Ukraine Trip, Nov. 2010

OK, there is so much to tell, and i'm not sure if it will all be put down here, but for those of you who want to know about our trip, here's the story! :D

We left our kids in Alberta with my parents, and flew from Calgary to London to Kiev to Simferopol, over 3 days.  We arrived in the village of Krasni Mak on the night of November 12th.  There were 10 people on our team, 4 couples and 2 men who's wives remained at home.  We were billeted in 2 homes in the village, with some lovely older Ukrainian women who housed us and fed us for the duration of our trip.  Our hostess, Zena, even did laundry! We had traditional foods, lots of cabbage in soups, salads, cabbage rolls.  We also ate a lot of bread/sausage/cheese, rice, chicken, pork.  Not a lot of vegetables, and very little fruit.
    Our first day was a leadership training conference for the Crimean churchplanters in Yalta.  But there was a matter of travelling space available, so only 4 of the men went, and the rest stayed to be shown around the area by a lady from the church, Nadia.  We had our translator, Masha, with us.  The men were able to go and teach, encourage and equip area pastors at the conference.  We ended up VERY glad to not have gone as the road to Yalta was very twisty-turny, and most of the guys were carsick!  lol.

(back yard of our hosts home)

      So we walked with Nadia for nearly 3 hours, through the valley where the village is, through old orchards, near some ruins, out to a Tatar village.  Let  me see if I can describe the village to you.  The houses are mostly small, made of bricks that are made from shells from the Black sea.  Their yards are mostly unkempt as they have turned them into mini farmyards.  EVERYone has at least one dog in their yard, barking away as alarm systems.  They rarely stop barking, actually. :)  Many people have small cows tied up grazing, usually milk cows.  Most of the yards also have chickens, geese, roosters, and cats.  (Needless to say, the noise level was such that sleeping at night was difficult, due to fighting dogs and some very confused roosters! lol)  There are many buildings standing empty, and the orchards are overgrown and unused.

(ruins we past on our walk)

    We asked a lot of questions of our interpreter.  What we realized is that the fall of Communism was a very difficult thing for people in the villages.  Where once they had the stability of government farms, orchards and vineyards which supplied them with jobs, they now had no way to earn money.  They don't know how to function outside of the old way of life.  We were told that people have very little hope, that they have given up.  Alcoholism is rampant among the men in the villages.  To the point that only 5% are employed.  Women are the directors of the schools, government workers, and church attendees.  Quite eye-opening and shocking to us, really.  People bought buildings in the village for cheap after Communism ended, and couldn't afford to put any business in them.  So they sit empty.  Strip malls, stores, greenhouses, factories.

roadside store

     We walked out to a Tatar village and learned a lot about them too.  I haven't done my research yet, but I believe Stalin gave them, the entire people group, TWO HOURS to leave the country.  He believed they were plotting with the Germans against him, so he exiled them.  They have returned to the villages they'd abandoned.  Russians/Ukrainians have issues with them being back, and you can sense tension in this area actually.  Old mindsets are hard to break!  That's a lot of history for our first day! 
       Ok, i think this needs to go in parts.  How's that for an intro? :D
more to come,
Darcie.