A meeting of 2 aid vans...

... both belonging to Tomasz, Paczki dla Ukrainy (Parcels for Ukraine), but the grey one ("Bohdan") has to return with Tomasz to Krakow for repairs so the aid needed to be transferred to the black one ("Bohumila") that we've been driving. It seems that the female van is more reliable!

Tomasz and Mo, who now volunteers for "Safe Passage for Ukraine," met for the first time and had to do all the work - transfer of 90 X 10kg boxes, containing personal hygiene kits, and 5 X 5kg propane gas stoves. They worked together very well, according to Bob, who was watching them from inside the service station as he is very poorly. I had to attend a hospital appointment so I wasn't there.

It turns out that Bob has COVID - he tested himself when he got home as his temperature was going up. I am  negative, for now, although I've had a persistent cough for a few days. The good thing is that we've had every COVID booster vaccination that we could possibly have so, hopefully, the experience of COVID will be relatively mild.

But it means that we've had to cancel our planned aid run to Chernihiv region and English teaching in the village school, for now. We'll still work on buying books for the school with the generous donations we've had.

I thought I'd end on something more cheerful - continuing the theme of everything painted blue and yellow that can be, with a garage door in Lviv...

Comments

  1. Franklinatsea28 February 2023 at 11:09

    I was thinking that surely all those vaccines would help...sorry to hear about Bob being down with Covid. Anyway, Bohumila is staying strong!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Third Christmas of the War.

Image
I remember when we first went to Ukraine, we thought we'd better hurry up and get over there to help before the war finished, and there'd be nothing for us to do. How naïve were we? The situation in Ukraine at present has got even worse, especially in the areas in close contact with the Russian forces, although with the constant Shahed and missile attacks nowhere is safe. Kherson has become particularly difficult, and delivering aid there is a direct threat to life. Any vehicle or person can be targeted by Russian small killer drones. This week, a vehicle that is used to deliver aid that we have sometimes used, was attacked and badly damaged beyond repair. Miraculously, the driver, a person I know survived but suffered injuries.  The occupants of a bus were not so fortunate. It was attacked, 3 people died and several more injured. It's really terrifying.  What's really sick is that the Russian's then post o...
Read more

The killing goes on.

Image
Time diminishes things. News cycles bring new, more pressing concerns. But the war here in Ukraine grinds on, with deaths a daily occurrence. The killing seems to have become more incideous and heartless.This weekend in Kherson, delivering aid, under the fairly constant sound of artillery and drone attacks, I heard and saw the inhumanity of this senseless war. There is now a real tangible fear about going out in your car in Kherson. Over the last few months, individual cars have been targeted by Russian drones. These carry small bombs or grenade type munitions. . A car is targeted. An initial bomb dropped. The man realises he's  being targeted and tries to drive away at high speed. He then stops suddenly, hoping to get away. Opens his door to run away, but about two metres away from the car a small bomb explodes. With the door open, nothing seems to happen, then as in slow motion, a man falls from the driver's seat onto the road. Dead. It...
Read more

Krakow to Lviv

Image
We left Krakow at 3am because we had heard that there have been up to 3 hour waits on the Poland-Ukraine border. The balance has changed to more people returning to Ukraine (to the relatively safe western Lviv region) than leaving Ukraine. As it happened, we drove through the fairly haphazard border controls with no hold up. The first thing we noticed on the Ukrainian side were miles (literally) of lorries lining the side of the highway, which was only 2 lanes so made for fairly scary driving. On the Polish side was an equally long line of parked cars, waiting to be sold. We also noticed more potholes on Ukrainian roads than even East Lancashire! The purpose of our visit to Ukraine is 2-fold: firstly, we drove our friend, Romana, home to Lviv (in her car) with her 4-year-old daughter, as she decided against coming to England in order to be with her husband and family. Secondly, w...
Read more