Let's Help Ukraine

Wouldn’t be a trip to Ukraine, without a trip to the mechanic. Luckily we broke down close to a mechanic, and could limp our van in. Once again they stopped what they were doing, and had us back in the road in 3 hours. Again, they refused to take any money.

The other day, I was asked to be a pallbearer at a soldiers funeral. If I understand the orthodox religion properly, pallbearers can’t have any relationship to the deceased person. I was humbled to be asked, and honored to pay respects to a fallen hero.

We grabbed some more mosquito repellent (yes, took a long time), but that’s not the story. The lady who finally helped us, walked us to the cashier, to ensure our discount. After we paid, she hugged both of us, with tears in her eyes. Noel said “Heroiam Slava” (a saying which honors their soldiers). The lady burst into tears, and walked away. The war is always here, sometimes more personal than for others.

Cherkasy rotary sponsors a great program to help children process the stress of war. It includes therapists, who donate their time. Physical activities, and art. This is a painting done by a 14 year old girl, who just lost her father on the frontlines.

If you remember, last November we dropped off some air bottles to friends in Ukraine. They told us their soldiers could use them as portable heaters and stoves. The bottles were such a hit, the soldiers asked for more. We put out the word in California, and scrounged up 118 bottles. We hustled them up to our friend in Canada, who was filling a shipping container destined for Ukraine. When the container arrived, we loaded the bottles in our van. A few days ago, we delivered them to our friends in Chyhyrn. They are probably already on their way to the soldiers who requested them. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

Sometimes the simplest things, aren’t that simple. We were asked if we could get some mosquito repellent for some soldiers. It took no less than 4 people, and nearly two hours to buy the repellent. Everyone was very pleasant, and worked very hard to get us EXACTLY what we wanted. We couldn’t get them to understand we didn’t really care. Good repellent, for a good price. When that was done we were given a printed invoice, for the cashier. The cashier then had to go through EVERY bottle, one at a time, to make sure it all matched.