Week 10 Beautiful and Sad

Last Monday, Mary and I were invited to attend the graduation at our local orphanage.  They know how to put on a professional performance.  The young men and women entered in couples.  The ladies were wearing long white formal dresses and the men all were in black suits (they use the same outfits every year to save costs).  Very gracefully they started dancing a most beautiful waltz.  No one noticed the drabness of the hall we were in.  Our eyes were all focused on the dancers.  It was elegant and beautiful.

 

As the program progressed, we noticed some of the 23 grads with tears in their eyes. One of the younger students singing a solo broke down crying and had to stop.  Even the teachers at the orphanage often were crying.  It turns out many of the songs were about family.  The students saw the orphanage as their family and some songs sung in honour of their teachers referred to them as their mother and father.  They were all saying goodbye.  It was a goodbye without a soft landing such as a real family could provide. 

After a 2 hour graduation ceremony, everybody went outside where the grads mingled with the few guests who were there.  I would have expected some relatives to show up to celebrate their graduation, but nobody came.  Mary sought out the one girl she had befriended at our earlier visit to the orphanage.  She was happy to pose with Mary for a picture.  As she did this, all the other graduating girls lined up to have their picture taken.  For a minute, Mary became their mother and I was the official photographer.  It was a role we were both happy to play.  I could see in Mary’s eyes that she would have loved to be a mother to all the girls.

 

The Mennonite Centre had been invited to their graduation because we were making a small gift for their graduation celebrations.  The following day, the entire graduating class was going to Zaporozhye for a cruise on the Dnieper River.  Our small gift of $122.80 would pay for the cruise for the entire class.  I had the privilege during the program to congratulate the graduates and announce the gift.  It was a privilege to be there and to make the announcement.  These small outings may not appear to be much to us but they are very special in Ukraine.  Most of the orphans may never even have travelled the 100 km to Zaporozhye.

The previous week we were invited to another graduation.  This invitation came from the Russian School in Molochansk.  There are 2 schools in our town, the Russian and the Ukrainian schools.  They compete with each other to see who can have the most dignitaries at their graduation celebration.  The Russian school had the local mayor and a representative from the Oblast (province).  We did not realize that when we accepted their invitation to come and be officially thanked for assistance from the Mennonite Centre that we would be treated as one of the dignitaries. The graduation ceremony was held outside.   When we arrived we were escorted to the front and had to stand right behind the principal handing out all the awards and graduation certificates.  We would like the Mennonite Centre to make a permanent contribution to the place and I can announce that we achieved that at the graduation.  My face will appear in every graduate’s picture as I was standing right in line with the photographer and the principal.  I even had to make a short speech and this really worried me as the principal was going to be my interpreter and she spoke German, not English.  I had an hour to stand there in front of the students and figure out some appropriate way of telling them with my limited vocabulary in German that I was proud of their achievements and that we (the Mennonite Centre) had been glad to provide some assistance to the school to make their educational experience a good one.

 

On occasion, the Mennonite Centre also becomes involved in projects to preserve the Mennonite heritage in the area.  One of the most beautiful Mennonite churches in the Molotschna area was located in a village called Schoensee.  It was built in 1909 and while unusual for its time, had a frescoed ceiling painted by an Italian artist. This building had stood abandoned for many years.  Recently members of the Mennonite Centre board in Canada became aware that work was proceeding on restoring the building.  We were asked to investigate.  We drove there one day to find a team of young men hard at work.  The building already had a new roof and windows and was already in use.  I was puzzled by the crude wooden planks being used for pews as Orthodox churches require one to stand for the entire service.  I soon found out that this was a Greek Catholic community rebuilding the old Mennonite Church.  Father Peter is the driving force behind this project.  He is an extremely likeable man with a genuine smile.  The church is being rebuilt by voluntary labour and donations.  He told me that he has done his entire fund raising on his knees.  He asked the Mennonite Centre for assistance and the board was happy to approve funding for cement for the floor and bricks to complete the entranceway.  He can speak a bit of German and every meeting ends with him wishing me ``Gottes Segen`` (God`s blessing) 

 

I am amazed at the rapid progress I see in the various gardens.  Plants don`t grow but rather they explode.  The growth just seems that fast.  Right now roses are in full bloom and they seem to be everywhere.

