Linda and Ben's Ukraine Report

2011-08-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

For the first 9 years in the life of the Mennonite Centre, donations were primarily spent in the former Molotschna colony. Molochansk was the point of distribution and contact for most of the southern villages. In this, our tenth year, the Board has decided to increase our presence in the Zaparozhye/Chortitza areas.

In order to better understand the Chortitza areas we took a tour of the former colonies of Chortitza and Yasekovo. Our tour guide was Victor Penner, a recognized local authority of Mennonite life in the former colonies. Victor is neither quiet nor restrained when conducting a tour—he speaks with the intensity of one giving his last tour. He gives you gigabytes of facts, fascinating vignettes, and a critical overview of the impact of the Soviet system. Like Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! he gives the answer first but then asks Why? His is a powerful presentation.

Victor's front-wheel-drive Opel four-wheeled its way through back alleys, roads that resemble horizontal moguls, with Victor asking, Why can't these be fixed?

Comparing these villages with those of Molotschna, one notices several differences. Villages of Chortitza and Yasykovo have older buildings which appear to have suffered less damage during the WWII. Victor explained that the front went through this area more quickly—the longer the battle, the more damage. He showed some fascinating original log houses which seemed reminiscent of the ones we saw in Poland. He showed the skeleton of a Mennonite house illustrating how timbers were connected to the brick work. We found several house-barn combinations. In fact, the Mennonite houses in this area seemed to have a common design—perpendicular to the road, main entrance on the side, and two windows in the front gable. The houses in Molotschna appear to show more diversity.

Victor also showed houses built after the civil war in 1917-1923. These houses were smaller and reflected the state of poverty that was already taking over in the Mennonite areas.

However, the most significant difference between the two areas is the topography. Villages in the Chortitza/Yasykovo area are set in valleys, with pretty big hills on either side. These deep valleys make the Chortitza/Yasykovo area very picturesque, with large sweeping landscapes. A counting of the clay tile roofs of the villages from the top of the hill is inspiring. We suspect that children in these areas would enjoy tobogganing in winter—in Molotschna they would have had to be pulled by horses or cross the Molotschna River and for the climb to the top of Colonista Hill, the ridge which sweeps from Melitopol north, past Molochansk.

At this point in 2011 we have given about 20% of our project-giving to the Chortitza/Yasekovo area. We have helped schools with new desks, chairs, and sports equipment; we have given support to camps for handicapped and other children; we are supporting a promising young artist from a very poor family; we continue to give support to medical clinics in some of the smaller villages.

One of the major influences separating Chortitza and Molochansk villages is the impact of Zaparozhye, a major city that encompasses much of Chortitza. The continued growth and increased wealth in Zaparozhye has resulted in the nouveau riche buying up much of the land in Nieder Chortitza. These are the new “estates”, but as Victor points out, unlike previous estate owners they appear to give little concern to the development of the surrounding community. While these houses are hidden behind fancy copper-sculptured gates and 10-foot brick walls, the public roads in front of them are as bad as all the village roads. They exhude wealth but show fear, their brick walls so tight to the roads that there is no room for friendly neighbourly visiting-benches.

This is our final blog for 2011. We will be coming out with a fall newsletter which will report on the projects that we have been undertaking. Hopefully our reports have given you a picture of our lives here.

Ben and Linda Stobbe

If you wish to contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine make your Canadian cheques to "Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine" or "FOMCU." Cheques from American donors should be made out to "MFC-FOMCU". All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1. Check our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ for information on credit card donations.

2011-08-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Gift giving in most cultures can be a challenge at best. Gift giving in response to an invitation or an act of kindness or thoughtfulness can be an added complication. During Soviet times you appeared to have more options--a Bic pen, a T-shirt, or a pair of jeans was greatly appreciated. Now with the vast array of consumer goods in Ukraine you have to be aware not only of cultural differences and finding something that is unique and truly valued. Our task in this regard has been made easier by a Mennonite organization and many people in Canada.

The Mennonite Historical Society of British Columbia regularly receives donations of old Mennonite songbooks which were originally published in South Russia (now Ukraine). The Society often has several copies of the same book. There were books from Halbstadt, Alexanderwohl, and Odessa; some have the handwritten names of the villages written inside the front cover. These Liederperlen and Gesangbuch were among the items that families could not part with when they fled, providing encouragement and comfort to their owners.

Some of these books have been taken back to Ukraine and offered as gifts to local schools, universities, libraries, museums, and churches. This week we gave a Gesangbuch dating back to the early 1900s to the library in Molochansk. When we pointed out that this book was published a mere 25 metres from the current library, the librarian was astounded. She exclaimed, “I am going to phone the newspaper to tell them what we just got!”

Thank you families, and thank you Mennonite Historical Society.

These aren’t the only books that we give out which were published in Ukraine. The Ukrainian translation of Rudy Friesen’s Building on the Past was recently published in Melitopol. People regularly come to the Mennonite Centre to buy the book at an affordable 50 UAH ($6). Several months ago a pastor bought several books for his congregation. We also give these books away as gifts to schools, universities, libraries, museums, and influential leaders. We are still looking at how to make it available to Ukrainians for purchase online. One person who received the book in Melitopol this week simply said, “I never knew this story.” This week alone the book went to a group from Lviv, the Ministry of Culture in Kiev, the library in Molochansk, a museum in Vasilievka, and the Director of the Social Care Centre in Tokmak.

Here, as in so many countries, villages are dying. It is interesting to see what they once were, as well as the spirit of the people who once lived there. The Gesangbuch and Liederperlen speak of a spiritual home; Rudy’s book illustrates the architecture of our earthly homes. The old books talk about our future and the new book talks about our past. A church songbook placed in a school museum, or Building on the Past given to a village mayor, show that people with common values and a sense of God’s leading could forge a very productive and satisfying life in this grassland.

In describing the historical context of the Mennonite experience in Ukraine, Rudy says that Mennonites who are now coming to visit this country are doing so “neither to glorify nor mourn the past, nor to reclaim what they once owned, but in a spirit of mutual embrace.” It is a wonderful experience to give a book, a kiss on the cheek, and a warm embrace. This truly is gift-giving.

Ben and Linda

If you wish to contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine make your Canadian cheques to "Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine" or "FOMCU." Cheques from American donors should be made out to "MFC-FOMCU". All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1. Check our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ for information on credit card donations.

2011-08-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

This week we visited the Sanitorium school in Molochansk. It is located on the grounds of the former Mennonite hospital in Muntau. Sanitorium schools basically are longer term residential schools for children who have long term respiratory or cardiology problems. The school in Molochansk has students from the Zaporozhye region.

Students in this school have developed a pen pal relationship with students from Menno Simons Christian School in Calgary. Each year we take letters from children in the Sanitorium school back to Canada and send them to Menno Simons School.

Lydia Petrenko, the somewhat stern looking principal, has a warm matron-like style. For 45 years, through Soviet and independence times, this school, its students and staff have been her passion and her purpose. She bears a strikingly resemblance to Mrs. Slocombe in the British TV comedy series, “Are You Being Served?” She always gives us a thorough tour of the school pointing out all the improvements funded primarily by students from Menno Simons. In addition Rebecca from Calgary has sent a donation to the school on her last three birthdates. With support from the students, Rebecca, and a few other donors, we have been able to tile the hallways, put linoleum and new desks in several classrooms, put new chairs in the assembly room, give the only two computers and a printer to the school, and now give money to paint the gym and classrooms and provide new plumbing for the washrooms.

Someday we hope that students and teachers from Menno Simons will have the opportunity to come and see the difference their support means to the school. We would like to provide more computers in the near future and ensure that the school has internet access. It would be wonderful if the students from both schools could connect through the internet. We would love to see other schools adopt a school here.

This week we were busy interviewing students who are asking for financial support to attend university. Of the sixteen students we have interviewed, only three have both a father and mother living at home. In virtually all cases a father is not present. In a few situations dad has passed away, but in most he has left the family home. In spite of the challenges this presents, it is amazing how many students and their mothers are committed to getting the best education possible. For these, time is too short to nurse regrets.

Today we drove south to Alexanderkrone to visit 90 year-old Margarita Pankratz. She is somewhat weak but very alert. She loves the opportunity to speak German, the language of her childhood, and tell stories of her incredible life. She is so thankful that she has been able to spend the last 51 years in the very house she was married in as an 18 year-old. Now she is cared for by her granddaughter and great-grandchildren. Next week we plan to interview her 18 year-old great-grandson Denis to provide him with student financial aid. He is hoping to be admitted into medical school in Zaporozhye. It’s fascinating to think that in this home an 18-year-old married the love of her life, and 72 years later another 18-year-old is moving out to chart his new course. This visit best illustrates what the Mennonite Centre is all about—we want to share the past and help build the future.

For more information on the Mennonite Centre, visit our website at:
http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

Ben and Linda

2011-07-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

On a recent visit to the hospital Ben spotted his friend Sergei mowing the lawn. The mower had a beautiful, quiet hum to it and Sergei had the contract to do this lawn as well as several others. Sergei is industrious. Not having a lawnmower did not hinder him in getting contracts--he just built one. An electric one. And it appears he used a baby carriage as a chassis and flipped over a small, electric motor. Now he cuts all lawns to one height and uses the owner's electricity to boot! No wonder he can win the contracts. However, he didn't take on the nearby football field, he left that to an impressive tractor-driven mower.

Ben has always had an interest in the criminal justice system and how it is being developed in Ukraine. This week he met with 13 probation officers from many of the neighbouring towns/cities who are in the very beginning stages of Community Corrections. Ukraine has had probation officers for only 10 years and this fall they are planning to develop a legislative base for Community Corrections. Until now, community supervision was primarily done by the police. The probation officers really reminded Ben of the staff he worked with in BC--lots of energy, enthusiasm, and good ideas.

We are also developing short videos which we hope to post on YouTube, describing the work of the Mennonite Centre here. Linda is preparing the script for a video showing a talented young accordion player. The video should be posted shortly.

Ben feels that an indicator of a civilized society is the availability of coffee shops. There is a fine shop in Tokmak which is near the market. A Saturday morning visit to the market followed by an espresso coffee for 63 cents (Cdn.) makes for the start of a good day.

Last week in Zaparozhye we stopped in for pizza. Ben went to the counter to help build his pizza, and with his charades and a little vocabulary he got chicken, tomato, cheese, and various greens as his toppings. The lady knew no English, so this took some effort. He stood around for several minutes, waiting for his pizza to bake, until the barmaid, busy making drinks, said with a smile and in perfect English, "you can go sit down--we will bring the pizza to you!"

We appreciate that our readers have many competing interests. If you wish to contribute to the work of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine make your Canadian cheques to "Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine" or "FOMCU." Cheques from American donors should be made out to "MFC-FOMCU". All cheques should be mailed to George Dyck, Treasurer, 3675 North Service Rd, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada - L0R 1B1. Check our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ for information on credit card donations.

Thanks,
Ben and Linda Stobbe

2011-07-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

The tale of two people from one village:

Svetlodolinskoye is not a big village; in Mennonite circles it is known as Lichtenau. Both titles mean “light.” Lichtenau is known for its train station, which in the 1920's was the point of departure for many Mennonites westward to Canada, and which in the 1940's was the point of departure for many eastward to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

This week we were reminded of another major contrast in this village of probably no more than 2,000 residents. This week the village mayor introduced us to one of the most popular current residents of Svetlodolinskoye. Aram Arzumyan has just been crowned the Ukrainian Powerlifting Champion for his weight class of under 59 kilos. He trains in nearby Melitopol and works at the once-famous train station. He said he knew about the story of the Mennonites and the train station by the pictures he has seen. Being a national champion makes him a hero in this village. However, the Ukrainian National Powerlifting Team doesn't have a lot of money to send their champions abroad. He wants to compete in the European Nationals and the mayor asked if we can help get him to Europe. He has put in at least 2,000 of his own savings and been able to raise 3,000 UAH from the locals, and we were asked for the remaining 5,000 UAH (around $640).

But there is another person from Svetlodolinskoye whom we have given support to. We don't even know his name yet. We heard about him, again from the mayor. Our unknown friend was literally unknown in the system. Apparently he was kept contained in a barn because he is mentally challenged. Over the years he lost all his documents and was basically a non-person. When Dema, our Ukrainian Director, heard of him, he immediately phoned the local psychiatric hospital and asked that he be admitted there.

They said they couldn't, because he had no documents to prove who he was. Interestingly, the Director of the psychiatric facility, has just recently asked us for funding for a water cistern. Apparently it's not easy running a psych hospital when the water runs out.

Dema offered a solution that would help everyone. If the psych hospital could find a way to temporarily admit him without documents we would find a way to provide a cistern. They agreed and proper documents have been created. Our friend is now admitted and n fact qualified for a government pension. The hospital also has a backup supply of water. (Quid pro quo is not our normal way of doing things but this case was an exception.)

Sometimes we get too accepting of the status quo. Aram is not imposing, but he is focused and determined, and will for the first time realize his dream of travelling outside the country, to Czech.

The family of our unknown friend simply felt that they were doing the best they could do, but they needed outside help to have him travel outside of his prison to a place that at least offers some care and comfort.

