We have been
struck this week by how interconnected we all are. I am not just referring to the Mennonite
community but much more broadly.
On Sunday we
left by train for Kyiv. Monday morning I
was to give the opening address at a Christian education conference. The conference organizers were very aware of
the tradition of religious leaders in this country not knowing their limits,
with sermons often droning on for an hour or more. Everyone was given a very limited speaking
time. I was given 8 minutes to make my
case, including time for translation. I
consider it a “Suderman” virtue to be concise and get to the point when
speaking. I might not show the same
virtue when writing a lengthy blog. I gave them a history of Mennonites and
Mennonite education and the current role played by the Mennonite Centre in supporting
education in Ukraine. I finished in 7 minutes.
Later on
Monday, we had a 3:00 PM meeting with the Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine,
Roman Waschuk. He had come to the
Mennonite Centre one year ago to participate in celebrating our 15th
anniversary. I asked him for his
favourite moment at our celebrations.
The answer surprised me. I had
expected him to say that the opportunity to address the people of Molochansk in
our evening event was his favourite memory.
Instead he said the performance by the men’s Faith and Life choir at
Schoensee, the next day had turned into his most memorable experience. The choir had been invited there by Father
Peter of the Greek Catholic church to sing in German “Grosser Gott Wir Loben
Dich” (Holy God We Praise Thy Name). The
Greek Catholic church building in Schoensee is a restored former Mennonite
church. The Mennonite Centre, with
generous donations from Mennonites connected historically to that village, had
financially assisted in its restoration.
At the event, the Ambassador talked to the current residents of
Schoensee (now called Snegorovka) and got their story. They also were victims of Stalin’s wrath just
like the Mennonites. The residents were
all originally from western Ukraine and from the area occupied by the Soviet
Union in 1939. After the war, Stalin had
refused to return this territory back to Poland. He knew the residents did not like him and he
wanted them away from the border and in a safe place where he could watch
them. Stalin also wanted room to build a
large military base on the western edge of the Soviet Union and had to clear
close to 100 villages from the area. There
was no better place to move these displaced villagers than the former Mennonite
villages that were empty after the war.
The surprising part was that the current residents of Schoensee all came
from the ancestral village of Roman Waschuk, our Ambassador. Our 15th anniversary celebrations
became a family reunion for him. It is
not surprising that we were warmly received in the Ambassador’s office.
Faith and Life Choir performing at Schoensee with local people in foreground |
On Tuesday
morning at 6:50 AM, we boarded a fast train for L’viv in western Ukraine. We had a 4:00 PM appointment that day to
visit the Home of Hope. This is a
special place where girls leaving the state run orphanages can learn some life
skills while they complete their education.
In the government institutions the orphans are housed, fed and clothed,
while attending their own segregated schools.
They do not know how to function in society and generally are angry and
lack the emotional skills needed to form stable relationships. At the Home of Hope they are taught to cook,
budget, and buy their own food with funds provided by the state or the home,
while completing an education that will enable them to become self-supporting. The Home of Hope is run by some loving Sisters
under the auspices of the Greek Catholic Church. We were given a tour of the home by Sister
Yeroneyma.
Sister Yeroneyma with girls from Home of Hope |
Mary and I
had heard about this place from a chance encounter in Winnipeg. We heard a young lady speak passionately at a
fund raiser about the work of this charity.
This young lady is Natalie Tataryn.
She was adopted from Ukraine by a Winnipeg family as a baby. She knows that her life could have been much
different if she had stayed in the orphanage system in Ukraine. She has a passion for helping orphans in
L’viv. We have invited her to attend our
upcoming fund raiser on November 18 and briefly share her story with the
audience. You will enjoy meeting her.
We started
off our conversation with Sister Yeroneyma by introducing ourselves and the
work at the Mennonite Centre. It turned out that she knew Father Peter, the
priest who started the congregation at Schoensee. They had worked together in Donetsk at one
time. She also told us that one of the Sisters from her order was also stationed
in Schoensee. It seemed that no matter
where we went in Ukraine, the Mennonite trail would cross that of some other
organization where we already knew the people.
