Book Review of Ruben Gallego's “White On Black”

Once in a while, we find a book that we can’t pass on to our friends.  We want to hold onto it stingily, thinking that we just might need another dose of it in the near future.  White On Black is one of those little pills.  I recall counting my woes, shortly before I was given this story. 

And then I read about a small boy crippled by the effects of cerebral palsy in Russia, abandoned by his family at the doorstep of a children’s home.  “I’m a little boy.  It’s night.  It’s winter.  I need to go to the toilet.  Calling for the attendant is pointless.  There’s just one solution: crawl to the toilet… It’s cold, very cold.  I’m naked.  It’s a long way to crawl.” 

I realized throughout the pages something I’ve never before considered - folks with disabilities in other countries might not have the same rights to equality as practiced by my nation, the United States.  In his telling, Gallego graciously promises to protect his reader. “I've witnessed too much human cruelty and hate. To describe the vileness of man's fall and bestiality is to multiply the already endless chain of interconnected blasts of evil. That's not what I want. I write about goodness, triumph, joy and love.”

We learn through Ruben Gallego’s accounts that life is only how we see it, what we make of it, and how we deal with obstacles.  Ruben truly deals with his obstacles and comes out more triumphant than most without disability.

This book should be read and carefully considered. It is recommended. You can find it at amazon.com.

Cynthia Snelling, Contributing Editor

USA

June 25, 2007

A Word with … Anne Bates Linden

by Harikrishnan Sankaran, KyivPost Copy Editorial
Jun 14 2007, 00:04

After raising four children single-handedly and seeing them graduate from college, Anne Bates Linden was free to realize a dream: “I became a Peace Corps volunteer and came over to Kyiv in November 1992 as a member of the first of 15 groups of volunteers scheduled to begin serving in the former Soviet Union.”

Anne, though no longer with the Peace Corps, has not been able to shake off Ukraine in general, or the experiences she gained – harrowing, remarkable and unique – during those first 15 months in the early 1990s she spent in this country. “I keep coming back, and Kolomiya – in western Ukraine – has more or less become my second home,” said Anne.

I met Anne purely out of curiosity, because there was something intriguing about a brisk note a colleague at work had sent me: Ann Linden is a potential “Word with…” person. I have a copy of Anne’s book, “Assumptions and Misunderstandings – Memoir of an Unwitting Spy,” if you want to read it.

Spy? Anne was forthcoming: “The fact that I was a Peace Corps volunteer – thus a representative of the US government – serving in a formerly closed region of Ukraine meant that ipso facto, I was a spy. To an American, a spy is a highly trained person employed by one nation to secretly pass on classified information of strategic importance to another nation. While to a Ukrainian – at least in those days – every foreigner with a camera or a notepad was a spy.” I confessed to Anne that I too had been called a spy for photographing, of all things, open air markets in and around Kyiv!

Anne states about her book: “Assumptions and Misunderstandings” is a memoir based strictly on letters written to family and friends – between November 15, 1992 and February 1, 1994 – about the first 15 months of my stint as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine. The end of central planning, an annual inflation rate of 2,000 percent and reform that was ‘virtually nonexistent’ made living there both incredibly difficult and fascinating at the same time.

Anne spent those first 15 months in Kyiv, Kolomiya and Ivano-Frankivsk. Anne’s book – yes, I read it, more or less in one sitting – is quite gripping, full of pathos and often funny. The hilarity, of course, comes from her ability to describe those harrowing experiences – in hindsight and now that she is drained of tears – with a sense of humor and irony. On another level, the book provides a yardstick by which Ukraine can be measured today – insightful lessons for anybody from the West who has dealings with present-day Ukraine.

Although her stint as a Peace Corps volunteer ended over a decade ago, Anne continues to work in Ukraine, helping orphans and organizing art exhibitions. I asked Anne about these activities: “It was in 2000, while teaching English to 9th formers in the Striy Gymnasium, that I first became interested in working with Ukraine’s at-risk youth. As part of a class in Environmental Science, I had students do a ‘re-use’ project with donations earmarked for the three orphanages in the area. In 2003, I started Friends of the Morshen Orphanage – which in 2006 I expanded to include an ‘Internat’ – boarding school – in Mykolychin. Since the appointment of a new director, the school’s condition has improved markedly. But to turn a dilapidated warehouse into a decent educational facility for children of alcoholics has taken and continues to take a lot of time, money, dedication and boundless energy. But, in the end, it is very rewarding. I can confidently say that I am making a contribution to Ukraine.”

I suggested that Anne tell something about her involvement with Ukrainian traditional art to the readers of this Word with… feature. “In 1993, in conjunction with Kolomiya’s Ethnographic Museum and with the help of an excellent interpreter, I hosted an exhibition of Ukrainian folk art. My interest was fourfold: to recognize the many artisans producing high quality folk art in the region, to provide them with a market, to attract tourists to Kolomiya and to help the local economy. Because I wanted Kolomiya to be seen at its best, we invited a fabulous troupe of young dancers to perform and the owners of my favorite cafes to provide refreshments. Although my interpreter and I had done most of the work and the exhibition had been a success, employees of the Ethnographic Museum voted never to do it again. But that did nothing to quell my interest in folk art or in helping artisans…I hope to continue this tradition.” 

(Highlighted by ukraineorphans.net)