SPRING IN BERDYANSK

SPRINGTIME FLOWERS

Well, you can tell I'm really behind in my writing when I am talking about springtime!  But I'll do this and then my next posting will be to tell you about some of the important things that have been going on since May.

Spring in Berdyansk was wonderful.  From the end of March through the first week of June the weather was great, just right for walking and exploring parts of the city that we hadn't visited earlier because it was just too cold and we didn't want to get lost in that weather.  We got our outside walking routine started and walked down streets that we hadn't seen before.  Along the way I kept watching various flowers pop out of the ground and counted the days until the tulips began to bloom. 

The Ukrainians love their gardens and the flowers began to bloom in just about the same order as they do in the States.  First came the tulips and daffodils, crosuses and iris.  Red seemed to be the favorite color for the tulips, but there were other colors as well.  The city folks plant flowers outside their gates and fences and between the sidewalks and the road.  No one seems to pick the flowers, maybe there's just an unwritten rule that you leave other people's flowers alone.  The lilacs were gorgeous and their aroma filled the air.  Across the street from the ministry center the whole block was lined with lilac trees that bloomed for several weeks.  Perhaps flowers are so important to folks here because winter is so long and cold and icy, and the flowers represent the end of winter and a period of warmth and outdoor activities.  I took pictures, but they didn't turn out so great, so I'm not putting many here.

As time passed we saw lily of the valley, peonies, roses, and hollyhocks, and tiger lilies----many of the old-fashioned flowers which we don't see very much at home anymore.  I loved them.  Sometimes I would peek through the fences and see that instead of having a front yard with nice grass the houses would usually have the ground tilled and planted with vegetables.  In one yard I saw a big strawberry patch with huge bushes and lots of strawberries just turning red.  By the way, the strawberries in the market were wonderful and so were the cherries which came a few weeks later.  Soon we'll see apricots and local peaches on the shelves too. 

DOWNTOWN BERDYANSK----THE PROMENADE

Downtown Berdyansk is interesting and it can be fun.  It begins at the big market with all the fresh vegetables and fruits, and I mustn't forget the dried fish---yum,yum (yeah, right).  In a building next to that market is the meat market with fish, pork, beef, and poultry.  There are lots of stalls selling things you might need in the kitchen----my favorite is the spice stall.  It has lots of spices and mixtures of spices out in the open where you can see them and decide if you want them.  Reminds us a lot of India.  My favorite mixture smells a lot like Indian masalas, but is not nearly as hot in taste.  I use it on meat, or make rice pilau and add some red pepper flakes to give it some bite. 

The market is on the main street called Lenin Boulevard.  It soon becomes a pedestrian mall with shops on either side of the street, very European in tone.  The next street over is Karl Marx Avenue, and on the other side is Workers Avenue.  This is just to remind everyone that Ukraine was once a communist country and still has strong socialist influences.  But the shops and cafes are definitely in the capitalist mode!  Lenin Blv. marches straight down to the sea front where a large statue of the man himself faces the Sea of Azov. 

We were there a day or two after the date of his death in April and someone had put a bouquet of red roses at the foot of the statue.  So some people here still revere him. 

During the winter the promenade is empty outside and not much happens in the shops either.  But with the warm weather the sidewalk cafes open and the streets and buildings are spruced up for the influx of Russian tourists who come to southern Ukraine to enjoy the beaches and sunshine.  The fountains are cleaned and started again.  Of course, the locals are ready to enjoy all this too after being indoors for at least six months.

This shop is called Cossack Cottage (or home).  The Cossacks lived just to the north of Berdyansk and roamed this area during tsarist times.  This is just basically a souvenir shop with various items to attract customers.

The sea front at the end of the promenade is not suitable for swimming.  It is rocky and close to the port which is the main employer of the people of Berdyansk.  There is a wall which separates the promenade from the rocks, but it is easy to get down there and many people do.  They fish and many sell their catch along the streets. 

The beaches for swimming are mostly along a long, skinny peninsula which is close by and dips down into the Sea of Azov.  There are hotels and restaurants all along it for the big tourist season in the summer.

This is a popular picture to take in Berdyansk.  A statue of a worker coming out of the manhole.  Someone always sticks a cigarette in his mouth.

This little girl and her mom were having fun with the cement shoes.  The little girl's name was Sasha, which could be used for a boy or a girl.  It is the pet name for someone whose full name is Alexander or Alexandra.

