Week Three

Dear Readers,

Dobriy den', from the Ukrainian Catholic University.

I am writing this update in the computer lab. I have my weekly meeting with Roxolana and Kimberly in just under an hour. This morning I went to my workshop, but it was a short day. On Fridays, we end at 1:00pm instead of the usual 3:30. There is a fellow here in the computer lab wearing a bright red Canada jacket. Really, it is just too obvious. I was just joking with Yuri's girlfriend (also an UKU student) about how foreign he is. Haha.

It is now day 21 of 90. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. I can already tell that I am going to miss Lviv, my host family, my workshop, and all of the friends I have made. But, now to the important part of this entry.

This week, I attended three big celebrations. And so, I got a small taste of Ukrainian culture. On Sunday, I went to a Greek Catholic monastery for my host brother's cousin's priestly ordination. The Liturgy was held outdoors at the end of a major pilgrimage. There were thousands of people there! Things went pretty smoothly for the most part, but when communion time came around chaos ensued! Elderly Ukrainian ladies in church are really pushy, and really tough. You don't want to mess with them. The second and third big celebrations were both yesterday. That same priest celebrated his first Divine Liturgy yesterday in his hometown, and so it was again a major family affair. After the liturgy, there was a dinner which lasted over two hours. There was enough food to feed everyone five times! It was insane. It was a typical Ukrainian celebration. Plenty of speeches by family wishing the new priest all the best, plenty of singing Ukrainian folk hymns, and of course, at the end we sang 'Mnohaya lita'--'Many years'. They even got me to say something, and another one of the priests there served as translator. That, I didn't expect. I was a bit surprised, but I managed to say something, and I think the translator made sense of what I said.

The third big celebration was my host father's birthday. So after an afternoon of lots and lots of eating, I got to take a 1 hour car ride home and do it all over again! There actually wasn't as much eating. It wasn't a formal sit down meal. Instead, it was an informal back yard party with barbeque, badminton, music, alcohol, and dancing. It was something very similar to what may happen in Canada. My host father works at the Ukrainian Catholic University as a journalist, so he a had a bunch of co-workers over, and they brought with them their spouses and children. There were lots and lots of children.

Speaking of children, my nine year old host sister Hanusia is the cutest little girl. One of the things she does is walk a play stoller around with a doll. She feeds the doll, tucks the doll in at night. She changes the doll. She is already practicing to be a mommy. Now, her face just lit up like you wouldn't believe last night when she was able to push around a real stoller with a real baby inside. That was very cute.

As for more serious business, I went to an orphanage on Wednesday. My reaction to the whole experience is very mixed. On one hand, the building they are in is in good condition, the staff are devoted, and most importantly, the children all seem happy. They were all playing about like regular children. The sad part of it all of course is the fact that they are in an orphanage. Many of these children are the children of abusive alcoholic fathers. There is a really big problem in Ukraine of alcoholism, albeit moreso in Eastern Ukraine. The Soviet era did so much damage to the morale of the people, and at times alcoholism was encouraged. The result is that way too many people are addicted to alcohol, and then they abuse their wives/girlfriends and their children. There are bottles of wine you can purchase for about a dollar and a quarter, and you can buy a bottle of beer for 50 cents. So, you can imagine that it is dead easy to get very drunk without spending a whole lot. Of course, combine that with addiction, and you have disaster. I saw two people stumbling drunk in the middle of the road coming back from the priest's first liturgy yesterday.

Going back to the orphanage, one story in particular was especially heartbreaking. There is one little 6 year old girl there who's mother can not afford to raise her because she spent all of her money on a kidney operation she needed. That was in a way a real wake up call for me. That would never happen in Canada. But in Ukraine, things are very different. One can thank the corruption for that. I think the story of that little girl will be the source of one of my academic reflections. Speaking of which, I have to write that this weekend. I will not post it on facebook though. It serves to, among other things, help me with my final academic paper when I get back to Canada.

This weekend I will visit a 'Faith and Light' family. Faith and Light families are really mothers with disabled children who have been abandoned by their husbands because of the disabled child. Kimberley and I will visit one family every weekend. The family we have is a mother with a 25 year old son who cannot speak or walk. She lives in a beat up apartment (Krushchoki--will explain some other time) and she is really weak because she has had to carry her son into bed, out of bed, to the bathroom, etc... every day for the last 25 years. And her son is a full grown man. You can imagine how difficult it must be for one women to be able to do that every day. Our visits are really an attempt to give her any kind of support. We give her moral support by being there with her and her son. We also help out a little bit by taking her son for a walk around the park, or whatever. I'm not really sure what to expect when I go there tomorrow. I will report on that.

That is really it for now. My weekly check up meeting is in a few minutes, then afterward I will go to the Dzherelo Centre for theatre. Druzi from all workshops are preparing a little skit to perform publicly, and there is a session tonight. I haven't gone the last two weeks, so I think I should go tonight. It should be fun. The Druzi are really great, and the non-handicapped assistants are all really wonderful people.

Until next time,
Michael

P.S.: Do forgive any spelling or grammar errors. I wrote this in one sitting without editing it.