My dear brother Loren

"There are no ends in nature, only beginnings."

My dear beloved brother died suddenly while hiking with friends of the Florida Trail Association on 22 May. It was one of his favorite things to do. But I cannot imagine life without him. He was my best friend, my soulmate. He was always with me, wherever I was. I took him to Ukraine with me and he followed my every experience. He was with me all the way. Now I feel his absence more than his presence. It is painful, his early death, at 62 years old, just a few month before his book, An Asperger Journey, is due out. This is the story of his life, a life of achievement, of purpose and meaning. He was passionate about the environment, about his progressive political beliefs, about the love of the goddess. I want to hug him one more time. I want him to be here for booksignings. But it won't happen now. I grieve for my brother.

I remember what he always told me: "There are no ends in nature," he said, "only beginnings." I want to believe him. I want to believe that he is in the loving embrace of the mother goddess, as he fervently believed. One of his many friends said, at his memorial service, "The woods will miss him." Yes, the woods will miss him. The earth will miss you. We all will miss you, Loren.

From the Bottom Up

Hand painted sign by Barry Newman, 2007, flickr photo by mnplsnnut. flickr photo India

I'm not talking about a shot of vodka here, but about social change. How it happens. "The arc of history is toward justice," Martin Luther King, Jr. said, and other progressive reformers have reiterated this transcendent view of change over time.

Yes, and the arc begins at home. It begins in our communities, in our villages, on our city streets, on farms, at the local level. Not from the top down. Not from the august heights of country presidents and prime ministers, or the halls of congresses, parliaments and legislatures.

Change begins from the bottom up. That's how I see it happening in Ukraine, right now.

It's about a few people cleaning up their local parks, protesting environmental hazards like dumps in their neighborhood or gas stations on their rivers.

It's about non-profits and non-governmental agencies tending to the needs of their constituents, the harmed, the poor, the sick, the maimed, the victims of injustice.

It's about volunteers stepping up to take elected officials to task, to hold them accountable for their promises and actions. It's about the kind of work Victoria NGO does through its "Know Your Rights" and other projects. It’s about organizations like the Eastern Ukraine Center for Civil Initiatives, working to empower leaders and strengthen civil society.

These are not abstract examples. They are real. All these actions and activities are happening in eastern Lugansk oblast now, or have happened while I've been a witness to them as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

We can wait on our presidents and legislatures to make governments work for the good of the many, but we will have to wait a long time. That's what Natalia and others keep telling me, and I see that. These high-level officials are too-often more influenced by special interests, self-interest, and greed than the interest of the many, the common good. 'The greatest good for the greatest number " has seldom been public policy since John Stuart Mills promulgated it, not before or since.

That's why the grassroots work taking place in Lugansk oblast is so full of promise. It's what "participatory democracy" is all about, as my brother Loren reminds me. "Think globally and act locally," a popular slogan from the 1960s and the environmental movement tells us. It’s still good advice I think, still resonates. In fact, it's more relevant than ever. Change is on the horizon in Ukraine. Change from the bottom up.

Yuliya and Vovo: Strengthening Civil Society

I learned about the Eastern Ukraine Center for Civil Initiatives, a management, training and policy NPO funded by USAid, the National Endowment for Democracy, and other funders, through Vera Flyat, the director of Victoria NGO and my counterpart in Starobilsk (below problem solving in a small group session and presenting with seminar leader). The Center's projects fall under the umbrella of "Total Action for the Support of Human Rights and Democracy." Vera has taken several of their organizational development and leadership seminars, held at the Shevchenko University in Lugansk. I've attended some of them with her, and they are outstanding.

The founding staff includes two smart young Ukrainians, Yuliya Rashchupkina and Volodymyr (Vovo) Shcherbachenko (photo top right), who understand the global trajectory of Ukrainian life.

