Life and Health
I was going to share some more stories, but this is more critical to
me at the moment. I am asking for help from anyone with some
experience of these products (which looking at the website, I don't
think will apply to anyone) or some experience in medicine.
This weekend I got to visit my first host family. My host brother,
Andri, and his wife, Anya, whose wedding I attended a year ago
tomorrow, just had a little boy. Stanislav Andriovych or Stas is my
new little Ukrainian nephew. He is big and healthy and adorable.
Unfortunately, last year just before the wedding, his father was
diagnosed with diabetes. The costs of just testing his blood sugar
and all the needles for insulin (insulin is provided free by state
healthcare) are a financial strain on the family. Their community was
targetted by the company Vision International People (VIP) Group with
their herbal products. They became convinced that one of these
products will lessen his dependency on testing and insulin and have
embarked on a year of treatment (over the counter pills) that are an
astronomical cost for them. The website has an English variant at
www.vipgroup.net They run on some research lab out of France and have
a factory in Ireland, but don't sell in either of those countries.
Their geographical focus is interesting to me.
Am I over-reacting? Or can someone provide me with some information
to convince them to stop this unnecessary expense? Thank you for your
help.
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Ode to a Spoon
In what is beginning to be an over fascination with utensils, I have some rather trivial news to share that I found quite alarming.
It has struck me as a cruel irony of agricultural life that in autumn as the weather is the grandest of the year – mornings crisp, days sunny, and evenings still long and warm – most people are consuming all their free time in the kitchen. I would like to be savoring this time in investment for the dull, cold memory of what I know to be coming, but instead I have been washing, peeling, chopping, freezing, boiling, and canning for endless hours. My new skills have been rather successful and give me great hope for winter culinary adventures. I’ve even made an all natural watermelon jam! But in the process, which consumed several hours and a whole watermelon, I left inside the rind carcass my little spoon from the ice cream in Lviv that I wrote of last April (see archives June 24, 2005 “Day in School" -PS section). It was a little daily reminder of the progresses I have made here, and I accidentally threw the spoon, rind and all away! The little spoon that survived 2 scout camps here where countless other tools were casualties in the battle of educating youth; the little spoon that brought me yogurt so many overnight-train-ride mornings; the little spoon that made the jam that I will enjoy all winter, and be forced to remember it bitterly and sweetly.
Oh, the irony.
Excursions and Antiquity
I went on an excursion with the church youth group this weekend. We went to an old fortress town built on an island in a river gorge. The town was such a good position in the ancient world that the town hosted 7 nationalities, collectively and peacefully, as mentioned by Ptolemy when he visited!
Then we went to one of the most impressive castles I have ever seen. It was also one of the most “castle” looking fortresses that I have seen, complete even with a tower where they kept prisoners. The windows were unbarred but the height was lethal.
Finally we went to a university that is renowned in Ukraine as one of the nicest pieces of architecture. Although the finishes and building tops differ, I was struck by how much it reminded me of Florida State, my alma mater. On the tour, I learned that Florida State was actually started 7 years earlier!
Then yesterday, at the opening ceremonies of my city’s birthday celebration, of which we are celebrating the 915th, I learned that the oil refinery here, which is rumored to be one of the oldest in the world, is in fact 140 years old! That is an age I normally associate with cities, fine establishments, or architectural treasures, not gas stations.
Surprise
There was a partial lunar eclipse the other night. I just happened to notice something strange on my way home that evening.
The Russian word for vodka translates as little water, but the Ukrainian word translates as little burn.
