28th July

Last night after getting back I was told that Pastor Oleg wanted to have dinner. He invited a young student from his church to translate for us. He had lots of questions and was dying to know what my impressions were of the trip and in particular the devastated village he’d taken me to. I said that my main impressions were: the resilience of the people, their generosity and kindness through adversity, and the fact that even after liberation there is so much work to be done for these people to get some semblance of their life back.

Pastor Dima dropped me off but sadly didn’t stay. He later told me via message that he was getting ready to drive over to Germany to retrieve his wife and young son that he hadn’t seen since the beginning of the war when they had fled to safety. It’s still not safe here but many families are taking calculated risks as the war drags on and they see there are many places ‘safer’ than others.

The student was a lovely girl of 18 who again seemed amazed that we had come to Ukraine and were trying to help. She even got me to feature in her Instagram story to her Ukrainian friends.

The next day I was on a bus back to Lviv. Again every bus station seemed to be swarming with soldiers coming and going, long lingering hugs with partners and children.. it seemed like it was an increasing number but who knows…

As we were driving through nice countryside that I thought was a fair way from any issues I was shocked to notice out the window- landmine warning signs on the road verges. I wonder how many years it will be to rid this country of all its mines..

The bus was supposed to arrive back around midnight but at one stop we seemed to have a bit of a problem with one guy not having the right paperwork to get on the bus his wife and kid did. I wondered if it was because this bus continued on to Poland and men of fighting age arent allowed to leave the country at the moment? Anyway that delayed us considerably and we ended up getting in at 2.30 in the morning . I was all ready to use my expanding language skills to negotiate the taxi home ( the local taxi app doesn’t work in the old town after midnight) as I was hit with an exorbitant quote ( in local terms)! I did get it down a bit but negotiations broke down when they reminded me that it would now be after curfew and they’d be risking a fine going into the old town at this time. And then I could hear Ron’s voice in my head saying “don’t argue about $10 alone at 2.30 a.m. in a foreign city – just get in the taxi!!”

29th July

Today I had put aside to do some shopping as I hadn’t had a chance to get anything to take home yet and I’d promised my sister and niece to get them something.

Walking through town I saw a memorial to the soldiers of Olenivka who were prisoners of war captured in Mariupol and were killed in a mass murder deemed a war crime and Russia violated an agreement regarding their exchange.

I was also determined to visit the main cemetery in Lviv to visit the graves of fallen soldiers from this area. The original part of the cemetery was also interesting and a tourist site as there were graves all the way from the 1600’s to present day.

I wasn’t ready for the sea of flags that greeted me on the immense field of fresh soldiers graves. Each grave had been made in the style of a little living garden with a photo of the soldier and adorned with a Ukrainian flag floating in the breeze. Many also had flags of their battalions. Looking at their photos made it so much more real..: they ranged from babyfaced ‘kids’ of around 18-20 to 65 year old ‘grandads’. There were women too. One young man had been killed on his 21st birthday. What was striking was how many graves there were from such a short period. Many of them had died in the previous week or two. Around the cemetery there were families still finishing the garden on more recent graves. Parents tended to the graves of their sons and daughters. Wives came with small children in tow. One older boy sat at the grave of his father with his head in his hands. A young woman in her twenties was sitting by the grave of her partner the whole time we were there- just staring into space.

As I walked towards the back of the cemetery I could see rows of very fresh graves that hadn’t had their little gardens built yet but the flags and photos were there. Some were from the last couple of days. A gravedigger was there digging another one. I noticed he was an older guy and I had heard that older men from other professions had had to take over as younger men were now in shorter supply during war. It was also clear that they had allowed a lot more space for this cemetery to expand- I hope to not come back and see it filled…

I couldn’t help crying and crying and I think it was also a release of pent up emotions from the last four weeks. It seemed appropriate to just sit, meditate and pray and release these emotions here before I head home.

We walked home through the streets of Lviv which was lovely although Elsie struggled and I had to hold her up at times. It’s been a tough few weeks for her. We came across a small market in an old square that was like something out of an old Soviet movie. A few old people were selling vintage books and coins and medals that looked like they’d been pulled out of the back cupboard at grandmas. I’m sure if you knew what you were looking for there’d be some real treasures. I bought a 1990’s comic book in Ukrainian with traditional Cossack characters. Again we saw more beautiful buildings and forts and castles and churches that were hundreds of years old. One orthodox church that I stepped into smelled strongly of the sweet incense that they use liberally. I was overcome with emotion as it took me back to the smell of my beloved Ukrainian grandfather who was an orthodox priest. I like to think he’d be proud of what I was doing here…

We got home exhausted and then Rudi suggested going out for dinner. Elsie wasn’t up for it so John and I went.

