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Fredericksburg woman returns from Ukraine

Fredericksburg woman returns from Ukraine

By JODI BIZAR

Date published: 6/18/2003

nderneath the lush fields and picturesque churches lurks a poverty so severe that women vie to become mail-order brides to aged American men.

This is one of many memories a former Fredericksburg woman brings back with her following her Peace Corps mission to the Ukraine.

Patricia Lillicotch, who recently returned from a two-year assignment to the Ukraine, says because of wars and immigration, women outnumber men by 9 to 1, and therefore rally to become mail-order brides to U.S. men.

"The men come to get women who will cook and clean," she said. "The women say to themselves, 'I need to get out of this country [because of the poverty] and the only way to do that is to get married to an American.'

"And the women are very smart about it. They make themselves beautiful. They have nothing at home, but they have made-up faces and beautiful clothes," Lillicotch said.

Lillicotch, who attended elementary school in Stafford County and later worked for a cable company in Fredericksburg, taught in the Ukraine in 2001 through 2003.

She worked with university students eager to transform the Ukrainian economy from communism into one of free markets.

Lillicotch learned to respect the Ukrainians--their work ethic and their will to survive.

"The best thing about the experience was the people," Lillicotch said. "They don't have anything, but somehow they make do."

Lillicotch taught conversational English and everything and anything about American culture.

She worked in the industrial city of Kremenchug, which has 250,000 people.

"I didn't know where the Peace Corps was going to send me, and I didn't have any expectations," she said. "I just wanted to help people."

Lillicotch received a bachelor's degree in marketing from Bellevue University in Nebraska. She was working for Warren Cooper Cable in Fredericksburg when she joined the Peace Corps.

She had intended to teach business when they sent her to the Ukraine. But they needed her to teach English.

In a country with one of the richest soils in the world, residents face the task of creating a transportation system to turn these goods into cash. That's why they are working so hard to learn more commonly used languages, such as English, so they can attract international companies, Lillicotch said.

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Date published: 6/18/2003