Natalia Malymon

LUTSK — “Where’s the honey?” I couldn’t help recalling this caption to one of The Day’s photographs when I saw the crowds of people hurrying to attend the opening of the exhibit of the newspaper’s international photography competition at Volyn National Lesia Ukrainka University’s research library....

The smell of freshly-cut boards dominates in the new school building in the village of Zalisoche, Volyn oblast. The principal, Svitlana Zbyrun, jokes that repairs here “have not stopped, they’re on hold.” She doesn’t hide her joy at having talked one of the sponsors, a local businessman, into...

A recent but sincere affection binds me and the Dimarov couple, Anatolii and Yevdokia. Our friendship began with the writer’s publications. Five years ago we met in person, and the words “I am from Volyn” opened the door for me to a cozy apartment in the writers’ building on Suvorov Street, near...

The organizers of a recent charity concert in Lutsk can be rightfully proud: there were more than 300 participants on stage, the house was full, with spectators claiming their seats five hours before the show, and best of all, a total of 57,000 hryvnias was raised. For the last eleven years the...

Ukraine’s first religious book for blind people, a prayer book in Braille, has been published in Lutsk with the assistance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s (UOC) Volyn Diocese. This prayer book may also be considered a rarity because it exists in three copies only, having been manually produced...

The Rev. Andriy has wed three couples at a regional hospice for terminally ill since it opened in Lutsk eight months ago. All of them were “about my mother’s age,” says Rev. Andriy. They lived together as husbands and wives after civil registration for decades and had grownup children. In one...

More than half a century ago, people would not even walk by that grave at the Mylianovychi cemetery, lest the powers that be suspect them of sympathizing with the Ukrainian insurgents who had found the last repose under a small stone column (the huge oak cross had been cut by a stray shell during...

MARIGOLDS GROW ON ROCK, TOO When she was a small girl, Tetiana read the book Marigolds Grow on Rock, Too and, of course, could not have known that decades later, having been married, divorced, and failed to restore the family, left with her child, her life would take a sharp bend. It all...

Once the forest between the villages of Datyn and Zamshany was like home for all those young Ukrainian insurgents. Quite a few of them would find their last repose there... At a forest cemetery one is almost instantly lost in thought, pondering the destinies of Ukraine and its people. IN THE...

A visit here is especially enjoyable in mid-summer when one can swim in the Styr River, which at this time of the year is a problem for one and all, as there is water in the cellar even on Christmas, and one has to put on rubber boots to fetch potatoes. The fishing is also good. In fact, it is...