Their organization does not engage in politics or polemics. Its mission is to strengthen the nonprofit (NPO), or non-governmental organization (NGO), sector in Ukraine and to promote informed citizen participation in local decision-making. It seeks to strengthen the framework for change by training grassroots leaders of the country who will, in turn, create the civil society and transparent democracy for which the people long.

Their varied projects address critical issues confronting Ukraine today: education in transparent procedures and processes for new urban construction and for land distribution (huge problems); the economic and social importance of preserving the nation's cultural and historical heritage; training local NGO staff and volunteers to expose and resist corruption in government, and how to access information; training farmers in the most impoverished rural regions of our Oblast for leadership roles in their communities. This is, indeed, the 21st century Agenda for Social Change in Ukraine. Yuliya and Vovo are right on top of it.

The Eastern Ukraine Center for Civil Initiatives is just one of hundreds of such organizations throughout Ukraine. They don't make front page news, their work is often underground, but they are making a dramatic difference. Their work adds up to extraordinary efforts to develop and strengthen civil society and the nonprofit sector in this former Soviet republic. This is a relatively new development, maybe 10 years old, but it is planting seeds of change. The great news is that it is happening in eastern Lugansk (Luhansk in Ukrainian) oblast, where resources are often limited, poor rural communities predominate, the gap between rich and poor is large, and change is slow.

Vovo and Yuliya were college students when their civic activism began, Vovo at the Luhansk Shevchenko University and Yuliya at Eastern Ukraine National University. Vovo has also studied in the US, at the University of Kansas, an acclaimed higher education institution and an important milestone in his evolving philosphy of social change. In addition to his work with the Initiative, he is now working on a Masters degree in urban design and policy at a university in Sweden. He speaks English (he demurs, but his English is excellent), understands modern organizational practices, is extremely knowledgable about his country's history, and has a vision for a stronger Ukrainian society.

Yuliya shares this vision. She is also hoping to continue her education and do graduate work in the States. She joined the Human Rights movement in eastern Ukraine when the University administration pressured students to vote a certain way; she was also greatly influenced and inspired by the Orange Revolution and its hope for a democractic Ukraine. Yuliya is an articulate, talented and skillful professional.

Investing in young adults like Yuliya and Vova is the best hope for Ukraine's future. Contemporary in their thinking, politically savvy, hard working and committed, they don't wave banners and make speeches. They do the grinding day-to-day work of preparing for and conducting high-quality seminars and workshops, providing skilled trainers along with excellent and useful materials and information, increasing the knowledge and skills of future leaders. Vera has greatly benefitted from these seminars, a chance to learn, to network, to strengthen skills, and to grow as an NGO director and community leader. This is the wave of the future that gives reason for optimism.

Things are churning beneath the surface of "politics as usual" in Ukraine. Change is happening from the bottom up. These impressive efforts will one day bear fruit, ensuring the steady evolution of Ukraine into a modern, unique and thriving nation. It's already happening, one seminar at a time, thanks to young visionaries like Vovo and Yuliya.

It's a Lavender World

I've written about the lilacs in Starobilsk, now blooming in profusion. I've mentioned purple tulips, especially those around the government buildings in the Center. But now come the Irises. They are everywhere, in as stunning profusion as the lilacs. One day they were buds, the next they had fully bloomed in all their glory.

We've had mostly sunny days lately, with some late afternoon showers, all good for the irises, and for growing gardens. Luba's is flourishing. And so are the flowers all around town. I'm so enamored that no matter where I go, I exclaim my joy. I'm known as the Amerikanka who is always happy, and for sure flowers do that for me. "You're bright purple and we're gray," Natalia said somberly the other day. "You might be gray on the inside," I responded, as we walked past a beautiful garden full or purple iris, "but you are bright as a Ukrainian iris to me.” We banter; we laugh.

Last week, I was at Asya and Sasha's admiring their garden, natural and wild. I went home with a large bouquet of lilacs, tulips and, yes, lily of the valley. Ah, the wonderful fragrance! The flowers adorn Luba's house, including my bedroom. I’m not sure she is noticing them as much during these days of sorrow, but I think she likes having flowers around as much as I do.