We had a great chat with Rudi about ways forward from here. There are needs everywhere that they are trying to meet but two critical needs are burns treatments and new 4wd ambulances. The burns treatments they have funding from a donor in Taiwan but they need advocacy to an Australian company to get a discounted rate which we’ll help with.

They also need to fundraise for more ambulances to replace the ones getting worn out with such intense use in rough conditions. Having been on some of those roads I can tell you they really do need something heavy duty. Rudi was telling us they’ve had an offer from Toyota to get them 4WD’s they can fit out for $35000 base cost which is amazing. They just need to raise the funds.

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After dinner Rudi asked a young girl there with her boyfriend to take our picture. It was quite funny cos she took ages getting it just right. Young Ukrainians are such posers compared to Aussies. Everywhere you go you see them striking a pose like a model, in the streets with boyfriends or friends taking photos of them.

She asked where we were from and then was amazed- she asked Rudi if we were crazy.. she said to him wasn’t it too scary for us to be here in a war? I just said ‘That’s what we’re here for.’ I did then make the comment that it wasn’t particularly scary right here and she seemed to be enjoying her romantic dinner and he laughed.

We had our goodbye hugs with Rudi and thanked him for all his help and hosting us. Again he kept thanking us which really just didn’t feel right. But as we hugged I think we all felt like this wouldn’t be our last meeting.

30th July

Today we spent our last day finishing up some articles and blog posts. John got his 5000 word article finished for an Australian magazine and I helped him with some data for it and a proof read.

John and Elsie don’t like going out for local food and I didn’t want to miss out on my last chance for a Ukrainian meal so I went out for dinner myself. It was a nice little cafe where I had Ukrainian dumplings with meat and with cherries and a redcurrant drink. The drink is a Compote style of boiled fruits kept in a jar and it’s a very traditional Ukrainian drink. The ‘bar’ had jars of bottled fruit compotes that looked more like they belonged in Grandma’s cellar.

As a farewell I was woken by one last air raid siren for our last night. It was an initial cross country one that then turned out to be for further east.

31st July

I’d organised a driver online to take us over the border. It cost more than a bus or train but we were splitting the costs. We’d heard that the buses regularly get stuck at the border for up to ten hours at a time. The train is better but it means catching a train at 3 am that you then have to change again at 4.30 am over the border with all your baggage and John and Elsie had big bags. Turned out it was a good call. The drivers name was Luda and she was monitoring chats to work out which was the quickest border crossing. We managed to get across the border and both checkpoints in under 3 hours which is amazing. The worst part was bursting for a pee at the border and finding the only place to pee was where thousands of others had been in the bushes! As I pushed into the bushes I found I was surrounded by berries! Under any other circumstances I’d have been excited. But was a bit nervous about what they’d been ‘fertilised’ with! The whole journey all up was about ten hours but that included a stop at Mc Donald’s. Elsie and John were very excited to get their junk food fix.. ?

But what was interesting is that Luda was a Christian doctor; an obstetrician in fact, who drives on her days off. Apparently doctors pay isn’t that great.

Her husband is also a pastor who is passionate about Creation and makes incredible dinosaur and fossil models. I was able to help with some contacts from my dad at Creation ministries.

She told us about her adult kids working with NGO samaritans purse as drivers and translators at the field hospitals they help with closer to the front. Constantly translating the trauma and medical stuff has taken a toll and her kids have had a lot of health problems that have now been diagnosed as stress and they are on antidepressants. It sounds like it’s been tough on all of them. And that is after Covid where she nearly died and had an obliterated lung and then gave it to her parents and her mum died of it and she had to deal with that… She said at one point she asked her adults kids to leave and go somewhere safe, but they said ‘No mama, we need to stay and do our bit to help.’ They’d even had offers from American friends and they still said no. At times the staff there have been under rocket attack and one American doctor had a breakdown and had to leave. Under one rocket attack their GPS system stopped working and they lost navigation. It was very scary and they then saw on telegram ( a social media chat group very popular over here) that Russians were saying their soldiers should target Samaritans Purse vehicles and was spreading Mia information that the US was transporting military supplies in its ambulances and vehicles. As a result they had to remove all their logos and insignia and advise staff not to wear the uniforms. In Kyiv a rocket attack came within 300 metres of their office. It has taken a toll. At the beginning of the war when based in Lviv they had over 100 doctors. Currently they have none and only two are arriving this week but they’re not sure for how long.

She talked about how a lot of people ‘came to God’ in 1990-1992 through the collapse of the Soviet Union. She thinks it was because people started to think critically and question what they believe in, why am I going to this church (traditional ‘religious’ churches) etc – a lot more ‘why’ questions were being asked.

People became more convicted of their faith , there was more genuine faith. She sees this happening again now with the war and sees that many people are being strengthened and forged through the fire of suffering.

She said “Sometimes when I have fear and think about leaving I realise I don’t want to. I love my country – I don’t want to leave.”

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