She was friendly and not a bit shy.  We had eaten at the same restaurant as her parents and saw them afterwards here.  Just couldn't resist the pictures.

Good stopping place for now.  Next I'll write about the bazaar.

UKRAINE WINTER

I've been thinking about all the interesting things we are seeing here in Berdyansk.  I thought I would share a few with you:  winter impressions.

• Hats.  Everyone wears hats.  The middle-aged and older ladies wear what we would consider to be old-fashioned hats, some are shaped like big pillboxes (remember those from the 1950s?), some are asymetrical in shape, some are huge furry creations that have little tails at the back.  The younger women wear cute knitted hats that fit closely to the head, the kind that look great if you have long hair and an unwrinkled face :).  I am dying to take some pictures, but feel a little awkward about pointing my camera in their faces, especially if I'm just out on the street.  At the Primorsk church a few weeks ago one of the ladies insisted I needed to use her long scarf to put over my head to keep warm.  I don't usually wear hats, although I do have several knitted hats.  The men wear hats too.  Remember seeing on TV in the 70s and 80s pictures of Russian leaders standing outside the Kremlin wearing big fur hats?  Well, some men here still wear those hats.  I have heard that the best fur is very expensive now.  Ten years ago it was much cheaper. 
• Coats.  Of course everyone wears coats, even me.  But the style of coats is interesting.  Older women love long, sometimes floor-length coats.  They're no fools, they want to keep their legs warm.  Lots of women wear fur coats, probably faux-fur, but some look real.  The fur coats look like the fur coats of the 1950s-60s.  But they also look warm.  The younger women usually wear hip-length modern style coats, lots of padded coats, often with hoods that are trimmed with fur.  No one has a coat like mine, which I love and which is very warm.  It was given to me by Laura, and is pretty much right in style in the U.S.  It has a hood too, for which I am very grateful since I don't wear hats much.  Some younger women wear long coats trimmed with fur.  Fur is very big here.  I can understand why, but some of the fur is purely decorative and probably doesn't do much to keep people warm.  Besides brown or black fur I have seen purple "fur", red "fur", pink "fur" and blue "fur."
• Cars.  I have yet to see shiny clean cars here.  The weather tends to keep cars dirty, so why take the trouble to wash them?  I guess I have seen one or two clean cars, but it may be that they were dark in color and the dirt didn't show much.  A lot of cars are white, and they look utterly filthy on the outside.  Whenever I get into a car or bus I am very careful about not brushing up against the vehicle and getting dirty.
• We live across the street from a big school and I watch the children play outside.  They don't seem to mind the cold, they are running and talking, sliding on the sheets of ice, just generally doing what kids do in the wintertime.  It is in the low 20s outside now and it is noontime here.  The kids are outside on their lunch break, seemingly unconcerned about the cold.
• I love the strollers for the babies.  They are well padded and have a thick cover that is pulled up over the baby and zipped all around to keep the little ones warm.  Of course the babies have blankets over them too.  The toddlers are bundled up so heavily that they can hardly walk, let alone run.  They have long padded leggings, coats, and thick hats with big flaps that cover their ears and necks.  All you can see is their little round faces.
• From my kitchen window I watch people walking down the street in front of the ministry center, probably going to the nearest bus stop.  The older people tend to walk slowly in the cold.  The young people walk faster, especially when the wind is blowing.  The young women who are concerned about being stylish all wear high boots, usually with very high heels but not always.  They also wear skin-tight jeans or pants and their hip-length coats.  Their legs have to be freezing.  The older ladies wear what I would call normal pants, but sometimes they have boots too with medium-high heels.  Actually, some of them look pretty classy with their boots, pants, knee-length coats, and the omnipresent hat.  Usually their coats are longer though, to the calf at least.
• Everyone takes their shoes off when they enter the house.  The winter streets are dirty and slushy, even with fresh snow.  And the streets aren't very clean even when the weather is dry.  So, like India, shoes come off in the house.  Some people keep extra pairs of slippers near the door for their guests to put on to keep their feet warm.  I haven't bought any extra pairs yet, but they are on my shopping list.  (I have to admit, I keep one pair of shoes that I wear inside.  The tile-covered concrete floors demand some better footwear to keep my legs and feet from hurting.)

I know there must be more things that I haven't thought of yet, but I will stop for now.  I need to go and get a sweater to put on :) because it's getting colder.

