Communications Visit II

One of the greatest parts of serving with MCC is meeting with local partners. I usually end up leaving the visit thinking about how great the people are and how interesting it was to spend time with them. I am not a photographer, nor do I write in a journal, therefore I often forget the details of these visits. I do take photos but almost all of them are posed and at least one person looks like a total goof (usually me).

In August-September of last year we were fortunate to have a visit from MCC’s communications department. A while later they sent us the pictures that they took when doing the interviews. The photographer they sent was really good, as you can see from the pictures. When looking at these pictures, taken when these people were lost in their lives and stories, it is possible to see the person more deeply. I am thankful that the photographer captured several memories for me.

The first photo is of Gregory Nikolaenko, a builder and loan fund president in the Kharkov oblast. He is a rather rough and tough guy, but in the photo he is caught playing with one of his adopted grand-nieces.

The second photo is of Vladimir Tsupko, the director of the Good Shepherd Fund (the fund that operates the children’s center and the shelter in Makeevka). This photo shows him as I know him, animatedly describing what Good Shepherd does.

The third photo is of Valentina Chernova, the former director of Good Shepherd Children’s Center. The photo shows her behind her desk, probably talking about the everyday activities, rewarding and difficult, involved in taking care of the children.

The fourth photo is one that I have already posted. It is of Alexsander Doroshenko, the auto parts salesman and former boxer. It shows him as he always seems to be, enjoying himself.

And the fifth photo shows Katya Savchuka, the smallest girl at Good Shepherd Center. It shows the part of the kids that makes spending time there the most rewarding. Even though these kids have been through more than I can imagine and oftentimes seem like little adults, they still have not lost their playfulness.

I also thought I would use this blog as an opportunity to say that the cover story in the January-February MCC aCommonPlace magazine is on Income Generation in Ukraine (see a preview at http://www.mcc.org/acp/). The MCC website also has a photo gallery (http://www.mcc.org/gallery/07_01/) where you can see more of Ukraine.

Dave

Happy New Year

This year we celebrated New Years Ukrainian-style – with lots of festivity and food that lasts all night. We spent the evening with the children at the Good Shepherd Center. When we arrived at 7:30, kids were running around wild with excitement, and educators were setting up and assembling the evening’s activities behind locked doors. The theme was travel, so all of us, dressed in an assortment of “travel” outfits, assembled in the gym at 10 p.m., surrounded by tents. The night began with a talent show, which ended with a devotional and prayer, about the time when the sky outside was exploding with fireworks at midnight. After that, we headed to the cafeteria for a special holiday dinner (the “first meal of the year”), after which everyone lit sparklers. Then came a team competition activity, where groups of kids ran from one activity to another, gathering points and having fun in the process. These ranged from riding tricycles through an obstacle course to karaoke to target practice, which Dave and I led. After that it was back to the cafeteria for a “sweet table” laden with goodies. Between each activity there was plenty of time for running around, wrestling and general mayhem. The atmosphere would have kept even the sleepiest reveler awake. At about 4:30 a.m., kids brought their blankets and pillows to the gym and we all crashed in front of the movie screen for some sort of animated movie. I doubt anyone stayed awake to see past the first 10 minutes, let alone to the end. Dave and I made it home around 7 a.m.

A student told me the other day that the New Year doesn’t start for him until Jan. 2, because he spends most of Jan. 1 sleeping, and now I can identify with him.

Laura

Western Christmas Holiday

This year Dave and I spent Western Christmas (Dec. 25) in England, with a friend and her family. We arrived in Birmingham, spent a day an a half there, then went to London for two days, and finally traveled to Chichester, a small town on the south coast of England, for the Christmas holiday. We had a great time shopping, hanging out, watching English TV, being tourists, eating English Christmas goodies (many of which were new to us) and in general just absorbing the Christmas holiday spirit. Other highlights included Christmas Eve Midnight Mass in Chichester’s 11^th century cathedral, playing with the Peters’ two dogs (Dave’s highlight), and speaking English in public.

We were pleasantly surprised at the mild weather and greenness of the landscape, as well as the history and beauty we saw everywhere we went. Especially around Chichester, every other house seems to be built of stone several hundred years ago, and every other street is cobbled, narrow and winds through beautiful green fields and ivy-laden landscapes.

Laura

Valentina Chernova

Last week I went to visit Valentina Chernova at her home. She was doing much better than she was the last time I had seen her (in the hospital) and I was very thankful for that. Just over half of her 14-day chemotherapy treatment was complete. She was taking six pills a day during that time and should have finished treatment on Saturday. Honestly, she seemed much stronger than most of the people I have met who were in the middle of chemo (admittedly, this number isn’t very large).

As if the cancer and treatment weren’t a solemn enough topic, she pulled out the pictures she had of “her Sasha” at his funeral. He passed away this past May after a long battle with asthma and other health complications. It has been a tough year for Valentina.

We talked about the future. She was very interested to hear Laura and my plans for the next stage in our lives. She was also rather adamant about her own future plans. She wants to return to working at Good Shepherd Center, but not as the director. She wants to help in “any way she can.” She wants to help the kids with homework and just have time to talk to the kids. She wants to be the night watchperson (which seems to be about the last job anyone would aspire to). I could tell that she just wants to serve again, like she has been doing for so long. Most of us who know her have difficulty seeing her any other way.

Dave

Mikhail Ivanovich Vodalazhsky

The book in the picture is part of an amazing story. It is the sort of story that I have only read about and this was the first time in my life where I was able to hear it first hand. I will not do the story, or the storyteller, Mikhail Ivanovich Vodolazhsky, justice. But talking with him has been one of the highlights of my time here. I apologize about the quality of the photo, the book is amazingly small and my hands aren’t so steady when holding a camera.

