One week to go...

... until we leave Ukraine, temporarily, and, it seems, the shorter the time left the more we have to do!

This morning we completed forms to get our 1 year visas for Ukraine, which will mean visiting the embassy in Krakow. We're sorting out travel arrangements for our guests and trying to match any families that remain with sponsors, which is becoming harder and harder.

Bob had his English lesson with children inside the UNICEF tent today as it was raining. The theme for the lesson was the weather! Strangely, the children seemed to find it more difficult to concentrate inside than outside.

After the lesson we met with the director of the refugee centre, who is a university lecturer. (The refugees live in university sports halls). We discussed his wish to link Lviv University with a university in the north of England - they have already made a link with Cambridge. We're trying to connect him with Leeds University as this is where our son, Sam, studies, and Bob also went to Leeds.

I've included a photo of 'the Fruities' from yesterday because I wanted to mention a woman we met in one of the residential halls from Lyschshansk, which fell under Russian control in early July after the city was all but destroyed. We handed out fruit bags to all the elderly folk and then asked her if she would like some. This small act of giving seemed to open the floodgates, as she shared her sorrow and despair. There really isn't very much you can say to someone who has lost everything and is unlikely to even be able to return to her home city. All you can do is give the person a hug.

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