MORE IMPRESSIONS AGAIN

It's been a week since I wrote and a lot has happened since then.  We have seen more of Berdyansk and continue to learn a little more every day.  Some impressions:

• It snowed last week and the streets are a mess.  We haven't seen a snowplow around our ministry center, and as I look out the window I see people navigating through the ice and slush very carefully.  We did see one snowplow downtown, but the streets were pretty messy there too.  By "navigating" I mean that they are walking, probably to the bus-stop just down the road.  The cars move very carefully.
• We went shopping for some clocks and cell phones.  The cell phones are nice and probably priced about the same as they are at home.  I got one in "romantic pink"----it really is pretty and has a bunch of stuff on it.  Now, if I could only read the instruction leaflet---it's written in two languages, Russian and Ukrainian.  We didn't sign contracts, we got a starter pack which gave us our phone numbers and then we buy cards with a certain amount of time on them and enter them in the phone for use.  Somewhat like what we did in India.
• We learned that the Ukrainian people put a high value on "image."  This includes what you wear and how you behave in public.  You would never go out in public dressed sloppily or with your hair messy.  In summertime you would never wear shorts to go shopping.  At least we understand that's true for men, I'm not sure if it holds true for women.  I guess we'll find out next June. But, you must be dressed "properly".  You must always look good, preferably in the most current fashion.  I'm pretty sure Frank and I haven't reached the proper status yet!  Along with the clothes image, the women wear lots of make-up and do their best to look really good in that respect.  Of course, it's not hard for them because the women are so beautiful anyway.  Lots of blondes, but also a lot of people with very dark, almost black, hair with blue or green eyes.  They are gorgeous.  The dark hair may be a throw-back to the time when the Tartars invaded from the east and stayed in the area of both Ukraine and Russia.
• Ukrainians love bright colors.  Perhaps it is because they often have drab lives.  They live in tall, gray ugly apartment buildings.  In winter everything is gray, cold, and cloudy, with the sunshine only shining now and then.  The clothes are colorful, the shops are colorful, and curtains and other household linens are colorful.  We haven't been inside a Ukrainian apartment yet, but the chances are good that they are  decorated with bright colors.  There is nice furniture in the shops, but it isn't exactly like what we would find in the U.S.  Every country has its own taste in design and functionality.
• At Christmas there are lots of decorations available.  We bought a small tree (made in China), various ornaments, garlands, and lights.  Total cost:  about $30.  Actually, although it's December 22nd here and we are in the mood for Christmas, the Ukrainian Christmas isn't until January 7th.  That's because of the Orthodox church traditions which have a strong influence on the lives of the people.  The missionaries here will have a small dinner together on December 25th, but the big celebrations will be two weeks from now.  Frank and I are looking forward to seeing what happens in the church as well as all around us.  We especially want to try some special Ukrainian foods that are prepared for Christmas. 

These are just a few of the things we have noticed.  I'll write next about our trip to the orphanage and the Christmas program we saw there.

MORE IMPRESSIONS

• We haven't seen the sun yet, although as I sit by the window and write this the sun is trying to shine through the clouds for the first time since we arrived.
• Driving to church on Sunday afternoon, the road was not busy with a lot of traffic.  Our driver, a Norwegian (sp.?) missionary, was stopped for driving too fast!  A patrol officer standing by the road with hand held radar caught him.
• The water in our building was off quite a bit this weekend.  It was off several hours on Saturday afternoon, and then was off again all of Sunday morning .  Frank didn't get his morning shower!
• The ladies here like to be very fashionable.  Knee-high high-heeled boots, nice coats with fur collars (not old-fashioned fur collars, but very trendy looking fur), make-up, hair, etc., all really nice.  I felt rather clunky!
• Drinking water is brought into the building in large 5-gallon containers.  We use this water for drinking and cooking.  We go down to the office and get a new container when we're getting low.  The tap water is used only for laundry, dishwashing, and showers.  The water in our kitchen tap has a distinct sulphur smell. 
• No tv for us at this time.  We could get a satellite dish, but the channels are basically all in Russian or Ukrainian, there is one English-language channel (BBC news), although we could pay more and get some other English channels.  We'll wait and see how we feel about it.  Right now we're getting our news from the internet, watching the nightly broadcast of Katie Couric on CBS News.  Not our favorite, but it works.  Checking other news channels for more stories.
• Having long, long winter evenings is an adjustment.  It's almost dark by 4pm, and by 8pm we're thinking it's bedtime!
• We realized we were spoiled in India.  We could go almost anywhere and find someone who spoke fairly decent English.  In fact, we could go to the city and never have to use Kannada, our local language, at all.  Lots of English bookstores.  In Ukraine very few people speak English, although many want to learn.  No books in English, except for what we have with us or what the other missionaries have. 

