Why.......

Stories we are told, that we try to process. Tales of people, Ukrainians being left to survive, begging in foreign lands. Of Ukrainians being taken advantage of. Here in Poland, being paid less than Polish workers. 
I know of a situation not dissimilar to this in England, which makes me feel so angry. I will try to look into this.
Maybe the greed of business always trumps doing what's right. 

Balance this however, with the generosity of the people of Trawden in welcoming new families. The warmth of the primary school to new arrivals. The pub welcoming them for a meal.

Teaching English has also been a really wonderfully funny experience. I teach without any books, all based on speaking, rather than grammar. Fortunately they will speak with a Yorkshire accent :) There is much laughter.

We are now going to be based in a large refugee centre. 400 people. Went there today, 50+ mixed sex population and children dorms. No privacy, no quiet area, no escape. Viruses spread with consummate ease. You don't see many smiles here. 

But you sit amongst them, and they share their stories. To sit and listen, makes you feel privileged, that these people who have lost so much, will tell you their tales...and they look right into your eyes and ask you to share and understand.

Comments

  1. Joanna7 May 2022 at 01:46

    "Here in Poland, being paid less than Polish worker"
    This is simply not true. Ukrainians performer these jobs, which noone wants to do anymore. It is just the same situation as Polish workers in UK. We do your simple, less paid jobs, because there is not enough people willing to do them.

    ReplyDelete

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