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Saturday 2 October 2021
Dear friends,
September is our Ukraine month. We leave Poland and the European Union to enter Ukrainian territory, after a long and demanding border crossing. In the previous countries, we had a small idea of what was waiting for us, some images and often some preconceptions quickly erased. But we knew nothing about Ukraine. There was no image to hold on to. Everything was new. Everything was surprising. The language, like in every new country. The currency of course, is it a lot 1600UAH when we do our first shopping? But also, and this is perhaps the most impressive, the alphabet that prevents us from imagining the sound of the words. You become at once those who never learned to read.
Gradually, we got used to it. 28UAH for a litre of diesel, 7UAH for an ear of corn to roast and 24UAH for a bar of chocolate. Two 6-litre bottles of water a day, the respect of the given word, the traffic jams in the city centre, the cobbled streets, the trams and their rails, the big pots of yoghurt, and the pavements that fill up with fruit, vegetable, milk and egg sellers every morning.
The discovery of the community begins with a warm community day at the Domazhyr bear sanctuary. We find the smiles, the songs, the jokes and the unconditional welcome of the core-members. Yes, we have truly arrived in a L'Arche community.Bogdan, smiling brightly, claps our hands to welcome us with a few words of English. Roman proudly gives us a "bonjour" (in French!) while rolling his "R's". He also knows the "Our Father" and "Je vous salue, Marie" in French. We are impressed. Barthélémy will talk to us about it until the end of our stay. Later, thanks to the films shot by L'Arche International, we discover the incredible, moving story of Bogdan, born before Independence.
Like all people with disabilities, he had no place in society, no right to go to school, no relay for his parents, no work possible. Bogdan had a thousand reasons to let his anger grow. He chose to smile and to be happy, a daily choice to survive, a radiant choice, like a thumb in the face of human folly. The closure of the workshops during the covid times is an additional burden. Lesia, a community leader, explains to us that a core member had thanked her all day for being able to come to the workshop, because a meeting between assistants had been cancelled. Like a vital need not to stay at home alone. Remember your first confinement in 2020. Remember those two interminable months. Now imagine if it had lasted a decade or more... You can see the need for the communities of Lviv and Ternopil (in the process of being certified). And if L'Arche is not the only possible answer, Lesia tells us that the waiting list is long, despite the financial effort asked from the families, so that the community continues to exist, while waiting for better.
L'Arche-Kovcheh in Lviv is a Ukrainian non-governmental organisation. As such, it cannot receive any public funding. The community is financed 100% by private donations, more than half of which come from abroad. In addition to looking after the core members, assistants and the life of the community, Lesia tells us that she thinks daily about how to fund the community.
Our visit to the community came to an abrupt end after the second community day in Drohobych. That evening, we were overwhelmed by fatigue. Our self-tests reveal the next day that, vaccinated or not, we all have covid with the same intensity. We fear that we will not be able to say goodbye to Myron, the Bogdans, the Roman, Anton, Vassil, Nazar, Andryj, Bogdana, Dmytro, Galincka, Olena, Nadia, Nastia, Pedro and Natalia. Nor to Lesia, Olesya, Ola, Anna, Marichka, Dmytro and Yuri who do an exceptional job to keep the community alive, sometimes surviving. All these people (yes, mostly women) impress us with their presence, their joy of living, their faith and the energy they give off. A communicative, inspiring and necessary power.
12 days of self-isolation later, we find almost all of them in Nazareth and Les Bees, the two workshops we visited. In Nazareth, we arrived just before the end-of-day prayer. It was the ideal moment to give thanks and say goodbye. We also learn that two other people in the community are ill, one of whom is still in hospital when we leave. We pray for them on the way to Lithuania.
The Ukrainian stage raised many questions in the family. The loss of our reference points, the joyful welcome of the community, the time alone with the family were sources of transformation, of gifts received, of founding discussions as a couple and with the children. We can say that we felt God's love in the care of each other and in the support of our Ukrainian and French friends during times of anxiety. We can also say that a part of us has remained attached to the L'Arche community in Lviv, so radiant.
Christine and Vincent
🇬🇧 Three weeks in Lviv and a bit more ...