Homeward bound

We said an emotional goodbye to Ala, the English teacher, in the school before her staff meeting. We were on the road home by 08:30 and got back to Lviv just before sunset. It was a lovely, warm day, which is much nicer when we stop for our regular breaks at petrol stations. We have probably said that there are always dogs at every petrol station, many looking less content than the two in this photo. We didn't have anything to give them but they seemed reasonably well fed, for a change.

These dogs reminded us of how popular the large bag of dried dog food was in the community centre in Kyivka yesterday. The women who helped us distribute the aid took control of putting the food into plastic bags and handing it out, as required.

We have some more photos from yesterday...a roomful of people waiting for aid - it always feels a bit uncomfortable - and us explaining where the aid comes from...

As ever, the Trauma Teddies bring smiles. But we learned that there is no meaningful translation - "Trauma," in Ukrainian, refers to physical pain, not psychological pain, which surely will need to be acknowledged amongst these children, as well as adults.

Some more of the aid was distributed today to people in need by volunteers of Kyivka.

We have many memories of this aid run, which will take time to process, and we also need to give some thought to what we do next - and where we do it.

In meantime, there are, as ever, things we've learned, particularly about the hardness of life in a village that has been hit by the repurcussions of the illegal invasion of Ukraine. For instance, there is no unemployment benefit for those who have lost their livelihoods due to the war, e.g. a villager we met, a carpenter, lost his job when the workshop that employed him was blown up. We understand, now, the importance of people having even a small plot of land, to be able to grow fruit and vegetables.

There always seems to come a time when we re-evaluate what we're doing here and whether we're doing the best we can for the people of Ukraine; this aid run has led to now being one of those times.