Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 4438 FOCUS - FEBRUARY 2017 Many travellers venture to the Far East, South America and Europe, but most will stop short of the former Soviet Union States. I find that the transition countries have made, from Communism to Democracy, has created some amaz- ing traits in the population and culture. I recently spent a week in Belarus, a country only known to me for having a soccer team. I knew it was somewhere east of Poland, but until I did some inves- tigation and discovered how large it was (about half the size of Saskatchewan); I became quite excited about visiting it. I flew through Vienna to Minsk, capi- tal of Belarus. The entire trip was about 12 hours, which is roughly how long it takes to get to Hawaii. Upon arrival, I was amazed at the heat which engulfed me. The temperature was 30 degrees in September. Certainly not the weather I was expecting. Belarus translated means White Russia. Prior to 1863, the country was known as Litva (not to be confused with Lithuania or Latvia). In 1863 there was a large uprising against Russia and af- ter the execution of thousands of Litvin citizens; Russia forbade the use of the name. The country was christened Be- larus, after an ancient east Slavic state. As with many central European countries, the years of World War II were detrimental to the nation. Belarus was occupied by the Nazis for five years. The city of Minsk was heavily bombed in 1941 and 85% of all structures were demolished. The capital was evacuated, but not before 1,000 people were killed. WHITE RUSSIAN BY JONATHAN VAN BILSEN I’LL HAVE A