Appalachian scholars and teachers from North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia arrive at the L’viv, Ukraine airport.  Additional delegates from Ohio and Kentucky arrived later.  Scholars, professors, public humanities practitioners, and one undergraduate student attended the event.  A complete list of the American delegation is below.

Appalachian hammered dulcimer Master Lynette Swiger brought her instrument and performed during the plenary session. A similar Carpathian instrument is known as the tsymbala [Ukrainian: Цимбала].

A few exhausted delegates spent the evening at a local restaurant meeting young people from the Ivano-Frankivsk English Club.  Some delegates brought books with photos of Appalachia. Ukrainians are often surprised and delighted to learn that places like the Carpathians exist in the U.S

The event began with an initial meeting between the American delegation and officials from the host institution, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. (The delegation from Ohio had not yet arrived.) Photo by Donald Davis

The delegation toured the mountain gateway City of Ivano-Frankivsk. Of special focus was the farmer’s market [Ukrainian: ринок]. Many people from the Carpathians bring natural products to sell, including vegetables, dairy products, honey, sausage, fruit, and mushrooms. Some get up early in the morning to ride a bus into town. We were there during mushroom season and they were abundant. Delegate Paul Arnold had a special interest in Carpathian honey and bees.

This hillside in Krivorivnya, Ukraine is a typical Carpathian village landscape in the Verkhovyna region.

We made a brief stop at the Verkhovyna College of Tourism and Hotel Hospitality. These students were between classes. The college is a branch of PNU. One way PNU is addressing the challenge of providing educational opportunity to mountain students is through small satellite colleges and institutes offering short programs in tourism or pedagogy.

The Verkhovyna College of Tourism and Hotel Hospitality is a modest building on the hillside. It serves perhaps 125 students. Some will transfer to the University in the city for additional degrees.

We visited Roman Kumlyk’s Museum of Traditional Folk Instruments and Hutsul Culture. Mr. Kumlyk interpreted many of the traditional Carpathian folk instruments. Here he is playing the tsymbala, nearly the same instrument as the Appalachian hammered dulcimer.

We visit the Ivan Franko Museum. Celebrated Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko spent his summers in this room in Krivorivnya writing about and under the inspiration of the mountains. Many Ukrainian writers wrote about the Carpathians in a phenomenon similar to Appalachia’s “local color” writers.

Father Ivan Rubaryk was a gracious host at the Church of Nativity of the Theotokos in the Village of Krivorivnya. He talked about the church, the congregation, his work in the Village, and then offered a prayer for our group. There has been a church on this site for over 400 years.

Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit lived almost as a hermit high up a hillside in Krivorivnya. There she spent a lifetime making books on life in the mountains, each hand-written, illustrated, self-bound, and one-of-a-kind. We hiked up to see her small home, now a village museum and literary landmark.

The entire delegation partook of bread and salt offered at the traditional Ukrainian ceremony of welcome.

University Rector (President) Ihor Tsependa welcomed the delegation and received gifts.

There was a special registration table for the international participants.

The plenary session at PNU included presentations by Ukrainians, Americans, Poles, and Slovaks. Hundreds of Ukrainian students and faculty were in attendance. Americans Donald Davis, Chad Berry, Lynette Swiger, Judy Byers, and Noel Tenney presented during the plenary.

The flags of the U.S.A., Poland, Ukraine, The European Union, and The Slovak Republic (L to R) were on the speakers’ table.

Lynette Swiger’s performance on Appalachian hammered dulcimer was especially well received. Many were surprised to discover that Appalachia had an instrument so similar to the native Carpathian tsymbala. A clip of the performance aired that evening on regional television news. A link to the performance is below.

Christopher Miller prepared the bilingual Ukrainian/English exhibition, “Kindred Lands – Споріднені Землі,” in the form of six banners. It hung in the registration area.

Katherine Ledford prepared to present “Reading the Landscape: Literary Representations of Coal Mining in Appalachia.” Michelle O’Malley prepares to present “Appalachia and the Carpathians: Comparing Highland Regions from a Cultural-linguistic Perspective.”

Paul Arnold presents “Beekeeping in Appalachia: Keeping the Craft Alive.”

A crowded room enjoys Paul Arnold’s presentation.

Geoff Buckley prepares to present “Moving Mountains in Appalachia: Life in the Shadow of MTR Mining.” Bernard Debatin prepares to present “Hydrofracking: Panacea or Pandemic?” Michele Morrone prepares to present “Scientific Uncertainty and the Public Debate about Hydraulic Fracturing.”

The session on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Appalachia, a process also known as fracking, was of great interest to some Ukrainians as there is an emerging possibility of the process being used in western Ukraine.

Ron Roach presenting “Place, Wilderness, and Education: Using Outdoor Education to Foster a Sense of Place in Mountain Regions.”

After the concurrent sessions, the delegation visited the City of Kolomyya, on the edge of the mountains, and the world famous Pysnky [Ukrainian Easter Egg] Museum. A master demonstrated the decoration of eggs using wax, heat, and dye. She also showed the technique for opening decorated eggs, removing the insides to preserve them, and painstakingly putting them back together.

The closing dinner in Kolomyya was a grand affair with many toasts and words of appreciation.

At the closing dinner in Kolomyya, we were served many foods tied to the Carpathians: mushrooms, sausage, pork, bryndza (a farmers cheese), and banush (corn meal cooked with sour cream).

The Krivopillya Village secondary school, built in a style some call “Soviet Alpine.”

At the Krivopillya school for levels I-III, the school’s Director (Principal), Liliya Ivanivna Stephurak, received us warmly with the traditional ceremonial offering of bread.

We toured two schools. These are high school level students at the Krivopillya village secondary school.

Students enjoyed our delegation’s volleyball and football (soccer) skills, or lack thereof.

We also visited a satellite primary school of six students in the nearby Village of Volova.

An unplanned stop was perhaps the most unusual. We toured this beekeeping yard where bees are kept for their honey, wax, pollen, and curative properties. This small building was described as a “bee spa” in which people paid to sleep on beds over the bee hives for the curative properties of the micro-vibrations.