For some Mennonites, Lichtenau meant a journey to freedom and for others a journey to despair and death. For Aram and our unknown friend it's a journey to recognition. Thank you, North American friends, for helping people on their journeys.

Thank you.
Ben and Linda Stobbe
View our website at www.mennonitecentre.ca

Podium appearance

The pride of Svetlodolinskoye

Staying focused

2011-07-16T02:01:00.000-07:00

Mennonite museums are opening up like sunflowers in Southeastern Ukraine. In the Molotschna area we have three school museums, two city/ town museums and one private musuem. The town of Vasilievka has an excellent museum with a few German artifacts, and of course Zaporozhye has a signifcant display of Mennonite artifacts in their city museum. The school museums often are the most fascinating. Children from former Mennonite villages are encouraged to bring artifacts found in their homes.

This week the history teacher from Udarnik (Neukirch) showed me a pocket watch which was recently brought in. The watch case itself was in pretty bad shape, but behind the watch, under a piece of leather-like material, were two folded scraps of paper which told a story. The papers looked offical and had typewritten notes and some scribbled notes, all in German. Board member Walter Unger suggests that the watch probably originally belonged to a German officer in WWII, who could well have fought in the final defense of Germany. He may have been killed in action, the watch removed by a Soviet soldier who brought the watch back to Udarnik. The date of 1945 is typed in the document.

While this is not a Mennonite story it graphically reminds us that nearly 70 years ago villages in this area included two very different German speaking peoples - men who were primarily soldiers as well as women and children who were struggling to survive without a husband and father.

The other artifacts come from Vasilevka, a town half-way between Molochansk and Zaporozhye. The Director said, "do you want to see a Mennonite icon?" Now, I was expecting a picture either of Menno Simons, Board member Harry Giesbrecht or boys playing crokinole while "distributing" sunflower shells. Surprisingly, he showed me a picture of Mary with the baby Jesus and probably Joseph. There is a German inscription which says something like "God's strong father's-hand protects your marriage." What was somewhat disconcerting that this "icon" was placed right beside a photograph of two young men who apparently were bandits/anarchists involved in the plundering raids on Mennonite villages during the Bolshevik revolution. In fact the Director claimed that many Mennonite items stolen from homes during this time were brought to Vasilevka for redistribution.

I am skeptical that the so called icon necessarily came from a Mennonite home. After all, this area was also populated with Catholic and Lutheran Germans. But the irony of having these items side by side is telling. Nearly 100 years later the memories still hurt, but we want to be involved the reconcilation process. Your support and the goodwill extended by so many Ukrainians makes this a very satisfying process.

Check our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ for more information on our work and how you can help.

2011-07-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

Making Living Somewhat Easier

One of the exciting developments this Spring was the conversion of the 2nd floor of the Molochansk hospital to a floor dedicated for the care of Seniors. Dema Bratchenko, our Ukrainian Manager at the Mennonite Centre, is on the Tokmak Social Care Committee which spearheaded this project. A dedicated facility for seniors care is relatively new in Ukraine. Two hospitals in former Mennonite villages - Molochansk (Halbstadt) and Vladovka (Waldheim) are converting some of their beds for the care of Seniors.
The Molochansk facility is desperate need of infrastructure upgrades. On the entire floor of this hospital there is only one toilet which actually works. FOMCU, Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine, is funding major upgrades to get all toilets working. Several years ago through the Respite Centre, we brought in used adjustable beds that certainly are a vast improvement over the existing beds.

In addition to providing the plumbing upgrades we also purchased new equipment. It's hard to believe, but the entire hospital food was cooked from three ancient hotplates sitting on a wooden table. These units were expected to make meals for at least thirty patients! Often family members would bring in their own food. We have provided a modern grill and oven that will be a vast improvement. In addition we have provided a new washing machine, a gas boiler and a new fridge for the seniors. Hopefully, by Christmas we will find donors to fund a TV in each room, This is win, win for everyone. Seniors can receive proper care, hospital equipment is upgraded, and staff layoffs are avoided.

This facility has room for up to thirty seniors. They will be able to receive medications from the pharmacy downstairs, and we are currently negotiating how we can subsidize the cost of medication for these seniors. In addition to the resting areas we will have a common meeting area for socializing. Seniors turn over their pension cheque to pay for their care. They are the most vulnerable group in Ukraine. Elder abuse is far too common.

Mennonite groups have been leaders in providing seniors care. In Zaporozhye the Mennonite Family Centre has done a remarkable job in providing care services for seniors. In Kutusovka the Mennonite church runs a nine bed seniors home in the church annex. We hope that our work in Molochansk and Vladovka will be models that demonstrate how to develop care facilities for seniors in rural communities.

Thanks for your support. Please visit our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/ to learn more about our work and see how you can assist us.

Ben and Linda Stobbe

with new washing machine and boiler

old cooktop for entire hospital
and you thought your kitchen needed upgrading!

with new grill and oven

adjustable bed?

used Candian bed from container

basic bed

2011-07-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

This year Linda and I took a detour through Poland before I flew into Dnepropetrovsk. Touring the former Mennonite settlements in Poland with noted genealogist Alan Peters helped us put Mennonite history in context. We certainly saw similarities in architecture and noted that the significant economic contributions by the early Mennonites in the Vistula Delta were repeated by those who migrated to Southern Russia. In both areas many Mennonites felt compelled to leave to continue practising their beliefs and those that remained behind were forced to accept the new political realities.

Now after spending nearly a week in Ukraine - without Linda who is back in Victoria - and having been in Poland for almost two weeks, I notice a striking contrast between these two former Soviet states. The standard of living in Poland is noticeably higher, and there does not appear to be the grinding poverty one can find in Ukrainian village life. Cars are newer, pollution is not as obvious, and buildings appear to be in far better condition. While roads are passable in Poland, in Ukraine they are impassable. The problem is that most Ukrainians are unaware of this.

Is this because Ukraine is closer to the West and a member of the EU? Partially, but I feel there are more significant factors. Poland had forty-six years of communism, Ukraine seventy-four. More significantly, Poland did not experience the same upheaval of collectivization and the purges that precipitated collectivization in the 1930s. Not only did this destroy the family based system of agriculture in Ukraine, it also took away the people, particularly men, who had the ability to manage, to innovate - in short leaders at the local and national level. Riding the train from Warsaw to Krakow, one could see the well-ordered farms with diverse crops running in long, narrow, straight lines. While Ukraine is anticipating a very good crop this year - good rains have blessed this week - the organization and ownership of land holdings continues to be in dispute twenty years after Independence. In addition while both countries suffered in ways that cannot be imagined during WWII, Poland had a stronger history of being a unique country compared to Ukraine, which at times seems to be the younger sibling, still somewaht attached to Russia.

When you consider that all older Ukrainians can quickly list a handful of lost siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, you are amazed at their resilience, their faith and their committment particularly to their grandchildren. I have yet to meet a Ukrainian babuska who wouldn't give up her pension so her grandchildren can continue in school. We have much to learn from these bent over, head covered women.

Ben Stobbe in Molochansk

School in Nikolaifeld Ukraine

Early Mennonite House of Worship in Elbing Poland

2010-08-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

One of the frequent questions that we have to prepare for when we go back to Canada is, “what exactly do you do in Ukraine?” If we think about this question while driving on the “holey” road to Tokmak we are tempted to conclude “exactly” is not a common word used here. However, we take the question to mean, “give us a detailed description of your workday but keep it short.” In this blog report we want to describe what we tend to do and what we would like to do–every day we are reminded that the two are not necessarily the same.

We would like to view needs, think of programs that would connect to the needs, enjoy the rewards of successful programs, and find artifacts and stories that broaden our understanding of what our great-grandparents did here. What we actually find ourselves preoccupied with is writing policies to ensure that students are treated equitably when receiving scholarship grants and seniors get equitable treatment on coal distribution. We also find ourselves dealing with the question, “how much holiday pay do staff qualify for?” We spend a lot of time ensuring that we meet all our tax requirements, particularly the taxes surrounding payroll, vehicle registration, gas and electrical usage, etc. Collecting taxes has become a national obsession since receiving the economic crisis loan from the International Monetary Fund. We also spend a lot of time ensuring that wherever possible we make payments through the bank–this offers much more transparency but at times it is highly inefficient. In other words, we do a lot of paper work. That’s in addition to newsletter and blog reports, emails, project proposals, etc. The thing that keeps us going is that we know that good programs can only continue if they are well documented and consistent with our mission and values. And that doesn’t come just with story-telling, it needs a lot of numbers and policy backup.

What charges our batteries is going out into the villages and finding evidence of how our forebears thrived here. This week we went out to find the Kroeker house in Lindenau. We took a 1941 map and started locating the major markers such as railway crossings, roads, forest plantations, etc. What once was a well-marked cobblestone street with well-ordered farms running perpendicular to it is now only a rutted trail with a few run-down houses. The only things running are free-range chickens and ducks–goats are tethered while dogs can only run up to the fences. There is no longer a road leading to the railway tracks, but the line of trees, the change in land grade, and some cobblestones confirmed its existence. Soon we concluded that we had found the site of the old Kroeker property.

We walked through high weeds and some tall grass, kicking up the soil, and sure enough we soon found a slight depression containing a scattering of bricks. We took pictures of the view from where the house once stood with the hope that family members in Canada could now enjoy the vista that their forebears did. The house had been on a bit of a slope and had good view of the Kolonista hill; no doubt every night they would have heard the nearby train at the end of the grain field. It was a thrilling moment. That re-energized us, after spending several hours on an Excel spreadsheet calculating all the different factors we would use to determine which students would get what amounts for their university scholarships. The twenty-five students we will support this year should be happy for the Kroeker house–after all, it gave us energy to keep doing what we are trying to do exactly.

Next weekend we hope the Star Alliance pilots will also do things exactly so we can arrive back in Canada, with more stories.

Ben and Linda
c/o Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine
3675 North Service Road
Beamsville, ON. LOR 1B1

Not doing things "exactly." This security guard is supposed to be guarding the money bags in the vehicle while his co-guards are in the bank. Apparently he is working on the door lock!

2010-08-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

Often people in Canada assume that we know Russian or Ukrainian. At least a smattering of it! We know enough to get into trouble but not enough to get out of trouble! Even when we take a walk around Molotchna and look at the bountiful harvest this year, at best we nod or greet the locals with “Zdrastvuyte.”
Now, after 5 terms here in Ukraine we are starting to feel that there are advantages to not knowing Russian or Ukrainian. Maybe we shouldn’t be embarrassed about our poor language skills. Consider this:
• if you don’t know the language you don’t have to spend time explaining why you want to do something. Ukrainians are masters of the shrug and hopefully we can learn from them! That doesn’t mean indifference, it just means “sorry, I don’t understand you.”
• when people realize you don’t know the language they don’t feel threatened around you–they can say anything they please. In other words, you are not a big interference in their lives. The other day while having coffee Ben noticed that when some people finally understood that he didn’t know any Russian they talked to each other much more freely.
• when both sides can’t communicate with each other it can be a great equalizer–no one has power of words over the other. Any sense of coming here with Canadian superiority quickly disappears when you can’t tell anybody about it.
• in a sermon your mind is free to wander–you can imagine what you want the speaker to say. Similarly, you can imagine how your forefathers used to live here, and there is no one here to correct you!
• when you can’t speak the language, behaviour is often more important than words.
• not knowing the language allows you to claim ignorance when you get into a fix. Someone suggested that, when stopped by a policeman, don’t say, “nye pahneemahoo” (don’t understand), demonstrate your complete ignorance by saying “nye pahmeedoree” (don’t tomato)! At this point the policeman will know he is dealing with a total buffoon.
• you are forced to rely on body language, eye contact, the smile, gestures, etc. It can actually be a delightful way to communicate.
• when you can’t understand you actually try to listen more carefully, hoping to get one or two words in a sentence to give you a sense of context.
• there is great delight when you actually find a common words or a common insight–a bond is quickly established, more quickly than if you just use words to convince or ignore.

Two weeks ago we suddenly had no translator in the Mennonite Centre, and five Moms came for their regular support group session. The regular leader had to be away unexpectedly, so we were left to lead the the Mom’s group. We brought out our laptop and started showing pictures of our family–our children and grandchildren. One mother had brought her teenaged daughter who knew about as much English as we knew Russian and quickly we were communicating. Through pictures, gestures, heads nodding, laughing, blank expressions, etc., we told the story of our family. The time flew by; we ended with a meal together and we could see they wanted more. We didn’t need many words–pictures were more important. Let your imagination go when you look at the pictures of our Mom’s group with some of their children. “Dasvidaniya.”

Ben and Linda
c/o FOMCU
3675 North Service Road
Beamsville ON
L0R1B1

2010-08-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

An accountant friend of Ben’s always bristled when he was called a ‘number cruncher.’ He said that numbers and currency were mere symbols of programs and people. He looked at the end result, not the process.

One of the advantages of being here is that, while we experience the process, we also can see the beginning of the end result. Last Monday morning we came into a busy office at the Mennonite Centre. There were several bright, young university applicants and an old woman with her son. The students could wait, after all they had a lifetime ahead of them; we weren’t so sure about the woman.