On the way home from 9 May with Natasha (before I discovered I had lost my camera), she wanted me to stop at her babuska’s house. I wasn't sure why, but you know I never say no to such invitations. My willingness to follow along has taken me to some fantastic places and memorable experiences. It was so this time, too. Natasha went about the garden picking lilacs and tulips and daffodils, and then offered them to me as a gift. Such generosity of spirit! Such shared joy in the beauty of spring! The flowers filled my bike basket to overflowing, and elicited smiles as I peddled home. It's a lavender world!

Savoring Books

The power and magic of books!

The Starobilsk English Club is still immersed in the gift of books from Toledo. We counted 92, more than half of them children's books, all welcomed. Members have been reading them, savoring them, translating them.

What great tools for learning English! Even better than I thought. We’ve spent lots of time translating titles and authors, for example, writing them inside the book cover on the title page, and making lists in English and in Russian. Weve spent a lot of time with dictionaries. We learned how difficult it is sometimes to translate meanings from one language to another. For example: Celebration of "You-ness," or Tuck Everlasting, Hot Fudge Hero, The Cat Who Tailed a Thief, The Hanged Man's Song, Oh Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit me Well.

This exercise alone has been remarkably effective, and fun. It will also make it easier for the librarians to catalogue everything, the original intent.

Best of all, everyone is reading! I gave each of them the chance to choose a book to take home, and to return it at our next meeting. I've had many requests to have the books for a little longer. "I'm only half-way through," Vlad noted of his attempt to read Harry Potter in English. Olga and Tonya the teacher are both reading children's books, Tonya for her classes, and Olga for reading practice. In fact I've found that everyone likes the children's books; they are short and easy to read, as well as beautifully illustrated, and they give a sense of accomplishment.

Some members, though, have taken on some challenging reads. Maria is grappling with Black Beauty, and Alina, who's about 14 years old, with Little Women. Sveta took a book of poems, and Anton is bravely plowing through To Kill a Mockingbird. He had heard of it, and I told him it was one of my favorite stories.

I had a lovely encounter with Alina on the street the other day. I was doing errands in town and she was walking home from school. I stopped to say hello, and saw she had a book tucked under her arm. "What's the book?" I asked. She smiled and held it up: Little Women!

Who would have thought that a young school girl in Starobilsk, Ukraine, would be walking around with Little Women. It's heartwarming. Thanks again Toledo!

We can't wait to get more books. We welcome dontated books, if you can somehow come up with the postage. Also, I have just submitted a Partnership Grant to the Peace Corps so you will be able to make tax-deductible donations for the project as soon as it's approved. It will be an "enduring resource" for the community, as I wrote in the grant. I'll keep you posted.

If you can donate books, send them to Francine Cary, c/o Vera Flyat, A/R 14, Starobilsk, Lugansk Oblast, Ukraine 92703.

LOST and FOUND

Flickr photo by SenselesslyLost

LOST: I lose things and I get mad at myself for it. Some things are minor, a pencil, a pen, an umbrella. Many umbrellas. Some are major. Like losing my camera. I was in Lenin park commemorating the 9 May remembrance of the end of World War II, a huge holiday here. I don't think Americans can even begin to comprehend the devastation of that war on the land and its people. Millions lost.

The park was crowded with young and old, veterans and their families. I stopped and chatted with people I knew as I strolled to the WWII memorial, which is powerful and moving. After a few hours I wondered toward home with my friend Natasha (with her family below right). I stopped at a store to buy water, thinking about World War II and the ways we remember, feeling good about being part of this community's commemoration--an American sharing memories of the war in Ukraine with a Russian-speaking village, and the complicated history that spun out of this tragedy.

