Fiona4Ukraine

I'd been thinking for some time about trying to get an English conversation group going in Kharkiv. It was our oldest volunteer, Vera (aged 76), who gave me the motivation to do something about it. She is the head baker on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I love working with her. She speaks only a few words of English and I try to communicate with my limited Ukrainian. One day, recently, Vera began asking me how to say things related to making bread rolls, like flour, yeast, etc. I talked to Liuda, who administrates Hell's Kitchen, and asked what she thought about an informal group for Ukrainian volunteers who want to learn English to communicate with foreign volunteers. She liked the idea and, within a day, had sent out the invitation below and organised a venue! The first meeting of "English with Fiona" was on Sunday at 4 pm in a local cafe. I thought perhaps three, maybe four, people would attend but eight came, which was really heart-warming, if a little chaotic because...

On Friday I was lucky enough to be asked to drive the Hell's Kitchen van to deliver a large donation of  1 ml syringes, which can be used for diabetic and intradermal injections. The van was nearly full and we asked around to find out where the syringes would be most useful, as there are a number of hospitals in Kharkiv. We ended up delivering to two hospitals - oncology and general - which happened to be on different sides of Kharkiv, i.e. about a half hour's drive from one to the other. The van was fairly easy to drive, other than a crack in the windscreen on the driver's side, just at eye level! The city is NOT easy to drive in if you're not used to it - there are some strange rules (to foreigners) regarding beng able to turn into oncoming traffic and vice versa; as it's a large city there are often several traffic lanes, which have a habit of disappearing or merging into tram tracks! Luckily, I had an excellent navigator and, with regard to finding the right hos...

Hell's Kitchen volunteers were treated to a New Year party on December 29. Ukrainian volunteers spent all afternoon cooking some amazing food, alongside a barbecue, an open fire and lovely decorations. Somewhere under all these people there is a swing! On New Year's Eve I watched some of the huge firework displays from countries across the globe, as they celebrated the new year. In Ukraine we have martial law, which mandates curfews in cities at varying times, depending on the local situation. Fireworks are banned and offenders are prosecuted. In Kharkiv the curfew begins at 11 pm - the only way we could think of celebrating was to light sparklers in the garden. My friend, Jos, took a short video, which turned out to be quite poignant as an air raid alert sounded less than a minute after midnight that can be heard in the background... Hell's Kitchen is open every day of the year. As well as the Ukrainian volunteers, there is a hard-working gr...

Christmas morning, 25 December, did not start so well. From 6 am Putin greeted us with a barrage of missiles (12 in total), which targeted boiler houses and electricity facilities, in parallel with an attack on the entire energy sector of Ukraine. As a result, much of Kharkiv is without heating and power outage schedules have been introduced. Fortunately, the weather is not too cold - around zero degrees celcius - and technicians managed to ensure that the city's electric transport (the Metro underground trains, trams and trolley buses) continued to operate. Several people were injured in the attacks and private residential buildings were damaged.  But, as the mayor of Kharkiv said, "I am confident that we will overcome today's challenges! We are together! We are Kharkiv residents! We are Ukrainians! Glory to Ukraine!" And Kharkiv could not look more Christmassy if it tried. As was pointed out to me, these incredible decorations use very energy efficient LED bulbs. Th...

Ukraine doesn't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving but Hell's Kitchen does - to thank all their volunteers, from home and abroad. Liuda and Yegor, the kitchen's founders, put on a huge spread of food and drink for us. All volunteers were given individual, personal cards at the party and Yegor sent this message to us: "I want to greet you with the word 'Friends.' Yes, each one of you is a Friend to us. I never could have imagined that while standing against one of the biggest and most evil empires of our time, we would find friends from all over the world, from Europe to New Zealand. You prove to us that the words 'freedom,' 'liberty,' 'the rule of law,' and 'democracy' are not just fancy words that politicians like to repeat. These are real values. So I want to say THANK YOU, my friends. Thank you for our hope, our example, and our support. Thank you! Glory to Ukraine!" In the same spirit of Thanksgiving, I  woul...