Today we went back to the Lavra (churches and caves of monks founded 1,000 years ago). After getting off the metro, we walked through the same parks as the last time but this time instead of being cold and wet, we enjoyed seeing the lovely blooming trees and tulips as we were warmed by the soft sunshine.
The lovely weather and casual schedule we have inspired us to explore more and we discovered a strange looking museum underneath the ground. It had a sculpture above ground that looked like little bars of something under a sharp fence. The sculpture may have been representing locking up grain because it was the museum of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933 called Holodomor or the hunger that kills. This famine was caused by communists who after shooting or imprisoning the priests and educated classes in 1930, forced the small family owned farms to collectivize and then gave them unreachable quotas of grain. The farms were not able to produce the amount of grain that some bureaucrat or perhaps Stalin himself wanted so the communists punished the people by taking away all of the grain the farms grew, even produce from their little vegetable gardens was taken. Eating food from your garden was a crime punishable by shooting.
The people starved and some even resorted to cannibalism after eating dogs and cats. They tried to reach out for help from the rest of the world, but nothing was done to help them. The Soviets denied the famine (and continued to deny it until 1987) and no other country intervened. Millions starved in those two years. The Ukrainians believe that it was a deliberate attack on them by the Soviets so they would be too weakened to rebel or break free from the communists.
Learning of the struggles of a nation against communism on the day that our country is celebrating the death of our Osama bin Laden is a reminder that evil is real and walks among us. It's behind the fanatical and egotistical beliefs of people who say they want to help the common man but really seek power for themselves and cause terrible suffering and death for innocent people.
Hope was a few minutes further down the path at the Lavra. This quiet monastery with its beautiful churches, blooming gardens, ancient graves of monks and active seminary stands as a reminder that even when evil seems to win for a time, God is with us and He has conquered death. The Ukrainian people have rebuilt their beautiful churches and monasteries and their faith seems to be an integral part of the national identity. The ghosts of the communists must be tormented at the sight of this free people who are rebuilding their nation and their churches. Today was a holiday and the Lavra was crowed with people enjoying the spring day while visiting an ancient holy site.
Everyone was enjoying the day at the Lavra except a young woman who was screaming. She looked like an ordinary woman and even had a purse, but she was screaming and thrashing her arms as she walked. It looked like one might imagine demon possession to look. Pretty creepy, but there were so many priests around I guess someone would know what to do. Everyone just let her be and she walked past us, screaming in ugly tones. I don't know what happened after that.
As we walked back to the Metro, we had ice cream cones and were surprised by tanginess until we realized that instead of vanilla and chocolate soft serve, it was lemon and chocolate. It was better than it sounds and surprises like that make the waiting more fun. We are planning restful, interesting days as we count them down until our real adventure begins again.
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