 

Fruit trees are also producing in abundance.  Sweet cherries and strawberries are available everywhere.  We are eating our fill because we know the fruit season in Canada will be much later.

 

We have enjoyed watching locals bringing in the hay for their cattle.  People are working along all roadsides with scythes and hauling the hay home on various conveyances ranging from bicycles to cars.  The following picture shows the best way yet of bringing in the hay.

 

Early in April we distributed some seeds brought in from Canada.  I can confirm that they are growing well and have been appreciated by a number of gardeners, including Olga Simeonovna, a former employee of the Mennonite Centre.

 

Mary and I regret that we have to say goodbye and sign-off from our blog.  We are doing this because we are out of peanut butter and I need a haircut.  We are also approaching the limit on our 90 day visa in Ukraine.  We look forward to connecting with everyone again should we be so fortunate to be able to return to Ukraine.  Mary and I are now off on our next adventure.

 

For more information on the work of the Mennonite Centre, please go to http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

Week 9 What's In A Name?

Imagine the proud owner of a Mercedes in Ukraine.  They sit behind their tinted windows knowing that they are in a quality car.  People may suspect the means by which these owners acquired such an expensive car but they will acknowledge the quality.  Imagine the humble owner of a Zaporojez – a Soviet era car that has a top highway speed of 70 km per hour.  The owner sits in plain view with their untinted windows and all passing motorists think, “Twenty minutes of shame and you’re at the office”.  It’s not surprising that these cars are becoming harder to find in Ukraine and the one I did find obviously had not been driven for a while.

 

Every time we see something, we tend to make some association with it.  I heard of a school teacher who had difficulty choosing names for her own children when they were born.  All her children ended up with names of her former students that she liked.  She did not want her own children to remind her of problem students.  We would like the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine to have a positive image - to be seen as a refuge where people can find assistance in lowering the stress in their life. For example, we are one of the few places in town that actually owns a lawn mower and keeps the grass cut.  Consequently, you will often find seniors sitting outside on our benches just having a chat with their friends and enjoying the environment.  Last Christmas, the Mennonite Centre was decorated with lights for the first time.  It was the only local place with these decorations and everybody in town came past at night to admire the place.  The Mennonite Centre is viewed very favourably in Molochansk.

Last Saturday morning I got a surprising call from Dema Bratchenko, our manager.  I was informed that I was being picked up by the chief psychiatrist of the local psychiatric hospital and would be taken to the men’s ward.  I had five minutes to get ready.  I packed my camera and note book.  The purpose of the visit was to let me see the renovations they were doing to the building.  The staff were all in on their day off and were painting the rooms and hallways.  The funding for this had come from voluntary donations by the staff.  Government funding in Ukraine covers only salaries and utilities.  Most of the patients had been abandoned by their families and there was no way of collecting funds from their families.  The building was constructed in 1955 as a jail.  In 1965 it was converted into a hospital. These were the first renovations done at this hospital in over 40 years.  And yes, the hospital was also requesting some funding from us to replace the uneven outside walkway where the patients spent most of their time.  One of the staff had tripped on the uneven surface and broken their leg.  It was agreed to submit a proposal to the board requesting funding for this project.

The Mennonite Centre is undergoing some renovations.  The heating system with the old radiators and clogged pipes was no longer working efficiently.  The radiators have been removed and new pipes and radiators are being installed.  The principal of the local school, Marina Romanova, found out about these renovations and requested the use of our old radiators for their school.  Marina is the local chair of the Mennonite Centre (we need this to have a legitimate local standing) in Ukraine and a great supporter.  It was an easy decision to give her the old radiators, which they will clean and install in their school.

It is a pleasure to walk to work each morning.  We pass all the beautiful fruit trees along the way.  For us prairie folk to see apricot, cherries and plums all growing in boulevard trees is unusual.  The Mennonite Centre even has a mulberry tree growing on its property.  This is quite appropriate as I believe Mennonites introduced the mulberries to this area 200 years ago when they started the silkworm industry.  I would love to taste an actual mulberry but they will not be ripe before we leave.