Mikhail Ivanovich is either 92 or 93 years old. He was born before the Bolshevik Revolution on a farm in the Kharkov region of Ukraine. Around his eighth birthday his father’s farm and work were taken over by the government and became a part of a collective farm. Times were tough. Mikhail Ivanovich dropped out of school and moved, along with his two older brothers, to the city in search of work.

In his late teens he did his time of service with the Soviet army. His commanding officer fell out of favor with those above him and an order came down from above, requiring 100 men from his unit be sent to the “Gulag” labor camps. The officials searched through the soldiers’ personal belongings and found 200 “enemies of the people.” He had a journal in which he had written some of his favorite Bible verses and Sunday School songs so he was included in this number. He was sentenced to eight years at a Gulag 100 kilometers north of Magadan, in the northeastern part of Siberia.

Mikhail Ivanovich had not yet married his fiancé, and she told him she would wait for him “even if it took 10 years.” He was sent to a camp where he and many others prospected for gold while serving their sentences. Each was required to dig a hole, 1m x 1m x 1m every day, rain or shine, in the frosty soil and send it off to be panned. Fortunately, Mikhail Ivanovich was skilled at repairing the felt boots worn in the winter months and was therefore moved indoors during the coldest, hardest months. Many of the people in his Gulag died; almost all lost one or more extremities to frostbite.

He was released after eight years, but was forced to remain in the region for a period of exile. His fiancé learned of his release and exile and somehow, miraculously, traveled across the 13 time zones to meet and marry Mikhail Ivanovich at the train station, almost exactly 10 years after their last meeting.

They lived there for several years, and their three children were born there. At one point in time, they were told they could return home. They gave away or sold the majority of their possessions and packed the rest for the long journey “home.” Unfortunately, on the day they were to leave they were told they could not go. They went back to those who had their possessions and collected their things. Fortunately there were no problems with this because, according to Mikhail Ivanovich, after living through the hardships together the people there had become “closer than family.”

It became known that Mikhail Ivanovich was leading small church services in his home. He was immediately sentenced to another 10 years in the “camps.” This is where the Bible pictured above comes in to the story. During his first sentence he and 20 other inmates shared a contraband Bible which belonged to one of his fellow inmates. During his time of exile, his wife had given him his own Bible, which he in turn shared with around 10 others. He talks about how he was “overjoyed” to have the opportunity to have the Bible on Sundays, his day off. He would go off to some isolated place and read “under a blanket” as they often say here when referring to clandestine behavior.

Midway through this term, “Comrade Stalin” died and Mikhail Ivanovich and others were exonerated by Khrushchchev. The family left Magadan for the 9-day boat ride to Vladivostok, on the far east coast of Russia, then a 17-day train ride back to Kharkov in Ukraine. They have lived there until now. Now Mikhail Ivanovich (front left in picture) and his brother, Pyotr Ivanovich (front right), live in a small room built on to the house where his son Yura (back) lives with his family. The “grandpas” spend most of their time talking and studying their Bibles, now above the blankets.

Dave

November Economic Conference

November 17-18 we had an economic conference for all the MCC partners that I work with. The fact that I am posting a blog about it over a month later is either a testimony to how busy I have been or how lazy I am. I thought that some of you would be interested to see the “brothers” that I am referring to when I talk about “partners.” Representatives from 12 of the 15 loan funds and credit unions from different regions in Ukraine were in attendance, and presentations covered a variety of topics.

While I feel that my Russian continues to get better all the time, I am still not quite to the place where I can lead discussions well. I’m sure I said some stupid stuff when trying to explain some things but I did my best and already was acquainted with most of the people there. Fortunately, as the picture shows, Ionka Hristozova (our country director) also attended all of the sessions and led the discussion in what I thought was the most important session which dealt with planning and reporting. This encompasses the majority of my responsibilities and I was glad that she explained why we are doing it and what we are looking for.

The conference required a lot of planning and turned out well. It seemed that those who participated thought it was interesting and beneficial.

Dave

Partners visit

Last week Dave and I returned from a whirlwind “partners visit.” Now is the time when the loan funds MCC works with (run by Ukrainian Baptists throughout Ukraine) are writing year-end reports and plans for next year. The planning process has changed recently, so Dave has been visiting most everyone to help out. I had a one-week break from classes, so I went along for the first time. On this trip we took the train to Cherkassy (central Ukraine), then south to Odessa, took a bus west to the village of Kilia on the Romanian border, then the train back to Odessa, up to Kiev and home to Donetsk.

The biggest impression the trip had on me was the contrast of life in the village to life in the city. Back home, in the part of the Midwest where I’m from, the standard of living in the “country” is no different from that of the city. That is not the case in Ukraine, and I often forget that. Running water is not a standard in the village, it’s a luxury. Hot water comes from the top of the stove after you’ve heated it in a pan. Houses are heated with coal or wood-burning fireplaces that double as ovens and sometimes as beds. (The traditional “Russian Stove” is a huge affair with a large flat space on top to sleep on). The toilet is usually, as they say in Russian, “in the street” (an outhouse). Potatoes, noodles or kasha (porridge made from grains or oatmeal) are standard fare – fruit is a luxury for special occasions.

People were very hospitable and I especially enjoyed meeting the people Dave has gotten to know since beginning this job last year, and putting faces with the names he’s talked about. The photo is a gathering of babushkas in a village north of Kiev. Notice everyone is wearing their coats, boots and headscarves. Although we sat around the stove (the small door in the wall to the left), it wasn’t warm enough in that house not to stay fully dressed.

Laura