More next week.

UKRAINE, FINALLY

On Thursday, December 3rd, we said goodby to Laura, Brent and our grandsons as we headed to the airport to get on our plane.  There were no tears, but it was tough to kiss them goodby.  And we know it was hard for Laura, because she had come to depend on us for backup when things got hectic around her house.  And she always has a hard time saying goodby.  But she also wants us to do what God has planned for us.  So, she was smiling and waving with little Lance as we went through security at the airport and blew them a last kiss.

Our travel was fairly routine except for the part of it that crossed the north Atlantic.  It was rocky!  We had lots of turbulence and a bumpy ride off and on for several hours.  But we arrived in rainy Munich and got our flight to Donetsk which arrived at our destination right on time.  The airport at Donetsk is the smallest international airport we have been in.  One other flight was on the ground, loading passengers for takeoff.  We came down the plane's steps and were taken to the terminal in a bus.  The flight had not been full so there weren't many passengers who had to go through immigration, which was about the easiest we have experienced.  However, when we went to get our luggage (five fairly large suitcases), it was on a cart just outside the terminal, there were no luggage carts for passengers to use, and so we had to move it ourselves one or two at a time into the terminal.  That was a first for us.  The other WGM missionaries in Ukraine were waiting for us and there was a happy time of greeting and shaking hands.  The other missionaries are Bill and Betsy Tarr, and Bill and Oksana Brower.  Bill B. met Oksana here and after some time they were married and she is now also a missionary with World Gospel Mission.  After a drive of 2 1/2 to 3 hours we arrived in Berdyansk and the Home of Hope ministry center.  We both slept very good that night, at least a good ten hours. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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  It gets dark early!  It starts to get dark before 4pm and is completely dark by 4:30.  That's because we are so far north, much further north than we have ever lived before, particularly in India.
  
  
  
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  The land is flat!  After spending a wonderful summer in the mountains, we are now in an area of Ukraine that is part of the steppe of western Asia and eastern Europe.
  
  
  
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  Our apartment is quite nice.  It is small, but just right for two older missionaries like us.  A living room, bedroom, nice kitchen, bathroom and storage room, which is large enough to accomodate a desk and become Frank's office.  The rooms are all in a line with a fairly wide hallway going alongside them.  The appliances in the kitchen are really good, and the cook (me) is very happy with it.  We have radiator heating in all the rooms, with a second large heating-cooling unit in the living room.  We are comfortable.
  
  
  
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  Shopping is interesting.  We went to the supermarket on Saturday and were thankful to have Bill Brower and Betsy Tarr along to guide us through the different foods and labels.  Frank can read some of the labels, so he could recognize a lot of foods, but I'm really slow with that.  (Language study!  Language study!)  Lots and lots of fish (Berdyansk is on the Sea of Azov), cabbage, good cheeses, pork products (very fatty pork), chicken, not much beef, delicious-looking breads and cookies.  On Monday Bill Brower took us to the open farmer's market, part of which was indoors, but unheated.  Lots of good vegetables and fruit, nuts, sweets, odds and ends.  The meat market was also in the building----again, a lot of fish and pork, and chicken although there was some beef also.  In the cold weather, it's okay to go to the meat market in the afternoon, but come summertime the morning will be the time to go since there is no heating or cooling in the building.  Outside the building lots of stalls were set up for individual vendors, mostly women, to sell their produce.  I felt sorry for the women because it was a cold day with a brisk wind, and their faces and hands were red and chapped with the cold.  I had on my heavy coat with the hood pulled up over my head, so I wasn't too bad.  They had good coats and hoods too, but their hands were bare so they could do their work.  And in a brisk wind after a while even a good coat is not enough.  My plan is that before I go grocery shopping next time, I will make my list in English and then write it in Russian so I can begin to read the labels for myself and develop my very small vocabulary.
  