 

Yesterday Dema and I drove to Melitopol to pick up a wheelchair for an elderly lady who recently had a stroke.  She needs this on a temporary basis while she applies for a government issued wheel chair.  The trip gave us a chance to check out the famous Melitopol cherries.  There were vendors everywhere.  We bought 4 kg of cherries for $7.50.  They are smaller than the B.C. cherries we are used to in Winnipeg but sweet and flavourful.

Out time in Ukraine is rapidly coming to a close.  We have just over a week to go.  We are trying hard to stay organized so we can complete everything on our “to do” list.

For more information on the work of the Mennonite Centre, please go to http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

Week 7 & 8 A Mennonite Cossack

In Ukraine, jokes about Cossacks are as common as jokes about Mennonites in Manitoba.  Have you heard the one about the Cossack guide who was taking a Mennonite visitor from Canada on a tour?  As they left Zaporozhye by car, the traffic lights turned red and the Cossack driver sped up and went charging through the intersection.  The Mennonite passenger was totally shaken and yelled at the driver asking why he did such a dangerous thing.  The Cossack calmly shrugged his shoulder and replied, “Because I am a Cossack”.  The next intersection the light was also red and the driver just charged through at full speed.  By the third intersection, the Mennonite passenger was already bracing himself for a crash, when the light suddenly turned green and he could relax.  The Cossack driver also saw the light turn green and slammed on his brakes.  The Mennonite inquired as to the reason why he would stop for a green light.  The Cossack again shrugged his shoulder and said cautiously, “There might be a Cossack coming”.

“Cossack” is a Turkish word meaning “freeman”.  They were generally runaway serfs who banded together for their own protection.  They developed their own customs, clothing, and reputations.  They lived in the Khortitsa area before the Mennonites arrived and had a fort on an island in the Dnieper River.  They were generally loyal to the Russian crown and fought many battles with the Turks who had controlled their land at one time.  There is a famous painting of the Zaporozhyzian Cossacks drafting a response to a demand of surrender from a Turkish sultan.  This historic response has survived in the archives.  It is not a document you would read in polite company.  The painting is very well done and you can imagine the response just by studying the characters in the painting.  (Click on the picture to enlarge)

 

I had the opportunity to meet a direct descendant of the last leader or “hetman” of the Cossacks.  His name is Boris Polubotko.  His mother’s maiden name was “Froese”, so we really have a Mennonite Cossack.  I presume that he is inclined to aggressively pursue the peace position.  Boris has relatives in Winnipeg and they asked me to deliver a gift to him and that was my reason for the meeting.  If you are wondering what a modern day descendant of the Cossacks does for a living - he is an orthopedic surgeon.  It was a pleasure to meet him.

 

We celebrated Easter on May 5.  Sometimes Easter falls on the same day as we celebrate it in the West.  This year it did not.  We spent Saturday before Easter shopping for paska.  Every store and vendor was selling it.  Saturday night at midnight we went to the local Orthodox Church for their service.  We enjoyed listening to the choir and just watching the people worshipping.  Their service continued all night till sunrise.  Mary and I did not last that long.  We wanted to join the Kutuzovka Mennonite Church for their 8:00 AM breakfast.  The greeting on Easter morning from everyone is “Christ is risen” and the proper response is “Christ is risen indeed”.  Someday I will learn to say this in Russian.  Easter Monday was paska baking day at the Mennonite Centre.  Mary loved spending the day in the kitchen with Ira, our cook.  The process is fascinating and the final product is beautiful.  Each senior coming for lunch on Tuesday got a paska.

 

There have been the usual number of petitions - everything from medicines for a man suffering from hepatitis to a lady with a badly scalded hand asking for groceries.  Our lives were disrupted by water problems in our apartment for a few days.  Thankfully we are now back to showering on a regular basis each morning. (no picture available)

A few days ago we were informed that there were a number of “German” tourists at the Mennonite Centre.  They just showed up one evening.  Mary and I went to find out what they wanted.  They were 8 Mennonite men from Germany.  They were working as volunteers in the Melitopol area doing renovations at an orphanage.  They were taking the evening off to come and find the villages from which their parents had been forcibly removed in 1941.  It turned out that a number of them had roots in my father’s village of Alexandertal.  One of them, a Doerksen, lived across the street from where the Suderman’s used to live. They needed maps of the village and directions on how to get there.  I was happy to do this but felt a bit guilty as I photocopied a few pages from Helmut Huebert’s atlas (my neighbour in Winnipeg).  Mary had a chance to practise her low-German as she communicated with them.  They were a delightful, enthusiastic group and we counted it a privilege to meet them.  They had moved to Germany from Kazakhstan in the 1990’s and were now back making a contribution to the area from which their ancestors had come.

