As we have just returned to Ukraine from our visit home to Manitoba for 6 weeks, I have asked the boys to help me come up with a list of what they miss the most while living in a Ukrainian village. We have been here for a year and a half now, with the eception of our two Christmas visits home. For Jonah who (like his Dad) had been in Ukraine from January 27th 2010 until December 8th it was the first time he met his new niece Keziah- she turned 6 months old the Sunday before we flew back here. His brothers got to see the results of his three inches of growth in that time. Seth spent two months this summer at home in Manitoba (July and August) working with his brothers on the farm there. Luke who turns twenty in May asked that we send both of his brothers home for the summer this year.
Flushing the toilet paper - most places in Ukraine and in our house here you throw the used toilet paper intoa garbage can next to the toilet because the plumbing will plug up if you flush it like at home in Canada or the US, and you have to remember where you are for what to do with it!
Root beer and Dr Pepper yes they are among our favorite kinds of pop (soda) to drink and you can't find them here. The first year we returned home through NJ they told Grandma what they wanted was root beer to drink and greasy NJ- style pepperoni pizza to eat first, beacuse that's what they missed most. We can drink Pepsi, Coca-cola (no one calls it Coke here, and it has a slightly different taste than in North America) and that popular choice here- Fanta. You can mix cheery juice with Coke and make your own cherry coke.
drinking the tap water You don't know what a luxury it is to just turn on the tap wherever you are and drink it. Or brush your teeth, or open your mouth while showering! Here you drink water that come through the filter, and you cook with it and brush your teeth with it too. The city water is thought to be high in metals and who knows how safe it is otherwise, so we have a filter that runs slowly, and when it gets too slow you have to clean the ceramic filter and put in a new carbon one.
food variety While you can get pizza here its not really like pizza at home in Canada or the US, that's why we started pizza night on Saturdays when I make it myself as close as I can get to the real thing. Mexican is non-existant although you can sometimes get expensive taco shells and salsa imported from the US at the Metro store. However this fall I found a recipe on the internet for tortillas for taco making (iceberg lettuce is a sometimes thing too) so we can enjoy them more often. I also make stirfry (no Chinese restaurants, although sushi is popular) and bagels. The boys ate at Taco Bell and A&W every chance they got in Manitoba - here McDonalds is as close as they get to Canadian flavor.
living at the house that's Seth's number one- I asked him if he missed his brothers or their toys (its a gaming/movie/rockband/computer world in our house now that Micah, Noah and Luke live there) and he diplomatically answered both.
sportsSeth misses playing high school sports, Jonah loved playing hockey and would be in his second year of high school now (it is their biggest complaint about being homeschooled) Garry wouldn't admit it but he misses playing basketball in the Winnipeg mens league with the boys- he got in three games while we were home. He also misses watching NFL football although the new satelite TV service has a lot of baseball, college sports and hockey.
family...granddaughters number one for me, and even for Garry who was in a hurry to get back here the minute his passport showed up stamped with the new visa (he was only home a month) Our favorite people to hang out with our daughter, sons, daughter-in-law and of course, we'd like to see way more of our beautiful graaddauhters. It was really sad when 2 1/2 year old Havilah burst into tears when she was told to say goodbye to Grandma because we were going back to Ukraine. After I came to visit last August when the baby was three weeks old her older sister Xaris told her that "Grandma in Ukraine" was in every plane they saw in the sky.
coming soon...top things that we like in Ukraine that you don't see in North America.
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