I attended the “roof festival” for the new center “Our Kids”, which is being built for street children in Kyiv. As the head of the German-Polish-Ukrainian Society, the organization implementing this project, explained, a roof festival is both a German and Polish tradition (and apparently an old Ukrainian tradition, too, that seems to have been lost in modern times) when people get together to celebrate the completion of a roof on a building under construction. We would have liked to have had an Opening Ceremony, but the construction gods weren’t ready to let that happen quite yet.
The workers worked their buns off the last 48 hours before the ceremony. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how much they had accomplished so quickly – they even managed to get some flowers planted to brighten up the territory. Every other time I’d been at the site, there were 3 or 4 melancholy-looking men and women, usually standing around, smoking cigarettes, not even attempting to look busy. This morning, there was a crew of at least 30, cleaning windows, sweeping off the freshly-placed pavers, and moving the hordes of boards, wires, and other construction materials and trash out of sight. As Igor showed me around the site a few hours before the ceremony, I made a not-so-subtle comment as we passed the head of construction – “Gee, imagine how much would be done by now if they had this many people working here every day!”
The list of bigwigs was impressive, including dignitaries and donors who flew in from Germany and Poland. The ceremony was very nice, and it is a true credit to the Baroness (the head of the G-P-U Society) that the project has gotten this far. It was her vision to create this center, and it has been her blood, sweat, and tears, that have convinced people to contribute their time and resources.
There is still a lot of work to be done before the first building can open this autumn – after which construction will begin on the second and third buildings!
Anka in Kyiv 