The most
exciting part of the visit for us was to hear Oksana, our manager at the Mennonite
Centre, suggest that the Mennonite Centre give cooking classes to the orphans
living at the orphanage in Molochansk. We know the children at that place as we
have visited them many times. We have
helped our local orphanage in many ways but this would be a unique way of
helping individual children. As with any
idea, there will be many bumps along the road in its implementation but I look
forward to seeing where this idea might go.
Speaking of
the orphanage in Molochansk, we visited there just before leaving for
Kyiv. We came at their invitation to
meet their floor hockey team. While our
local orphanage has many of the problems of other similar institutions, it is
the only orphanage with a good floor hockey team. Because of support from the Mennonite Centre
they have been able to travel to tournaments and participate in many
competitions. Their team has done
well. There are four graduates of the
Molochansk orphanage that play floor hockey in established teams in Zaporozhye,
our nearest big city. They also have one
graduate that plays volleyball professionally in Ukraine. These are all exceptional achievements for
orphans and the staff wanted to thank the Mennonite Centre for making this
possible.
Girls Floor Hockey Team at our Local Orphanage |
I would like
to continue my exploration of the book “A Mennonite Estate Family in Southern
Ukraine” by Nicholas Fehderau. Early in
the book he gives details of a trip from their home in Halbstadt (now called
Molochansk) to their estate further south near the city of Melitopol. This covered a distance of about 50 miles and
was completed in one day. The streets
that he identifies and the landmarks he notes are all still visible today. We no longer take the same route when driving
to Melitopol but the trail is still discernable.
Nicholas
describes the two horses being hitched to the coach which was standing in their
yard. Many items would be loaded on the
coach and his mother was always the last one coming out of the house after
giving the staff countless instructions.
Nicholas would sit up front beside Pavel, their coachman. They turned right out of the yard and headed
down their street to the main thoroughfare coming through Halbstadt. Here they made a left hand turn. In a few blocks they turned right and headed
down the road that would take them through Alt-Halbstadt. They passed the Willms mill on their left and
the Neufeld brewery on their right. He
comments on the cobblestone streets in this section and how everybody drove beside
the paved section because it was smoother. They were heading to the “high”
bridge taking them over the Molotschna River.
As they drove through this part Nicholas talked about the herdsman
having collected the cows in the village and taken them out to pasture near the
bridge.
Fehderau House on right Looking Down the Street |
Willms Flour Mill Today |
Old Cobblestones visible Through Asphalt Pavement |
High Bridge over Molotschna River with Herdsman |
The seven
story Willms mill is still standing but the brewery is gone. The streets are generally paved with asphalt
but this has disappeared in places and the old cobblestones still are
visible. That road today is so rough,
that we often drive beside the pavement just as they did in Nicholas times. A high bridge over the Molotschna River still
exists in this location. It is a very
old looking structure but it is hard to imagine that it is the same bridge from
more than 100 years ago. On our
exploratory drive, we approached the bridge just as a herdsman was chasing
cattle into their pasture.
After
crossing the river, their coach approached the village of Prischib. They had left the Mennonite community and
were in a German colonist village settled by people of the Lutheran faith. Nicholas comments that Prischib did not look
as pretty and as orderly as Halbstadt.
Today the difference has been erased as both places look equally run
down. They continued south through two
more villages and then started the climb up the large escarpment that is very
visible in the area. We continued
following this trail in our car and found a paved road leading straight up the
escarpment as described by Nicholas. At
the top we had a beautiful view of the Molotschna settlement. Nicholas and his sister always had to climb
this section on foot as the load on the horses had to be reduced. Mary and I enjoyed the view from the top
before returning to our residence in Halbstadt.
Road up the Escarpment with Halbstadt visible in upper left |
Mary and I
have only one week to go before we leave for home. The time has gone by quickly and we look
forward to finalizing everything here and seeing our friends and families back
in Winnipeg.
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/
Рады и благодарны за постоянную помощь!
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