Smiles, stress, pets and some hope

It doesn't take much to put a big smile on a child's face, as Bob discovered with some of today's purchases, distributed throughout the food tent - he said that all the children knew how to use the 'slinkys' straight away. But you can also see the effects of stress on even very young children - yesterday, a little girl was obsessively stroking, and twisting around in hands, a little toy mouse, as if she didn't want to let go of it. 

Speaking of stress, the effects of a combination of much harder physical work than I'm used to and, I suspect, the emotional impact of absorbing so much distress, have taken a bit of a physical toll on me. Nothing even remotely similar to  what it must be like to suffer the stress of being a refugee. So I'm staying at 'home' today and catching up on admin, which has included getting the government information on taking pets translated into Ukranian.

I'm glad I asked for a translation of the Ukrainian as this was it:
Your options are currently as follows:
1) You immediately donate dog / cat blood and take it with you. If you do, after your arrival the dog / cat will be taken to a quarantine center and will live there for up to 3 months after passing a blood test.
2) You immediately take a dog / cat blood test and leave it in Poland with other people until 3 months have passed, and then ask someone who comes to the UK to bring it with them.
3) You immediately donate the blood of a dog / cat, and then stay in Poland with the dog / cat until the expiration of 3 months.
4) Leave a dog / cat with friends or family in Poland.
!!!

The Ukrainian translator agreed to look at the relatively straightforward gov.uk link.

Any mention of the British government raises the blood pressure these days. They continue to get it so wrong, not least with the iniquitous visa application process. I don't think anyone but Bob and I can see the comments on our blog but, as my
 Mum commented, she has come to the conclusion that the UK government are 'just paying lip service to their sponsorship scheme, looks like they are being compassionate whilst hood winking their voters yet again.'

And yesterday Priti Patel was trying to draw parallels with the Windrush scandal - what planet is she on?! 

As Bob reported yesterday, our first family, who have come to feel very like our own, are travelling, very early, to Manchester tomorrow. We're just hoping that it will go relatively smoothly and that the 'Hub' at the airport will work as it should -  somewhere to meet sponsors, get some initial information and an emergency payment, if needed, and pick up things like sanitary products. It would be nice if something in this process goes well. 

It will be strange to think of seeing Vita and her family next in Trawden. There are now 7 young women who are going to sponsors in the East Lancashire area and one of them had the idea of forming a WhatsApp group, to support one another before and after they travel to England. As Vita said, "I miss Ukraine and it would be wonderful to have a part of it in Great Britain." 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Third Christmas of the War.

Image
I remember when we first went to Ukraine, we thought we'd better hurry up and get over there to help before the war finished, and there'd be nothing for us to do. How naïve were we? The situation in Ukraine at present has got even worse, especially in the areas in close contact with the Russian forces, although with the constant Shahed and missile attacks nowhere is safe. Kherson has become particularly difficult, and delivering aid there is a direct threat to life. Any vehicle or person can be targeted by Russian small killer drones. This week, a vehicle that is used to deliver aid that we have sometimes used, was attacked and badly damaged beyond repair. Miraculously, the driver, a person I know survived but suffered injuries.  The occupants of a bus were not so fortunate. It was attacked, 3 people died and several more injured. It's really terrifying.  What's really sick is that the Russian's then post o...
Read more

The killing goes on.

Image
Time diminishes things. News cycles bring new, more pressing concerns. But the war here in Ukraine grinds on, with deaths a daily occurrence. The killing seems to have become more incideous and heartless.This weekend in Kherson, delivering aid, under the fairly constant sound of artillery and drone attacks, I heard and saw the inhumanity of this senseless war. There is now a real tangible fear about going out in your car in Kherson. Over the last few months, individual cars have been targeted by Russian drones. These carry small bombs or grenade type munitions. . A car is targeted. An initial bomb dropped. The man realises he's  being targeted and tries to drive away at high speed. He then stops suddenly, hoping to get away. Opens his door to run away, but about two metres away from the car a small bomb explodes. With the door open, nothing seems to happen, then as in slow motion, a man falls from the driver's seat onto the road. Dead. It...
Read more

Krakow to Lviv

Image
We left Krakow at 3am because we had heard that there have been up to 3 hour waits on the Poland-Ukraine border. The balance has changed to more people returning to Ukraine (to the relatively safe western Lviv region) than leaving Ukraine. As it happened, we drove through the fairly haphazard border controls with no hold up. The first thing we noticed on the Ukrainian side were miles (literally) of lorries lining the side of the highway, which was only 2 lanes so made for fairly scary driving. On the Polish side was an equally long line of parked cars, waiting to be sold. We also noticed more potholes on Ukrainian roads than even East Lancashire! The purpose of our visit to Ukraine is 2-fold: firstly, we drove our friend, Romana, home to Lviv (in her car) with her 4-year-old daughter, as she decided against coming to England in order to be with her husband and family. Secondly, w...
Read more