Ella, who is from the former Mennonite village of Lichtenau, has had two surgeries for colon cancer and is facing another on August 24th. Her son, a former vet, explained that so far they have been able to keep their house but have sold their pigs, a cow, and anything else they can sell, to pay for medical intervention. Their income consists of her pension and the pension of her 93-year-old mother–he has given up his job to care for them. She handed us receipts for past expenses and all we could see with the receipts was the loss of pigs and a cow. Her request was modest, some money to pay for the third surgery. Ben said to Dema, “let’s give her 200 grievnas (UAH) today, just to give her some immediate hope, and go to the Board for additional funds.” The 200 UAH are just numbers, but to her they not–they represented hope; we saw the result–a smile which even pain could not hold back. Oksana, our bookkeeper was no number-cruncher, she delivered hope.

The students came next. This year’s numbers suggest that we will approve 20 to 25 students going to university, with a total budget of about 100,000 UAH ($12,500 US). This fall, coming out of our Youth for Life program, five of these students have been nominated by the Superintendent of Schools because they are very bright but come from very poor family and village backgrounds. While they will get full tuition scholarships from government, they still don’t have enough for books, and room and board. One of the students, Denis, is a history buff and was asked by Dema if he new knew anything about Mennonite History in Ukraine. Wrong question if you have to go to the washroom! Denis’ eyes became focussed and by the time we stopped him 10 minutes later he had gone from Menno Simons to the impact of Potemkin. Denis comes from a small, non-German village and we were totally surprised that he had even heard of us. Dema wondered if Denis could come back some time during the university year and give a lecture to other students. Ben thought he should be giving lectures to North American Mennonites! We want to give him and other scholarship applicants money not just because they need it but because we see them as legitimate academics who will have significant influence in the new Ukraine. This is not about money, it is about investment.

Last Sunday we were at the Grace Church in Melitopol. Dema, our Ukrainian Manager, delivered the sermon while Ben provided an introduction thanking the church for giving us two of our Ukrainian Directors from their midst–Kate Ostapenko and Dema Bratchenko. After church we met with the Deaf and Mute group, who were given funds by us for a summer camp. Here, not knowing Russian and not being able to read sign language really means you have two strikes against you. But we could read body language and we had a wonderful time of tea and sharing. Ben asked them if a North American who could “sign” would be able to communicate directly with them; they said most words are transferrable and gave examples of North Americans who have done just that. There is some irony in this–if you can’t speak but can sign, you can communicate with more language groups around the world than most linguists can. As one of our Canadian friends said, “I’m learning the wrong language!” We didn’t just give them money, we gave them a new sense of community and support.

A major frustration this week was trying to change the ownership of the Mennonite Centre car from our retired bookkeeper Ada, to our current bookkeeper Oksana. Before you ask why the car isn’t in the name of the Mennonite Centre, be sure to take a washroom break! Too long a story for this blog! To do this, our money had to go to the police–not once, but several times–all legitimate. To change ownership you have to change licence plates. First, before you can take off the old licence plate, the police have to inspect the car to confirm registration. Then you put on a red licence plate, signifying ownership is in transition. Then you have to bring the car to a notary public who reviews documents and confirms that Oksana can be the new owner. Then you take the car back to the police, show the new documents, and get another inspection to confirm that the car is the same one as you brought since the red plates were put on. All of these visits involve a fee which some of you dear friends have contributed to. We always want to believe that all our money goes to widows and orphans, but some of it has to go to the process–to get mobility and to deliver services. Our challenge here is to do this with integrity, to fill out every form, not “buying our way” through the system, even if that means we are in the slow lineup and have to wait hours longer than the young fellows who come with their black BMW’s. Even here it’s not just about the money, it’s about doing it right.

The week ended off with our Saturday morning Tokmak market visit. We hold our breath, gird our loins, and step into the meat market, a place we have visited for the last several years. We are always greeted by a community of pigs’s heads, ears, and a display of other livestock anatomy. We are also greeted by the welcoming smiles of fly-swatting vendors, some who remember us from past visits. We buy a pork roast for our Saturday night dinner, then remembered that some poor family from Lichtenau had to give up their pigs to provide not only money, but also hope.

Ben and Linda Stobbe,
c/o Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine,
2675 North Service Road,
Beamsville, Ontario. L0R 1B1

2010-08-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

One of the areas of noticeable difference in Ukraine since our first coming as North American Directors in 2005 has been the general improvement in the conditions of the orphanages and treatment of children with disabilities. This generalization is only based on the orphanages and programs we are aware of, here in the Molotschna area. The state-run orphanages such as the one at Prischib and the one near Melitopol have certainly improved their facilities with new windows, better floors, chairs, and even food. The state appears to have made a major investment in these facilities. This Monday we went to Kalinikovka, the site of the Steinbach estate on the southern end of the Molotschna colony. Significant renovations and facility improvements have occurred at this institution for physically and mentally challenged children aged 5 to 18. However, we have been told that the capital costs for the improvements have been supplied by non-governmental groups, not the state. Here again, we were very impressed with the conditions we saw, particularly for the younger children. The renovated rooms were clean and bright. Compared to conditions at the adult psychiatric hospital in Molochansk, this facility was a vast improvement.

Compared to our North American practices, Ukraine still institutionalizes far more children on a per capita basis. While the long term plans should be to integrate them into as normal an environment as possible, at least on the short run we are pleased to see improved facilities. In walking amongst the young children in the former Steinbach estate we were struck by two things: the need and desire of children for human contact and the fact that an estate which once showed prosperity and success can now be used to show care and support for the most needy of children. We just stood among the children and allowed them touch us. They grabbed, snuggled, and rubbed our hands. We did not come out of there feeling despair, but had a new sense of what can be considered beautiful. Staff were very encouraging to the children and encouraged us to be with the children. It is good to see how the original Jacob Dick and Nicholas Schmidt buildings continue to be used for the good of the community and have not been allowed to disintegrate like so many other places. We were guided through the buildings by Yulia Romanova, one of our scholarship students who was doing summer volunteer work there. Yulia, who speaks good English, has a better understanding of Mennonite history than 99% of North American Mennonite young people her age and is a model of the new Ukraine.

On Wednesday we went to another old estate, this one not Mennonite–Count Popova’s castles in Vasilievka. Here we saw an estate consisting of several old castles built in the 1800's. These big buildings also depict wealth, status, and living conditions of the nobility in Tsarist times. Unfortunately they are not really being used and while the state appears to be trying to prevent further deterioration of these buildings, one senses that much more could be done here to make them a centre that would serve the community.

On Thursday, after a particularly long afternoon, we were just ready to go home when two rather dignified-looking women came into our office. They were sisters, and one was a former teacher in the Mennonite Centre which once was a school. Both women would have been pensioners in Canada but they did not reflect the stereotypical “babushka” look of Ukrainian grandmothers. In fact, we have also noticed how that look is increasingly changing as Ukrainian women are beginning to carry their natural beauty and class into their senior years. These women came in confident and smiling, and said, “we want to thank you for being here. I am so delighted that this building is now being used to provide care for the community. My sister just got new glasses here. Those of us who can remember the war years often have nightmares and the best cure for me is to come to the Mennonite Centre and sit on the benches because this is a place of peace. We have a nephew in Toronto. He is coming to visit us next summer and we will bring him here to show him that we have a little piece of Canada right here in Molochansk.”

Sometimes when you improve buildings you also give hope, joy, and good health to those whose lives have been filled with fear and despair. Thank you to all our supporters.

Ben and Linda Stobbe
Friends of the Mennonite Centre
3675 North Service Road
Beamsville, ON
L0R 1B1

2010-08-01T11:07:00.000-07:00

The pears are ripening and we are back in our second home, here in Ukraine. Actually, Ben came on his own for a few weeks this past May in his role as Board Chair, arriving when Rudy and Hildegarde Baerg were wrapping up their spring term. After an absence of nearly 18 months, Ben picked up some good advice on how to adapt to our apartment previously occupied by Larissa Funk, our German missionary friend. Advice such as: use the top of the oven to bake–the bottom element will burn everything; the local butter is hard to cook with–it is probably mixed with water; the best yogurt is that which you buy in a bag–just pour it into a jar when you get home; buy triangular bread in the Dar store–get there early or there won’t be any left; light the oven with a match, leading it into the hole at the bottom; turn the oven knob to 10–your heat should be no higher than 200 and 180 is equal to 350; the narrow bowl on the bottom shelf is perfect for beating eggs...

All of this good Hildegarde-Baerg-advice assumed we would be cooking food in the kitchen–as it turned out we were the ones being cooked! There was no advice on how to deal with a broken air conditioner in +38 degree weather. The good news was that we had running water, the bad news was that the only running water came down the wall from the air conditioner! After the second night of trying to sleep in a sauna the air conditioner was fixed and we heard the sweet sound of water running from taps.

When we arrived together on July 26th we had needed no advice regarding all our friends here in Molochansk–they are as friendly as ever, proud to show us how they have fared, and happy to share the produce from their garden plots. A big thank you to whoever brought the sweet corn seeds into this area–it appears that corn for human consumption is now being grown in several garden plots in Molochansk and we were given a handful of beautiful, sweet cobs shortly after we arrived.

When we left in the fall of 2008 the economic crisis had just hit many parts of the world. In Ukraine many industries and exports came to a sudden halt. Unfortunately Ukraine is still mired in the recession. You don’t see many new bikes–in fact the only bikes we have seen are the indestructible, plain-coloured, single-geared Soviet-era bikes. You don’t see as many scooters and if you do the drivers continue to ignore the recently-passed law on wearing helmets. You do see many more policemen standing at the side of the roads, looking for traffic violators. Apparently the fines for violations have skyrocketed, giving the government increased revenue with the hope of making the roads safer.

It’s hard to believe, but some of this area’s roads are worse than they were in 2008. Going to Tokmak is like watching car ballet in slow motion, as drivers carefully manoeuver figure-8's from one side of the road to the other in hopes of avoiding these gaping “minefields”. Apparently the contractors hired to repair this stretch of road fled with the advance they had received–at least the police could figure out the direction they were going–the road south would be too rough for a quick getaway! Someone has said they have been captured and are in jail; may their new digs have lumpy mattresses...

We spent several days this week interviewing candidates for our scholarship programme. Some want to be doctors, others teachers, and one–a missionary. It is exciting to hear these young people, some of whom we have known since they were young teens, speak of past volunteer work as student leaders in the school, youth camp leaders in summer, and their dreams for the future.

Ben and Linda Stobbe
August 1, 2010

Trees in the Willms park near our apartment Salad for Seniors Lunch

2008-11-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

Stairway to heaven (Starbucks), Vienna

Church singing group

A meeting of babushkas

Mennonite workbench

The conversion from Ukrainian to Canadian began for Ben on Tuesday, Oct. 28th. First he had to say goodbye to our North American apartment, which will soon be occupied by Dema and Oxana and their three children. Dema is the new Ukrainian Director of the Mennonite Centre.

Ben then had to say goodbye to Larissa Funk, our soul mate in Molochansk, who will soon be returning to Germany after seven years of modeling in Ukraine—her beauty lies not only in her appearance but in her style, her integrity, her love for the people and country of Ukraine, and (most important for us) her endless patience and joy in helping us adapt. For clarification, Larissa is a missionary from LOGOS Germany!

Then, off to the Centre where lots of the staff congregate to administer the “pledge” which they individually give when you hug them and they say, “come back soon, yes?” Lest we get too sentimental, Vitaly our driver shouts out, “Ben, les go!” In that moment, it’s too late to revisit the mental list of what you could have forgotten.

There is one final, very important task before you go through Zaparozhye—you have to make your last visit to Aval (a joint, Austrian-Ukrainian bank) to bring in all your gifts and sacrifices in American dollars. This is handed to Dema who ensures that it is taken to Molochansk and converted to Ukrainian grievnas. And no, this conversion is not required by Mennonite Brethren… If we took the funds in grievnas we would have to carry an extra suitcase. Without this step the Seniors wouldn’t get their medication or their lunches, children wouldn’t get better facilities or musical instruments, and staff wouldn’t be paid.

Ruth Derksen Siemens’ highly acclaimed book, Remember Us, documents how letters from Stalin’s Gulag made their way to a small Prairie town. Ben is also carrying letters back to the Canadian Prairies. However, these are not letters of desperation, they are letters from children in the Molochansk sanitorium written to the children of the Menno Simons Christian School in Calgary. These are stories of their lives, their hopes and dreams which may well be fulfilled because children in a small private school do bottle drives and have bake sales which are then converted into American dollars. And when North American Directors come back to Ukraine they take letters from Menno Simons children describing their lives, hopes, and dreams. Let the children lead us.

We are signing off for 2008.

Ben and Linda Stobbe.

Canadian cheques are payable to Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine or FOMCU, and American checks should be made out to MFC-FOMCU. Mail to:
Paul Siemens, Treasurer, FOMCU
5 Monarchwood Crescent
Toronto, ON, Canada, M3A 1H3.

2008-10-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

Meltdown, crisis, bubble burst, or collapse – are these the signs of a world going into a financial recession or even something more serious: like your 2 year-old or your teenager acting out? Here in Ukraine we don’t really see kids acting out but we do see the politicians acting out, and this is coupled with the signs of a dreaded financial meltdown.