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, please go to:  http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

Week 5 & 6 Back to the Orphanage

On Friday we had reason to visit the local orphanage located across the Molotschna River in the village formerly called Prischib.  It was a visit that I looked forward to and dreaded at the same time.  I looked forward to it because I wanted to see how many of the children I would recognize from two years ago.  Just seeing them would give me a sense of peace that they were alright.  I dreaded it because our visit would raise a false hope in some children that we were going to rescue them from their loneliness and give them the loving parents that they obviously longed for.  Both feelings came into play during the visit.

We were invited to the orphanage because it was having a program for all its residences at which a number of the orphans would perform.  As the Mennonite Centre is the only local organization with stage lights and a smoke machine, they wanted to borrow our equipment and have Dema, our manager, operate it for them.  The program was sponsored by two elderly gentlemen who were former orphans from this institution. 

We got there early so Dema would have time to set up the equipment.  Mary and I were soon surrounded by children of all ages trying to interact with us.  They were fascinated by my big Pentax camera and wanted to touch it; maybe even mug for the camera and then come back to look at it in the display.

The program was great but what really got our attention was the interaction with the children.  One 16 year old girl stayed close to Mary.  She had very limited English but was desperately trying to communicate.  She showed Mary a worn note.  It was written in English and had been sent from the United States and said, “Don’t be concerned, we will come to get you. Love and hugs, Mom and Dad.”  She obviously treasured the note but looked like she no longer believed it.  Mary gave her numerous hugs and the girl followed us to our car.  This girl is the one on the left with other performers crowding in to get in on a picture as well.

I sat at the front of the hall in order to get better pictures.  The boys right behind me were eager for my attention and there were many arms stretched out to try to touch my camera.  In all the tangle of arms, I was suddenly aware that one boy had reached out but instead of touching the camera was stroking my arm.  All I could give him was a smile of acceptance. 

I enjoyed the concert.  The performances ranged from amateurish to quite professional.  The older students with the support of some returning graduates did some excellent singing of folk songs as well as performing a Ukrainian dance routine.  They were so good I was sitting there wondering how to bring them to Canada for a fund raising concert.  Issues with visas and travel logistics would make it complicated.

At the end of the concert, each performer got a prize.  These prizes consisted of a small statuette together with a present.  The presents were the shoe boxes supplied by the Samaritan’s Purse organization.  I have seen these shoe boxes collected in my own church but never imagined I would be in a place where they were handed out.  These shoe boxes are supposed to contain some practical items, such as a tooth brush, as well as a small gift to the recipient.  I sat there hoping that the individual donors of these shoe boxes had been generous in what they included in their shoe boxes

I was relieved to see a number of their former graduates that I recognized from 2 years ago.  Some of them are studying at nearby universities and it looked to me that they were doing well.  I was quite aware that I remembered only the more high profile children.  What about the other less talented children that were struggling out in their own world with limited or non-existing supports?  Ten percent of orphans commit suicide in the first year after they have to leave the orphanage at age 18.  I was thankful for the support we are able to give to this orphanage through the Mennonite Centre.  The Mennonite Centre has also supported the work of John Wiens, a missionary from Canada, who has set up a half-way house for orphans to acquire some work skills before venturing out on their own.

Our drive home from the orphanage was a silent one as we were in our own thoughts and dealing with our own emotions.  I was reminded of a story my aunt told me shortly before we left Winnipeg.  She told me of the two Russian orphan girls in the village of Alexanderwohl who had been kept alive in 1925 by the village when they shared their limited food with them.  These two girls had begged my aunt’s family to take them along to Canada.  This was impossible as they lacked any of the required paper work.  It is interesting that after 88 years, this story is still fresh in my aunt’s mind.  I also do not expect to forget the orphans I have seen in Ukraine.

