Ukraine’s Intriguing Sense of Possibility
Camp for orphans offers hope, but Soviet legacy still
evident
The new
Children
danced in the rain as Ruslana Lizhichko, the sexy leather-clad winner
of last year’s Eurovision contest, performed her hit "Wild
Dances," a fusion of Hutsul rhythms and pop. And when the band
GreenJolly took the stage with their Orange Revolution rap anthem, it
seemed everyone knew the fighting words: “Together we are many;
we cannot be defeated!”
The event was a concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a summer camp for orphans in Vorokhta, a village in
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper sent me to
The
beautiful Carpathian landscape reminded me of the imagery of
Ukrainian-Canadian calendars – misty green hills, wooden churches
and old women in kerchiefs herding cattle.
The
fact that the president and famous performers had made their way to
Vorokhta was a tribute to the incredible work of Ruslana Wrzesnewskij,
a 51-year-old
She’s a tough lady. You’d have to be to get anything done with
When
Yushchenko arrived, surrounded by handlers, I shouted a question at
him. He was gracious enough to walk over and give a brief interview.
“The Canadian work here is splendid and marvellous,” he
said. His face was grey and pockmarked, and he looked as if he was
shouldering the cares of the world.
One
of the orphans who rushed to meet him was eight-year-old Marichka
Moldavchuk. “I’m very happy,” she said. “I
really wanted to see our president. He looks very scary because they
poisoned him. But I can see that he’s a nice person.”
The
children, aged seven to 18, were remarkably articulate and mature. They
had a lively appreciation of the camp and were keen to learn about
democracy and human and civil rights. They had great fun staging a mock
election, complete with stolen ballot boxes and international observers.
The
children were also crazy about the Cossack volunteers – young men
sporting shaved heads and ponytails – who taught Ukrainian
martial arts.
They
are part of a surprising revival of the historic Cossack fraternity,
which focuses on physical fitness, traditional culture, and
character-building. A local man told me his son was studying
“Kozatsvo” at university.
After
Downtown Kyiv is scrubbed and renovated, the church domes are painted brilliant gold, and
At a nearby restaurant a couple of “biznes” men down a bottle of vodka and plates of herring during a meeting.
Still, it’s early days in the move to a market economy.
Toothless
old women chant prayers and beg in the streets. Young women seem to
take the extreme fashions of the European catwalks at face-value,
dressing revealingly and teetering across cobblestones in stilettos.
I
witnessed breathtaking examples of Soviet-style rudeness at the
downtown post office and the Aerosvit counter at the Kyiv airport.
One mile from
When
I visited 29 years ago, it was a tourist curiosity. Today, pilgrims
pray fervently and kiss the coffins of the mummified monks in the
underground tunnels and caves.
Visitors
carrying candles shuffled single-file through the incense-scented
labyrinth. Suddenly, there was a chilling growling sound followed by
screams. A priest was forcing an anguished middle-aged woman onto a
coffin. She was surrounded by a group of people who sang prayers. One
of them explained that the woman was being exorcised of “unclean
spirits.”
Back in
Maria Cook, nйe Bohuslawsky, is a staff writer at the Ottawa Citizen. She can be reached at
mcook@thecitizen.canwest.com