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.
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