Saturday retrieved

I was writing the (lost) blog last night whilst watching the Eurovision Song Contest on Polish TV - bizarre and incongruous. There was never any doubt that Ukraine would win.

On Saturday morning we met an American friend from our fruit bar days - Emily is a nurse practitioner who, since the beginning of the war, has been travelling to and from somewhere near Boston to Krakow with a load of medications (see photo), which she arranges to be transported to wherever they are needed most in Ukraine. This time she had to source a supply of insulin, which doctors are running out of in eastern Ukraine.

Emily found time to come to the refugee centre where we work to bring a large suitcase, mainly of children's medications. She also brought yo-yos! Never ones to miss an opportunity, we asked Emily to leave her empty suitcases for families travelling to England.

By sheer coincidence, yesterday, rather than just 1 doctor, as usual, there was a tent of Ukrainian doctors running a clinic throughout the morning, supported by  Krakow city council. We even met the city's humanitarian aid coordinator, who was very pleasant and welcoming to us. We made sure we took her business card, just in case! She told us that TB has been detected in some of the refugees.

In the afternoon Bob called me into the food tent to serve potatoes as they were short of volunteers. Now, we usually sit outside the food tent with a USPUK consultant, as we are called, who speaks English, talking to refugees about the sponsorship scheme, which seems to garner more interest than just sitting at a table in the refugee centre. The consultant today was a 16-year--old girl called Nastia. We were approached by a man, both profoundly deaf and non-verbal, with whom she managed to communicate very well by phone screens.

After all the food had been served we handed out some yo-yos (which have also arrived from Keighley), along with demonstrations!