Monday, May 05, 2008

A Taste of Home (from Ukraine)

We have been in Phoenix, Arizona visiting Edna's mother and brother since Friday. We have been eagerly sharing about our life in Ukraine and needless to say, we have been getting a little home sick for Ukraine. On Saturday, we ran into some people from Serbia who live in the same apartment complex we are staying in. We were amazed at how much Serbian/Croatian we could understand (Edna's mom is Croatian) and how much Ukrainian they could understand. They also spoke English fluently and shared with us where we might find some Ukrainian food.

On Sunday, we went to church at Calvary Chapel North Phoenix and were blessed to hear a great message by Pastor Bob Claycamp (who's son Micah is serving in Kaharlyk, Ukraine with his wife Christy and their family).

After church we decided to check out one of the stores our Serbian friends told us about. We were excited when we drove up and saw a sign in Russian that said "Russian Store".

Russian Store in Phoenix

We found several Russian and Ukrainian products inside. The owner was from Uzbekistan and chatted with us in Russian. He also hooked us up with a copy of the Arizona Russian Yellow Pages.

Russian Yellow Pages

Today, we went on an Eastern European market tour. We discovered a lot more Ukrainian products and some more really friendly people from the former Soviet Union, one who even spoke some Ukrainian. We even picked up some Croatian spices along the way.

Another Russian Market in Phoenix


Russian Market in Phoenix

Tonight we cooked up some shashlyk and enjoyed real Ukrainian kvas. We even got a jar of the famous Nizhyn pickles. Just a little taste of home.

Some Ukrainian products we found in Phoenix, AZ
And yes, that's Verka Serduchka on that middle bottle of kvas

5 comments:

The Larson Family said...

Hey Guys! Laughing about the Kvas in Phoeninx!! Don't know who Verka Serduchka is but I know that fat monk on the Monastirskii brand....Yummm! one of my favorites! the black currant flavor rocks!! Peter remembers Kvas though he was too young to read Rus/Ukr/cyrillic. Now that he is learning to read in English though... so he looks at the bottle and sounds it out in English = "K-bas" LOL glad you are having fun in USA. Hope to see you soon.

Ira said...

Wow that's amazing guys! The very Nizhyn pickles right there - good thing they are not right next to Serduchka (unfortunately, I do know who she(he?) is...) =))
I guess now I shouldn't be surprised to find my borshsch sauce "Zapravka" over there...

Greg and Edna Silva said...

If you follow this link you can learn about the legend of Verka Serduchka, Ukrainian Superstar. Verka Serduchka
We look forward to seeing you all and to fresh kvas right from the tank.

-Greg

Anonymous said...

hey greg - this is ben from cc svitlovodsk (we met at the last leadership meeting in kiev). there's a girl from the church in dnepropetrovsk that recently moved to bila tserkva. she would like to know your church's contact info and come to check it out. please let me know and i will forward it to her. thanks!

Little Viky said...

Ukraine in America? That's fun! I also love kwas!!!!