Kind Heart: Ukrainian Refugee Aid

 April 20, 2022 I am back home.  This is where I stayed in Krakow. On Monday, I wandered into this church.  It was the first walk from where I was staying to someplace other than where the van was parked.  Easter Sunday continues into Monday in this predominantly Catholic city. This modest exterior opens into an almost painfully beautiful chapel, with stained glass windows.  I walked in and it seemed natural to walk then kneel in a pew.  Looking up at Christ on the cross, I immediately started to sob.  So much suffering. Not with any disrespect, and certainly not the first person to have felt this, I wanted to admonish him to climb down from that cross and do something, do more, to help those suffering. What was the Resurrection if not hope?  Isn’t grace supposed to flow, not to those who have earned it, but those most in need of it? I imagined Rob Sturgill’s voice.  I think Rob exists in a state of grace, optimistically and enthusiastically ...

 4-18-2022 A paraphrase from the Ethics of the Fathers:  at least how I remember it. The day is short The work is long You are not obligated to complete the work But neither are you free to desist from lending a hand I am feeling that the work is long, have been feeling it for the last few days.  I picked up what I thought were 16 suitcases at the Type of Wood office, only to discover that there were 16 more nestled inside when I started handing them out in Korczowa. I asked for some help from center staff in handing them out, there were so many.  They took me in and out of different rooms, into places I hadn’t been.  So many people, families, children, babies.   There was the happy grateful response, much like the day before.  But I noticed other things as I was moving through the different rooms. I think I was feeling the weight of the overall trauma, the vicarious traumatization that comes with being exposed to others trauma, before this.  But ...

 April 17, 2022 After cold heavy windy rain the first few days, the sun has come out.  It is very nice to be driving on dry roads. Ann and Hlelb, on the far right, are sitting up front with me from Korczowa to Krakow.   Diana, Marria, and Violeta, far left are traveling together.  I think there is a family relationship there, but not sure.  Nikolay and Valentina, and their dog, who I didn’t realize wasn’t in the picture, complete the group. Ann and Hleb are from Kharkiv.  AS we’re driving, I tell Ann that I would be interested in hearing about their experiences there, but that I understand that this might not be something they wanted to talk about.  Ann squeezed my arm and shook her head no.  Kharkiv has been heavily attacked, bombed. You drive due west on the trip from Korczowa to Krakow.  I noticed Ann and Hleb pointing and taking in the sunset.  I commented on how pretty it was. Ann said she looked forward to it being safe to go outsi...

 April 16, 2022 I forgot to mention this in the last post.  When I walked away from Tatiana, Natalie, and Sergei, I looked at the credit card slip.  I converted zlotys to dollars:  tickets for two people, on two different trains, a total of four tickets, was $40.   Type of Wood team chat shared an update that now people without passport stamps could get a free ticket and where to take them in the train station to get whatever was necessary for them to get a ticket. I met up with Rob Sturgill, head of Type of Wood, for the first time, also meeting some of the other team members.  Very nice folks. Rob told me the origin story of the name, Type of Wood. In 2014 they went on their first humanitarian mission, to the Philippines, to rebuild houses in the wake of a big typhoon.  The local wood is coconut wood, and once it dries, it is very hard to drive nails into. Rob is working alongside a Filipino contractor to whom he says, this wood is almost impossible ...

 April 14, 2022 I make my first trip to the airport, rather than the train station.  It is a family of six, with grandparents, parents, and children.  I drop another mother and son in the city center, to catch a plane the next day. This trip I ask Elena, who speaks English and is the first person to sign up, to help find others to fill the van.  She does and we are quickly on our way.  I am porter as well as driver, loading suitcases into the van.  I enjoy this a lot. Elena and her college age son, Serkii, are on their way to Spain. A university there has offered to enroll Serkii to enable him to continue his studies.  Elena informs me that Dnipro, where they are from, is and has been a center for rocket research and development. This started when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and continues in the present.  Elena conveys that she understands that Russian rockets aimed at the United States were developed there.  I turn this over in my m...

 April 11, 2022 Today I went directly to Korczowa refugee center.  This is posted in places around the center. Children are running, jumping, scootering, chasing each other, zipping in and out of depressed adults.  Not all the adults, but many of them. Faces that look like lead masks. A lot of sleeping during the day. My guess is that the ones that have not been able to find a place to go are the ones who look the most leaden.  Because the people I’ve been transporting, for the most part, seem very happy to be leaving for somewhere else. I am developing something of a network in Korczowa.  This includes Alex, who is a Jewish Ukrainian man living in New Jersey.  He is here as an interpreter with an organization called Russians for Ukraine.  He did some interpreting for me and we exchanged numbers.  If he isn’t physically present, I call him, put him on speaker, and he translates.  As he interacts with people, he may become aware of people need...

  This is the Medyka Border Crossing at Przemsysl.  It is emotionally overwhelming to simply pull up to it, as I did for the first time yesterday.  There are cars and vans from organizations from all over the world.  There is a big bus out front with refugees - families, holding garbage bags with their clothes, moms carrying their children’s scooters, stuffed bears, strollers. This is as close as you can get to take a picture.  Picture taking is strictly forbidden any closer, for privacy and to maintain dignity. To get in the building, you must be registered as a volunteer.  The first step is getting covid tested.  On the line to be tested I met two groups from Israel, one Jewish and one Christian, and a former Oakland PD officer.   He told me he had been shot five times to stop an investigation that was getting too close for someone’s comfort and was retired due to PTSD.  Frank (not his name) said he was here trying to decide whether to try ...

  I’m leaving here for Poland on April 7 to help transport Ukrainian refugees from the Polish border town Medyka to refugee centers in Krakow.  You can provide support for this at  https://gofund.me/ee500268