Our time in Molochansk at the Mennonite Centre is over. We leave on Sunday for Kyiv where we have a
number of meetings. From Kyiv, we leave
on November 11 for Vilnius Lithuania to visit a friend at the Lithuanian
Christian College. Our time has gone by
too quickly. We have many memories to
take home with us.
It is always a challenge to work in a different culture and
to communicate primarily through interpreters.
We have learned to cope with this over our four terms, but we keep on
experiencing new situations.
Mary has observed the many seniors arriving for our three weekly
lunches that are provided at the Mennonite Centre. Being a nurse by profession she wondered
about the how clean their hands were and the danger of spreading flus and colds
in the dining room. Her simple solution
was to suggest that we attach a container of hand sanitizer to the wall near
the entrance to the dining room. This
led to some interesting discussions. Our
staff thought this was totally ridiculous.
Water would be splashed all over the floor and there would be a terrible
line up at the dining room door. They
obviously did not understand the concept and thought we were suggesting a full
hand washing station at the entrance.
Also, no one knew where to get any of this strange solution that we
referred to as hand sanitizer.
Our next idea was to discuss this with a doctor and get
their take on the concept of providing hand sanitizer to our guests. Mary started off the discussion by explaining
that hand sanitizer is available at all entrances to hospitals in Canada and
that visitors are encouraged to use it to help prevent the spread of
germs. We got no further than that when
the doctor declared the suggestion totally impractical. Their office was already full of equipment
because they had to share the space with a dentist and all the related dental
equipment and they had no room for any additional equipment to dispense hand
sanitizer. Our biggest disappointment
was in the lack of any curiosity on the part of the doctor to understand what
we were trying to say. We have no idea
where the breakdown in communications occurred.
Was it our inability to articulate the solution, were our words properly
translated, or did the doctor really not comprehend. If you take the discussion literally, the
bottom line is that there will be no hand sanitizer dispensers at the Mennonite
Centre because the doctor’s office, back at the hospital, is full of dental
equipment. The real bottom line is that
the seniors coming for lunch might not understand the concept any better and would
refuse to use the product.
Our next example of a difference in culture comes from the
care of seniors in personal care homes or hospitals. Our organization does not operate a senior’s
home but we are a major contributor to the privately operated home in
Kutuzovka, our neighbouring village. They
used to share a building with the local Mennonite Church but now each has their
own facility. Molochansk Mennonite
Church still has a close involvement with this senior’s home and provides funds
as well as negotiates on their behalf for support from organizations such as
ours. The senior’s home is blessed to
have a missionary from Germany by the name of Lilli Buss as the manager. She was born in Russia, with Mennonite ancestry
on her mother’s side and moved to Germany as a youngster. She brings “strange foreign” practices to the
work. We were talking to Lilli and she
complained of the state of health of people they were receiving from
hospitals. One lady came with many bed
sores. For Mary as a nurse, no hospital
should be discharging patients with bed sores. We learned that the nursing staff in
hospitals see their work as dispensing medication – not providing individual
care to patients. If patients need to be
turned to avoid bed sores, this is the responsibility of the family. If family is not available the patient has to
pay someone to have this done. If they
have no money, then they have to accept the fact that life is tough. At the senior’s home in Kutuzovka, Lilli
ensures that patient care is given to avoid bed sores. This is the responsibility of the nursing
staff at the facility. This is a new concept in Ukraine. Thank goodness for some “strange foreign”
practices being introduced. As a
supporter of the Kutuzovka Senior’s Home, the Mennonite Centre would like to
support the continued improvement in care being given to seniors at this
facility.
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| Seniors Enjoying a Game at the Kutuzovka Home |
At our first Sunday service at the Molochansk Mennonite
Church, they held a joint conference of all Mennonite churches operating in our
area. There were attendees from Berdjansk,
Balkavoya, Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Nikolaipol.
The church was packed. The pastor
of our church decided to mark this important occasion by turning his back on
the congregation and taking a selfie (yes that word has been incorporated into
the Russian language). It was a unique
way of documenting an important event. I
just happened to have my camera in church that day and recorded the event from
my perspective.
In previous visits we always had a special outing for the
staff. We would take them out for some
fine dining (their choice was McDonald's) and a classy cultural event (again
their choice was bowling and roller blading).
This time we could not find a good time slot to go out so we invited all
staff to our apartment for a party. We
served them a non-Ukrainian dish of chicken stir fry on rice with a more
traditional cabbage salad. We showed the
staff some pictures of our families back home and tried to give them some idea
of what life is like in Canada. Oksana
was very busy interpreting all evening.
There was a lot of laughter. Mary and I feel a real bond with the
staff. It really feels like one big
family at the Mennonite Centre.
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| Mary with some Staff Members |
This may be my last blog.
Depending on time constraints, I may send one more, but I in case I
don’t, I would like to say that it has been a pleasure to share our time in
Ukraine with you.
If you wish to know more about the work of the Mennonite
Centre, you can check out our web site at: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ or
follow our daily activities on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Mennonite-Centre-Ukraine-735361069838076/
