UKELODEON: For The Next Generation (03/14/99)

UKELODEON

For The Next Generation

Where in the world is ... the world's largest pysanka?

Good question, isn't it? Well, for 25 years now, the world's largest Ukrainian Easter egg (not a real egg, of course) has been in Vegreville, in the western Canadian province of Alberta. It is located east of the provincial capital of Edmonton in a part of Alberta that was settled by immigrants from Ukraine and today is known as "Kalyna Country." (The kalyna, the highbush cranberry or guelder rose, is a Ukrainian favorite immortalized in song and prose, and is considered a symbol of Ukraine.)

But, back to Vegreville's pysanka. It is 25.7 feet long and 18.3 feet wide, and standing on its pedestal looms 31 feet into the air. The monument is composed of 2,208 triangular pieces, 524 star patterns, 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts; it is made of aluminum. The entire structure weighs 32,000 pounds. This tourist attraction was erected in 1974 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

And just how long did it take to make the world's largest pysanka? More than 12,000 man-hours (one man-hour is one person working for one hour) were spent on the design and fabrication of this Vegreville landmark. Not your average pysanka ...

Mishanyna

Solve our monthly Mishanyna (hodgepodge) by finding the words below. Happy hunting!

arrest, artist, ballad, Haidamaky, Englehardt, Kaniv, Kobzar, lyric, March, monument, Orenburg, poet, Shevchenko, Taras, Washington, Zapovit

North Carolina teen heads for state gymnastics meet

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - Gina Kobisky, a sophomore at Northwood Temple Academy, recently competed in her first gymnastics competition, the Judges Cup, finishing sixth.

But, what's more important, she qualified for the state competition that will take place in April at North Carolina State University.

As reported in the Carolina Flyer, the newspaper published at Pope Air Force Base, "A demure 5-foot-2, Gina hardly looks threatening. She is shy with a slight smile" - none of which betrays the fact that she is "an aggressive competitor."

Even her coach at Countryside Gymnastics, Teresa Rhame, was surprised with Gina's finish. "I didn't think she would place at her first meet," she commented. "Nerves and anxiety usually make it hard (for first-time contestants) to place."

Hard-working and determined Gina surprised everyone but her dad, Eugene Kobisky, who commented: "When Gina qualified for the state competition, I got up and yelled, 'That's my girl!' " An Air Force retiree, Mr. Kobisky said, "I see the determination and hard work she puts into her practices at the gym and at home."

Gina is the youngest of four children in the Kobisky family, residents of Fayetteville, N.C. She says she hopes to compete as long as she can and looks forward to a future as a gymnastics coach.

The gymnastics event that she finds easiest is the floor exercise. "I enjoy the dancing and tumbling, and I am able to express myself freely," she told the Carolina Flyer. She has training in ballet and jazz dance that adds to her expertise. The hardest event for her is the uneven parallel bars, which requires great arm strength as the gymnast moves between upper and lower bars.

Her coach said, "Right now we are working on strength and difficulty (of moves) to better her score. That will boost her points a lot."

Gina acknowledged her family's involvement. "My parents are very supportive and love me very much. They also take a big interest in my future, which includes plans for college," she said. The family is already scouting choices for Gina's continued education.

In the meantime, Ukelodeon readers wish Gina luck at the state gymnastics competition next month.

Fifty years of conversation

by Rostyslava

As a musty bus carried me away from a city center sparkling with Christmas lanterns and exuberant life, I inhaled. Lviv, Ukraine, January 1998. The uncle our family had lost for 50 years sat next to me: tired, weathered, tortured, betrayed, rediscovered, now adored by me. He had spent his teenage life as an unnamed prisoner in a Siberian work camp of the Stalinist regime. Somehow, he had survived 50 years to share a seat on a former Soviet bus with me, his American niece. As the rickety vehicle rumbled through the city, I exhaled, deep in thought.

