Seeking shade

Today we sought out shade wherever possible as the maximum temperature was 34 degrees - in the shade. Bob had his first scheduled English lesson for children outside the UNICEF tent at Stryilskyi Park (The inside of the tent was so hot as to be dangerous.) - beginners for half an hour, followed by 45 minutes for those with some English. Very much interactive and practically no books. The feedback from the UNICEF coordinator, who participated,  was very positive - the children loved it and lessons are wanted 3 times a week.

One 10-year-old boy's English was very good and he was able to say that the war has stolen his childhood.

After the lesson little gift bags were handed out, made up by children in England. We were given these bags and don't know who the children are or where they are from - with names like Zac, Phoebe, Sophie, Maddison The kids read the names and took the gift bags away to open later, very happy.

Whilst lessons were happening I was speaking to families (with help from interpreters) about moving to the UK via the sponsorship scheme., As sponsors/host families are now limited we're also talking about other options, including Ireland. However, we have been offered some hope by the energetic coordinator of the sponsorship scheme in West Malvern, where several Ukrainian families have settled and there are a number of sponsor families still available. It feels very positive to be offering Ukrainian families the possibility of somewhere definite, as we were able to do in our early days in Krakow.

Speaking of Krakow, our previous 'fruit bar' colleagues have sent us photos of all the refugee tents near the railway station being taken down. The end of an era.

Throughout the day Bob was trying to find a solution to transporting 2 large water boilers from Krakow to Lviv (the final destination being  the front in eastern Ukraine). The transportation and drop off appear to have been arranged, but on a wing and a prayer.

We didn't leave the shade of the park until nearly 7pm, before tackling the heat of trams and the city centre to make our way home. Another very hot day to come tomorrow...

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