Blog # 5 "Connect the Dots"

Blog #5 – “connect the dots”

One the advantages of coming back year after year is that you can occasionally see the results of earlier contacts - contacts that at the time seemed somewhat incidental, but later prove to be very significant. 

In the past, Linda shared her gifts and skills as a piano teacher and musician.  She taught numerous young piano students here in Molochansk, and also worked with a piano teacher and singer in the Rhapsody Choir in Tokmak.  Their shared experience and love for music resulted in a lovely friendship, and soon we were helping the teacher find a good student violin for her daughter. Our brother-in-law, who is a violin dealer, provided a fine French instrument. Some Canadian Directors, coming into the Mennonite Centre for their ten weeks of service, brought the violin into Ukraine. Over the years, our friendship with the piano teacher and her family blossomed. We greatly enjoyed our time together, so we began the tradition of sharing a great dinner together before Linda and I would once again return to Canada. 

This year we again shared a lovely, and together we honored Linda’s memory. The piano teacher’s daughter joined us and excitedly told me that she received the award for achieving the highest marks in violin in the Zaporozhye Music School. In the meantime, she has been accepted into the Dnepropetrovsk Conservatory. She said she was surprised to get a better mark than a boy who she claimed was a very good player and who was also accepted into the Dnepropetrovsk Conservatory. “I think my good violin helped” she said. 

Fast forward to Saturday, the 14^th of September when  I had breakfast with the Director of the Zaporozhye Music School.  We were discussing the feasibility of organizing a summer music camp for students in Zaporozhye. Trying to apply the well-established Mennonite principles of identifying, connecting and classifying someone from a similar ethnic background or with similar interests , I followed the same pattern.  I asked him if he knew a young violinist who had a French instrument and was recently accepted into the Dnepropetrovsk Conservatory. “Oh yes, I know her,” he said. “ She beat out my son for the highest mark!” Quickly we established we had “like-friends” (facebook jargon) and the talk about a music camp took off.  It expanded to include discussions about the feasibility of working with a group who are already teaching violin and other stringed instruments to children in one of the orphanages. I came away from that meeting, quietly pleased that Linda’s piano master class and brother-in-law’s generosity opened more doors and opportunities which could lead to the establishment of a music camp. It was good to end my time in Ukraine with such an uplifting meeting…and I must say the coffee was good too! 

I am writing this blog in Vienna, but my thoughts are still in Molochansk, where I walked the line of staff members, giving them hugs and kisses and assurances that I will be back next year. My experience this summer has been a time of personal healing. Even though I was far away from my home in Canada, in a strange way, I never really felt that far from my dear Linda. She would be pleased that plans are being developed to have our first music camp next summer in Zaporozhye and possibly in Tokmak. My experience here is that when your arms are full, it is easier to walk through doors that someone else has set to open automatically.

Ben

To contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine you can make your donations to “Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine.  All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1.

If you wish to donate online go to the website www.canadahelps.org, key in “Mennonite Centre Ukraine” and click on the search button. Then click on “View Profile” and then “Donate Now”.

Thank You!

  

Blog #4 - A Surprise

Last week the Director of the Probation Office we work with in Tokmak said, “You should visit my wife’s grandmother. She is 93 years old, in good health and remembers taking her early schooling in German from Mennonites”. That was an opportunity I could not pass up and today we had a lengthy visit.

Alexandra Ivanova Romashenko was born in Halbstadt in 1920. Her grandparents, Andrei and Alexandra Romashenko, made the, arduous journey from Kursk, Russia, settling in Halbstadt probably in the late 1890s. They were a mere 18 years of age when they arrived, and for the next 20 years, they worked as servants in Mennonite houses. Alexandra has a fine picture of her grandparents.  They had only one child who died at a young age, but later they adopted Andrei’s nephew as their son. She says her grandparents became immersed in the German culture. Their son eventually became a highly regarded furniture maker, trained by a Mennonite craftsman. Alexandra still has a cabinet, table and chairs that he built.

Alexandra’s grandparents insisted that she and her brother attend the Mennonite school and do their studies in German. To this day, she speaks a very fine Mennonite- sounding German. She took her first four years in German, starting as a five year old.  Her parents agreed with school authorities that she and her brother would not speak one word in Russian at school. If they did, they were to stand in the corner!  She remembers singing German songs and clapping the rhythm. After four years she transferred to the Zentralschule.  In my conversation with her, she had only positive things to say about her schooling. 