FOUND: I didn't discover my camera missing until I got home and unpacked my shoulder bag. I panicked. I looked everywhere, even in the most unlikely and illogical places, just to be doing something to find my camera. Darn, where could I have left the camera that had taken so many wonderful photos of my Ukrainian adventure. I don't remember putting it down.

I stewed for a couple of days. I began calculating the cost of another camera, money I didn't want to spend. On my way to Victoria's yesterday I stopped at the store. Who knows? I asked the owners if they had seen a camera, in Russian I had written down. They knew immediately what I wanted.

And guess what? They had it! They had my camera. I jumped for joy, hugged them, thanked them, and bought cookies to show my appreciation. Ukrainian honesty and good will, and luck!

Now I can include a couple of photos I took on 9 May. I heard my camera singing: "I was lost, but now I'm found..." Amazing grace!

Panels in the Park

Natalia and I spent a leisurely few hours walking through town to the park. We stopped and smelled the lilacs. We admired the tulips, sat on a park bench and chatted, walked past the statues and playgrounds, strolled along the Aydar river. The river was calm, the air still, the trees silent, all of us meditating in unison.

On the way to the river we passed new murals recently painted on old tin fences in one part of the park. Dilapitated tin panels that were once an eyesore are now are a sight for sore eyes. A perfect background for the children’s play area. Someone created a great art project and had children clean and paint the panels. A few murals have cartoon figures, animals and flowers, bright and cheerful. Another shows three teenagers (I would guess) working something out (not sure of this either but its emotive). A bear and hearts panel expresses love for one another. My favorite is of a contemporary young man, urban dude, modern haircut, superman look, headphones to his ear. They are all beautiful in their own way, and together they add beauty to the park.

Natalia and I stopped to admire them, then headed to an outdoor cafe for ice cream and soda. We pondered the beauty of panels in the park. Another lovely Spring day in Starobilsk.

Lilacs

Nothing takes me back to my childhood in Rochester, New York, faster than seeing lilacs in bloom. And Ukraine has them in profusion. Vivid memories in lavender, deep purple and white fill my senses. Or are they the real bushes I am passing on my walk to town in Starobilsk?

The whites were the sweetest, the deep purples the most elegant, the lavenders the most accessible. They are the same here. The memories and the reality overlap. I am a child, and I am an aging woman, basking in the glory of lilacs.

Rochester was known as the Lilac Capital of the US, maybe of the world. Highland Park, not far from our home, featured hundreds of species from around the world. I'm sure some of them were from places like Ukraine, but at the time I never thought of lilacs that way. They were just incomparably beautiful in that park, like the Cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin in Washington, or the varieties of camellias that beautify and sanctify McClay Gardens in Tallahassee, Florida.

Lilacs are beautiful in this place, too, as if there is an unbroken connection between the cities of Rochester, Chernigov and Starobilsk. The lilac connection. Or maybe I'm in Rochester afterall. The memories and reality blend, the line between then and now blur. I am remembering and I am seeing.

In Toledo we had a few bushes in our yard on Robinwood Ave, like mom had in our yard in Rochester. They never quite matched the lilacs that filled my imagination, but I nurtured them like sacred icons and they bloomed every year. The stately Victorian homes of the Old West End served as dramatic backgrounds for the burst of lilacs that graced our neighborhood. They filled the sky with color and the air with sweet fragrance. And when the sun shone on them at sunset, they sparkled like thousands of little lights on Christmas trees.

I think this is why I love May in Ukraine. And why I can't resist the temptation to break off a stem from a free-flowing lilac bush on the side of a path and take it home with me.

May Day Weekend in Starobilsk

The English Club at the Park

May 1, International Labor Day or Workers' Day, begins a series of patriotic holidays in Ukraine. The merry month of May is full of them. Starobilsk began the celebrations with a festive May Day parade, an art show, and various events and activities at Lenin Park.

Robust labor songs and marching music (including some John Philip Sousa, which stopped me in my tracks!) blared from the loudspeakers of the Cultural Center as people walked to the park. I stopped for a while and listened to the music.

