3 Weeks in Kharkiv
When I got off the train in Kharkiv over 3 weeks ago, the first thing to greet me was an air raid siren which, however you want to look at it, is a sign of coming home. It's taken me a little time to adjust to some of the changes in my volunteer coordination role, but what hasn't changed is the warm welcome and affection every day in Hell's Kitchen. From that perspective, it felt as if I never left.
Winter is finally changing to spring. It's difficult to describe the daily difficulties and stress of a hard, cold winter, even without the war - wearing enough layers of clothing, boots, crampons, always looking at your feet to avoid slipping (again!) on refrozen snow, the shrinking of life because it's really too cold to go anywhere. One of the foreign volunteers put it eloquently: "Perhaps one of my biggest takeaways this time is the snow. The hardship of winter, the fragility of life/injury due to nature not aggression." Now the first bulbs can be seen, the pavements are clear (although full of sand!), and Shevchenko Park is dressed up in its spring finery and thronged with people, especially on recent sunny days...
Instead of constantly looking down to avoid slipping, I can look up and notice some of the lovely old buildings in my area...
...and this church, newly constructed but beautiful.
Little has changed in our daily experience of war. Sirens are heard throughout the day and night. Russia has been hitting Kharkiv with drones almost every day since the end of February. https://suspilne.media/amp/kharkiv/1255576-rosia-majze-sodna-be-po-harkovu-dronami-hronologia-udariv/
On 7 March 11 people were killed, including a 13-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, and many more were injured in a missile attack on an apartment block during the night.
The following day our volunteers baked cookies and took sandwich ingredients to emergency services workers on the scene.
On the positive we no longer experience daily power cuts and the generator near my apartment has been fixed. But this month restrictions began on the underground train system (Metro) due to energy shortages, with trains running every 20 minutes instead of every 10 minutes, other than during the early morning. Platforms and trains are noticeably busier now.
Hell's Kitchen and Volunteers
I don't now what I did to deserve it but the day after my return was our 3-monthly deep cleaning day! However, it's never as bad as it sounds and most volunteers seem to enjoy themselves, this time helped by Liuda making waffles, along with mulled wine and cocoa, after we finished!
This winter, from the middle of January to the end of February, the Kitchen relied on a generator 4-8 hours per day. But we are making more meals than ever - up to 1,250 per day. Now, three times a week, we deliver meals to a medical evacuation train.
We have volunteers from Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and the USA. A recent volunteer from Italy, during only an 11-day stay, learned how to make bread and was head baker for the day!
Travelling is getting a bit more difficult for volunteers. Already, it takes at least a day to travel from the Ukrainian border to Kharkiv. From March 18 the national rail company, Ukrzaliznytsia, introduced a temporary restriction on the running of the Intercity Kharkiv - Kyiv high-speed train due to the impact of hostilities on the power supply. To get from Kyiv to Kharkiv you now need to make a transfer to a diesel train in Poltava, 143 km west of Kharkiv. One of our recent volunteers reported that his train stopped twice and everyone had to get out due to drones in the area. Another was stuck in Poltava for a couple of hours during an air raid alert. But these difficulties do not seem to deter volunteers from coming to Kharkiv or from returning.
I'm hosting an informal English speaking group every Tuesday in the Cat Café, which seems to be a popular concept in Ukraine - a café inhabited by a number of cats that wander around and sit where they like. This one was the first to arrive for the group.
Often, in the Kitchen, the mundane is beautiful, such as a flour delivery when we are down to the last bag...
...and this stack of boxes - they have to be washed at the end of every day, ready for cooling and portioning out food the following day.
Donations
Thank you, as always, for your donations; however small, they are always effective.
Donations were spent on:
Support for Hell's Kitchen's.
Tourniquets for use on the frontline.
Contributions to a charging station for the Kharkiv Professional College of Sports, which has now arrived.
Medication for children in need (Adults For Children).
A big thank you to some talented children in Kharkiv for their gifts, via Adults for Children, including this small bench made by a 10-year-old boy, which I'll use to sit on when I put my shoes on.
And this wonderful bird house, made by an 11-year-old girl.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and also, for your comments.
To make a donation to the regular causes I support, please open PayPal and, when asked for email, enter sunflower_house@hotmail.co.uk
You can specify where you would like your donation to go, including whether or not you wish to support a civilian only cause; otherwise I will send the money where I think the need is greatest:
Adults For Children, Kharkiv, supports children's physical and emotional well being, including those who have been displaced.
Hell's Kitchen cooks daily, nutritious meals and bakes bread, for hospitals, wounded soldiers and others in need.
Franklin, Hell's Kitchen foreign volunteer coordinator, supports soldiers and medics on the frontline.
Inna runs a small group of volunteers who make camouflage nets, ghillie suits and stretchers.
If you would like to donate to a charity that supports animals - Animal Rescue Kharkiv.
💙💛
ReplyDelete