This morning, we had an appointment with Tayna Bobko at 12:00 p.m. She is someone who we call the “egg lady”. She does beautiful paintings - primarily portraits and LDS church scenes on wooden plates and wooden eggs. She was working on a large wooden plate with a picture of Elder David A. Bednar and his wife, Susan, surrounded by four temples. This will be presented to him a week from Sunday at the district conference he will be attending in conjunction with dedicating a church building in Harkov. Cheryl and I have put in an order with her (which will not be finished until next Spring) of 7 Christmas decorations (wooden eggs) with a portrait of each family member on one side and a Christmas scene on the other.
Natalie (our translator) told us a story about her great aunt, who after WWII, was told she could be trained as a teacher. She was shipped off – not in a passenger train - but in cattle cars from her home village (Pilhany - Westgern Ukraine) to help with post WW II reconstruction. She told Natalie she slept in huts and laid bricks in the cold wind. After a while, she ran away back to her home village. The police were waiting for her there and she was shipped off to Siberia where she was sentenced for 5 years of labor. In Siberia they cut down trees for wood. She said just a few people would carry an entire tree on their shoulders. The would huddle together in groups as they walked to and from their work to try to maintain some body heat with the group and cut the wind for those in the middle. After five years she came back to live a productive life in Western Ukraine.
I know there have been many efforts to document stories of the “greatest generation” (WW II vets) and their stories of heroism. It would be a shame if no efforts were made to document some of the stories of Ukraine and the other countries of the former USSR relative to WW II and the effect of communism on the people.
We didn’t get to Roman’s orphanage until about 2:00 pm. On the way into the orphanage, we ran into the Serge Mehilovich, Roman’s music, teacher who went to the US with the last group of 45 children. He had only been back for a few days. He told us that on his trip he was very impressed with the nice clean streets, the beautiful nature and mountains, and the beautiful homes. However, he said the thing he was most impressed with was genuine niceness of the people and how they treated one another, especially in the family. He seemed impressed and commented on the belief that our families will be families forever and implied how that must impact how we treat one another. I told him that was the highest compliment he could pay us as the other things are merely physical things (clean streets, homes, etc.)
In the early evening we played charades using English words as the subject to act out. It was a lot of fun. After we took Roman to orphanage, we spoke with Maria (his mother teacher) who pulled out certificates and memorabilia for Roman. She presented us with Roman’s first grade Cyrillic writing book, and some pictures he had drawn from the first grade. (She saves many pictures, writing books and other school work for all children from their first grade and presents it to them when they leave they orphanage.) She also presented to us about a dozen certificates of Roman for his placement either in boy scouts, football (soccer) or academic achievements he had earned. She was very complementary of Roman and his abilities. This is a terrific kid who has abundant talent.
Irena and Natasha
Roman Summer 2006
Roman Summer 2006
Roman Summer 2006
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