In the late 1920s the village was harassed by a group of thugs who stole their horses, cows, clothes, and furniture.  Alexandra’s family was branded as “kulaks” by these local bandits.  During this time she said the Mennonites were smarter than the ethnic Russians and Ukrainians - many of the German-speaking population had chosen to leave the country. Eventually her father was sent to Donetsk (at that time known as Stalino), to build a factory. The family went with him. She recalls trying to get more schooling there, but the only documentation she had was in German. To determine her schooling level she was given an independent test in Russian and was immediately promoted to the 7^th grade. She was spared the effects of the great famine because her father had a job building a factory.  A year later she returned to Molochansk and took grade 8 in a Russian school. Her good friend was a Heinrichs girl whose father was an optometrist in the village. Her friend had the only women’s bike in all of Molochansk. In 1935, at the young age of 15, she was accepted to the Melitopol Pedagogical Institute and became a highly regarded mathematics instructor; teaching in both Donetsk and Molochansk. Alexandra remained there during the war years, and in 1942 she gave birth to a daughter in the German-occupied village.  She said a German nurse named Anna helped her during the delivery. She recalls Molochansk having highly-regarded German/Mennonite doctors, including a Dr. Wall.

Alexandra continues to live in her home in Molochansk, together with her grandson. The house is spotless and the yard very well kept.  Her surroundings remind me so much of early Mennonite homes in the Abbotsford area. She exhibits a feisty, fun-loving spirit with an ongoing zest for life. She has very few wrinkles, and certainly does not act her age! She remembers meeting some Canadian tourists from the Mennonite Heritage Cruise Tours.  Most of our interview was recorded for archival purposes.

Ben

 

To contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine you can make your donations to “Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine.  All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1.

If you wish to donate online go to the website www.canadahelps.org, key in “Mennonite Centre Ukraine” and click on the search button. Then click on “View Profile” and then “Donate Now”.

Thank You!

"What to wear and how it get it"

Centre of attention

September 1 is “First Bell” - a day when the community marks the end of summer and celebrates the beginning of a new school year. This is a special day for those going into grade one and hearing the ringing of the bell.  I have been to several “First Bells” and am impressed with the idea that the community comes together to formally reinforce the value of education and implicitly affirm the  value they place on their children. “First Bell” events are deeply rooted in the Soviet past. Girls still wear a version of the Soviet uniform. However the “over the top” hair style with the excessively large bows appear to be somewhat more modest. The grade one boys on the other hand, are expected to have a black suit with a tie. They will wear this outfit for Christmas, Easter and  Women’s Day. “An unnecessary expense”, a mother complained to me. I’m sure no boy would want to be seen as the only one wearing a black suit, however there is security knowing you are not the only one having to listen to your mother. The only other dark suits to be seen as those worn by the politicians. That fact gives little comfort to these young lads. 

ringing the bell

Speaking of suits, on Saturday I drove into Tokmak to get a fine espresso and a short-sleeved dress shirt. The smart looking  young ladies working at the coffee shop already know  my preference for espresso, no sugar. In two weeks, that’s better service than Starbucks in Victoria gives after 16 years of ordering a “tall dark”.

I leave the coffee shop and reluctantly step into a “hole in the wall,” windowless building just off the market and upwind from the toilets. (Shopping for clothes is but a small step above blue cheese dressing and the Yankees in my ranking of dislikes).  I realized that I was the only man in the store and it felt akin to the awkwardness of walking into a women’s washroom.  No one seemed to notice me - a good sign, and then, as if by magic, right in front of me was a most presentable, short-sleeved shirt. I pulled it off the rack and handed it to the sales clerk who was standing beside a small calculator. Her face had the look of skepticism and maybe even a little suspicion. I had absolutely no interest entering the flimsy looking change area with this crowd of critics. “Skolka”,  how much? She takes the shirt and starts reading the labels. I thought she misunderstood, so I repeated “Skokla”. A woman behind me firmly says “wait” so I ask her if she speaks English. “Nyet, wait.” Soon all the women in the shop join in the discussion, looking at me, and then at the shirt. Did they want me to try it on, or were they all on commission, secretly calculating a rip-off price?  Every time I wanted to say something, I heard “wait”. Then the calculator lady wrote “75” on a piece of paper, so I gladly pulled out my 100 grievna note. She didn’t have change and soon purses were opened and I collected 25 grievna from two other ladies. That shirt cost me less than $10 and I was complimented at “First Bell” on my very fine choice, although Ukrainian women staff said I really had paid too much. They advised, “next time take me and keep quiet”.  Thank goodness that I only had to buy a short-sleeved shirt. Imagine if I had to buy a dark suit with that cast “helping” me.

A good deal

Ben 

To contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine you can make your donations to “Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine.  All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1.

If you wish to donate online go to the website www.canadahelps.org, key in “Mennonite Centre Ukraine” and click on the search button. Then click on “View Profile” and then “Donate Now”.

Thank You!