The political and financial crises are feeding off each other. The President has tried to dissolve parliament and declare national elections for December 7, now postponed to December 14. The Prime Minister says we don’t need an election, we need to deal with the financial crisis and negotiate a 15 billion dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund. Apparently contingent on getting a loan will be a series of unpopular downsizing measures, and the Opposition Leader does not want to be seen supporting this. The people want bread, borscht and calorie-rich sour cream. No elections and no cuts. If having three parties in a marriage doesn’t work, can we expect anything better in politics?

But at least the Rada (Parliament) is entertaining. The Prime Minisister's people are most creative in preventing a vote to hold elections. They have literally blockaded the Presidium so that Parliament cannot convene. Now the Speaker’s office has accused this bloc of sabotaging the Rada electronic voting system by jamming small articles like tin foil, coins, and paper clips into the computer network's hardware. Apparently computer hard drives can only take a limit of 64 MB of paper clips.

The tragedy is that the people seem to be forgotten in the discussion. As politicians squeeze kopeks into hard drives, this is what is really happening:
--foreign investors are pulling their money out of Ukraine. Ukraine 's credit rating has dropped to B+.
--the price of steel is dropping. A major steel plant in Zaporozhye has gone to "1/2 shifts" because of reduced demand. Workers are being laid off.
--the price of metal is dropping. One of our staff has been selling metal, left over from his late uncle's property. He told Ben that in a little over two weeks the price dropped from 90 kopeks per kilogram to 70 kopeks per kilogram, and now it is down to 40 kopeks per kilogram.
--exports have recently fallen by 40%.
--the government has imposed a freeze on withdrawing money from savings accounts. A mother told Ben she can't take any money out of her savings account and she fears that when she will be allowed to, the money will be worthless. A repeat, many fear, of 1991. Someone else said he used to have an ATM withdrawal limit of 2000 UAH, now it is 200 UAH.
--people are trying to convert their grievnas into US dollars. This has impacted us because we are limited to a daily withdrawal of 50% of our previous withdrawals. We suspect there just aren't enough $$ to go around.
--last week Ben saw a queue of empty car-carrier trucks at least 3 kilometers in length, lined up along the car assembly plants in Zaparozhye. Because of higher interest rates and less credit, consumers are not buying cars.
--the price of gas has gone down somewhat, and is around 5.80 UAH/litre, $1.23 Canadian. Very much on par with what we pay in Canada—however, a reasonable wage is still around $200/month.
--a large part of Ukraine’s recent boom was fueled by foreign credit. Now in large cities high rise cranes have stopped working. Building construction has stalled.
--inflation, which currently is the highest in all of Europe, is predicted to go be over 25% for 2008. Inflation really hurts the fixed income pensioners. --The President has called for the laying off of every 5th bureaucrat. No doubt many will now be hesitant to line up and take a number for anything. Clearly, this global tsunami keeps sending shock waves around the world.

Ukrainians are an extremely resilient people. They have been through much worse. What they want is stability, predictability, and some reason to believe that members of the Rada are acting for the good of the country. It would sure help if they started behaving like Ukrainian children.

We know that many of us are also significantly affected by these events. Your contributions, big and small, are appreciated all the more.

Ben and Linda.

2008-10-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last week we wrote about Linda’s instructive time in the Ukrainian health care system. The care and service she received was very good. Two days after visiting the doctor she was in the air, flying to Vienna. She did not feel congested and had no trouble on her subsequent trip to Victoria. And while Ben is suffering from PLS (Post Linda Separation) he accepts that nothing outside of two weeks of medically induced coma will help. While he says he doesn’t suffer from boredom or malnutrition in the apartment he is getting out of Molochansk, joining Dema and his father in spending the weekend outside of Kiev. He is going to help our Ukrainian Director clean up and renovate a small house he inherited, located in a tiny village outside of the city. Dema says he will get to know the “rhythm of life,” Ukrainian style. Ben wonders if it is a nice way of saying “roughing it,” Ukrainian style.

This year we have done a great deal more traveling in Ukraine. Our primary trip was to join the Mennonite Heritage Cruise, sailing from Odessa to Sevastopol and then visiting former Mennonite Villages in the “Krim” (Crimea). Walter and Marina Unger graciously invited us aboard, and we even had the opportunity to sail up the Dnieper to Zaparozhye. It was a wonderful time to further develop our understanding of Mennonite history in this area.

And speaking of history… this week Ben had the opportunity to take a German Aussiedler to Udarnik (Neukirch) to visit the village where her great grandmother was born. Even though she grew up in Kazakhstan in a church-attending Mennonite home, her knowledge of the Mennonite story in southern Russia was virtually zilch! She always thought that the word Mennonite only referred to people of a certain language group - Low German. Now, in coming to Ukraine to lead a series of seminars for women in the Kutuzovka Church, she did a little research and soon found out that her family came from this area. She wanted to know more and so Ben drove her to Udarnik to see the place of her forefathers. At the school the Ukrainian history teacher told her the story of her people. Even a student joined in and talked of the Juschanlee River. She visited the museum and the monument and was astounded to realize that she was learning her own history from Ukrainians. Then Ben took her to visit Margarita Pankratz in Alexanderkrone. From Margarita she learned of the church life, the hospital, and life of a little girl in a Mennonite village.

As they drove back to Molochansk, the car was warmed by the low, fall sun. The spring-coloured green fields of winter wheat made a wonderful stage for the display of red bushes and yellow trees. Occasionally they would see a large, rust coloured combine grinding through sunflower fields, chased by blue Soviet-era trucks waiting to load up. Ben’s friend was quiet, needing to reflect on what was and what is. She never imagined that it was Ukrainians who could put together the pieces of her past.

Ukrainians, whose “rhythm of life” at times seems a downward crescendo of war, starvation and deportation, still have time to help us find who we once were.

Ben and Linda

We hope you will consider the “Friends of the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine” in your Christmas giving. Although there is a growing middle class in Ukraine, the gap between them and the poor seems to be growing too. Your gifts, small or large, are appreciated and put to careful use. They are tax receiptable in Canada and the United States. Direct them to:
Paul Siemens, Treasurer,
5 Monarchwood Crescent,
Toronto, Ontario M3A 1H3.

2008-10-10T07:44:00.001-07:00

Over the four terms we have been in Ukraine as North
American Directors we have been in remarkably good
health. This year we both picked up a cold just as we
were leaving the Dnieper Princess cruise ship.

Getting a cold was a small price to pay for a
wonderful tour of Crimea with old and new
acquaintances. We didn’t get sick on the Odessa-bound
train with its gagging washroom and we felt perfectly
healthy during the rough Black Sea crossing to
Sevastopol where one of the lecturers had to cut short
his question-and-answer period. But somehow, on this
river-boat which was scrupulously clean and where we
were fed wonderful, nutritious meals, we picked up
this cold.

Our staff in Molochansk quickly noticed the irony of
the situation—“you never get sick with Ukrainians but
as soon as you are with Canadians you fall ill. Why
would you ever go back to Canada? Didn’t we tell you
to wear heavier clothes in summer (the temperature was
in the high 30’s)? Next year, don’t have the fan
turned on in the summer.” The fan gets blamed for any
illnesses that could occur in the next 4 months!

When Linda didn’t show up for work on Thursday morning
all heaven broke loose! Vitally, our maintenance man
and driver, announced that he was getting the car to
take Linda to the hospital. He quickly phoned Dr.
Irina (whom we fortunately know) and declared that he
was bringing Linda in. Their concerns were somewhat
justified in that Linda would be flying home in two
days and did need to get some decongestants. One of
the German shepherds (missionaries) was seconded to
translate in the hospital. Ben went back to the
apartment and told Linda, who was planning a leisurely
breakfast, that the car was already at the door in
preparation for the trip to the neighbouring city of
Tokmak. The car ran smoothly while Linda coughed.

Now, Vitally is a fine, considerate man. But while
taking Linda down the hospital corridor he had reason
to tell the following joke: apparently a man was on a
stretcher being wheeled down the corridor and he
noticed that at the end of the corridor was the sign
Morgue. He said to his attendants, “I am not dead!
Why are you taking me to the morgue?” They gave the
comforting words, “We are not there yet!”

In previous blogs we have noted that Ukrainians are a
people who like to visit and chat. Many people seem
to enjoy visiting in the hospital corridors. While
the good doctor was looking down Linda’s throat
Vitally walked in unannounced, just to make sure
everything was being done properly. Another, unknown
doctor came in, also to observe the goings-on.
Fortunately this was only a nose/throat illness, not a
“woman’s health issue.” Dr. Irina, who didn’t miss a
beat, asked Linda when she had her tonsils removed.
Linda replied that she has never had them removed. “I
can’t find them,” said Irina. Fortunately she didn’t
spend a lot of time looking! Ben suspects that Linda
had coughed them up earlier…

A good assortment of medications was picked up at a
local Anteka (pharmacy). Linda got a puffer (which is
basically a medicated tire pump) to be applied to the
nostrils and the mouth. How the ears got missed we
haven’t figured out yet. She also has a 5-day supply
of pills as well as nose drops. She bought the most
expensive Kleenex box she could find—apparently this
is 120-grit, which is better than the normal 80-grit
and a great improvement on the 50-grit toilet paper.
Fortunately Linda is taking the cold back to Canada,
where it came from!

Linda’s style of coughing has also evoked considerable
interest. Why do cough into your elbow, not your
hand? No wonder she has to wash her sweater every
other day when she hacks into the sleeve.

Meanwhile, Ben’s cold is rapidly subsiding. He really
hasn’t had a cough and doesn’t need any puffer
gadgets. Every evening he takes a half-glass of
locally made “clear black wine,” coupled with Neo
Citran (called TeraFlu here) and falls asleep. Until
you can shoot wine from a puffer he will stick with
the tried and the true. By the way, Ben is looking
for his tonsils because Dr. Irina will want to see him
on Tuesday.

Ben and Linda

2008-09-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

You don't get into Ukrainian homes that often. Maybe it's because they are embarrassed about their poor living conditions, and the language barrier doesn't help. But the last two weeks we were invited into two different homes in two different locales.

One common thing between both places is that your esophagus feels overused, and your stomach feels overextended--in other words, you feel fat! Fat is not a physical condition--it is the feeling you get before have even started eating when you see the table straining to hold up. Mashed potatoes, ketletten (meatballs), varenicki, blinchiki (filled crepes), salads (at least three), salted or smoked fish, pickled tomatoes, pork cutlets, etc. This doesn't include dessert which is usually a bag of candy and fresh fruit. It is no advantage to be thin, because you are seen as being sickly, incapable of working hard, and therefore you can't leave until seen food for its medicinal value.

The next common thing between both places was the desire to show how they have survived and done well in difficult times. The first place was in a small village and the pensioned couple has lived off their garden, their few livestock, and their ingenuity. They feel they have done well. And they have, considering their circumstances. They have running water, but no indoor toilet, a makeshift coal-fired boiler, lots of throw rugs on the floor and rugs hanging on the walls.

The other couple are in their earning years, both making relatively good money in professional jobs and have taken advantage of buying goods on credit. They are very pleased that they have been able to quickly pay off their house and manage their debt load very well. They are going "abroad" this November (they are going to Prague for 4 days). This is their first trip to the outside.

The second couple illustrates the potential and promise of the new Ukraine. They are fortunate in that they both work and have supportive family nearby. They have recently renovated their home and it has a modern kitchen and bathroom that would be up to many Canadian standards. They have a summer (outdoor) kitchen/veranda area with a built-in wood-fired barbecue. They have a small computer and music room with high speed internet, and a sound system systam better than ours.

Our village friends illustrate the uncertainties facing pensioners--as long as they can have their livestock and garden they will do alright. But when they are too old to care for livestock and garden and face health issues they will have to rely on friends and neighbours, as their children have moved to the big cities and are hours away.

We are sending this from Zaparozhye where in a few hours we will board the train for Odessa. From Odessa we join the Heritage Cruise and sail to Sevastopol and Crimea. Walter and Marina Unger have generously given us the opportunity to visit with cruise passengers, telling them about our experiences, and seeing where they can best help in this work. So we probably won't be able to send a report next Sunday.

By the way, we hear of elections in Canada and the US--we will keep you in our prayers...

Ben and Linda

2008-09-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

The opening sentence of Lucy Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables describes Mrs. Rachel Lynde sitting at her window, “keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed.” In Corrections lingo Mrs. Lynde sat at the “Control Centre,” a name describing Purpose and Place where inmates can be observed in their goings-on. In many Ukrainian villages you also have these mini-observation stations, mostly beside the gate which gives you entrance into their yards. We are talking of the Ukrainian bench—a most functional, simple, wooden structure, serving as the place of observation and comment.

The bench appears to serve many purposes. When we come into a new village, our interpreter asks directions from someone sitting at the bench. Often we approach the old ladies (it appears that about 95% of benches are used by women) and ask if they remember anything about the German colonists who used to live in their village. They will point to another house with another bench. The bench is where stories are exchanged, gossip provided, issues clarified, advice given, and no doubt tears shed.

