Dear Blog,
Once again I don’t remember when the last time I Wrote was, except that it was before Tuesday’s Farwell concert. Time now is in fast forward. It’s exciting, and really I just want to get changing. But debriefing, further farwells, a lemon layered meringue cake, and one last trip to the spot still lie in the horizon.
But an update – let’s start with the Farwell concert. The night before and the rehearsal that day were events from hell. Everyone was stressed – especially the Ukrainaians who were balancing this with final exams as well ( Svitlana had here EAD the day after the concert too! ). Therefore, everyone was grouchy, snapping at each other at the slightest fault. And let me tell you that at the best of times, it’s hard to get all of our group listening to one person.
Fortunately the concert was a far stretch of greatness from the night before. Everything seemed to go smoothly. Here’s how the evening went:
Farwell Movie – a summary of our time in Ukraine. Shot by our whole group and well put together by Nat and Marty.
Eco-Fasion Show – all of us made our dresses to accompany some environmental facts. Svitlana made her’s of straws and talked about soft plastics. Inna had a frilly long dress of newspapers with accompanying facts. Sarah’s dress was made of Magazines with fact on paper. Marty pulled off a rain poncho and talked about the Newfoundland fisheries. Ilona’s dress was green and I think she talked about the environment as a whole. Iula’s dress was made of garbage and she played with this angel idea and how to be an environmental angel. Sam made a kind of diaper CO2 suit with a garbage bag and cigarette butts. Lucretia had a dress of plastics and talked about plastics. I made a dress out of leaves and did crazy, scary HUGE make-up on my face and said I had escaped a pile of burning leaves and spout out some facts. We all had really unique styles with music from Britney Spears for Ilona to my walk to ‘Bird Flu’ by M.I.A. But it was pretty surreal.
Inna and John sang to Titanic Song, “My Heart Will Go On” – they both have exceptional voices and everyone was super impressed.
Ukrainian Dance – The Canadian’s learned a full Ukrainian Dance! We performed it wearing our Ukrainian shirts.
Country Dance – the Ukrainians performed a very original kind of country dance. They are all pretty great dancers and I enjoyed watching how they spun a line dance.
Ukrainian Song – The Canadians learned another Ukrainian song – this one we kind of acted out too. I love that we actually have these songs and dances to bring home with us.
Our Bilingual CWY song – Inna made up a song about our group and saying good-bye to Ostroh, It was in two languages and really special. We performed it and then said our good-byes.
The end.
Everyone loved the event. I’m sure you would two. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a copy of the taped version because it was pretty epic. I’ve never been in something like that before and I was really proud of everyone and the way it came together.
Wednesday was Svitlana and John’s EAD on water. It sparked some great discussion and I’m looking forward to when we get to Canada and can watch FLOW.
Thursday was a day off. I went to the market for the last time with Becca and John. Becca and I both bought more scarves and helped John look for a flannel. The market is just a special place and I’m going to miss going there. From there we met with Iryna, Sarah and Ilona to go to this concert that the orphange ( Sarah and Kate’s work placement) were putting on and to present them with some gifts from the University. I thought it would be a short and quick wrap up for the year and there was some talk that we would have to perform the Ukrainian song. But when we got there we just gave it to the women at the back of the hall and sat down to watch the show. The show ended up being a full out musical on bad and evil. Ukrainians like to perform! We had to leave before it ended. After, the five of us plus Nat, Marty, Ivan, Sam, and Ilsa jumped on a bus to Nitishien to watch their final concert. There’s was awesome as well. Then that evening we all went out to celebrate together in Ostroh.
Friday it began to get cold. I didn’t have clean socks and decided to wear sandal – you wouldn’t believe how many looks I receive from the Ukrainians. I’m pretty sure they thought I had escaped the mental hospital because one of their wives tales is that if you don’t wear shoes you get sick. When I met Svitlana and her sister they insisted that we go back to the apartment to get me shoes and Svitlana warmer clothers. Then, we shopped and I bought a Ukrainian shirt! They have these traditional embroidered blouses. I learned that blouses traditionally have both red and black embroidery – red symbolizes prosperity, love, happiness, peace, where black symbolizes evil. Both colours are there to symbolize how life involves both, but red always overpowers the black. Cool eh! Then, that evening I finally got to release some pent up energy and run to my heart’s content with Iula, Sam, and Becca. It was such a beautiful night and like nights in the evening seem to always include – full of great conversation.
I have to head, lots of love!
Ellen
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