War rages on...but bureaucracy never ends....

 would think that bringing in humanatairian aid, possibly helping refugees find shelter in the UK, and giving free English lessons would be of assistance to a country beleaguered by war?
It might be...but if you wish to extend your stay, you have to deal with the wonder that is the visa application form 10 d ( it might be 10b? I'd lost the will to live). It's the work of wondrous difficulty on a par with the British Visa application system. We won't bore you with the details. But imagine endless hoops and expense. 

We were kindly introduced to this Kafkaesque maze by our kind friend Yulia, without whom we would have been waiting in line for hours. We met with a pleasant official of the visa department who explained in detail form 10d and what we needed to do. Again nearly lost...... At the end however, when nearly all hope was lost....she said there's another alternative... I won't go into that for now for fear it might lead you to drink. The a saga continues......I wonder if Boris has such difficulties:) Just out of interest the visa place is at the main post office in Lviv that was started by an Italian in about 1650. Look it up if you're interested.

The rest of the day was taken up as usual with lessons at the UNICEF tent with children, hopefully, learning English by playing games, and Fiona explaining the Homes for Ukraine scheme and other possible options, given the lack of UK sponsors at present. As ever thanks to our interpreters.

We also took along to the tent lots of children's sports equipment, badminton rackets, skipping ropes, etc with money kindly donated by a charity called Ambulance Aid. Thank you.

As we might have mentione, the last 2 weeks have been incredibly hot. Today this weather broke. From about 5pm our time, till now, about 8:30pm, we have had a massive thunderstorm, which still continues. It was needed, the rain has been torrential. Bit Trawden-like really. Home from home.


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