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KHRYSTYNA BOMKOESKY, 11, (in the foreground) chats with Olenka Andrushko, 7, (left) and Maria Bandriwskny, 8. Behind them are Volodymr Skyba, 10, and Volodymr Sobeshkevych, 13. They are waiting to perform folk dances at the Ukrainian Days festival in Smith Park in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village. Like other ethnic groups, Ukranians have scattered to the suburbs, so some of these children have had to travel into the city to perform, to attend Monday night practices, and for Saturday Ukrainian school to learn the geography, history, language and literature of their ancestral land. Khrystyna’s mother, Natalia, who teaches at the school, says, “We live in Westmont. It’s a lot of driving, but [one] family comes from Wisconsin.”
