Connections....

What we have found over time is that, for whatever reason, we don't have a nine to five day, nor many simple outcomes. And although we try to put structure into what we do, we often don't know what we will end up doing.

So today, for example, we needed to get two water boilers, funded through an American donor, via a volunteer who works in a refugee centre in Krakow, to Lviv.
We were asked to help to find a way of transporting said boilers to Lviv.  We had two possible options. One large organisation required a precise meeting under a waxing moon because of tight schedules in Krakow at the airport. The other said, "Let us know and we'll sort it."
We have learnt to go with whatever gets the required outcome. So, the boilers will be in Lviv on Friday. When, how and where is a mystery for now. 

This has been the story all through our time of trying to help, and in a way, is a microcosm of the situation here.  We wear our old USPUK shirts and people in Lviv stop us and first thank us for what we are doing, and then want to know what we are doing. There is still a lack of organisations on the streets doing this. As in Krakow, many are in offices, but in the refugee centres we are the only ones there.
We do need to balance this with the fact that some organisations were in at the  deep end in Poland and did amazing jobs. 

A further example of this is a new app that has come into use, apparently in order to speed up the visa application system. Our initial interaction with this app is that, if you don't have the ability of Snowden (for us that remember him), your photo for the visa application will be rejected. Too much shadow, too much reflection, too much smile. Get a professional photographer!

We have been in contact from a hosts coordinator in the Malvern area today, who said, " Whatever you do don't use the app...."
And so, in all these conflicting situations, we look for the best outcomes. Everyone wants their best and owned outcomes... but sometimes you need to be flexible and not tied to an orthodoxy to achieve this........
I was looking for an exciting picture for the blog.....
The boilers....
 We know how to keep a blog exciting...  

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