An awful day but life goes on...

... for Ukraine, beginning with a morning of indiscriminate shelling of civilian targets, in cities and towns throughout the country, including a children's playground. A giant, vengeful, sadistic toddler throwing his toys across the country because he didn't get what he wanted on his birthday. There is certain to be more of this. But life goes on.

We were in the home of our new friends - a close knit group of grandmother, mother and daughter, who took care of us yesterday and this morning, including sharing the little food they had. We hadn't realised, until now, how hard life is in rural/isolated communities, particularly for older people, and the war will make this even harder. We finally got on our way - in a van with four wheels but no spare tyre! - and it felt as if we were leaving behind friends we had known for a long time.

Today was quite a difficult day for us, too,  not least because of the uncertainty of living in a country where nowhere feels safe any more. Although we have a choice about being here, unlike most. But even though there was some panic amongst people we know, wondering if loved ones were ok, this does not stop them carrying on with their day to day lives. Like the fishermen on the lake where we had a peaceful walk this morning.

Otherwise, today was dominated by getting the van back on the road, which was really Bob's doing because he has the know-how. He even discovered skills he didn't know he had, like working out a spare tyre release mechanism underneath the van, which appeared to be the work of the devil! He had been given a demonstration as to how to do this but had not expected to need to do it!

So now we have completed about a third of this aid journey and tomorrow we'll make our first drop.