The art of not knowing anything (The Homes for Ukraine visa office)

We decided not to accept our promotion to coordinators of the fruit bar scheme, which basically involves ordering lots of crates of fruit every day and picking them up from the supermarket at 8am. (The rest of the scheme - chopping fruit and serving - runs itself with the help of volunteers, including a number of Ukrainians now). We are already tired enough and couldn't face the idea of catching an even earlier tram. We tried it this morning and it nearly killed us! 

We tried to follow up the visa application for the first family moving to Trawden, having discovered that each member of a family has to make a separate application, whereas we had completed one for both parents and child. We tried calling the visa helpline and spoke to two officials, one of whom forwarded the call to another person who didn't answer, and the second who said that there was no one to answer the question of who the visa application belonged to (given that it had been completed for 3 people). After a long period of the official 'speaking' to his supervisor by text communication I was told that the information couldn't be found, and the advice was to start again and complete three new applications. Also, there is no way of checking on the progress of applications - people just have to wait. One family we spoke to has been waiting for 11 days.

It is a shambles and there seems to be no way to communicate the desperation of people who want to leave, other than by the host family getting their MP involved, as in this case.

Compare the mindless bureaucracy of the visa process to:
Two Ukrainian women getting up to sing in the noise and chaos of the food tent. It sounded like a folk song and others joined in. There were some tears.
The 7 year old daughter of the aforementioned family learning her first English words: cat, mouse, hamster and elephant, which was also poignant as her hamster had to be left behind in Ukraine. As her mother said, "What could I do? - I was running away with a suitcase in one hand and a child in the other! 
An email sent from a sponsor with a photo of Barrowford village school, adorned with the Ukrainian flag colours. 🇺🇦

A picture is attached of the cute couple. Bob doesn't usually like to do the menial work of chopping apples! 

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