It appears that the larger the village, the fewer the benches. Molochansk has very few benches compared to Dolina or Grushevka. Maybe the two sets of benches we have at the Mennonite Centre take the place of others. On Seniors Luncheon days the benches are often occupied from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. On other days of the week, sometimes solitary people come and just sit and reflect. Often when we leave in the evening when it is already dusk, the benches are still being used. At least our benches at the Mennonite Centre have backs—many don’t. Most appear to have served for generations. Stories of war, death, new life, promises, tragedies, are told and retold. They are primarily occupied by older people who don’t get out too far but who want to see what’s going on. We have noticed one old lady on our street who stands by the hour, leaning on her fence, watching people. She needs to watch.

The seniors in the Seniors House which has been operated by the Kutuzovka Church for two years are relocating to the back rooms of the Church. One of the complaints of the seniors regarding this move is that they will be taken away from their busy street and placed in a quiet, private area where they can’t observe people—they want to see who is coming and going. One of the proposed solutions is to have children playing upstairs in the Sunday School rooms just so the seniors can hear activity.

The most interesting request we got this week was from a Ukrainian builder who plans to restore a former Mennonite home at the boundary between Halbstadt and Muntau. He wanted pictures of the interior of Mennonite homes so that he could restore it accurately. He said he has always been fascinated by the homes of the “German colonists” and he got quite excited when we spoke of the plans to translate Rudy Friesen’s “Building on the Past” into Ukrainian. This is the third place that we know of in Molotchna, where Ukrainians are actively saving or restoring a Mennonite building. We feel there is growing interest in this area and even though they want to have authentic Mennonite buildings they will probably still make provision for a bench near the front gate.

This morning Pastor Jakob Thiessen spoke of the gift of thankfulness. For the first time we heard him make a reference to English, where he said the difference between “think” and “thank” is one letter—if you truly think, you will be thankful. Friends, we think of you often and are thankful.

We will post some pictures of benches on our blogsite at lindaandben.blogspot.com.

Ben and Linda

P.S. We broke new ground this week—Linda taught her first piano lesson to students in Victoria via Skype. You can run from your piano teacher but you will always be heard!

2008-09-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

This week we had some unexpected hotel-seeking guests who showed up at the Mennonite Centre fairly late on Wednesday evening. Christian Aid is a humanitarian aid organization which has its roots in conservative Mennonite churches, primarily in Pennsylvania. They started their aid work in Rumania when it was still part of the Soviet Union and have been working in a village south of Kiev for many years. Three of their workers from Kiev and two Mission officials from the United States dropped in to visit, having been told about the Mennonite Centre. Fortunately, for them and for Linda, they found room at the Inn in Tokmak, otherwise our little apartment would have resembled a Kiev subway car.

We had a delightful visit that evening, and Ben gave them a tour of Molochanks and its Mennonite past the following morning. They were intrigued that we would work with people outside the evangelical church, as they limit their work to people of the "household of faith." Three of our brothers sported beards and our Ukrainian staff immediately concluded that they had seen their first real-live Amish people--after all, they believe themselves to be authorities on such matters after having watched the movie "Witness." Ben took them to the former Willms flour mill which is now in receivership, and after they took many pictures of the building he noticed a crowd of former workers standing around, no doubt wondering if the "Amish" were going to buy out the mill.

It certainly isn't hard to understand why Christian groups in the former Soviet Union countries want to work within their own communities. After all, churches during the communist years certainly feared infiltration by Soviet authorities and therefore developed a sense of mistrust and suspicion of anyone new and, to some extent, even each other. That may be why even now Baptists prefer working with Baptists, Pentecostals with Pentecostals, and Orthodox with Orthodox. Long before Soviet times Mennonites preferred working and dealing with people of "their own kind." Now, when the Mennonite Centre has made it clear that we want to work with all groups regardless of their backgrounds, some in North America and others in Ukraine have raised their eyebrows and given us quizzical looks. Giving money to village mayors, hospital administrators, and school directors does involved an element of trust--sadly trust is lacking in this society. As an example, just going from our apartment, getting our car out of the garage, and going into our office requires seven different keys. Everyone seems to have double locks and yapping guard dogs. Even our staff quickly differentiate who is Ukrainian, Russian, and Jewish.

Therefore, when a group of people from a small former Mennonite village, Udarnik, phoned us and asked us to visit them, it came as a bit of a surprise. They enticed us by stating they had a Mennonite church building they wanted to save from demolition. We were contacted, not by any church or missions group in Udarnik —we were approached by educators schooled under the Soviet system who simply wanted to know more about their village history. And now this little group of villagers has made a monument honoring their Mennonite past. This week they proudly showed us pictures of their dedication service for the monument. There, among the local and regional dignitaries, stood the local Orthodox priest, extending his hand of blessing over a granite stone that reads in Russian, Ukrainian, and English: “To the inhabitants of the villages of Alexanderkrone, Friedensruh, Kleefeld, Lichtfelde, Prangenau, Neukirch, Steinfeld, who fell in the wars, holodomor, repression and deportation.”

And then John Wiens, a Mennonite missionary in Zaparozhye, tells us how excited he is to be working with an Orthodox believer who will soon begin working as translator for his sermons. It seems that the “household of faith” may be much bigger here than we ever imagined, and only by extending trust do we start to appreciate its increasing scope.

And thanks for extending trust to us with your donations and other forms of support.

Ben and Linda

2008-09-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

While driving down the road to Liebenau, guided by our trusty (borrowed) Garmin Nuvi GPS, and Linda kept wondering “why do they do so much burning around here?” Often trees are burnt by the numerous grass fires on the road sides. That coupled with the blue vapour trails left by so many older trucks, suggests that Ukraine has a long way to go improve its environmental record.

However, lest we think too smugly of our environmental work in North America, we have found that there are things we can learn from Ukrainians. A lot of what we encourage Canadians to do in terms of good environmental practice is already being done here.

In Ukraine we tend to follow the one-hundred-meter diet, buying most of our vegetables from the lady across the street. We don’t buy a great deal of fruit, as it is given to us from the gardens of staff and friends of the Centre. We suspect that most of our Sunday lunch-time dried fish comes from the nearby Sea of Azov. The meat we buy at the market often comes from local sources. We do have a good German-made washing machine but we use the Ukrainian sun as our dryer. While we do put on quite a few miles visiting nearby communities, any traveling done in Molochansk is on foot. Every year there are more cars on the roads but still the vast majority of Ukrainians in this village use their bicycles. Yesterday we spotted a Ukrainian woman who, by North American standards, would have surely qualified for Seniors’ passes, possibly a disability pension, walk up her driveway using her bike as support. She got on the road, stopped, and Ben said to Linda, “watch this, she is going to get onto that old Soviet-era bicycle—it may be the first she ever owned.” Indeed, with little effort and amazing style and agility, she was up on that bike and pedaled as she had likely been doing all her life. No waste of energy, no problem balancing. Take those two wheels away from her and she would soon have to use four. Later we saw a young girl barely into her school years, slowly pedaling past a young friend who was walking—the next thing we knew her friend took one or two nimble steps and sat herself down, sidesaddle, on the back of the bike. The cyclist never broke stride. Easier than mounting a cable car in San Fran.

However it’s too bad this 8-year-old cyclist won’t cycle as long as the babushka; the locals are catching our bad habits too quickly. Already these strong, sturdy, hole-defying Soviet-era bikes seem to be in the minority as every youngster lusts after the chrome, multi-geared, plastic-laced hot rods named Phantom, Fort, Sport, or Hercules. And the streets whine with the numerous scooters that can carry more than any Smart car. And every year we see more big bikes, even a few choppers with the “Hardly” Davison look.

This week a senior Ministry of Education official from Melitopol reminded us that so many of the trees growing in the Molotchna area can trace their roots back to Johann Cornies. In fact, he proposed that there should be a joint event celebrating the forested parks started in this area by Cornies and continued by young Mennonite men. We will be visiting him shortly.

We have also noticed that the industrial pollution in Molochansk appears to have decreased significantly. Unfortunately this good result came at a cost—the local milk plant, which produced beautiful white milk, also produced incredibly black smoke. Now it produces neither, as it went into receivership 6 weeks ago and took 200 already-scarce jobs from this community.

We keep hearing of tragic cases where people have bought appliances on credit and now find themselves in circumstances where they cannot pay. The interest rate is often well over 20% (sometimes over 30%). The debt keeps growing and now exceeds the value of the appliance. The stores aren’t interested in repossessing. People who should be collecting a pension are now finding themselves seeking work in Russia to pay off this growing monster.

For those of you who expected this email on Sunday, sorry. We were ready to go, however the internet wasn’t.

2008-08-31T05:05:00.000-07:00

Almost a year ago to this day we were having one of our more frustrating times in Ukraine. Our son Joel and his wife Tracy had found their way over to Molochansk after crossing through Eastern Europe, and now they needed to get to Kiev. The trains were full, you couldn't even get First Class tickets, and so we tried the airlines. Now, it is easier for foreigners to fly out of Ukraine than to fly within Ukraine. The problem is getting tickets. We couldn't buy tickets at the airport (!) and so we were left drive around Melitopol looking for travel agents. One travel agent had one ticket but said maybe other travel agents would have more. And sure enough, at the Intourist Hotel in Melitopol we finally found two tickets from Zaparozhye to Kiev. At this point we were quite frustrated with the entire process, trying to do a simple thing like buy an airline ticket. And no, electronic tickets were not available. Ben was walking the sidewalks in Melitopol with Slava, muttering about the inefficiencies of the travel system, when suddenly a young man said in perfect English, "excuse me, do you need help?" He seemed very friendly; when Slava introduced us, this young man said that he had applied for the job of Ukrainian Director at the Mennonite Centre but that Slava had already been hired. This was Ben's first meeting with Dema Bratchenko, the man who is our current Ukrainian Director. When Slava left to pursue his interest in law we remembered that fortuitous meeting in 2007 in Melitopol. This reminded us that we are not alone in this work!

Dema and his family got introduced to the staff when we rented two "marshrutkas" (buses) and went off to the Sea of Azov. There was lots of sun and skin, and not enough lotion. We found a few shrubs where we could get shade and conquer our jetlag. It was a great bonding time with our staff and their families.

Up until yesterday the weather here has been hot and dry. Then we had a wonderful downpour accompanied with a good sound and light show. Fortunately we were in Tokmak at the market. Linda, convinced that it would never cool down, wore shorts and sandals. We were merrily buying produce when all of a sudden it got dark and it started to rain. The Tokmak market is basically a bunch of makeshift shacks covered with corrugated plastic roofing. All of a sudden the crowded alleys were emptied as everyone got under plastic of various sorts when heaven's hydrant opened. Tokmakians have been through this before. No fuss--they knew where all the high spots were and soon water was running down the alleys like the Chilliwack River. People just enjoyed the change in temperature and the freshness of the air. All those flimsy roofs and plastic coverings were built exactly for this. Every so often there would be so much water collected that the plastic would sag, the water overflowing like a spillway over a dam. At that moment we didn't know where all that water could go. We found out an hour later when we could finally get out of Tokmak, and came to the major intersection which must be the lowest point in town. We took our new Lanos slowly through God's carwash and were happy to get on the main road again.

The big event this weekend is "First Bell" at school, which is the opening of the school year. At the Kutuzovka Church the entire service was devoted to the children. Kids came to the front and led in singing and even presented recitations. Pastor Jakob had special prayers for the primary grade students, the intermediate grade students, the secondary grade students, the university students, and the parents of the students. Children and youth in were given a bag full of school supplies for which they seemed very appreciative. Babushkas collected extra bags for their grandchildren who weren't at church.

Tomorrow we are going to the First Bell celebrations at Dolina (Schoenau) where three years ago they had no daycare/Kindergarten in the community and now, thanks to Lorne and Hilda Epp and the Tiefengrund Mennonite Church, they have an enrollment of 15. The government's program of giving major financial support for the birth of each child, and the parents doing their part, seems to be working...

Ben and Linda

2008-08-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

We have stage-coached our way back to Molochansk. On past returns we would have our last sleep in Victoria and the next sleep in our apartment in Molochansk. This year we stayed over in Vienna and also had a sleep-over in Zaporozhye. We did a hand-over in Vienna, meeting with George and Marion Hamm, a hard-working, adventuresome couple from 100 Mile House who were the North American Directors in Molochansk from May to August. They suffered from the same post-Molochansk issues we regularly face—how to walk on level sidewalks and order food in a restaurant where people generally understand you.

We then took our next stage by flying into Dnepropetrovsk where we were welcomed by the generous and optimistic John and Evelyn Wiens. The Wiens’ have little concept of time—after basically retiring from successful ministry in Canada they decide to restart their lives and work as Christian missionaries in Zaporozhye. Little did they realize how the sin of the Tower of Babel would affect their lives as they take on the challenge of learning a very difficult language—Russian. The Wiens’ do not do things in halves, they want to know Russian well enough to be able to establish deep, genuine friendships with their neighbours and their community. Before going to his language lesson, John did mutter about “teaching an old dog new tricks.” It is not easy getting into the Wiens’ beautifully renovated, well-furnished apartment—not only do you have to huff your way up 5 floors (these are high-ceiling apartments), but the Wiens’ seem to have found friends on every floor and visit their neighbours all the way up. Ben resolved that this was the last year we were going to take music books from Victoria as he lugged a heavy suitcase up the 5 floors. These are old Soviet style apartments, built during the time of Jacob’s ladder--no elevators here!

