. So far, everyone I've met has been very friendly. I haven't had a bad experience with anyone. A few times, someone saw me taking photo's of something, and asked me what I was doing. But as soon as I explained that I was an American, that my grandparents were from Zakarpattia, they instantly warmed up, and told me it was OK to take all the photo's I wanted. The clerks at the local mini-market are getting to know me, and wave at me. If anyone ever wanted to visit Zakarpattia, but was worried about interacting with ordinary Ukrainians, don't be. I promise that you would be made to feel very welcome here.