Tour Leader’s Blog

After a wonderful day in Yalta yesterday exploring famous castles, we went back to business today.

We left Simferopol for the west coast of Crimea to visit some farmers in the MEDA horticultural program. En route we passed many miles of coastal beaches offering many recreational opportunities. We met with Alexander Suslov, a lead farmer who is responsible for 30 village farmers. He is a well-respected, successful farmer and has a vision for engaging over 500 village farmers to increase their crops and incomes. After an extensive tour of his operations, our world changed as we entered a 2500-year-old city, Yevpatoria, the centre of a Karim community. We observed a mosque built in the sixteenth century and a Greek Orthodox Church. A quaint city with narrow streets and wonderful people often referred to as Little Jerusalem.

Our unfortunate bus driver received a parking violation fine while we enjoyed a fine lunch at the seashore.

We then visited Michael Gzhorgashvili who was born in Uzbekistan, then deported to far eastern Soviet Union where he worked as a crane operator. When he and his family were allowed to return to Crimea, he drove truck during which time it took him eight years to obtain government permission to start farming. He now grows crops including cabbage, carrots, beets, apples, potatoes and helps 15 village farmers with their start-up farms.

From there we went to visit one of Michael’s village farmers, Ramazan. He was the first farmer to grow and sell iceberg lettuce to McDonald’s Restaurant. He also grows tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers all of which he is able to sell to wholesalers.

After a tiring day we drove back to Simferopol to enjoy yet another delicious traditional meal.

~ John Pauls

We have just departed company from the MEDA team in Melitopol. We arrived at their offices at 10:00 am and met Steve Wright and his team. Steve presented The Ukraine Horticultural Project to us. This project’s goal over the next 5 years is to help 5,000 farmers improve their income.

Their farms are typically under 1-2 hectares on which they will likely grow strawberries, raspberries, table grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes or peppers for local markets.

We then visited a lead farmer who grows his own crops on 6 hectares of land and also oversees and trains other project farmers. Edward’s previous farming experience was part of the old Soviet collective farms. En route to Edward’s land we drove through a former Soviet Air Force Base and drove past many mothball Soviet war planes. The Ukrainian government cannot financially support their complete military.

Edward planted his first crop this year which consists of 4 kinds of berries; strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and goose berries. His crop is irrigated with drip irrigation directed from the Dnieper River. He will sell his produce to the tourists at the numerous coastal Crimea resort areas.

Edward then directed us to one other farmer, Sergei, who grows strawberries on 1 hector of land beside his home. Both are enthusiastic participants anticipating their prospects for the future.

We then enjoyed a traditional meal of borscht and verenki with Steven and several other team members.

~ Audrey Voth Petkau

It’s hard to describe a day like yesterday, when our TourMagination 2009 group toured through the former Mennonite settlement of Molotschna. Along the way every single person who had come to see a particular village or site had their deepest desires satisfied. Sometimes(as with Herb Epp) it happened when a Ukrainian who lives now on the site of Herb’s grandfather’s estate told us that he recalled hearing stories from his own grandfather of the former Mennonite estate that once occupied those lands. Other times it was when Vic Huebner was able to wander the now-barren lands of his own grandparents; yet its proximity to the village school meant that it was certainly the site. Along the way we were able to speak with local
villagers (through Olga, through me, and occasionally through bits of German), and even enjoyed a brief snack of perishki and a homemade drink of a Frau Warkentin, who has somehow survived this long in these villages.

But the highlight happened in the former village of Sparrau, the birthplace of Mary Dick of our group in 1926. Mary had fled from this village with her mother - her father already executed by the Stalinist years - in 1943, and was now returning with her daughter Esther. Now both were “returning” to Sparrau. And against all odds, Mary was able to find and visit with a
childhood acquaintance, who had been the daughter of the Russian sheep herder in their village. It was a touching moment, full of joy.

Even later in the day my daughter Laura and I were able to travel to the long-disappeared village of Margenau. The bus could not go any further than the surviving village of Gnadenthal, so it waited there while Laura and I drove in a rather old Lada with one of the villagers to the former site of my mother’s birthplace. We drove through this former village site, now
covered with a great swath of almost 2 meter high thorns. But at the end we could still see the setting of the cemetery. It was moving for Laura and me to visit a place which we almost reached with my mother on another tour way back in 1989.

So it went yesterday. But the true perspective was given at the start of our day there, in the reclaimed Mennonite church of Petershagen which is now the place of worship for local villagers. We were able to join them for part of their worship service. At one point their minister said that we Canadians had maybe come to look for our former sites and villages, but
that we should rest secure in knowing that it was an eternally living God whom we all worshipped. It spoke well to that moment, and the spirit of thankfulness that has carried us so far.

We have our farewell dinner this evening on Zaporozhye Island; then leave tomorrow morning for our final two nights in beautiful Odessa.

~ Len Friesen

It’s hard to describe the contrasts of the last several days. Just yesterday we left beautiful St. Petersburg, an Imperial city of vast canals and rivers that interconnect a series of islands on the Gulf of Finland. Highlights there included the hovercraft ride we took to the palace of Peterhof with its cascading fountains, or the opportunity to visit the Orthodox church service in the Kazan Cathedral. This was all the more significant as “Kazan” was the sight of a rather tasteless Museum of Atheism during the Soviet period. There was so much more, including visits to the famed Hermitage with its priceless art collection, and the Peter Paul Fortress where we visited the burial place of the Tsars. Indeed, the splendor of this city helps explain why Mennonites took such pride in being part of the Russian empire.

But as of yesterday we’ve been based in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye in the Mennonite heartland. We spent this day exploring the settlement of Khortitsa (Chortitsa in German). We spent time at some of the large Mennonite-built churches and schools that have survived, and even visited the famed “oak tree”. While there several from our group actually met a Ukrainian grandmother who had had a Mennonite mother. And although her mom had died when she was only 4, she still remembered “Gott ist die Liebe”. It was moving to see her embrace Mary Dick from our group, who is returning to this land after having fled it in the 1940s, just as it was moving to see the Riediger siblings walk down the street of Nikolaifeld last evening - the home village of their father and grandfather.

So it goes! We head for Molotschna tomorrow as our visit to Russia and Ukraine continues.

~ Len Friesen

Greetings from Moscow where we have just marked the end of our first full day. I should say that many roads gathered in this most Russian of cities as we came together yesterday from flights leading through Washington, Vienna, Toronto and Dusseldorf, but we all made it safe and sound.

We began today at the longstanding Baptist church in downtown Moscow, where we participated in a Trinity Sunday service. We were welcomed warmly, and heard some very beautiful singing from the church choir. The texts were from John, of the sending of the Holy Spirit, and from Luke’s account of the Road to Emmaus.

After that, we toured the Tretyakov Gallery just off from the Kremlin. Our guide, Svetlana, led us through this greatest of all Russian art collections; topped off by a walk back in time to some of Russia’s most prized icons. After that we had free time over lunch, which some took in at a lovely sidewalk cafe, whereas others walked about the canals of this part of the city. And that was just half-way through our day, as a tour of the city followed before we finally made it to Red Square. Many consider this to the very heart of Russia, and for good reason. We had our evening meal beside one of the oldest walled sections in all of Moscow, and capped off our evening with a performance at Moscow’s famed circus.

We are all well and in good spirits. Tomorrow begins our last full day in Moscow, and a chance to be part of an Orthodox worship service in “Christ the Saviour Cathedral”, a church that was destroyed in Stalin’s time only to be rebuilt after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

So it goes! For now, and for the group,

~ Len Friesen