Life goes on...

... music continues on the streets of Lviv and children play in the fountains. Air raid sirens are an at least daily occurrence now and people are told that they shouldn't ignore them, which they do. Ignoring is maybe not the word because it's hard to ignore the loud, prolonged, wailing sound of the siren. But in an area that remains relatively safe you can't spend your life underground. That may change, of course.

I wonder about the psychological effect on the population of hearing these sirens, even in this so-called safe city. You can never quite relax during them. It's different for us as we choose to be here and could equally choose to go home tomorrow.

We spent the morning with an older teenager, Alex (not his real name), who is deciding between taking A levels or a BTEC at college in England. He is very bright and speaks almost perfect English. His mother will come with him, whilst her 17-year-old daughter remains in Ukraine with Dad. Alex said that's because she's a Ukrainian patriot. However, it's a different choice for her as she won't be eligible to be recruited to fight and die in a senseless war when she turns 18.

We're looking for a sponsor who can provide 2 bedrooms for Alex and his mother - in the Leeds area ideally, as we think it will be good for them to be in a city and our son, Sam, could introduce Alex to Leeds. 
 
We spent the rest of the day taking trams and exploring more areas of Lviv, which we've pretty well covered now. We met a young photographer who wants to raise a few thousand million dollars to build a state of the art opera house and art gallery in Lviv, and a recent pensioner, who had just returned from working in Ireland. I managed to bump into 3 women, who I met at the refugee centre, which seemed strange in a large city. And who tomorrow will be having English lessons with us. What are the chances?

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