We leave tomorrow...

...on the first leg of our journey, which will be to Khmelnitskyi. We're taking it slowly - 2 days to get to our destination in southern Ukraine - as the snow and ice will make driving conditions difficult. We're stopping at the "Wheels of Victory" garage in Ternopil on the way, as we have room for a few more aid items that they can give us. We always like to make sure that we have filled every space in the van, as we know how much every bit of aid is needed.

We're going to take the aid to a rural area in southern Ukraine, where small towns/villages spent 8 months without electricity or water, under a brutal occupation by the Russian invaders, which included people being intimidated and tortured. The area was liberated by the Ukrainian army last month. The farmland around the villages is still mined. It's taken a few days to establish a good contact in the area, which we need to check out the conditions there, including the state of the roads. It was telling that the contact said, "It's OK, we're not being bombed any more."

There are some other things that are only loosely planned at this stage. We have a sum of money to spend on items that these communities may need that we haven't brought with us. There is also the possibility of purchasing some wood burning stoves in the area and taking them to the villages. It will depend on what we find and what people tell us they need. This may be one of our more challenging aid runs and we'll probably be away until early next week.

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