Eventually we met Vitally proudly showing off our new Mennonite Centre car, a Lanos. This is a global car—parts made in Korea, assembled in Poland, and sold in Ukraine. Hope we don’t have to find out who takes care of any warranty issues! It’s interesting to note how the building of this car didn’t include any North American plants, a sad reality.

The road back from Zaporozhye was peppered with police. Every few kilometers there seemed to be another radar trap. And it’s about time. We have been told that in the oblast (province) of Zaporozhye there is an average of 17 car and pedestrian fatalities per day (we can’t confirm this).

Finally we arrived in Molochansk to hot weather and a warm reception. Lots of hugs and kisses.

It didn’t take long to face the realities of living here. Staff brought to our attention the case of a young mother of two small children who is in the final stages of cancer. The family needs money just to help pay back debts from past surgeries and medicines. In addition, a student from the local Russian school asked for funds to help pay tuition costs so he could attend the Berdyansk Pedagogical Institute. His father, a teacher at the Prischieb orphanage, died 2 years ago apparently from a heart attack while trying to fall a tree. He left 3 children and a young wife, and almost nothing to live off. With your generous help we were able to give partial funding to both requests.

We met our new interim Ukrainian Director, Dema Bratschenko. He seemed far too organized and confident a young man, given the fact that he has only been working here for 4 days. The amazing story of how we first met him will be part of our next blog.

Ben and Linda

2008-02-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Students entertaining tourists visiting school in Dolina
School Principal Marina Romanovna
Rhapsody singers from Tokmak
Jacob Thiessen pastor of the Kutuzovka
Mennonite Church

2007-10-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

It has been 65 years since the Great Patriotic War ended, but sometimes you would think it ended last year. There are fewer and fewer veterans at the parades, but cities still celebrate Liberation Day; the local TV seems to have a WWII movie every night. This week I got a very graphic reminder how real the war still is.

About 7 kilometres outside of Molochansk on Colonitza Hill (on the "Lutheran side" of the Molotschna River) sits a new Ukrainian war monument. Unlike Soviet-era monuments which tower like fir trees among junipers, this one is built into the hill, unimposing and reflective. It honours Ukrainians and Russians who fought for liberation and makes special mention of women who fought. In fact, one of the reflective sculptures is a broken rose. The view of the former Mennonite colonies along the Molotschna is dramatic. Here, looking down on Halbstadt, Muntau, Tiegenhagen, Schoenau, Fischau, Lindenau, and Lichtenau, some of the fiercest battles of the war were fought as the Soviet troops struggled to regain Colonitza Hill. Shell fire rained on Mennonite schools, flour mills, hospitals and houses.

And on this hill someone recently dug up the bones of three Soviet soldiers who, like so many, never had a proper burial. From his watch and cigarette lighter they identified one of the soldiers, and then discovered that his son still lives in the area. And so, last Monday we gathered on the hill along with school children, military brass, soldiers, veterans, politicians and a son to bury two unknown soldiers and one father. It was a simple service, with a few short speeches, a prayer and song by the Orthodox priest, and some war songs on a PA system. Then soldiers smartly moved up, lifted a coffin covered with a red cloth, and lowered it into the ground. It was very moving to see the son, now himself a Senior, throw reddish brown dirt onto the coffin carrying the remains of a young man – his father.

What was this Mennonite doing at a WWII burial service? I confess I arrived somewhat by accident. One of the schools we support had brought a busload of high school kids to the service and first stopped in to visit the Mennonite Centre. The bus driver didn’t know the way to the memorial site and so Slava and I escorted the bus. Only when we arrived and saw the crowd did we realize something significant was going on.

The interesting thing is that the Mennonite Centre did have a role to play in this drama. Band music was provided by the Molochansk music school and we have, through the good efforts of Rudy and Hildegarde Baerg, given trumpets and a French horn to the school. Could anyone have predicted that a discarded MEI trumpet would be playing at the funeral of WWII Soviet soldiers? And had anyone been so foolish as to make such a prophecy, would anyone have believed it?

And while I was standing on the brick surface with my back to the biting wind, a young high school girl standing right next to me suddenly fainted and fell backwards on the brick surface with a scary thud. She was immediately carried to the nearby ambulance, which of course had been provided through the Mennonite Centre by generous North American donors.

The most decorated soldier was not a Soviet veteran—he was a veteran of the rogue Ukrainian National Defence army who fought for the liberation of Ukraine against Soviet and German forces. When we spotted each other he marched proudly to me, gave me a bear hug and fighting tears said, "spasiba" –"thank you." You see, he is now staying in our respite centre at the Molchansk (Muntau) hospital. Like those who served in the WWI Medical Corps we may be in the background, but we are there and will continue to offer aid to young and old.

This is our last weekly report, as I am joining Linda at home in Canada on Tuesday. Look for photos later in the week, as we would like to publish some of our favourites on our blogsite – http://www.lindaandben.blogspot.com/

Thanking you for your prayers and support,
Ben and Linda Stobbe

2007-10-21T04:54:00.000-07:00

Weekly report October 21

In a little over a week I will be putting my faith into the pilots and planes of Air Austria, first overnighting in Vienna and then home. I am looking forward to speaking good English with someone other than myself. Yesterday I went to a photo shop to get a few pictures printed. I realized again how limited my Russian is and how dense I must appear when trying to say something. Fortunately with the few German people here I can converse reasonably well and that is a real social help (when my parents insisted on my attending German School classes despite my reluctance, they did me a much larger favour than I, or they, could ever have imagined).

The highlight of the week was going back to one of my favourite villages – Udarnik, formerly Neukirch. Udarnik is a small, end of the road, village on the edge of the Juschanlee stream that has two things going for it – a school leadership team which is committed to studying their Mennonite history, and a former Mennonite church that has essentially kept its exterior look. However, the village has a major drawback - no water.

The Director of the school has a vision for the rebuilding of his community. He is a Deputy and represents the community in the Oblast as a member of the Our Ukraine (Orange) party. He says he is assured of getting 2 million grievna ($400,000 Cdn or $398,000 US) to bring water to his community. He personally bought the Church to prevent it being destroyed for the paltry sum the bricks would bring in, and is spearheading a project to build a monument in a school garden to recognize the suffering of Mennonites during the Holodomor (the Soviet-imposed famine of 1932/33). We discussed the design of the monument; they are leaning towards a design with a broken sheaf of wheat with a hand grabbing it. He wants our support to give 1000 grievna ($200 US) for the monument and another 200 grievna for a high school class field trip to view another Ukrainian monument.

Upon leaving the village we told the school Director that we were off to Balkovo – formerly known as Fuerstenwerder. He showed us where to take a shortcut on a country lane. We took the well grooved, one lane dirt road that “pryammad on” (straight ahead) for 7 kilometers. On our left were tall, sentinel-like trees, on our right a quilt of bright green winter wheat, broken up by freshly ploughed brown fields with a tractor which appeared as a annoyance on the horizon. In fact, one speculated whether you couldn’t see the curvature of the earth. I was reminded that this was the land our grandparents could not forget, a land that produced so much and yet brought starvation for millions. And then we came upon the village of Rueckenau nestled in the valley, with only the tile and concrete roofs showing amongst all the trees. That is the scene I am sure many would have observed over 100 years ago when they came via horse and buggy on a similar path to the Saengerfests at the Rueckenau Church. I asked Slava, our Ukrainian Director, to stop as I got out to imagine the sounds of the choirs rehearsing. An inspiring thought.

This is a complicated land, at times so close to heaven - and then reminders of too much hell.

Ben.

2007-10-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Weekly Report October 14, 2007

Ukrainians may have embraced electronic communications devices such as cell phones and computers, but when it comes to doing business they seem to prefer doing things in person. They suggest that unless you deal directly with someone you don’t get results. My recent experience is that dealing directly with a person is no guarantee of getting results. This can best be illustrated with the saga of our hooking up to natural gas.

Science tells us that it takes eons of time to compress vegetation and other fossilized products into gas or oil. It appears to take an equal amount of time to get approval for hooking up the natural gas to our boilers at the Mennonite Centre. We have gas lines running on our property, we have lines running into the Centre, and we have lines connected to heat registers. What we don’t have is signatures and stamps. Since August we have done the following to get an inspection and approval to turn on the gas: made application to the gas authorities in Tokmak, brought the chief inspector from Tokmak here for approval, filed our gas reporting forms with another office in Tokmak, submitted a request for inspection from the authorities in Zaparozyhe only to be told later they gave us the wrong form, returned to Zaparozhye to fill out the correct form, offered to drive the Chief Inspector from Zaparozhye to Molochansk to do the inspection, returned to Zaparozhye to ask why the delay only to find out they lost our application and we must submit again. Each trip to Zaparozhye takes close to 2 hours one way. Vitaly, our maintenance man is known for getting things done, but yesterday after coming out of the gas office he seemed a beaten man. I took him to a place where all good men go to renew themselves – a shop filled with cuddly Bosch tools! After getting a small screwdriver set he was ready to resume the fight.

And so we have had to order a bit of coal just to ensure we can start heating the building. I have spoken to Victor Penner, the legendary bureaucratic ferret who knows how to work the system. He says, “Ben, remember you are in Ukraine,” (as though I forgot!). Apparently the authority for granting approvals has been given to a private company and there is a backlog of requests...

Actually, the rate of change here is quite amazing. If some of these approval-granting people ever became service oriented it would be scary, probably dangerous. Fortunately we have had a warm fall. Older people spend the late afternoons sitting on rough, backless benches, taking in the sun and visiting. At times I feel quite warm here but not necessarily from the sun.

I am also at a vulnerable time in my stay here. I delight in handing out the gifts we have received from the Heritage Cruise passengers; in my zest to give out stuff I will sometimes go off without Slava, our Ukrainian Director and translator. That was the situation when I boldly went out to the Molochansk Music School to take pictures of the band director with the new french horn. Rudy and Hildegarde Baerg got enough support from friends in Abbotsford to buy the instrument which was then brought over by people on the Heritage Cruise. Now the band instructor, like so many of his kind, is an enthusiastic man, given to much talk and waving of hands. I tried to explain to him that I knew very little Russian, he responded by talking louder. Every so often he said a word I recognized like “doma” which means “home.” I immediately said “da,” which means “yes,” or “I agree.” I think I agreed to having students take these instruments home to practice, but on second thought I may have agreed to a) teaching students at home, b) selling the instruments to buy a better home, or c) selling our homes in Canada to buy more instruments!

Keep me in your prayers. Linda is not here to give words of wisdom. By the way if you want to see pictures look up our blogsite at http://www.lindaandben.blogspot.com/ and visit our website at http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/.

And finally we also appreciate financial support for all the activities we undertake. Donations are tax receiptable in Canada and the U.S.
Canadian cheques are payable to "Mennonite Centre Ukraine" or "FOMCU", Checks from American donors should be made out to "MFC-FOMCU", and all should be mailed to the address below (making sure you have appropriate postage)
Paul Siemens, Treasurer, 5 Monarchwood Crescent, Toronto, ON, Canada, M3A 1H3

Ben

2007-10-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

Weekly Report, Oct. 7

Most Mennonites coming to visit the Molotschna area use the services of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise. They get the opportunity to sail on the Dnieper River and visit the specific villages of their ancestors. For many it has been an opportunity to see the roads, fields, rivers, schools, and homes of their parents/grandparents. It brought reality to the many stories they heard in the kitchens and living rooms.

This year participants on the cruise were given the opportunity to not only go to their villages but to see the programmes supported by the Mennonite Centre Molochansk (MCM). Three buses full of North Americans came to the villages of Lichtenau (Svyetlodolinskoye), Schoenau (Dolina), Ohrloff (Orlova), Halbstadt (Molochansk), Prieschib (a neighbouring Lutheran village), Petershagen (Kutuzovka), and Rueckenau (Balkovo). But they didn’t just drive through the villages and see the remaining Mennonite houses. Students in Svyetlodolinskoye and Dolina put on school concerts, children in the Sanitorium school in Molochansk demonstrated their crafts, and the orphanage in Prieschib took many by the hand and showed them their crafts rooms, gymnasium, and put on a concert. Gymnasts who receive some travel funds from MCM put on a wonderful display of acrobatics in the sports school (formerly the Credit Union building), and the Rhapsody Choir, an award-winning choir from the Orthodox Church sang spiritual, folk and Christmas songs in the “Zentralschule.” In fact, not since the increase in the savings account funds in the Halbstadt Credit Union at the beginning of the last century, did you see so many cartwheels and flips! At the end of the day Pastor Jakob Thiessen explained the programmes at the Kutuzovka Mennonite Church,. We also had two farmers proudly displayed the equipment they purchased with loans from MCM. One group even had the benefit of having the wife of the farmer demonstrate her accordion skills! It couldn’t get any better.

This was far more than visiting the past—this was a tour which also showed the future. And the children and adults of these former Mennonite villages were proud to lead us into the future. The future is much brighter in these villages since Mennonites have shown an interest to come back.

