Flat Stanley Travels

People have cars of all kinds here in Kyiv, as the highway that goes by the temple shows.

But most people use public transportation and buses are very common.  This 56D is the bus line we use.

Subways (the Metro) run underground through the center of Kyiv.  

Sometimes on the outskirts of the city the Metro runs above ground like here at the station in Lisova.

Here the Metro becomes a subway again as it heads into the hills above the Dneiper river.

Here is a Metro station entrance marked by the green M.

You go down the stairs into the Metro station, pay your admission, and then go further down into the ground on escalators.  Sometimes it is a very long way.  Here we are coming back up.

When you get to the platform you need to make sure you get on the train going the right direction!  However, if you make a mistake, you just get off at the next station and cross over to the train going the other way! 

Sometimes it is very empty, like this early Sunday morning when the missionaries are traveling.

Sometimes it is more crowded and you have to stand and hang on!

Another place you might have to hang on is in a tram (tramvaui), a street car that runs on tracks, usually down the middle of the road.  It is electric, powered by the overhead power lines.

This is a new fancy tram with ads for the world soccer tournament that will be held in Kyiv in 2012.

Trollybuses are also electric and run off electric wires overhead, but can drive normally as long as the street has the wiring.  

To go to places outside the city, you may take a bus or a 15-20 passenger van.  Here is one going to Chernigov.  Many of these vans are parked outside Metro stations where people will need transportation to an outlying area.  They have signs indicating their destinations in their windows.  The driver waits until all seats are filled with passengers before taking your money and leaving.  Here some of the passengers are waiting outside smoking their last cigarette.

 We waited inside in the front seats.  This picture, taken through the front window, shows the line of "marshrutkas" (translates as ferries) waiting to take people to cities/villages outside Kyiv.

We went to the main train station in Kyiv, which is Ukraine's capital city, so it is the hub of national and international train traffic.  Here is the older train station and the new one nearby.

Trains can also run on electrical overhead lines or not.  Overnight trains have some "sleeping cars" with compartments where passengers can lie down.  You must make reservations and pay more.

My favorite part of our visit to the train station was stopping for a treat here!

Flat Stanley Visits Friends

Flat Stanley is a story written by Jeff Brown about a boy who had a bulletin board fall on him while he slept and he became 1/2 inch thick.  He has many adventures like getting mailed to California or flying like a kite.  Some elementary school teachers use this as a springboard for a project for English/Social Studies.  Each student creates a "Flat Stanley" and sends him to a person he knows.  Jayden sent his Flat Stanley to us and we enjoyed having him with us and taking him on adventures.  He arrived on April 8.  In his instructions, Jayden told us that Stanley was afraid of thunderstorms and would need a night light.  Just after he arrived, we had the first thunder and lightening storm with rain that we have had for months!  I was awakened by the storm and put Stanley by our nightlight on our bathroom counter while I enjoyed the storm!

The next day I took Flat Stan with me to the temple.  The grounds crew were planting the flower boxes with forced narcissus and pansies.

We were invited to visit Pavlina Ubyiko and Yulia Simanovskaya on a Monday afternoon, April 11.  Pavlina Ubyiko is a secretary in the temple office who speaks English and is also a temple worker.  Yulia Simanovska is another temple worker.  Both of them have children but are divorced.  They are very nice. We met and first went to a museum about the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. That is a place in northern Ukraine where Russia built several nuclear power plants.  On April 26, 1986 (25 years ago) one of the  plants exploded and burned, sending radioactive particles that were carried by the wind all over.  It is considered the  worst nuclear accident in history so far.  Many cities and towns nearby were evacuated and the people had to live somewhere else.  They never got to go back to their homes or apartments.  In the museum there were lots of pictures of children who had to leave their toys and clothes and go somewhere else.  

The first picture shows Pavlina and Yulia with Flat Stan at the steps going up to the exhibits with signs of cities that were ruined hanging above.  The apples pictured on the steps were reminders that no one could pick the fruit and eat it that year because it was contaminated.  

The next photo shows Flat Stan in a bush in front of a monument for those who lost their lives.  There were some older students waiting to go into the museum and one of them told me she knew a Flat Stanley from Chicago!  Though this might be boring, because of the problems with the nuclear reactor in Japan after the tsunami there, we all are more concerned about the dangers of radiation leaks from nuclear power plants.

