Action for Ukrainian Refugees

April 3, 2022   Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde   "This is not going to be a pleasant ride," I thought to myself with dread as three women followed me to my car. One of them, Olga, angrily headed back to the Information booth. Another took out a cigarette and started smoking furiously, knowing that this would be her last cigarette for three hours. Since none of them spoke English, I had no idea what was going on. We found an interpreter who spent 15 minutes trying to convince Olga to proceed on the ride to Katowice, Poland. According to the interpreter, Olga lived in Lviv, Ukrania, while her husband and children were in western Poland.  She was on her way to meet them but didn't consider herself to be a refugee, nor to be associated with that population. (Why she was availing herself of the services to refugees was beyond me.) It was all very confusing to me as she was stressed out and appeared on the verge of a breakdown. I'm sure the effects of the war and separation from ...

April 4, 2022 Who was taken for a ride?   I've had instances when two women were upset and angry about getting in my car to ride to Krakow but, by the end of the trip, were smiling and giving me big hugs and telling me, "This is my lucky day," and "You are a good man."  My experience with Sasha two days ago was the opposite.  Here is what happened.   Sasha is the type of women who, when she walks into a room, all heads swivel to look at her and all conversations stop, not because of her beauty, but because of her magnetic personality. She is equal parts loquacious and flirtatious. Men sit at her feet like dogs waiting for a treat. When she orders them to jump, they respond, "How high?"   I saw evidence of this at the refugee reception center. She asked two burly, rough looking Spanish mercenaries who were on their way across the border to fight for Ukraine to carry her two very large bags from the bus into the reception center. Not only did they comply...

April 5, 2022   "You can never have too many books or too many hugs."    Margherita was scared to get in my car with her children, as I later found out at the end of the ride. However, she was a bit more reassured when she learned that I would be part of a convoy with a van with other two families. She and her son (David) and daughter (Alexandria with the painted face) slept almost the entire three-hour ride. Due to the language barrier, we hardly spoke more than ten words to each other.     I've discovered that Ukrainian people love to give hugs. When we arrived at the hotel and I prepared to say goodbye, Margherita surprised me by giving me a warm hug. When I went to hug Alexandria, she opened her arms wide and with a big smile, gave me a long hug.   At first David was a little shy, but he soon warmed up and buried his head in my shoulders for a big hug.   Someone once said that you can never have too many books or too many hugs. How true.   Fo...

April 6, 2022   This time, I am the guardian angel.   I define a "guardian angel" as someone who appears at the right moment to help another person in need. On April 4th I wrote about a guardian angel (young man) who reached out to help us find the train station at precisely the right time.  Today, I experienced what it's like to be a guardian angel. When I walked up to the information table in the refugee reception center, I heard a volunteer tell a family of four that he didn't have enough room in his car/van for them.  He was very apologetic as he shook his head, and I could see that the family was very disappointed. I asked him where they wanted to go and he said, "Krakow." I said, "I'm going to Krakow, and I can take all of them!" You should have seen the smiles on their faces. At first their spirits were deflated. Ten seconds later, they were elated, quite an extreme mood swing. From the translator that I used on the phone, I learned tha...

April 7, 2022   "Providing food is telling them that we care."   Today I bought another $546.13 worth of food for orphans in Ukraine. Vasily, my contact person at Caritas-Ukraine, an aid organization that provides shelter to orphans and displaced persons, told me that he asked the children what food they most missed and wanted.  They said breakfast sausages (parowki) and candy.  So I bought a ton of parowki and bags of candy to take with me to Ukraine tomorrow. I guess I didn't mention that I am going to visit a country that is in the midst of a brutal war.  It was never my intention to go into Ukraine because of the inherent dangers involved, but I have been assured that it is safe in the western regions of Ukraine, particularly along the Polish border. Vasily thought it would be important for me to visit the shelters they run and particularly, the orphanage. As I understand it, the orphans were brought from all over Ukraine due to the dangers of the war, and ...

  April 8, 2022 I step foot into a war-torn country for the first time.   As I mentioned in my last post, I never envisioned going into Ukraine during this trip. I didn't know how dangerous it would be, nor what I would do in the country as a volunteer. However, Lifting Hands International recommended Vasily, coordinator of shipments of food and supplies for Caritas-Ukraine, as someone who might be able to use my services. In previous posts I related how I purchased two shipments of food and delivered them to warehouses in Poland where they would then be picked up and delivered to a warehouse in Ukraine. Vasily invited me to come to Ukraine to see how the food that I donated would make its way into the hands of the residents of shelters. That was an invitation that I couldn't pass up. He assured me that the western region of Poland is the safest because of its proximity to Poland, a member of the European Union and NATO. The cities and villages on the Ukrainian side look virtu...

April 10, 2022   A former Stanford student gets trapped in Ukraine and starts a food delivery program.   Vasily grew up in eastern Ukraine and attended Stanford University for two years, and he eventually established residency in Atlanta. He was visiting family and friends in Ukraine and bought his airline ticket home for the morning of February 24.  At 4:00 a.m. he was awoken by the sound of missiles exploding in his city and he, along with thousands of residents, scrambled in a panicked state looking for shelter or a way to escape.  He described the situation as utter chaos as thousands of cars clogged up the roads leading out of his city.  At first, he tried to buy a train ticket to escape the hell, but all the seats were sold out.  His flight to Atlanta was canceled, so he literally ran for miles to the outskirts of the city where he was picked up by his cousin in a car.  They drove west to the border where he tried to cross into Poland but one hou...