My first English word was "waffle." I remember it vividly: swimming in a friend's heavily chlorinated pool, suited in neon bathing suits, baking in the relentless summer sun, communicating by some unique power of childhood. She told me "waffle." I repeated, not knowing that my Ukrainian-speaking childhood world had just been shattered. I was 5 years old.

After my friend introduced me to waffles, she showed me "Sesame Street" and Mickey Mouse, and my life followed a steady course of assimilation into American society with each passing year. By second grade, my English was better than my Ukrainian and I could discuss She-Ra or "The Babysitter's Club" with any kid who crossed my path. There were holes in my knowledge of American things (to this day I don't know any nursery rhymes), but, as the average 8-year-old, I fit in with the crowd.

I didn't even see Ukraine until 1991. That first trip - the summer of 1991, the year of Ukraine's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union - answered a lot of questions.

All of the gentle teasing I'd received in school for fervently defending a country I'd never seen stopped bothering me after I finally saw what I had been defending. Though the country was weak from decades of virtual slavery under the Communist regime; though pollution, depression and corruption ran rampant throughout, I loved it. I had never met people so unabashedly willing to help or host. I left Lviv sobbing, feeling as though I was leaving myself behind, and returned home with a new perspective on my heritage.

Seven years after my first visit, I experienced Christmas in Ukraine. It was a remarkable thing to have strangers feel like family and to see joy spill out of open doors and onto city streets.

As the bus that held my uncle, me and my whole family bumped through Lviv's cobblestone alleys and asphalt boulevards, I told my uncle about waffles and the special meaning they had for me. He laughed, seemed to shed 50 years of weight, and then engaged in selfless conversation with me for the next few hours.

I left Lviv last year sobbing again, feeling as if I may have left myself behind in some winding alley or crowded theater. But I emerged this time carrying something new with me, something no one else in the world had. I held in my hands a journal of hastily scrawled transcriptions: my uncle's oral history. Three hours of emotional conversation, a numb hand and an exhausted uncle left me with 20 pages of furious - but absolutely priceless - scribble.

Two days earlier I had been sitting next to him on a bus, wondering how he had come so far in 50 years, how remarkable it was that he was sitting next to me, his American niece. Fifty years of conversation had passed since that bus ride, and I was sitting alone on an airplane heading for Washington.

In 50 years of conversation I discovered who I really was: his Ukrainian American niece.

Rostyslava is a high school senior in the Washington area. She is bilingual, a member of the National Honor Society and an active member of the Model U.N.

Have fun coloring a Ukrainian Easter egg
(and help us decorate The Weekly offices)

Hey, kids! Here's a Ukrainian Easter egg, or pysanka, for you to color. (Photocopying this drawing on regular paper will make it easier to color.)

And, if you want to help us at The Ukrainian Weekly decorate our offices for Easter, please send your colored pysanky to: The Ukrainian Weekly, 2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054. (Don't forget to put your name, age and address on the back of your pysanka.) As a thank-you, we'll publish a photo of our decorated office so you can see how you've brightened up our work space.

FUN FACTS: How old are pysanky? Hard to believe, but they date back to the prehistoric Trypillian culture that flourished on the territory of present-day Ukraine from about 4500 BC to 2000 BC.

Pysanky, which symbolize spring and renewed life, were considered to have magical powers; they could protect their owners from evil, cure illnesses and defend homes from misfortune.

Myshka's mystery

So, dear readers, did you solve the riddle in our premiere issue of Ukelodeon?

Kristina Rakoczy, 9, of Whippany, N.J.; Andrew Kowalczuk, 13, of Tranmere, Australia (he e-mailed his response); and Chrystyna Lazirko, 9, of Clark, N.J., did.

The answer: Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who died in 1054 - 945 years ago.

Now, for this month's riddle.

You probably think my March riddle will be about a certain Taras well-known among Ukrainians, but ... guess what? I've got something different in mind, my little songbirds.

I am a writer, but not of words. In my birthdate you will find two 2s. Who am I?

(Remember, send in your answer with a photo and your picture could appear in Ukelodeon.)

| Home Page |