Then we went to Pavlina's aparrtment.  This is the school among the apartment buildings where she lives.  Sis Ubiko's apartment in one of the buildings behind the school, an old building and very typical of apartments in Kyiv. 

Flat Stan is having fun with the big sign on a building and Grandpa! 

Here is a picture of Sis U welcoming us to her apartment.  They fixed a wonderful meal.  

Here is Flat Stan by some french bread that Grandma had spread with cheese spreads.  Sis U is frying some potato and cabbage dumplings.  Sis. S is standing by the salad she made.  

Then you can see on the table the yummy split pea soup and salad we ate along with the special cake they bought for our dessert.  

Flat Stan enjoyed meeting the cat, Fluffy, who is old and deaf. 

Grandpa bought the sisters some daffodils as we were leaving to go home.  We were very grateful for their hospitality.  

Easter-time in Ukraine

We have been learning about and experiencing Easter traditions in Ukraine.  I have included here much information and pictures I have copied from online sources too numerous to mention.   We were excited when we were passing by the Orthodox Church on our way to our own church services in Chernigov on the Sunday before Easter.  We had known that Palm Sunday was celebrated in Slavic countries with pussywillows.  Here we saw them being sold!  Members of the congregation, too numerous to all go inside, were standing outside to listen.  In the Orthodox church there are no benches; people stand for the services.

Springtime rituals were already well established by the time Prince Vladimir turned the Kievan Rus into a Christian state in 988.  Pagan Ukrainians had been welcoming spring with dancing, fires, painted eggs, and other rituals for centuries. Some of these annual practices were absorbed into Christian Easter rites but maintained their roots in the peasants’ eyes as important springtime traditions.  For example, the cutting of pussywillow branches was not originally a Christian substitute for palm branches. Since pagan times, the pussywillow’s bloom was seen as a signpost for spring and was thought to have healthful qualities if ingested. Pagan Ukrainians would cut the branches and swat one another with them to bless each other with the pussywillow’s strength to come out of winter so early in the year. When Palm Sunday began to be celebrated, the two practices merged into one.


We bought some souvenir plastic Easter eggs and hung them on some branches that we brought inside on our general conference Sunday.  The branches sprouted and it looked like this.  Though we bought these hanging eggs, Ukrainians don't use them!  They are just souvenirs that someone like me could use this way.  I thought is was fun; a Ukrainian looked at me funny when I asked them about what they would use them for.  They wouldn't buy them!

The next year we also decorated branches with our grandchildren who were visiting.  We also bought a bunch of pussy will and birch twigs at the time of Palm Sunday.  Here is a picture of them both.

Easter eggs are an important part of the Eastern European Easter tradition. Eggs, symbols of fertility, springtime, renewal, life, good luck, eternity, and rebirth have been given as gifts and used in springtime rites for centuries in Eastern European countries so they are really holdovers from a pagan tradition.  Ukrainian Eggs (Pysanky) are famed the world over for their intricate designs, bold colors, and the skill it takes to draw precisely on a curved surface using a wax-resist method. While other Eastern European countries paint eggs for Easter, Ukraine is the most famous for this practice.  These eggs are not hard-boiled but are usually "blown out" after painting. 

The Faberge egg tradition began in Tsarist Russia. These highly-prized and priceless art objects were the Easter eggs of royalty.   Fabergé eggs were commissioned by Czar Alexander III of Russia as an Easter surprise for his wife.  They are not Ukrainian!

On Friday we went to the store to get groceries and also wanted to get some Ukrainian Easter bread. It turns out it was precisely the right day because Friday is the day most housewives (and stores) bake this bread.  We found shelves of the fresh Easter bread available.

We bought two and started eating the smaller one.  Recipes online are of a slightly sweet yeast-rising dough with eggs and perhaps some cardamon, raisins and almonds. The top is decorated with cut dough shapes or white frosting. It tasted to me like my hot cross buns!

The Easter basket is prepared for Sunday morning.  It includes the Easter bread, eggs--both the pysanky decorated ones, and hard-boiled ones just dyed--usually red to represent the blood of Christ,  The hard shell can symbolize the sealed tomb of Christ so the cracking of it symbolizes Christ's resurrection from the dead.  Other foods such as cheese, butter, salt, pork fat, horse radish, ham, sausages, as well as various seeds were also brought to church for the blessing.  

