This is the story of Anna Romaniuk, a Ukrainian woman. It will be your story during this activity.
My name is Anna Romaniuk. I'm a 24year-old mother of a baby girl, Marya. My husband, our baby and I live near the Galician town of Belz. That's why we're called Galicians although we speak Ukrainian and consider ourselves Ukrainians. Josef, my husband, is a poor farmer. He works so hard. But We never seem to have enough. The taxes are just too high. Too high!
Let me tell you about our life. Our farm is tiny, only about 2 hectares. That's about what everybody around here has. We have fine soil and good weather and rain for growing wheat and hay. I have a vegetable garden. But it's just not enough. We need more land so that we can grow more, have some cattle as well as pigs and earn a decent living. We aren't afraid to work hard. We feel most at home in our community, where we can worship in our Orthodox church and celebrate and share with other families like ours. But our situation here in Belz is getting worse.
Josef and I aren't
sure what to do. We want a better life, especially for Marya. We've been thinking
about leaving here. Last year my aunt and uncle moved to Canada-a place called
Manitoba. Aunt Nadia sent me a letter today. She says they are happy there,
living in a community with many other Ukrainians.
They have already built a house and have 160 acres (64 hectares) of their
own to farm. Their grain crop has been wonderful.
An official from a Canadian transportation company came here last month to
talk to our community. He said he'd pay $5 for Josef and $2 each for me and
Marya if we'd move to Canada with his company. He said we'd never regret choosing
Canada.
