After camp, I survived severe bronchitis, visited with family, and traveled around Ukraine a bit.  After meeting with Vera and Yarko in Kyiv (who were on their way to the second camp), I took the train out to L'VIV, where I stayed with my cousin Myrosia and her family. We visited a lot of museums, a few ruins, our village, Kniazhe, where her mother still lives, and Ruslan's home village, Strilkivtsyi, to see his parents. 

Ruins of an old fort at Skaly Podil'sky

We spent a day in the Carpathian mountains, first at the Kosiv market, and then visiting with my rizbar and his family at their mountain home in Richka. It had rained heavily the day before, and there was flooding everywhere; the river in Richka had been quite high, but we were able to ford it in our Kamaz, although we almost got stuck several times on the quite muddy “road” to my friends’ house.

View from Pan Mykola's house in Річка / Richka  (with haystack)

We shopped for books and embroideries, and only looked at pysanky (damn the bird flu). I had a chance to see my old friend Andriy the dermatologist, lunch at his gracious flat, and with him visit brother Sebastian, a monk of our acquaintance, who has made it his life's work to rescue Ukrainian art from the Philistines1.

In KYIV I stayed with my cousin Inna, and we spent time at the dacha, wandering around Kyiv, and shopping for Ukrainian pop music and books.  We took a day trip (with Vera and Yarko) out to Zolotonoshe, to my Aunt Lida's house, to see her and all the other relatives from my Dad's side of the family.  While there,  Vera and I visited Antypivka, the village where our fathers were born, to see our ancestral land and the village church. 

Inna and I visited the town of Trypillia, where Neolithic ruins and artifacts were first discovered in Ukraine.  There are two museums there now.  The older government museum has a large number of artifacts, but an unexciting presentation.  The newer one is private, run by a odd man with some wild ideas about the Trypillians and Aryans (e.g. the Virgin Mary is of Ukrainian ancestry). It's quite nice, though, with beautiful presentation, and a recreation of a Trypillian house on the grounds.

Family group portrait in Zolotonosha

In both cities I had ample opportunity to spend time with my godchildren.  Daryna is 12, still a beanpole, and a pretty good student and artist. She loves reading and  Ukrainian pop music, and loved the Sims game I brought her. (I had to spend several hours updating her computer so it would run.)  Zhenya (Eugene) is seven, big for his age, and loves all sorts of gadgets and games.  He loved the remote control car I brought, and the new Gameboy games.

Daryna and her brother, Maksym                                                            Zhenya at the dacha

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1. 1.Ukrainians, like many people the world over, prefer new and shiny objects to old and tarnished ones.  In recent years, they have begun to fix up and remodel old churches, often discarding old paintings, tapestries and other antiquities.  I've seen many a church with lots of twinkle lights and and glowing Madonnas.  Sebastian "rescues" these old works, and his monks then restore them.
   

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