The park, which had been lovingly raked, planted, painted and cleaned all week, looked beautiful, aglow with red tulips and flowering trees and bushes. Balloon vendors, booths, clowns and the art show added to the colorful scene. Many families took advantage of the nice day, while kids screamed with joy on the playground. I was happy to see Olena, selling her beautiful folk art. We were soon joined by our friend Natasha, a former teacher and Starobilsk expert who showed me around town when I first got here almost a year ago (Olena, left; Natasha right, above). I won't ever forget the kindness of strangers when I arrived here, a raw recruit unsure of what I was doing.

I spent the afternoon at a family picnic at my university teacher friend Natalia's house in Lymon, a few miles past Camp Sosnovy, with her husband Vasyl and college-aged sons Artur and Artom. I got to meet her lovely and vivacious sister Olga and her husband, and Natalia's brother and his wife. Their father, who is grieving the recent death of his wife, and another brother, couldn't make it. Although the sisters and brothers are all grieving, it was a fun gathering, in the country, under the trees, near the river, surrounded by golden fields and white flowering bushes in amazing profusion. Life goes on. The bushes glowed in the setting sun, as the boys, Natalia and Olga played football (soccer)and volleyball. The food, cooked on the fire Artur and Artom had built with logs and sticks from the woods, the salads, fruits, fresh bread and wine, and the company above all, were fantastic. We actually had fun attempting to speak some in English, some in Russian. Olga was especially curious about English words. I'm always grateful when anyone even tries to say a few English words!

The gathering evoked lots of memories: family picnics with my mom and dad and sister and brother in Rochester; with my own family and children in one of the great Toledo parks, or on the beach at Nantucket, or in Saint Petersburg; with my sister and her family and friends, and with my mom and brother, in Tallahassee. What great memories.

On Sunday I headed for the park again. The Library was closed for the May Day holiday and so the English Club had decided we should meet at the park. I was surprised that 15 people showed up, including the kids Ira, Alina and Ira, the college students Maria and Tonya, and our faithful community members Olga, Tonya and Dr. Tonya. Alosha and Sergei and some welcomed newcomers joined us later. It was informal and relaxing. We chatted about the weather, the beauty of Starobilsk in spring, the May Day holidays.

I always have some surprise in my backpack, and this day was no exception. I pulled out a sheet of paper, held it up with a flourish, and asked people to gather round. When I got their attention, I started to read, slowly.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud," I began. Ah, yes, William Wordsworth's Daffodils! A famous poem by a famous 19th century Romantic poet from England, I noted. Dr. Tonya beamed with pleasure, as she recalled having read this poem in a college course many years ago. We shared the good feelings.

Some members took turns reading the poem in English, then translating it into Russian. It was lovely in both languages. Tonya, Olga and I helped mime and pantomime the images...wandering like a cloud...the "crowd" of golden daffodils, dancing along a lake, twinkling like stars on the milky way, so "a poet could not be but gay." When the poet saw them later, in "that inward eye," in his imagination, his heart sang, and he danced with the daffodils. By then Tonya, Olga and I were pointing to our heads, to our "mind's eye," clasping our hands to our hearts, and dancing merrily around the park bench. Not the most graceful dancers, but we were rewarded with some good laughs for our efforts!

It was a perfect poem for a perfect blue-sky day in the park. Tonya of Koorychevka said the smell of daffodils reminded her of her childhood, in the Kiev area. So did this poem. Could she keep the copy and read it to her class? Sure! Dr. Tonya said there were no daffodils in Starobilsk when she was growing up. They are relatively recent import. Really? That sparked a good discussion. The young ones couldn't imagine Starobilsk without daffodils. "They for sure...hmm...flowerish?.. they like it here," Maria said, stumbling for the right words. She couldn't remember "flourish." I know the feeling, and I helped out. "Yes, daffodils FLOURISH here!" Love's labor was not lost on this grand May Day weekend. I am thankful for simple pleasures.