Today we butchered a pig

There has been some telecommunication line repair going on here in Dravtsi, which has disrupted internet service. I haven't been able to get online regularly. I'm learning though, that if I don't post the day's activities immediately, I soon forget what I've done; there is so much activity going on.

Wednesday morning I went back to the dentist to have my new crown cemented on. Fifteen years ago, I had the bright idea of sucking on hard candy to help quit smoking. Within a few months, I'd done tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to my teeth. I've had over a dozen root canals, (some teeth canal-ed twice) ,  and dozens of crowns. So I think I'm fairly qualified to comment on the professionalism of any given dentist. The care I received from Vitaly Rusyn at the DM Clinic was equal to or exceeded the care I have had from any American dentist. I had a total of 5 office visits over a 10 day period, during which Vitaly did a very thorough job of making sure the new crown was as perfect as possible. The crown itself was made on-site, not sent out to another facility; this made it easy for Vitaly and the technician making the crown to have adjustments made quickly. Vitaly, being a perfectionist, sent the crown back several times to the technician to try and get the color to match my other teeth perfectly. I had to tell Vitaly that it would be impossible to get a perfect match, since I drink a dozen cups of tea a day (tea stains even worse than coffee), so my natural teeth always get darker between cleanings. The price for my new crown - $75. This paid for my ticket from JFK to L'viv. In America, the same crown would have cost $800.

Vitaly scheduled additional appointments to treat some cavities he saw, and gave me an appointment card. I noticed the word "Implantologia" on the card, and asked Vitaly if he did implants. Vitaly doesn't, but his colleague does.  I was told that the cost of an implant was roughly $450. If you are ever in Zakarpattia, and in need of a dentist, I recommend the "DM Clinic" on Pidhirny Street, Uzhgorod. Phone: +38 (0312) 3-04-04, or +38 099 40-40-240. ...email: dmclinic@i.ua.

After leaving the dentist, I went to the bazaar, where I met Klara and Marta. I was looking for some tee-shirts with Cyrillic writing and Ukrainian themes, for souvenirs for my brother and nephews. There are hundreds of shops at the bazaar, but I couldn't find any selling Ukrainian themed tee-shirts. Everything being sold had an American theme. There was even one shop that had at least 50 different American ball-caps. Finally, I found one shop in the bazaar that had some sweatshirts with the Tryzub, the flag colors, or "Ukraine" printed on them. Only problem is the sizes. Americans like clothes fitting loosely and comfortably. Ukrainian clothing style is more European - very tight fitting pants and shirts. The largest sweatshirt size available was "XXL", and even this large size fit tighter on me than I like.

Miraslava told me that she would take me to the closest equivalent of a department store, where I would be able to find Ukrainian theme tee shirts. I also asked around in the city center. I found a souvenir shop on Teatralna Square, beside the stage, which had some tee shirts; however, the largest they had was "Large". Later, on the Korzo, I saw some tee-shirts in the window of Tetyan Filipishin's "Vishyvanka" shop. (#19 Korzo Vul.). I've been in there quite a few times, looking at the embroidered shirts and dresses. They have some very high quality (and very expensive) embroidery. The owner showed me various designs he had available, and told me that he could have tee-shirts made in the style and sizes I wanted in about a week, for about $10 a shirt.

Below, Vishyvanka's traditional embroidered folk costume:

I honestly cannot remember what I did yesterday evening, or what we ate. I'm sure it was interesting. But anyway, if you're still reading, you're probably wondering when I'll get to the part about butchering the pig.

Today at 8:00 AM, Misha and his neighbor Vasyl came to Klara's to butcher one of the pigs. Vasyl brought a powder-actuated tool with which to kill the pig. Similar to a nail gun, a .22 caliber charge propels a piston which is driven into the pig's brain. As soon as the device was discharged, Vasyl also quickly cut the pig's jugular vein (or maybe carotid artery), to ensure as quick a death as possible, with minimal suffering. 

Below, Vasya demonstrates how the device was used:

Bleeding the pig:

Once the pig was dead, the process of removing the hair began. Misha and Vasya used a propane torch to burn the hair, and shovels and knives to scrape the burnt hair off.

There were two stages to the process. First, the coarse hair was scorched and scraped away. Then the skin was charred, and the top layer scraped off.

When scraped away, the pig has whitish skin:

After one half of the pig is clean, it is flipped onto a clean wooden platform so that the other side could be cleaned:

"Putin the Pig" is dead:

Ivan supervised butchering of the carcass. With only a 4 inch blade, he removed the shoulders and hams in just seconds, with surgical precision:

Then the head was removed:

With only using the little four inch blade, Misha and Vasya removed the legs, and opened up the back of the pig, exposing all the fat. They used an axe and a hammer to cut through the ribs, the pelvis, and the breastbone. 

I've never heard of a carcass being cut up this way; usually, the first thing that is done is that the animal is gutted. Today, the pig was cut up and disjointed without the abdominal cavity being touched. I have no idea why it was done this way, but it looks like it takes surgical skill:

Marta cleaned the intestines, to use as sausage casing:

Misha and Ivan cleft the head in two, and took off the meat:

While Ivan, Misha, and Vasyl were finishing up, Miraslava was in the kitchen cooking up something whose name I cannot remember. I do know that there was fat, onions, brains, liver (?), and pork, all mixed together. 

Once all the butchering was done, there was a huge lunch. I'm sure all the food was great, and there is no rational reason for it not to be, but because of my cultural upbringing I just couldn't eat it. Last year, I ate "Horka" before I knew what was in it; it tasted great. Today, I jokingly told Miraslava that I couldn't eat meat because I was Buddhist. 

After lunch, I went into town, to buy additional internet minutes, and go to the LT English Language school. This part of the day needs a post of it's own!