What it means to be Ukrainian

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Easter in Ireland with Ukrainians

On Easter Sunday we hosted a traditional Ukrainian Easter lunch for the 8 Ukrainian families we helped the most, a few Irish friends and German friends in residence. About 40 people in total.

We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids, ate ourselves silly, walked up to the top of the land for the views over Clew Bay, and then we had dessert. I made my first ever studenetz and it was delicious, and over the span of the week, I systematically produced a menu that included Ukrainian vegetable salad, potato salad, tsvikla, horseradish sauce, lamb, and ham as well as a walnut mocha torte. Alex made paska, pashtet, baked four loaves of bread and rolls. Our friends brought cakes, a duck, casseroles, and other goodies. We were afraid we wouldn't have enough food in traditional Ukrainian fashion! Everyone went home with doggie bags.

They are my new family. I have adopted all these amazing Ukrainians. There was joy in the world today and it displaced the sorrow felt every other day. I was too busy to take any decent photos.

What a journey this has been for me in Ireland with the Ukrainians. Easter Sunday, they were marvelling at Alex's paska, the traditional Easter bread. They had heard about the traditional one being sweet and plain but decorated with symbols.

In modern Ukraine, they have moved away from the traditional ways and adopted new ways of decorating their paska with icing and coloured sprinkles. They also branched away from sweet and some do savoury, and variously flavoured. The Christians still bless it in their Easter baskets on Easter Saturday.

Most had never seen a real pysanka. They were astounded that I had real eggs painted in intricate detail in my basket.

The Crimean tatars were celebrating the beginning of Ramadan but they joined in the camaraderie. It was lovely having them with us.

It's fascinating to everyone that my Ukrainian, being more than 70 years out of Ukraine when my parents fled, is more authentic than theirs. They say I have an American accent in Ukrainian, but I use all the old Ukrainian words not the Russian ones that infiltrated the language. They love reading my Ukrainian history books because they are learning all the history that was suppressed under soviet rule. The wonder of it all.

I never could have imagined this journey.

Monday, November 27, 2023

Giving thanks

My cousin Myshka's youngest daughter Talia is getting married in Florida tomorrow. Alex and I decided we'd make the trip. We hadn't seen Myshka in more than 20 years, incredibly. We'd seen the Myshky -- Ara, Lesia and Talia -- but still a very long time ago. We decided to make the trip given that there is a direct flight from Dublin to Orlando and they live in the Tampa-St Petersburg area about a 3-hour drive. A visit to warm weather and longer days was beckoning. Seeing the family gave us a great excuse and a really important reason.

We booked business class as we discovered it was a 9-hour flight. We got up early and had to drive to Dublin in the morning. On the road before sunrise, we made it to the airport by 10 am. As a perk of Business Class, you get to use the Lounge while waiting and Dublin has two. You also get to bypass security at preclearance and you get on the plane first. It was class.

The plane was a brand new A330 Airbus. We had reclining seats! So we got to sleep for a while, even though in this direction you need to stay up. I watched two movies, including Elvis which was great, and a Wes Anderson movie called Asteroid City which was bizarre. We flew through a lot of turbulence but otherwise, the flight was uneventful.

After spending the night at a monster resort near Orlando, we made our way to a beach house in Indian Shores. A lovely lunch at Caddy's on the intracoastal waterway, a walk on the beach, and a swim and book session in the morning, gave us our taste of Florida without much heat or sunshine.

Then it was on to Myshka's for Thanksgiving lunch with the family. Tears, laughs, memories and catchup made the time fly. It was as though we had not missed a month much less several decades. That's what it means to be a Ukrainian family.

We all shared all the stuff we'd been doing for Ukrainian refugees in our respective communities. Talia has been amazing, organizing her church to support the delivery of whatever the soldiers need on the front lines. She befriended a Uki soldier who came to Tampa for training at the military facility there. He sends her lists of what they need, and she gets donations, procures the goods, and has them delivered to the front lines directly. Our amazing little Talia. She even sent them two drones!

Marta Fedoriw routinely organizes fundraisers for the key organizations providing support from the diaspora. Alex and I have sponsored families, secured housing, gotten kids into school, arranged for medical care, translated where necessary, and I taught English in Newport and Westport for a year. Everyone had their own contribution to share. The war on Ukraine is a war on the diaspora worldwide. That's what Russia doesn't understand.

We squeezed in a visit to the wonderful Salvador Dali Museum in St Petersburg before the wedding.

The wedding was brilliant. A family friend who is a priest in Ottawa officiated and he was a riot. He explained everything in English so the groom's family and friends would understand, he joked and he made it fun. At the reception, he danced up a storm and a kolomiyka was inevitable with former Voloshky present. Talia looked gorgeous in a stunning dress, and she was so composed. We loved James from the first moment and we think she made a wise choice. Natalia and James Rhodes.

It was a wonderful week. We capped it off with a breakfast for 20 at the hotel with tearful goodbyes and promises to visit more often -- not to let 20-plus years go by without connecting.

Slava Bohu is Slava Ukraini.

So with a one-night stay at Margaritaville to top it off (not as great as expected and frightfully expensive for the delivery), we are now sitting in the airport lounge waiting to fly home. An 8-hour plus flight and a 3.5-hour drive home awaits us. So do my kitties. I miss them, especially little Ghostie!