Day Nineteen – Canadians, Foot Races And Flying Solo

We now feel like grizzled veterans in Rivne when four Canadian couples showed up at the hotel cafe for breakfast. We were able to give them some dining advice and let them borrow our food-in-pictures cheat sheet. They were attempting to reconnect with family unseen for many years and were very appreciative of the point-to-order strategy.

Our trip to visit Peter was quite interesting. Normally, this is a 30 minute taxibus ride without an exchange – super easy. But today, there was a foot race and the main road was closed. The multiple detours – as our driver tried to find a way around – led us to see some new parts of Rivne. The back roads were clogged with taxibuses and it took more than an hour to get there. All this disruption for a race that appeared to have five runners.

But our time with Peter today was great and we stayed long enough (since we arrived late) to see the start of lunch – chicken soup just like my (Todd's) grandmother used to make every Sunday. There were two new additions to Peter's class today taking the spots of the two little boys who were adopted by Ukrainian families. More boys—I (Sherri) was hoping that at least one of the new children would be a little girl to provide some companionship for the solitary girl currently in the class. Today we saw the first of the orphanage's winter wear. To say the outfits they put on the boys would challenge most men's manlihood is putting it lightly. When we arrived they were all running around indoors in little girl's winter tights. Peter's were bright purple and decorated with flowers. As he did his gymnastics bouts across the room, it was all he could do to keep them on.

Fortunately, the foot race was over when we returned to the center of Rivne and traffic was flowing at its normally chaotic pace. We hit the internet after lunch to get some work done and then to the market to pick up a few snacks. We haven't said too much about the interesting things you find here at their grocery stores and on their menus, so maybe I'll share a few popular items to give you a sneak peak into Ukrainian cuisine. First of all, they are meat lovers! Everything comes with meat—they even have ham flavored potato chips. Salo, aka pork fat, is a favorite snack and adorns many of their meals. How does hen stomach sound? Or maybe some good old boiled tongue. Who knows, maybe I'm missing out, but I'll pass for now. Todd is doing his best to embrace the local fare—he actually really enjoyed the crab flavored potato chips and black sea shrimp!

Today was cold – about 10C/50F, overcast and spitting drizzle. The forecast is the same for the next few days – the cold helps minimize laundry, but we're barely prepared for this type of weather.

Tomorrow's plan is the same as today's – Peter in the morning and internet in the afternoon. Viktoria is in Kyiv until Tuesday evening, so we're flying solo in Rivne until then.