The dust and debris on my shoes....

Yesterday, for me, was another step in understanding the resilience and resistance of people here. Not without fear, for fear is reality here.

As I went into the cathedral yesterday morning, which had been badly damaged by shelling, there was a scene of chaos....debris everywhere. No one in charge giving orders as to what to do.... no health and safety..... forget it...I watched as a heavy cornice fell from the rafters, missing a person by centimetres. No one stopped working. Rudimentary helmets were given out.

But quiet, as if with a collective consciousness everyone knew what had to be done, like in an ant hive....I've never experienced anything like it. By 4 pm, all the debris had been removed, floors were swept and mopped. The structure of the church compromised, but the sacrilege of the attack superficially erased. A clear, clean floor.

But it wasn't only this. At the same time, all around the cathedral, stalls had appeared, offering food and water to the workers. I went out at some point. I was given some food and water. By kind strangers. It felt quite symbiotic. These were no big organisations, just folk who arrived with what they had cooked at home. Pans of soup from their homes. Bread freshly baked. Sandwiches. All working together.

But my trainers were forgotten. I was so tired yesterday, on getting home, I forgot to clean them, covered in s*"t and everything. Today they were there. A reminder of yesterday.

But what I think, is that what I saw yesterday was a reflection of what has happened hundreds, if not thousands, of times. The Russians keep bombing and destroying, and the Ukrainians keep finding a way of moving forward. However, the cost is high in the number of innocent lives lost. 

Today we worked on our usual English lessons. The UNICEF lesson was cut short by an air raid alert after half an hour, just as Puff the Magic Dragon was about to be rolled out. This might have been a blessing for the children :)

However, there is fear in the air here. Unlike Lviv, when the air raid siren goes off, here you seek shelter, such as in this underground parking lot that we used today. We are concerned that tonight will not be a good one in Odesa.