Mary and I continue to enjoy our work at the Mennonite Centre.  Each day brings its own issues and struggles.  We have quickly passed the half way mark on our time in Ukraine.  Next week we have to go to Kiev on business.  Look forward to this adventure.

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, please go to:  http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

Week 4 Goodbye to My Dear Linda

We awoke on Wednesday April 10 to an email from Ben Stobbe, the chair of Friends of the Mennonite Centre Ukraine (FOMCU), with the subject line reading, “Goodbye to my dear Linda”.  His wife Linda had been seriously ill for a while and we were anticipating her passing but still the news came as a shock. We held a memorial service for Linda at the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk on Saturday April 15.  A description and pictures of the event can be found at: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/Memorial.html.   This web site also provides a link to YouTube videos of the memorial service.  We had a local Orthodox group known as the Rhapsody Choir participate in the service.  Their singing was beautiful and if you wish to listen to their performance, they are on Part I of the memorial videos, about 4 ½ minutes in to the event.  The sound from the small choir comes through amazingly well and as you listen, it is easy to let ones imagination take over and find yourself standing in a large orthodox cathedral, surrounded by beautiful artwork, listening to this choir in the background.

This last week we had a visit from Drs. Art and Marlyce Friesen.  Art is a board member of FOMCU, and when he is here, we spend a lot of time reviewing our medical programs and visiting local medical facilities.  The medical care in the former Mennonite villages is delivered by someone called a feldsher.  The closest Canadian equivalent to a feldsher would be a nurse practitioner.  They are trained to give a diagnosis and provide some treatment for many medical issues.  The Mennonite Centre has been providing many of them with a monthly allotment of medical drugs.  This appears to be working well as we could see a supply of medical drugs on their shelves.  In the past these shelves were empty.   Two of the feldsher’s offices were experiencing problems with access to local water systems.  Both were encouraged to submit proposals to us on getting this repaired. 

All the feldshers we visited were women.  It was interesting to get a read on their personalities.  The first was aggressive and demanding.  The second was polite, analytical, and caring.  The third looked like village life was beneath her and she would rather be spending time with her boyfriend.  Take a guess as to which one is in the following picture. (Click on picture to enlarge it).

The mayor of Svyetlodolinskoye (formerly called Lichtenau) accompanied us on a number of visits to feldshers’ offices in his area. He wanted us to know that there were many people in his village that had benefitted from the work of the Mennonite Centre.  At each stop, these people magically appeared and we heard a number of testimonials of how people had received help and expressed their thanks for the assistance.  The lady in the picture is thanking us for supplying her chemotherapy drugs

We also got to see the new seniors home in the Molochansk Hospital.  Two years ago this was an empty, unused ward in the hospital.  Now it is full of seniors and the place is humming with activity as the seniors shuffle up and down the long corridor.  The Mennonite Centre played a crucial role in funding the renovations.  We purchased a stove, washing machine, hot water tank, and refrigerator.  As well we paid for some of the work to improve the plumbing and seal the windows.  It was a major investment by the Mennonite Centre that will benefit this community for many years.

The local Kutuzovka Mennonite Church is building a new place of worship in Molochansk.  This work is proceeding slowly as money and manpower is limited.  This past week was another week of work as Victor Paetkau from Germany was here.  He has come to Molochansk a number of times and provides the leadership to organize the local volunteers.  Victor joined us for lunch on Sunday in our apartment and we discussed the politics of “umsiedler” emigration to Canada.  The term ”umsiedler” refers to Mennonites who were forced to stay in Russia after World War II and have been moving to Germany since the collapse of the Soviet empire.  Victor is of the opinion that umsiedler emigration to Canada is an attempt by the more conservative in the group to escape the decadence of the West.  Victor is descended from parents who came from the Chortiza Mennonite settlement in Ukraine.  In 1943 they escaped to Germany, but were captured by the Russian army in 1945 and were forcibly repatriated to Kazakhstan.  In 1987 they emigrated to Germany.  The pictures show the current church under construction.  Victor Paetkau is the worker on the right.