This was our 1st experience at trying to coordinate and shepherd a tour. We had the benefit of the good services of Intourist to provide translation services. We also gained a fresh appreciation of their skill in trying to deal with enthusiastic North Americans who want to talk to every child, visit every class and take lots of pictures. And who can blame them, for the kids were in performance mode, sometimes decked out in costume. At times we realized that when the interests of the kids and the enthusiasm tourists intersected, we were no match, and had to go with the flow.

Ben and Linda

PS The North Americans have gone downstream and Linda soared out of here this afternoon. It’s a bit quieter now but maybe this week I will slip out to one of the orphanages, give them a thank you letter, and let the kids re-charge me. Ben

2007-09-30T04:31:00.000-07:00

There are several advantages to staying here for an extended period of time. One of them is that you have to go to a local hairdresser to remain respectable, and the other is that you meet acquaintances from other villages which you established over the years.

Yesterday Linda went to a hairdresser in Tokmak, a neighbouring town. She had done the sensible preparatory work by admiring the haircut of a doctor friend, and asked her where she got her hair cut. Quickly an appointment was set up with Tanya who works in a “salon” above what we understood to be a restaurant. In speaking to a woman who knows some English on where that restaurant could be located we almost had a reservation for a meal and not a haircut. But we enlisted the help of Lilly, a German missionary, and found the place.

On a previous occasion Linda had given clear instructions to the barber to cut only half an inch off Ben’s hair. The barber had nodded and Linda gasped when the first cut revealed that only half an inch would remain on Ben’s head! So this time she was somewhat wary and asked Lilly to make her instructions very clear. She did; Linda was pleased with the snippets that dropped on the floor. Then she wondered what was happening when a plastic sheet was draped over her shoulders after the haircut. Fortunately Lilly was watching and with a few “nyet’s” stopped the woman from applying hair dye! We were afraid to ask what colour it could have been. The hairdresser just assumed that Linda would want to get rid of her grey and replace it with possibilities such as rinse-blue, Halloween-orange, or the common wine-burgundy.

We love going to the Tokmak market on Saturday mornings. Usually we run into some friend, either at the fish market or when walking the alleys checking out the caged ducks perched on the front of a bicycle or watching the street vendors sell their books, knives, etc. We even found a small clothing shop which specializes in selling out-of-season clothes from Germany, and Ben bought two nice sweaters for the equivalent of $10 each.

Money seems be common when you are in the market area. You can get your pictures printed, visit a florist shop, buy Suzuki motorcycles, have outdoor coffee, buy live hens or turkeys, buy any fruit or vegetable in season, buy fresh fish of all shapes and sizes, remodel your kitchen with new cupboards and countertops, buy all the computer gadgets you need, get your watch battery replaced, buy bread, go to a modern grocery store, etc., etc. In the cities and towns the country is overflowing with consumer goods.

The problem, however, is that there are whole groups of people who aren’t making enough money to buy, so they are taking out loans at high interest rates, trying to keep up with their neighbours. It’s both a blessing and a curse. A blessing to see so many choices available, however the curse of enslaving materialism and accompanying debt is just starting. This week we noticed that, while some people are buying trendy items, others can’t pay for surgery, medication, or even school supplies.

Today is parliamentary election day. For centuries Ukrainians didn’t have the opportunity to vote, and now they are facing their 3rd election in 4 years. They seem to be weary of having too much of a good thing. Apparently there is a law not allowing polls to be taken or published in the weeks before an election, so there appears to be an element of some uncertainty regarding the outcome. We attended two rallies in Tokmak – one featuring the current Prime Minister Yanakovich and the other with opposition leader Julia Timaschenko. We thought that the opposition leader drew the larger crowd even in this area which in the past has been more supportive of the Russian-oriented Yanakovich. In spite of the political in-fighting, the economic situation of many people appears to be improving. In the Mennonite church this morning Jakob Thiessen encouraged people to vote and also to accept whoever God allows to lead this country.

We suspect that when our Mennonite leaders built the “Zentralschule” in downtown Halbstadt, they had not envisioned this being the Molochansk voting location for parliamentary democratic elections in an independent Ukraine, and furthermore, held on a Sunday!

Ben and Linda.

2007-09-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you go from famine to feast out here in Molochansk. But not in our eating, as we seem to be growing from borscht to blinyi (wafer thin pancakes) to varenika. However in going from things like no internet to Skype, and this week from no doctors we could relate to, to Drs. Art and Marlyce Friesen and Dr. Ed Wiens, we moved to an abundance of good health care. Having doctors converge around the breakfast table savoring “Benbucks” coffee is a little like having a traveling evangelist move in for a week of spiritual medicine. You know it is ultimately good for you but the stories they tell can be a bit scary! Fortunately these gracious doctors were wonderful company, well-skilled in the medicine of laughter.

It was from a meeting with these doctors that we heard the words that we have been waiting for, for three years. We were having dinner with local mayors and doctors who administer our Medical Emergency Fund. We were talking about how we can get more money so we can increase their monthly medical allowance. One of the hospital administrators said, “we don’t want to always rely on North American donors—we want to find a way to partially fund our own emergency medical needs.” Others agreed, and a discussion followed on how they thought they could help earn their own way. As Ukraine continues to develop and mature, this is the message we need to hear. It was a defining moment for all of North Americans. As Dr. Art said later that evening around our dining room table, none of us will likely be here in 15 years, but they will.

And that got us to thinking—where else can we see evidence of Ukrainians taking the initiative? More places than we initially thought:

We saw it at the Udarnik School (formerly Neukirch), where the principal showed us the Mennonite artifacts they are putting in their new school museum—items ranging from a Mennonite waffle iron to spinning wheels to a wonderfully built cradle. They were as excited about these as they were about their new computers. We saw it in their plans to put up a monument to those in the surrounding villages who were taken away under Stalin’s reign of terror.

We saw the initiative of Zoya, who takes time off from her job to work with the Canadian and Ukrainian doctors from the Christian Medical Association, as well as organizing community medical clinics and dispensing medications. For ten years she has never missed holding a monthly community clinic somewhere in Ukraine.

We saw it in the classy translator, Olga, who is both competent and caring. Olga, who once played for a professional volleyball team, seems at ease comforting little old ladies in church with her guitar and later singing delightful Ukrainian love songs at our dining room table. She seems so modest and only after some pressing did she reveal that she has a teenaged son whose 6’10” high-jumping achievement is ranked 3rd in Ukraine for his age group. She moves effortlessly between Ukrainian, Russian, and English.

We saw the initiative of Marina, the school principal at Dolina (formerly Schoenau), who has started a day-care/kindergarten programme at her school, relying initially only on the funding from Lorne and Hilda Epp’s church in Saskatchewan, and then shaming the community to start kicking in funds in January/08. She found old beds from the soviet system, cleaned them up, and 16 years later they are back in use.

At the end of the week we joined MEDA, the Mennonite Economic Development Association, in meeting with 4 businessmen/farmers who have established greenhouses to grow seedlings and citrus fruits right here in Molochansk. They have the business, their customers need credit, and MEDA has been approached to assist. Their grapes and grapefruit-sized lemons were amazing.

Finally, we saw the merging of the needs of the Molochansk Hospital with the interests of the Wiens family. You see, the Molochansk hospital desperately needed to improve the bathing facilities for their patients, and the Wiens family wanted to make a donation to honour their mother. It was a win-win situation. They take the initiative, we make the investment.

Ben and Linda

2007-09-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

The September 30th Rada elections are becoming more visible. If any village has a bit of good fortune, street lights go on, or water supply isn’t interrupted, people say “oh, there is an election soon.”

We were reminded of that early this week when we were coming back from Melitopol and the road crews were busy putting cow-pies of tar in the holes, then peppering the top with “pea” gravel and pressing it down for good measure. They were followed by a blue Ford tractor with a mower cutting the grass--and debris--along the shoulders. Later in the evening when we went to Tokmak we noticed groups of people hanging blue ribbons on overhanging branches. Driving back in the dark we had to scoot around the unlit, unmarked, blue tractor now mowing in the dark.

Why all the attention? We heard that on the following morning the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych was driving from Melitopol, through Molochansk, and then on to Tokmak to give a speech. Because we had to go to Tokmak anyway we took the opportunity to join in a political rally.

Now, a political rally is somewhat akin to a Sunday morning church service. The same hard of hearing sound person operates the sound system for both groups; some people dress up, others don’t; children quickly find other interests, and we are all waiting for the coming messiah. This earthly one eventually showed up, accompanied by a few well prepped disciples in front of the stage. The speech was delivered and the applause was polite. Now, when Ben was a youth and sitting with the young boys in the South Abbotsford MB Church, long-armed elders would sit behind and remotely control their behaviour through glares, stares and pokes. Here the elders were replaced by bodyguards and police. Not many, but effective. Promises were given, doomsday scenarios presented and off we went.

The people appear election weary. When asked about the election, they shrug their shoulders, and say something like, “let them be, it makes no difference.” They ask, “who will pay for my surgery or my coal?”

On a national scale the political fighting often described as being pro-Russian or pro-Western, hasn’t impaired economic growth which currently is around 7%. The consumer goods are readily available in cities—new stores are springing up everywhere and traffic jams are all too common. However, there is a different story in the villages. Some former Mennonite villages still do not have running water and many only have outdoor toilets. And don’t think you’ll want to go in there to sit and peruse your Reader’s Digest.

Politicians will come and go. But the people in Ohrloff need money for new windows, ceilings, and books in the Community Centre library (formerly the school for the deaf). We don’t want to come in and promise, we want to come and be the likeness of Christ and be doers of the Word. Thanks for your support.

Ben and Linda
www.lindaandben.blogspot.com
http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/

2007-09-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

One of the real delights in spending time together here is seeing how different cultural values impact the behaviour of these rural Ukrainians. The way people live is a mix of the impact of the Patriotic war, prescribed Soviet thinking, expectations coming out of independence, and western materialism. Often our evenings are spent reflecting on all of this and the gatherings around the kitchen table in the Centre with the mix of Russian and Ukrainian staff gives opportunity check our observations and assumptions.

For example, one of the things we have noticed here is the unusual number of people who are described as “invalids”. One of our staff speaks of her invalid daughter, and another refers to all the invalid children in the internat (orphange) or the sanitorium. People requesting medical emergency funds or other means of support speak of being invalids or of having invalids to care for.

When we asked Lucy Romanenkova, Director of the Florence Centre in Zaporzhye, she said this is a broad category of people who may have had surgery or have been diagnosed with a debilitating illness which qualifies them for a small medical pension. It is a well intentioned policy going back to Soviet times, aiming to provide for the sick, which however may have the unintended consequence of labeling and building dependencies. “Invalid” is not limited to being physically disabled--it is a broad category of illness. We do not begrudge them getting support, in fact some people should get more, and for all it should encourage empowerment and move them to independent living. A most inspiring moment came the other morning when we saw a well dressed young man with only one leg, assertively moving about on the street with a cane attached to his arm. His extended arm has become his leg. More amazing than his mobility was his appearance, his resolve, his confidence. That evening we reflected on this scene and agreed that in Canada our approach of making accommodation to ensure that the disabled can live full lives is better than giving a paltry token to many, keeping them in institutions or at home where parents collect their pensions. Just another thing to be thankful for.

Another intriguing practice that apparently is quite common involves buying gas for our Lada. Our Ukrainian Director and our maintenance man insist that we buy no more that 22 liters at a time (100 grievna). When we Canadians say, “let’s fill up the gas tank,” they say, “no, no, just put in 22 litres.” We are told that many people decide ahead of time how much driving they will do for the week and then buy accordingly. It is not uncommon to only buy 5 litres at a time and make do with that and make do with that for the week. We suspect this practice is more common in rural areas and it has been suggested that going in and saying, “fill it up,” appears presumptuous, almost boastful.

It appears that even in Soviet times Ukrainian women, particularly young women, took great care in their personal appearance. With the availability of western cosmetics, and clothes as well as the barrage of ads everywhere showing off western fashion, many women appear “dressed to the 9’s”. Some are drop-dead gorgeous compared to us frumpy foreigners. We were reminded of this when we went out for our anniversary dinner Saturday night at a local restaurant. The lady working in the kitchen was obviously as concerned about her appearance as she was about making meals. For there she stood at the service bar getting ready for a night out, one hand on the blowing hair dryer and the other hand running through her billowing locks! Ah, she looked so much better than those clamped down helmet-like hair nets that the less adventuresome Canadian health inspectors insist on. As for the food – at first it looked pretty good! And for real, it was pretty good. But we are now more thankful for the regulated Canadian restaurants.

Ben and Linda

2007-09-02T12:37:00.001-07:00

Weekly report – September 1, 2007

This week ended on a high note with the traditional First Bell celebrations held on September 1. This is the celebratory opening of the new school year which gives special recognition to the new 1st graders. The preliminary speeches will feels very much like the stale bread you get as a pre-meal filler at a restaurant, and take up most of the time. Eventually you get to the traditional highlight when a boy in the graduating class saunters across the courtyard to the frilly, nervous Grade 1’s, picks the cutest little girl, and effortlessly lifts her onto his shoulder. She is given a decorated bell, holds it close to the boy’s ear, and rings furiously. Then the graduating class walks across the courtyard to take the hand of a Grade 1 student, and they fall into step behind the boy and the bellringer, circling the applauding crowd. Mothers and babushkas of the graduating group dab tears from their eyes, possibly wondering where the years went, and mothers and babushkas of the Grade 1’s smile proudly, delighted that another one is off to school. It’s a ceremony rich in tradition and full of meaning.

