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 outside and watch the sunset , in Poland, after the war.

This highlights one of the aspects of the situation that makes it so difficult to cope with for the refugees.  It helps to know duration, how long one is going to have to tolerate a stressful situation, to be able to cope.

And, of course, no one can say.  Do you stay in the mindset that this is temporary, I have to endure it for a while, then I’ll return home or really face and commit to starting over in a new country?

I think there is a range of answers to to this, and as I’ve described in earlier posts, the decision to leave at all can be a complicated one.

I helped Valentina in and out of the van.  We make a diesel/rest room/snacks/smoke break stop halfway through each trip.  She grunts with effort and laughs as she gets in and out.  It hits me how much physically harder it is for her and Nikolay to be displaced this way that’s for the much younger people.  With their dog, yet.

Look what you did!  You bought these suitcases (and many more).  The suitcases get distributed from the Type of Wood office quickly, and I’ve gone there, only to have them all gone.  I got these at Puccini Luggage in the mall at the train station, special price to Type of Wood.

I brought them into the refugee center, to a family I had noticed with their possessions in paper and plastic bags.  The tears, the hugging, the blessing me, the intensity of the emotions - you wouldn’t believe it.  One woman motions to heaven, points to me, touches her heart, then touches my heart.  Of course I’m crying too. 

I bring in more suitcases, this family steers me towards two young families, children spanning the ages between my four year old grandson and his 11 month old brother.  More tears, hugs, kisses, praising me, praising God.  Little children from another family wrap themselves around my legs and kiss my legs.  And this repeats as I bring in more suitcases.

I can’t find the words to convey what this is like, it is so intense.  

Watching some of the people take their things out of bags and put them into the suitcases , some of them were crying as they did this, the immediate benefit is obvious.  

But it has to be the implied caring.  If the dehumanization, cruelty, brutality of the invasion says you count for nothing, your children count for nothing, individual lives do not matter - then an act that says you do matter, you are cared about and matter to the larger world, and people far away will act to make it better has a great deal of impact.

Which is what all of you did by buying these suitcases for them.

These folks came on the return trip to Krakow.  At the diesel/rest stop, mom and teenage daughter got out of the van and left that little one in the very back seat.  Watching them go, she said “mama, mama, mama”.

I reached for her, she smiled and came into my arms.  Sweet little girl.  I just held her and said mom will be right back.  She was fine., just a brief moment of upset, and them mama was back.  And off to Krakow.