The weather in Molochansk is great as spring has really arrived.  I don’t mean to rub it in too much but the fruit trees in Molochansk are as white with flowers as the ground in Winnipeg is white with snow.

Have a good day wherever you live.

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, please go to:  http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

WEEK 2 & 3 A VISIT WITH RELATIVES

The week started off with our first visit of the season from the Canadian Embassy.  Well actually it was my niece, Jeannette Menzies, coming in from Oslo Norway, where she works on Arctic issues at the Canadian Embassy.  She was accompanied by two of my sisters (one of whom came in from Cairo) and a cousin from Waterloo Ontario.  They came for the Molotschna Mennonite experience and to find out what Mary and I are really doing in Halbstadt.  While this blog is supposed to be about our work at the Mennonite Centre, I will take the liberty of describing a few experiences we had with my family.

It is a unique experience to have all ones siblings together in Halbstadt.  We drove down to Lichtenau to see the house that our great-grandfather built and where our mother was born.  It is now the mayor’s office but we were given free reign to wander throughout the building and try to imagine our mother living there with her family.  We went through every room and shared stories that we heard from our mother.  We even recreated the famous photo taken in 1890 with my great-grandparents proudly posing in front of the house with one branch of their family.  If you count the cost of all the airfares to get there, it is probably the most expensive photo ever taken with my camera.

2013

1890

One afternoon we recreated the start of our mother’s emigration to Canada.  We had a detailed account of this trip written by my aunt.  Unfortunately, she hand wrote the original document in German in the Gothic script.  A knowledgeable friend in Winnipeg had kindly re-written it for us and now all we had to do was translate it into English.  We worked on the translation collectively, and then boarded the train in Halbstadt (now called Molochansk) as our mother had done in November 1928, stopped at Lichtenau where relatives had met the train to say goodbye, and then continued on a few more kilometres to Feodorovka.  My mother’s family disembarked at this station and switched to another train going north to Moscow.  We continued on south to Melitopol where we were met by Dema and Oksana (staff at the Mennonite Centre).  We enjoyed a great meal together and then drove back to Halbstadt.

Another day we visited the local police station as they were looking for assistance in some planned renovations.  My niece, with her embassy perspective, expressed an interest in getting a better understanding of local issues and we invited her to join us for this meeting.  My niece has previously worked at the Turkish Embassy and has travelled extensively on embassy business in some of the surrounding countries that used to be part of the Soviet empire.  I personally hope that she will someday work in the Canadian Embassy in Kiev – maybe even have the role of Ambassador. 

The police station desperately needed some upgrading. For example, their holding cell had no bars on the window and even I could have made a break for it.  The police agreed to give us a written request on specific projects where they needed help.  Before we left, I asked if I could take a picture of one of the police officers in their building.  This was a problem to them as they all were out of uniform.  They quickly offered to bring in a uniformed police officer from the street to pose for a picture.  I accepted the offer and was surprised how long we had to wait.  Eventually a uniformed policeman showed up in very well pressed outfit.  He looked sharp.  I suspect they had taken him home to get his uniform pressed.  My niece posed with the police officer.

After the police station, we stopped at the Molochansk School of Music to investigate another opportunity.  We had a beautiful impromptu performance from one of their voice students and my niece got to play their grand piano.  While it is impossible to involve every guest or supporter of the Mennonite Centre in our daily work, I enjoyed the opportunity to share these experiences with my niece who understands the difficulty of trying to identify problems and resolve issues in another culture.

 

On Saturday we drove south to the Crimean Peninsula.  We were looking for the Mennonite village of Spat.  My cousin’s father was born in Spat and left in 1929.  It was her first visit and it was a beautiful experience for us to explore this village with her.  We found a local historian who was as interested in our story as we were in what she had to say about the local buildings built by the Mennonites.  She has had no contact with other historians and we promised her a copy of the Ukrainian version of Rudy Friesen’s book.  We will stay in touch with her and if possible invite her to come to the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk for a visit.