We saw people on the subway Sunday morning with their Easter baskets.  I don't know if they were on their way to or from the church at that hour (8a)  When we arrived in Chernigov after 10a, there were only a few people in the area of the Orthodox church.  The church doors were open, but only lit candles were inside.  

The Resurrection Mass in olden times a was held in the early morning before the rising of the sun. At that time in history all churches in Ukraine were built to face the East. When the Mass was ending and the priest first said "Chrystos Voskres" (Christ Has Risen).  Following the Mass the people greeted each other in the traditional way, by kissing each other three times.  Sometimes there would be a procession around the church three times.  The people would then stand outside the church with their baskets filled with the food which they had prepared for the blessing ceremony. A lit candle was always placed in the baskets which were decorated with aromatic herbs and periwinkle. Immediately after the ceremony the family would hurry home to share the blessed paska and thus begin Easter breakfast.  On our way back from Chernigov we saw many people outside enjoying a picnic on a beautiful Spring day.  I imagined they were enjoying the contents of their Easter baskets!  Most stores were closed and few people were on the streets.  It truly seemed like families were celebrating a holy day.

During the Easter season the dead are remembered on Maundy Thursday (before Easter) and also during the whole week after Easter, especially on the first Sunday following Easter Sunday.  People gather in the cemetery, bringing with them a dish containing some food and liquor or wine, which they consume, leaving the rest at the graves. This tradition is still very alive in Ukraine and cemeteries have built-in tables and benches around the tombs for this important moment.  People usually come and clean the tomb area, then celebrate with eating and drinking; they will then leave on the tomb some food and drink even unopened.  It is part of the Ukrainian tradition as well that the poor people are allowed to come later in the cemeteries late in the evening in order to retrieve the food that has been left for them intentionally.  People also can leave lit candles on graves.  There are enclosed votive-type candles that can be bought which would be safe and shielded from wind. (See stacks of these colored cylinders behind the baskets and in front of the flowers in the grocery store photo above)

This seems like a wonderful time to do the Spring cleaning of cemetery plots and then remember the overarching blessings of Easter.  During the Easter season, when you meet people you say "Christ is risen" and the reply should be "Truly risen".  That knowledge is in our hearts and central to all we are doing here in Ukraine.  All people will be resurrected and live forever.  But also because of Christ's atonement, we can be forgiven of our sins and may be helped to follow His Gospel in serving and loving those around us.  And we may prepare ourselves to live together with family members and with our Heavenly Father and His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  

The Bandura

The Bandura is a Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument. Hundreds of years ago it was often used by a blind minstrel as accompaniment to his singing!   Pictured is an early instrument that had 4 bass strings and 20-23 strings total.  Modern instruments have 55-65 metal strings tuned chromatically through 5 octaves, with or without retuning mechanisms (which allows for the rapid retuning of the instrument into different keys).  Below is Sis. Serduk's modern bandura with 65 strings.  You can identify the levers of the retuning mechanism on the right of the tuning pegs.  What you can't see well is the two levels of strings which helps her fingers to know by feel which to pluck.  She started to learn as a child and wasn't happy but stuck with it for a few years and then left it behind until she became an adult.  Now she is so happy to be able to play!

I first saw the bandura used in the orchestra for the cultural celebration before the dedication of the temple.  Then when I saw Sis Serdyuk play it in a Christmas concert, I asked her about it.  Katia Serdyk is a temple worker and speaks English, so I knew her and could communicate with her!  She was happy to share details with me and offered to come and help all of us temple missionaries appreciate this Ukrainian folk instrument.  She prepared for a month and put together a program of folk music that also included Ukrainian folk songs.  Her helpers were a young man we often see at the temple and a couple who recently joined the church.  The couple are professional musicians.  He's a member of the Kyiv Bandura Choir that performs concerts and also tours.  He plays an alto bass bandura and also has a wonderful singing voice.  Sis. Serkyuk is not professional, but just enjoys the instrument and sharing her talents in many ways.  Here is a clip of video I took during their presentation.

 

Hopefully you will be able to notice that the bass strings are plucked by her left hand while the right hand is plucking the melody, and then sometimes she is also singing!  She does use finger picks.  Here is a picture of the group.  We really enjoyed their music.