Monday 30 July 2018

WEEK 2 HOSTING THE TOURISTS


The Mennonite Centre in Halbstadt has been very busy this past week with tourists from the Mennonite Heritage Cruise.  For three days we received one or two busloads of people who had chosen to explore the Halbstadt area.  This gave them the day in our area as well as a lunch of borscht and blinchkies prepared by Ira our cook.  Because of the contacts that we have built with locals over time, there were some new opportunities to explore. These special arrangements always come with a certain amount of risk.

For years, Mennonite tourists have come and admired the seven story Willms flour mill from outside of their large yard.  This year for the first time ever, tourists got to go onto the grounds of the mill and even explore the interior.  This happened because Oksana, our manager, had a conversation with the town mayor.  He had invited the news media to tour some local attractions in the hope of leveraging this increased attention into improving our roads. This is how Oksana found out that the mayor had some access to the mill.  Because we have helped the mayor recently with some projects, he agreed to use his influence to open the mill to the tourists coming this week.  He was personally there before the first bus arrived to make sure that the watchman unlocked the gate and that another guide had unlocked the mill.  The bus was late in arriving and the mayor left before the first bus arrived but everything went smoothly on the first day. 
The Famous Willms Mill

We all assumed that things would go well on subsequent days.  Of course, this is Ukraine and things can go off track.  On the second day, there was a new watchman who had not been told that we had access to the mill.  The mayor was also not present personally but Oksana called him and soon the gate was open.  However the watchman said he did not have the key for the mill.  The person with the key had been taken to the hospital by ambulance during the night and no one knew where to get the key.  I was with some disappointed guests as we circled the building from the outside.  By the time we got around, the door had been miraculously unlocked and we could go in.  I never did find out where the key came from.  Sometimes in Ukraine it is just better not to know.

The mill is a fascinating and dangerous place to visit.  The person appointed as guide the first day, just pointed at the door and the stairs and then let us proceed on our own.  There is rubble everywhere on the floor and no barriers where the floor ends and you can look down several storeys.  I climbed right to the top floor and walked around the attic.  All the original flour milling equipment is gone.  In its last years of operation, the place had been used as a milk cannery.  It is now an empty derelict building that stands as a silent testimony to the prosperous Mennonite economy that ended here one hundred years ago.
Machinery Inside the Mill

Attic of the Willms Flour Mill

The tunnels built by Mennonites over 100 years ago were also popular with the tourists.  They had the opportunity to explore three different locations.  Again this was only possible because of the willingness of local authorities and property owners to accommodate our request for access.  There were many questions from the tourists as to why the tunnels were built and much speculation as to the motivation.  The exploration by the workers cleaning the tunnel entrances under the former Mennonite Credit Union (now the local sports school) has created increased local interest.  I am receiving requests from people who want to organize a party and crawl through the small opening and explore the areas that are not easily accessible.  Will I participate in that?  Maybe - I am tempted.  I will keep you posted.  I understand that there is an experienced team in Thailand to locate and extract us if something goes wrong.

The following pictures of tunnels are from an area that is not easily accessible.  It shows several tunnel areas as well as an underground well right in the tunnel shaft.  Presumably the well was dug to give access to water to people in the tunnel.

Well located inside Tunnel


Now that the tours are over, the Mennonite Centre has to return the keys which got us the access to the underground structures.  This was the agreement we had with the owners.  We have also removed the special lighting that we installed.  If we had left the lighting in the tunnel under the old Central School, it is the belief of our staff that it would soon corrode from the moist air or be stolen by staff from the town that also had access to the area. 

I was aware that there were members of the Fehderau family on the Mennonite Heritage Cruise.  I had written last year about the book written by their father who grew up in Halbstadt and came to Canada as part of the 1920’s migration.  I knew where their ancestral house was.  We discussed with Oksana about negotiating with the current owners to get access for the Fehderau clan to the house where their father (and grandfather) had lived.  Oksana did not know the people who lived there but I encouraged her to make a cold call and test the reception.  We walked there in the afternoon and could not get passed the gate.  One of our staff saw us and directed us to approach the building from the back.  There we bumped into a lady that Oksana knew from her fitness class.  This lady said that her mother lived in the Fehderau house but was away at the moment.  The lady had the key and promised to give the Fehderau family access.  We thought everything was arranged. The day before the tours started to arrive, the lady with the key had other obligations on one of the days of the tours.  We crossed our fingers hoping that it would work out.  It did work out.  I was in Berdjansk on the Sea of Azov with another tour group when Mary texted me that the Fehderau family was at the Mennonite Centre and had obtained access to the house.  Her text said that the family was overwhelmed to be inside their ancestral home. This made it a very personal trip for them and it was rewarding for us to have assisted in this. Special arrangements for tour groups are always a risk but very rewarding when they work out.

We are back to our normal routine at the Mennonite Centre. This morning we were met at the office door by a tearful lady from Melitopol requesting assistance for purchasing her chemo drugs. Yes we are back at work.

