I have several passions, the first of which is my occupation, obstetrics. I practice in a hospital in the US, but really enjoy the hospital work I do in India. I have helped train nurse-midwives and family doctors there, as well as organize a labor unit and write protocols for the unit. It has been very rewarding work.

I also enjoy working with children. I volunteer at our local Ukrainian school, where I teach pysanky, photograph events, and teach classes on other subjects having to do with ethnography Ukrainian traditional culture and arts. I also spend a lot of my free time working for UCARE, a non-profit which helps orphans and poor children in Ukraine. I have spent the last eleven summers in Ukraine, working at summer camps, an dhave been on several distribution routes, visitng orphanages an dbringing them needed supplies. I run the organization's web site: http://www.ucareinc.org I enjoy travel, photography, and birding, and try to combine these pursuits whenever possible.

I've been to twenty some countries, including several in Africa, and have gotten to know Australia quite well. I enjoy writing about my travels in my annual Christmas letters. You can find the letters and some of my photos here: http://www.lubapetrusha.com

Lastly, I love the art of pysankarstvo -- pysanka-making. I have been making pysanky (Ukrianian Easter Eggs) since about the second grade, and have gotten pretty good at them. Through them I have learned a lot about Ukrainian history and ethnography, which I've tried to share with others on my web sites.