Mary and I
have completed our term as North American Directors at the Mennonite Centre in
Halbstadt Ukraine. We are now in
Amsterdam for 3 days before flying home. It has been a busy and rewarding time
in Ukraine. Following are some
highlights that come to mind.
The weather
has been hot but not as bad as we had expected.
It turned out that the dire predictions of temperature in the plus 40 C
(104 F) range were based on temperature readings that people had taken in the
sun. That was not our assumption when we
heard the predictions and it made us expect the worst. The hottest we experienced was 36 C (96
F). That compared well to some temperatures
back home in Winnipeg where they also had a heat wave. We would be prepared to come back mid-summer
again and enjoy all the fresh fruits and vegetables that the local gardens have
to offer.
The
Mennonite Centre hosted a wedding on our lawn last Saturday. We were asked if they could use our facility
as we have the most attractive setting in Molochansk. Our lawn is green as it is the only lawn that
has been watered. We are also one of the
few places with a lawn mower as most people use goats to trim their grass. Not surprising that it is the best-looking
place in town. It gave me an opportunity
to get a unique picture of our building.
Wedding at Mennonite Centre Molochansk |
It was
interesting watching the wedding. As
expected, everyone was very well dressed.
The attendants all were personally introduced before they walked down
the grass aisle one at a time. The
outside of our fence was lined with uninvited locals who wanted to watch the
proceedings. The ceremony concluded with
the release of two white doves by the groom and bride. The talk in the town the next day was that
the wedding had been for our staff. That
made for some interesting rumours and probably some consternation by a few
locals who were surprised that they had not been invited.
Release of Doves |
When walking
between our office and apartment we always pass the house of Anatoli and
Raisa. They have had a special bond with
all North American Directors. This is
somewhat surprising as they have no knowledge of English and have never come to
the Mennonite Centre for any assistance.
I suspect that his personal link to us is that he is one of a few people
in town who knows his history. His
grandfather had been a coachman for a prominent Mennonite business (Franz and
Schroeder Machine Factory) in Halbstadt. Anatoli is very proud of that
connection.
Anatoli’s
wife Raisa died this past winter.
Anatoli is quite deaf and blind, but he did communicate with Oksana at
the time that she should inform Alvin and Mary of his wife’s passing. He has aged a lot in the past year. He is now 91 years old.
Mary Anatoli and Alvin |
Mary was
walking past Anatoli house the other day.
Anatoli’s son and grandson were outside and recognized Mary. The grandson has good English and asked us to
come for a visit that evening. We did
not really know the son and grandson, but they had heard good things about us from
Anatoli and we were treated royally. The
son is a veteran of the ill-fated Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He fought there from 1982 until he was
wounded in 1985. Anatoli’s grandson is
an engineer specializing in ferrous metals at the steel plant in Zaporozhe. They
are all warm caring people and it is a privilege for us to see them as friends.
There are always
challenges for us in the field of medicine in Ukraine. They sneak up on you in surprising ways. The last challenge involved medications. Our local hospital has a new gynecologist.
After giving women a mammogram and finding a cyst, she would give the women an
expensive prescription and tell them that the Mennonite Centre would fund
it. The women would then show up asking
for the money. That is not how the
process works. People must apply for
assistance and the Mennonite Centre must assess their financial needs and
decide if the request is legitimate.
Mary being a nurse, was wondering why there was no follow-up procedure to
the discovery of the cyst and what kind of medication would cure this
condition. After extensive research with
the assistance of GOOGLE, it was determined that the prescription was a food
supplement. In fact, it was an extract
from broccoli. The Mennonite Centre
funds medicine based on evidence-based treatment as is practised in the
West. These requests are all being declined,
and people referred to a local market where they can buy their broccoli.
I have been
writing these blogs for 7 years. This
will be my 48th blog that I am posting. I have a good idea who many of my readers are
but there are some surprises. I have
statistics by country as to how many readers there are. The all-time total for the 10 top countries,
breaks down as follows:
Canada 17,879
United
States 5,831
Russia 4,154
Ukraine 2,524
Germany 1,004
France 473
Poland 328
Netherlands 258
United
Kingdom 190
Japan 133
I had no
idea I had so many friends in Russia, not to mention Japan. For those who don’t know me personally,
please feel free to leave a comment on this blog giving me some clues as to who
you are or what your interest is. That would be appreciated.
A rumour
spreading through town is that the old guy from Canada working at the Mennonite
Centre crawled into the tunnels under the old Mennonite Credit Union. I am being stopped unexpectedly and
congratulated on my stupidity. Well, we
all like to be remembered.
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/
Just to let you know that I have also followed your blogs so there's one more country to add to your list...Ecuador. I have enjoyed all of the info you have given about your work there as well as some insights into my own roots. Many greetings to both of you. Elaine
ReplyDeleteДети благодарят и желают здоровья!https://detiintermol.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHello! I'm a great-granddaughter of Nick Fehderau, and I've really enjoyed your blog posts. Thank you so much for taking the time to document your experiences in Ukraine! Do you and Mary plan to return? I'm very interested in the history of the tunnels, and I'd love to be kept in the loop about any new discoveries that surface. If you can see my email address, please feel free to contact me there. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteAlready the summer has passed! Are you coming this year? A resident of Molochansk.
ReplyDelete