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/


Monday 23 July 2018

WEEK 1 PREPARING FOR THE ARRIVAL OF THE MENNONITE HERITAGE CRUISE


Mary and I are back in Ukraine for our seventh tour. This is our first time to be here in mid-summer.  We were warned that it could be very hot.  It is hot but not as bad as we had expected. We are slowly getting adjusted to the time zone.

We arrived Friday July 13 after an uneventful flight from Winnipeg.  We were forced to fly via Chicago as the cost of the air fares was considerably lower.  It is always interesting as to what one notices and remembers from a flight.  I remember our pilots for the United Airlines flight boarding ahead of us in Winnipeg.  I pointed them out to Mary and commented that they did not inspire confidence.  They were rather unkempt and slovenly dressed.  However they were quite competent as pilots as we had a good take-off in Winnipeg and a smooth landing in Chicago.  On the other hand, the pilot of our Austrian Airlines flight banged the plane down very hard on our landing in Vienna.  It was a real lid closer.  I got this expression from a former neighbour who flew large aircraft for the military.  He told me that you can always tell if an aircraft has had a heavy landing as all the toilet lids will be closed. The last leg of our flight into Dnipro was uneventful or else I was too tired to notice anything.

About 26 hours after leaving Winnipeg, we were in our apartment in Molochansk (formerly called Halbstadt). We had a quick bowl of beautiful cabbage borscht prepared by Ira, our cook at the Mennonite Centre and then were off to bed. I fell asleep immediately and Mary being a caring and professional nurse had to wake me to give me my sleeping pill. We had planned on taking a melatonin tablet, which I call my sleeping pill, as we had heard that it helps your body adapt to the change in time zones.  We slept for more than 12 hours that first night. After 4 subsequent nights of tossing, I am not so sure that the pills really help.

What strikes us as we walk through town is the abundance of fruit.  The cherry season is finished but apricot season is in full swing. You can spot the apricot trees by the carpet of apricots lying around them on the ground.  The apricots are being canned, dried and made into jam but they cannot keep up with the production of fruit from the trees.  This is the first time in 5 years that there has been a good apricot crop and people are storing them up in anticipation of some lean years ahead.
Apricots on Trees


Carpet of Apricots

There is a mulberry bush growing on the Mennonite Centre property.  According to my information, mulberries were introduced to the region by Mennonites in the early part of the 19th century as there was a large cottage industry for the production of silk. The mulberry leaf is the only food on which a silk worm can survive. The mulberry fruit is dark blue in colour and stains your fingers when you pick it.  I like the unique taste.  We hope some of our mulberries are still available when the expected tourists start to arrive on July 25. 
Mulberry Bush at the Mennonite Centre

A significant focus of our first 2 weeks has been in preparing for the arrival of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise passengers.  There are 200 passengers on the ship and most of them will be coming to the Mennonite Centre for a lunch and to explore Halbstadt.  We have been getting the tunnels ready for them.  This required extensive clean-up of rubble and the installation of some lighting.  One of the tunnel entrances is under the Central Schule (former boys’ school).  The town’s people have noticed the increased activity at the place and observed our coming and going.  The rumour in town is that the Mennonite Centre is taking over that building. It is probably wishful thinking on their part as they would see it as a way of getting the building fully restored.

While cleaning out the access to tunnels under the former Mennonite Credit Union, two of the workmen decided to do some exploring themselves.  They crawled through a place where the tunnel entrance had been sealed by Soviet authorities in the 1980’s.  The tunnel had also been filled with sand at that point. They crawled through a small opening and over the sand. They were gone for close to 30 minutes and emerged with pictures and stories of tunnels going in three directions.  The tunnels were quite wide and they had to walk a bit stooped but managed to get around quite well.  They even came across an underground well in the tunnel.  I am sure they will share their stories with other people in town and I will get to hear more tunnel stories from the town folk.

This last Friday, we received an invitation to visit the priest at the local Russian Orthodox Church.  We had always heard that he was hostile toward the Mennonite Centre.  We were very warmly received by an elderly man in a robe who liked to joke.  He even had some basic English to help our communications.  He had a small request to help the church buy some tile for a new chapel.  He gave us a full tour of the place with a detailed description of each icon.  He then led us up into their new bell tower.  His instructions for the steep ascent were quite simple – men had to go first.  This was not based on any chauvinistic rules but was simply to insure that the men did not see anything “inappropriate” on the steep ascent.  At the top I was allowed to ring every bell and make as much noise as I wanted.  There was a beautiful view from the bell tower of the seven story Willms flour mill located in Alt-Halbstadt.
View of Priest with Willms mill in background

The priest informed us that the church had honoured a special anniversary this week.  It was on July 17, 1918 that the Tzar and his family were executed. In honour of this event a special icon was brought in from Moscow.  When the official carrying the icon was stopped at the Ukrainian border and asked what he had to declare, he told them that he was bringing in the Tzar.  He was allowed to proceed.  There is a plaque honouring Nicholas II in their chapel.
Plaque at Orthodox Church

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/