I was fascinated with some of the non-Mennonite information we got from our local historian in Spat.  She told us that in 1945, Churchill landed at the nearby airbase on his way to Yalta.  I was interested because the father of a friend in Winnipeg flew the decoy airplane on that important visit and would also have landed at that airfield.  When our historian found out I had an interest, she took us to the airfield and talked her way into giving us a tour.  This is amazing because it is still a large active military base under the control of the Russians.  We walked around the base and took many pictures.  When we left, the Russian guards greeted us in English and I shook hands with them as we thanked them for the unique opportunity.

 

 

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, please go to:  http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

 

WEEK 1 Start of a New Season

After an absence of 2 years, Mary and I are back in Molochansk.  We were looking forward to seeing our friends again to see what if anything has changed.

 The trip from Winnipeg was uneventful as one would hope it would be.  Our flights were on time and we made a good landing at the bumpy airport in Dnepropetrovsk in reasonable weather.  I got talking to one of the other passengers as we were disembarking.  He was from Canada and was a former resident of Ukraine and obviously knew the local language.  He offered to interpret if necessary as we had to clear immigration and customs.  There were no questions or issues at the passport inspection station and our passport was stamped with the 90 day visa.  After that we collected our luggage and proceeded to go through security.  All luggage is scanned at this point.  Our luggage contained an accordion which had been donated by a supporter of the Mennonite Centre in Canada who wanted it brought here to be gifted to an aspiring musician.  The scanner picked up the metal of the accordion and we were ordered to open the case which we had taped shut to protect its contents.  We had added a few items to the accordion case to maximize the weight and now in addition to the accordion it held some peanut butter and brown sugar – important items not available in Ukraine.  The customs official saw the strange looking brown sugar and thought he had caught some drug smugglers.  My friend, the interpreter, was caught up in his own dispute with officials, but I tapped him on the shoulder and he came over right away and explained to my official that Canadians like to eat their sugar unbleached.  This finally satisfied the official but then their focus turned to the accordion.  Why was I bringing this valuable instrument into their country and was I intending to play it here and then take it back to Canada?  My explanation that I intended to leave it here only heightened their concerns.  They would have been even more concerned if I had to play it for them.  Eventually they relented and Mary and I as well as our interpreter were allowed to leave the secure area with our accordion and meet our friends who were anxiously waiting.

We were met by Dema and Oksana Bratchenko.  They are both on staff at the Mennonite Centre where Dema is the manager.  They are good friends from the past and we looked forward to renewing our relationship with them and their family.  Dema was amused by our problems with the accordion.  This is a very popular instrument in Ukraine and even has its own jokes.  Apparently, an accordion is something you give your neighbour’s son if you do not like your neighbour.  I have also been warned by a mischievous Dema not to play it after 10:00 PM in our apartment.  I did finally play it outside Dema’s apartment just to watch his reaction.  I now look forward to finding it a proper home where it will be properly appreciated.

It was great to get to the Kutuzovka Church on Sunday and receive a warm greeting from so many people that we recognized.  Their minister was away on a trip to western Ukraine with some of the other church members and they were stuck in a massive traffic jam south of Kiev caused by a snow storm.  Praying for safe travel in adverse winter conditions is something that we Canadians understand.  When the congregation was given an opportunity to express a concern or give thanks for something in their life, almost everyone in the congregation participated.  One gentleman expressed thanks that his eye sight had been restored through cataract surgery.  He specifically mentioned his thanks for financial support from the Mennonite Centre to enable this to happen.  I recalled seeing his proposal coming to the board a month earlier.  It was great to connect a face to the proposal and was amazed at the speed with which the surgery had occurred.  Maybe the waiting lists for some surgeries in Ukraine are shorter than in Canada.

On Wednesday morning I was pleased to see a quilting group busy at work at the Mennonite Centre.  This group was started by Olga Rubel, the representative of the Mennonite Centre in Zaporozhye. They were very eager to show off their handiwork.

We have been busy getting up to speed on the local issues.  We have our own list of things we want to accomplish during our time here.  We will be busy.  The weather has been very uncooperative.  It is snowing outside as I write.  This is supposed to be the balmy Molotschna that our parents talked about.  Tomorrow we have been promised better weather and hopefully the sun will shine again.

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, please go to:  http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/