Journeys

We're now on the return leg of what is, for various logistical reasons, a very long aid journey, beginning in Odesa, traveling north to central Ukraine, then west to Lviv and Krakow. In Krakow we loaded the van with really good food and drink products from the Polish organisation, Paczki dla Ukrainy, as well as some children's toys collected by the friends we stayed with.

This morning we said goodbye to my son, Sam, at Krakow Airport. He has had quite a journey over 10 days, from a brief stay in the smart historical centre of Krakow, to the partially destroyed and flooded, semi-deserted, continually shelled city of Kherson. He said that it was a life-changing experience - time will tell what journey he will take.

He gained brief fame with the two young children of our hosts because - "Fireman Sam" was coming to stay!

Bob and I came back over the Polish border to Ukraine with a little trepidation, given my experience on the way out! But the border guard who greeted us on the Ukrainian side was a friend we made a year ago, when she was trying to persuade her teenage son to move to England. In the end he didn't go because he felt that he had a good life in Lviv. His sister didn't want to leave either and all are reportedly happy, given the circumstances. Only the grandmother decided to leave - to go to Ireland.

I re-entered Ukraine without question.

In Lviv we visited the warehouse of a charitable foundation that we work with, as we decided that we needed to unload some of the toys to make room for other aid (including 100 loaves of bread!) that we still need to collect. Our friends said that they would take these toys to, of all places, Kherson - to the very same warehouse that we deliver to. Which brings us back to the same problem that we encountered a year ago - of aid getting 'stuck' in warehouses because there are not sufficient vehicles to transport it, or money to pay for the fuel for transport. It's a problem that we want to help with.

Towards the end of the day we collected a very heavy box of children's books from the generous bookshop of Old Lion publishing in Lviv. These books are to go to some of the few public places in the Kherson region that children are allowed to gather, including a library and UNICEF centres. 

Aside from the fact of this being a Iong journey, it has to be said that we are very tired, physically and mentally, and it seems to be showing. Comments from those who know us well include us being short-tempered with each other, and looking very tired. We need to take heed of these warnings from people who care for us...we are thinking of how to do enough, whilst also looking after ourselves better.

To end on a less somber note, I wanted to include these photos of cats, which seem to be enjoying the food that Bob and Jon took to Kherson on the third of last week's aid runs. As a consequence of the flooding in Kherson region, caused by the explosion of the Kakhovka dam, a lot of cats were lost and they found their way to residents in apartment blocks, who now look after them...