  
  
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  The last time we saw sunshine was Thursday morning in Oklahoma City on our way to the airport.  The sky has been cloudy and sometimes drizzly since we arrived.  The temperatures have been in the lower 30s.  But I comfort myself with the thought that today in Oklahoma, Kansas, and states north and east, the temperatures are much lower and there are heavy snowfalls, sometimes blizzards.  Our turn will definitely come, but not right now.
  
  
  

CHURCH

On Sunday morning we attended our first worship service as missionaries in Ukraine.  The service is held in the Home of Hope ministry center, which is also where our apartment is located.  So we didn't have to go outside, we were quite close to the place where the services are held while the sanctuary is being completed. 

The service was three hours long, which is about par for most mission fields, although we were spoiled in India with shorter services at the seminary.  The service here started with one or two songs, after which Rev. Sergei spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes welcoming everyone and making pertinent comments.  The singing resumed and lasted for at least 45 minutes.  But the music was wonderful!  I loved the melodies, and the Russian words were shown on the screen, so with our little bit of language study we could follow somewhat, although we didn't try to sing except on the refrains.  The music was upbeat, catchy, and easy to follow.  After the music finished, the floor was opened for testimonies, and a number of people got up to testify.  I won't say they got up to say a few words, because it seemed that many of them were telling their life stories!  Actually, except for one person they were usually relating one particular incident where the Lord taught them something new, or worked out a problem for them.  We were fortunate that we had some translation done for us through earphones, since Oksana Brower is Ukrainian and she did the translation. 

After the testimonies, the pastor's message focused on Passover in the Old Testament and how that led to the ritual of communion, and its importance in the family life of the believer.   He is a lively preacher with use of humor and illustrations.  At the end of his message communion was served and so we were able to participate for the first time in a meaningful act of worship with fellow believers in Ukraine.  It was a special moment for us.

WHAT'S COMING UP IN THE NEXT WEEK

Well, we are pretty much settled into our apartment, so the coming week will be spent getting more information about the work here and how we will fit into it.  We want to get Frank's office set up so we will feel more "professional" or at least make it look like we're busy!  We will definitely be getting back into our Russian language study several hours a day so we can understand more and make some primitive attempts at communication. 

If the opportunity arises and the weather permits, I plan to start taking some pictures soon and will try to get some posted here and on Facebook.  Stay tuned for the next installment.

Borderland: A Journey Throught the History of Ukraine

What are we reading these days? I thought I would start mentioning some of the books that we are working through as we prepare to go to Ukraine. We have a ton of books that we have to read for qualification as facilitators for Living Free seminars. And from time to time I'll tell you about them because they touch on some very important issues that the world is facing today.

But I want to share with you today a book on the history of Ukraine. Frank and I both love history, so it was natural that we would want to find out as much as we could about the past and and how it affects the present in Ukraine. Our friends in North Carolina, Mark and Christa Graham, gave us a book entitled Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine, by Anna Reid. The author is not actually a historian, but a journalist who has spent some time in the country and her writing is interesting, definitely not just dry names and dates. She starts from the earliest recorded history and proceeds to the recent past. What did I learn from the book?

• One of the interesting things for me was the beginnings of Kievan Rus. Moscow wasn't even founded when Kiev became an important city which received visitors from western Europe and the Mediterranean region.
• Christianity is old in Ukraine; the churches are beautiful; and Orthodoxy has suffered just as the people have suffered.
• I love the stories of the Cossacks. But much of it is romanticized and not true to historical fact.
• Throughout its post-Kievan Rus history Ukraine was never a nation until the Soviet Union fell. It was always regarded as a borderland buffer, fought over by Poland, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Consequently, the people of Ukraine are a ethnic mixture which includes Tatar blood as well as European. And the people of Ukraine struggle with the concept of nationhood.
• The Jews in Ukraine were decimated just as the Jews in Germany were. And their numbers were almost equal to those killed in Europe in World War II.
• The Ukrainian people suffered horribly from Stalinism during the period between the world wars, and they suffered horribly from both the Nazis and Stalinists during World War II. It's a wonder there were any Ukrainians left to survive and develop after the war.
• Ukraine is a land divided. The western part is the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism. The eastern half is much more sympathetic to Russia and its influence. The people of these two regions speak differently, think differently, have different cultures, and struggle to accept the other.
• My heart was broken by the suffering of this land. The people have little trust in their government, little faith in God, and great need to hear the gospel.