Back to work...

It felt really good to be driving the aid van again today, taking vegetables and fruit to Kherson, with Bob. This wasn't quite the plan - I was supposed to be driving separately in Adriana, the Audi I drove from Krakow to Odesa, also with aid. But Bob has some sort of virus and had to cancel all his UNICEF and teaching sessions in Kherson this weekend. So we drove the 400 km plus return journey, from Odesa to Kherson, on the same day and will rearrange plans next weekend.

Bob said that there wasn't any evidence of his existence today as he was keeping his distance from people, especially the children, just taking photos. However, there is clear evidence in the mirror in the background!


We left at 06:30, as usual. Now, it's still dark at this time but we drove into an amazing sunrise.

This is what Bob has been doing every Friday for the past 3 weeks, buying vegetables and fruit, at wholesale price, with donations and our own money, and taking it to be unloaded and distributed at a humanitarian aid centre in Kherson.

A queue of people began to form soon after we arrived, which grew and grew.

I helped with the distribution, the first time for me, which I found quite emotional. It doesn't seem much and we ran out of items before everyone had come through. There just isn't enough for everyone. But, as always, people are so grateful and waved us off when we finally left.

The friendly volunteer beside me made sure that I was giving out the right number of pears, plums, etc, and also ensured that everyone knew I'm from England!

I had an opportunity to spend some time with the children in the UNICEF centre in the same building. We had an activity box, sent from the Penparcau Hub, Aberystwyth, Wales, including appropriately coloured face paint in red and green! The marbles proved the most popular, with children and adults alike...


And bubbles - the simplest things seem to give the most pleasure...

I also discovered that there is a talented artist, a 16-year-old called Dasha, who drew these chalk pictures, in celebration of Defenders Day on 1 October. 

Dasha showed me some of her other art work. We'd love to be able to support her development with some good art materials, e.g. an artist's box, but we have run out of donations, currently. If anyone is able to donate for this and/or for us to continue supplying fruit and veg to Kherson over the coming month, please:

1. Open PayPal and, when asked for name of payee or email, enter trawden4ukraine@hotmail.com

Or, if you live in/near Trawden:
2. Use the Ukraine collection box in Trawden community shop.

Comments

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