At the Russian school opening the bread was not that stale. The Mennonite Centre was given special recognition for the work we did this year in replacing the crumbling school steps. At the Ukrainian opening Linda was seated with the VIP’s but unfortunately was seated rather close to those amplifier and speakers which the Mennonite Centre had so generously provided to the school a few years back! She did, however, enjoy hearing the three trumpets the Baergs have brought over from Abbotsford. They were played with skill and enthusiasm. So you, dear friends, have provided steps to the future for the Russian school and an amp and instruments to celebrate the future of Ukraine.

Another highlight this week was the visit of a farmer from Vasilievka. Over the past several months the Mennonite Economic Development Association (MEDA) has been planning a project for the Zaporozhye area. On Thursday we had a non-stop day of visits, requests, student scholarship interviews, etc. There literally was a line up outside the office. After a challenging interview with a mother and student, in walked Vladislav Sergeyenko. He has a big smile and is quickly talking Russian to Slava, our Ukrainian Administrator. Ben thought he might be a Russian father wanting for a scholarship for his son, and Linda thought he might be a father requesting funds for a sick child. Then Ben heard him say “MEDA” and knew that there was a MEDA group coming over to visit. You must understand that Slava doesn’t translate simultaneously but usually has a long discussion with a fellow Ukrainian and then gives cryptic one-sentence summary of the conversation, so we find that it is necessary to jump in, stop the discussion and ask Slava what’s going on. And so Slava said, “yes, this is about the MEDA visit.” Suddenly Vladislav said a few words in perfect German, and we realized that we could translate for Slava! It was glorious. Slava quickly went out to get coffee and goodies and we held court with our friend. This MEDA project is very exciting—they are using the expertise of a few local farmers to start a small-scale vegetable and fruit growing processing. Right now this is still in the planning stages and while we are not directly involved this is something well worth supporting.

This really represents what the Mennonite Centre is all about—a place where Ukrainians can meet North Americans and plan their future.

2007-08-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

Friends,

We have been here for a week. It was wonderful to connect with our friends at the Kutuzovka church, the Mennonite Centre, and the community. Syllable by syllable our understanding of the Russian language is emerging. But the problem is that the syllables come fast, they are many, and our hearing is not precise, and our understanding weaker. Not a good combination.

One of the things that all North American Directors go through is that when they first arrive there is a pent-up list of issues to deal with. They all are very important, and people want responses “baystray” (right now)!

One of our biggest frustrations has little to do with Ukraine and everything to do with technology. Our internet has been virtually non-existent during the week. The problem is that it works intermittently. One of the few things Ben remembers from his early Psych courses is that variable reinforcement is a powerful incentive to keep you hoping. The internet wizards have this down to a fine science—some days, after trying for 2 hours we can send one email, and just when we are ready to call for fire from heaven to burn up every computer in this land lo and behold the computer says, “sent”! Now we know that success breeds success and therefore we try to replicate the same situation we had when we sent the last message—same body position, same thought pattern, same way of touching the keyboard, anything to get the next message sent.

The weather is of no help in cooling us down during our internet trials. Now, we have not been to hell but we suspect that the weather here is hotter. Yesterday at 6:00 p.m. our thermometer said 42 degrees. Apparently it was hotter in June. But the weather did not restrain last night’s Independence Day celebrations at the Zentralschule. After a few “blah-blah” type speeches from the local authorities we got down to a good programme of contrast. Early on we had 8 Ukrainian men of ample voice, breadth, and ability vigorously worked their way through some folk songs. This was followed by 4 young willowy, energetic Ukrainian children going through some amazing gymnastic routines. The men could sing octaves—these girls could jump them. We have funded some of the gymnasts’ equipment and probably their outfits.

Our son Joel and his wife Tracy also arrived yesterday to join us for a few days before going off to Kyiv. One of the first things Tracy asked was whether we had laundry facilities—they have been traveling in Romania for well over a week. Of course we have a fine German-made machine in our apartment. It works very well, however the only problem is that it requires water! And for the last several days the “gods” of the internet and water have decided to take a summer holiday. It gives a whole new meaning to a “long weekend.” Due to the internet and blog problems we haven't got our blogsite going properly. Hopefully soon.

Ben and Linda

2006-09-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

An Invitation to a
BENEFIT CONCERT
in support of the Mennonite Centre
Molochansk (Halbstadt)

featuring guest artists
Calvin Dyck, Betty Suderman
Joel Stobbe, Linda Stobbe, & Erica Block

Plus powerpoint presentations on programs
and projects of the Mennonite Centre

Bakerview M.B. Church
Saturday, Sept. 23, 200 – 7:30 p.m.
Donations – tax receiptable
For information call Rudy Baerg 604-855-6175

2006-09-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

Wrap up report - summer, 2006

First Bell at school is the sure signal that summer is over for kids and parents. Mothers and children are busy digging out potatoes, drying onions and garlic, picking up pears, wrinkled sunflowers don't have the energy to turn to the weakening sun, parents are at the train station saying goodbye to nervous kids with duct taped wrapped bags, and we say too many goodbyes to very close friends.

We end our summer stint with a visit to Kiev, including a 90-minute meeting with Abina Dann, Canada's Ambassador to Ukraine. We review the work of the Mennonite Centre during its 5 years of operation, and assure her that we plan to stay for the long term. We review future options and she outlines her priorities as our new Ambassador.

Now we are back, in this interesting stage when our eyes and ears tell us we are in Canada, but what we see and hear are Ukrainian experiences. Road construction here takes you back to the trenches running along Molochansk streets promising natural gas, and a barking dog here reminds you of the chorus of canines that rehearse half the night and perform for the rest of it!

Two years ago we innocently asked Walter Unger as FOMCU Board chair, what he expected us to do in Ukraine. He said, "be there." A better job description I have never seen. Be there with a grandmother when she raises a glass to her grandson who just was just admitted to medical school, be there with the Zaporozhye survivors of breast cancer when they talk about having their lungs permanently seared because the radiation machine gives inaccurate readings, be there when the village throws an outdoor party on Independence Day, be there when the church needs a speaker to fill in for Pastor Jakob, be there when a village history teacher calls for help to save a former Mennonite Church from destruction, and be there when a tear-filled grade 11 student comes in hoping to find admission requirements for a state university after she lost her catalogue. Her catalogue was eventually found, but she had already discovered the marvels of the internet when Ben showed her how to get the information online.

Even though we aren’t there now, the Centre is. This beautiful, recently renovated building proudly shows off its European heritage, portraying a testimony of faithfulness, giving honour to our grandparents and inspiration to our grandchildren. This is our living monument.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Ben and Linda Stobbe

2006-08-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

Report for week ending August 26/06

We felt much more comfortable coming back to work here the second time around. We knew what stores sold which items and which clerks would be most helpful. We had developed back-up plans in case we got into trouble. So when I told Linda and Kate that I could go to the milk store to buy water I thought this was very straight forward. Here is my best recollection of the dialogue as I picked up two 4 litre jugs of water.

Ben – “Vada, nyet gas” (water, no gas). I expected her to say “da” (yes)
Bemused clerk --- lkdjwieraya, safdoewiru,diur (in Russian or Ukrainian)
Ben ---- nyet gas? (no gas?)
Bemused clerk ---lksdjjfoiaya, sklkrwe (or something similar)
Ben ---making contorted face “nyet gas!”
Smiling clerk --- kdjfsdopfaya, kjsfiewui (or something similar)
Ben, taking out cell phone and phoning Kate to ask her to explain to clerk, “I want no gas in my water.” Hand phone to clerk so she can talk to Kate.
Laughing clerk – jsdfjpeuruaya, lkjrewur (or something similar)
At this point I have to take my chances, hoping Kate has told her I want water with no gas. I don’t want to lug two jugs home, up a flight of stairs, only to hear a fizz when I open them. Thankfully when I opened it, it didn’t sound like a bicycle tire going flat.

One of the amazing things you find is that when the locals realize you don’t understand a thing they are saying, they talk louder and simply add more words. They must assume that eventually they will hit upon one of the 200 Russian words we do understand…. Same chance as seeing a Ukrainian wearing a seat belt…

We only had Kate for a little more than half the time we were here. She spent one week being the nurse at the teen camp and then took an additional two weeks leave. While that was a challenge it also was very good for us. Kate is very competent, however sometimes bringing a translator along can leave you with the feeling that that you are not connecting directly with the locals. So we make do. For example, when Linda and Hilda went to Zaporozhye to meet with the breast cancer support group a translator was arranged for them. Olga, our receptionist, was a great help when we needed translation. On Thursday night at the Ukrainian Independence Day celebrations in Molochansk we met Marina, a school principal, who speaks German. We had the benefit of her translation services and her numerous contacts. Today we went to Neukirch, a village south of here, and the group we met with found a young university student who speaks passable English. We also have the Aussiedler missionaries here who speak German. We have a watchmen who speaks some English, and our maintenance man, Vitalya, is remembering key English words and phrases. Our receptionist’s granddaughter helps us with her English. And, after the initial nervousness they all seem eager to help. And their status goes up in the eyes of the locals.

And the most encouraging news we heard came early this week from an Aussiedler German lady who was with a group touring the villages of their parents. When we started to describe what the Centre is all about, she interrupted us and said, “we have already heard all about you. In every village where we went, when the Ukrainians and Russians heard that we were Mennonites, they told us about the wonderful Mennonite Centre in Molochansk that is helping so many people.” She said that as Ausseidler they could now talk to the Ukrainians in way they never could before. And the week ended with a 77-year old Ukrainian lady in Neukirch describing how, as a little girl, she joined her Mennonite friends in the Mennonite Church and listened to the choir singing in the balcony, accompanied by an organ. Her closed eyes were a bit moist when with a sigh she said, “kraseevay” (beautiful). They don’t forget--nor should we.

Off to Kiev and back home September 1. Remember our blog site at www.lindaandben.blogspot.com

2006-08-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Hilda Epp visiting with Rita Pankratz and her great-granddaughter in "Alexanderkrone." We had a great visit with her. She has been quite sick with an infection in her leg. The windmill is located right beside her home in Alexanderkrone. It is the last remaining example of a standing Mennonite windmill in Molotschna.

2006-08-20T06:47:00.000-07:00

Linda and Hilda Epp making Sunday lunch in our kitchen. Linda says she would have cleaned up the kitchen, had she known it was going on the blog!

2006-08-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

Here is Vitalya, our maintenance man, showing off his extension on his table saw. He just made a fine table for the kitchen. The other picture shows a car that has just hit an "inverted speed bump." The Tokmak roads are suffering from a bad rash of "meteorite showers"--this is "holey ground." Notice the can inside one of the pot holes.

2006-08-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the teens from the Kutuzovka camp taking a dip in the Molotschna River. The other picture shows our Director Kate leading with the guitar and the singing group of Olya, Lilly and Vika. Olya and Vika are young people from the Centre and Lilly is one of the German missionaries.

2006-08-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

The bulletin board on the right consists of old pictures of the Zentralschule and of other historical events in Halbstadt. We included Russian explanations as well as a statement of acknowledgement indicating sources of the pictures. On the left of our board are pictures from the museum in the school in Dolina. Whenever we went to look, there were people studying the board.

2006-08-05T01:15:00.000-07:00

On Thursday the 3rd of August we went with staff and their children to the Sea of Azov at Berdyansk. The children played on the beach and slept in the bus on the way home. Beach games are universal. Making sand castles, playing volleyball and trying to hold back the incoming water. A great time for staff and families.

2006-07-27T00:36:00.000-07:00

The newly refurbished Zentralschule tends to look best from a distance. As long as you don't go around the back you will be impressed. As you can see, the new roof is on but only the sections you actually see from the road. The sides have been whitewashed and it all makes for an impressive backdrop for the opening day celebrations which should be in a few days. We will give the mayor credit for taking an interest in the building and trying to keep it up.

Ben and Linda

2006-07-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

This is the back of the Zentralschule. You can just part of the roof and it is in the old concrete/asbestos form. The new roof in the front is red. I don't know if it metal or not.

Ben

2006-07-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

Rita, Katya, Leanna and myself drove down in a small Lada with mattresses, tents, tarps. poles and 3 guitars. We are in the forest near Melitopol which was planted by Mennonite young men in WWI. The girls will be helping in a youth camp for the week.
Ben

2006-07-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here is where Mennonites kept their money. The picture on the far left is the entrance to safe in the basement of the credit union building in Halbstadt. The 2nd picture is the birthday party held today at the office for our cooks Ira and Leanna. That is not all the food we had.

2006-07-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the Centralschule in Molochansk (formerly Halbstadt). The 1st is a side view with summer flowers. The other shows the ongoing work on the newly refurbished exterior.
Ben