Have Bus, Will Travel and Learn! Retired Teachers Hit the Road Again

Story and photos By Ed James

One of the very special parts of Canada is the unique and diverse culture. From coast to coast, we have a wonderful variety of cultural lifestyles that have come to this country from all over the world. The various groups have brought us different foods, music, clothing styles, language and traditions to build what a Canadian writer calls “a cultural mosaic,” for the rest of us to enjoy if we take the opportunity. Every year, a group of retired teachers in the Westman area of Manitoba plan a summer road trip to broaden their horizons. These trips can be cultural, musical and historical events and sometimes a mixture of all three. This year, 45 members of the group headed out for the Canadian National Ukrainian Festival, held south of Dauphin at the Selo Ukrainian Site. The concert site is built into the side of a hill, with lots of great seating for all angles of the huge stage. On top of the hill are smaller stage areas, food vendors, gift shops and as a senior group, the all important, lots of washrooms! On the smaller stages there were a variety of younger and new dancing groups who performed and were judged on their skills and performance. I watched a few of these and was impressed with the throughness of the judges who not only pointed out the strengths and weakness of the groups, but often put down their note and demonstrated various techniques. On the upper levels of the site there was a variety of every type of Ukrainian food you would like to try and places to sit and enjoy it. There were also a number of gift shops, selling a wide selection of traditional and new Ukrainian gifts, artwork and clothing. At the bottom of the hill there is a whole other site to visit. If you were concerned about the walk down and back up the hill, there were shuttle vehicles for those who are perhaps getting long in the tooth! In fact, it is worthwhile mentioning

Southwest Assiniboine Chapter

that every staff member and volunteer I met at the site went out of their way to help you or to answer your questions. (Where are the washrooms??). It would start with the volunteers who came on the bus to put on our wrist bands and the personal greeting given to us by the official host of this year’s event. At the bottom of the hill is a recreation of a traditional Ukrainian Village, with actors to show you the old skills and techniques. These would include traditional music, framing techniques, arts and crafts and my favorite, the baking of bread in the traditional large round clay ovens. If you were more adventurous, you could go over to the Cossacks camp site where they were busy cooking traditional dishes over an open pit fire, with free samples for the asking. The smell of the wood burning fire just added to the mood and made the food taste better! Now it was time to go back up the hill to the main stage area for the afternoon show. Since this is the 50th anniversary of the festival, you can be sure that they have worked all of the technical problems out of the performances, to give you a great show. It was a very hot day so you came prepared with water, hats and sun block to enjoy the event. Two of the items that makes for a great performance are a good sound system and an even better MC. The MC that day, despite the almost 30 degree temperature, had the energy and stage presence that was a perfect match for the two hours of entertainment. If your foot was not tapping or your hands clapping, you might want to have your hearing checked! The dance groups, singers and band offered a mixture of traditional and new Ukrainian music and dance. You had such groups as the famous Shumka Dancers, the Zirkauk dancers and the dancing Cossacks, to name a few (the few I can spell!). These various