We made it to Ukraine. On the way, though, I woke up again with a puncture in the middle of the night somewhere in the countryside. I lost the import/export competition and was selected as a tyre changer. In the rain, of course.
Inka
I shouldn’t drive at 3am when the tyres always burst. When I fell asleep again, I woke up to a strange rattling sound. The rusty bolts were about to come off the tyre and the journey was at a standstill again. Finally found the driver ahead
Joni
, crossed the border and unloaded the cars to the warehouse. In the rain I must have forgotten to take pictures of everything except the Pihlajalinna stuff I picked up from Heidi. Or the battery was dead again. Of course, we also delivered
Pia
a huge mountain of food, sleeping bags, toiletries and other much-needed items collected by the Tapanila Sports Centre. Most will be delivered around Ukraine in the next few days. The hospital supplies organised by Oksana were put aside for later use. We had also brought in a hospital bed which seemed like a silly thing to do, but they took it away from us immediately. When only the second car was unloaded, we had to go with Jon to transport it to the local hospital. I learned that victims of war are also being transported from the East to the West. And the need for everything possible is absolutely ridiculous because of the state of emergency. A quick shopping trip before curfew and off to bed. During the journey, I had slept for no more than an hour due to stops and various adjustments.
Inka
I shouldn’t drive at 3am when the tyres always burst. When I fell asleep again, I woke up to a strange rattling sound. The rusty bolts were about to come off the tyre and the journey was at a standstill again. Finally found the driver ahead
Joni
, crossed the border and unloaded the cars to the warehouse. In the rain I must have forgotten to take pictures of everything except the Pihlajalinna stuff I picked up from Heidi. Or the battery was dead again. Of course, we also delivered
Pia
a huge mountain of food, sleeping bags, toiletries and other much-needed items collected by the Tapanila Sports Centre. Most will be delivered around Ukraine in the next few days. The hospital supplies organised by Oksana were put aside for later use. We had also brought in a hospital bed which seemed like a silly thing to do, but they took it away from us immediately. When only the second car was unloaded, we had to go with Jon to transport it to the local hospital. I learned that victims of war are also being transported from the East to the West. And the need for everything possible is absolutely ridiculous because of the state of emergency. A quick shopping trip before curfew and off to bed. During the journey, I had slept for no more than an hour due to stops and various adjustments.
The next day, the weather cleared and after taking inventory, we took the ice creams that Jon had bought to the children at the refugee centre. They were waiting for us in the yard and immediately everyone ran to get theirs. There was so much ice cream that we had enough for one. We visited the old castle in Lutsk and got to shoot Putin with a crossbow. Appropriately, and in the words of a song, I shot between the eyes. The rest of the evening was spent weaving mask nets with the singing women.
Friday started with the fact that
Raakel
and Inka left to pack her things for the soldiers’ training centre. Me and Sasha went to a nearby village to get a big pile of bread. We set off with a relief transport consisting of clothes, food and first aid supplies. I was guided by a gentleman at colonel level and told about three girls from Naantali who had raised 25€ for Ukrainian children by holding a summer café over three days. These three little girls brought a professional soldier to tears. It must be strange to think that someone somewhere far away would do something like that while living through this war. The girls’ donation will later be used to buy something nice for the local “orphanage”. Orphanage in a nutshell, because it’s basically a school for refugee children from the East and the children come from different backgrounds.
Raakel
and Inka left to pack her things for the soldiers’ training centre. Me and Sasha went to a nearby village to get a big pile of bread. We set off with a relief transport consisting of clothes, food and first aid supplies. I was guided by a gentleman at colonel level and told about three girls from Naantali who had raised 25€ for Ukrainian children by holding a summer café over three days. These three little girls brought a professional soldier to tears. It must be strange to think that someone somewhere far away would do something like that while living through this war. The girls’ donation will later be used to buy something nice for the local “orphanage”. Orphanage in a nutshell, because it’s basically a school for refugee children from the East and the children come from different backgrounds.
After the cargo was unloaded, we were taken behind the barracks to listen to Sergiy’s show. The soldiers were sitting on the lawn and we felt a bit left out, until the music stopped and some talking started. We were asked to introduce ourselves. After all, we’ve been around for a while, but it still felt funny. I read a passage from Eino Leino’s poem Terve Ukraina, Raakel taught the war cry Hakkaa Päälle and Inka made the audience laugh by saying in Russian “Russian warship go to hell”. After our applied presentation, the soldiers took turns to take pictures with us. I felt like Santa Claus in a shopping mall, although of course the situation was memorable in a special way. We were given a couple of flags as gifts and a Finnish flag was presented to the battalion. The whole experience cannot be described in any post. The people we met are leaving for war in a couple of weeks, so some of them we met for the last time.
The next morning we left to pack our own car and unload
Jallu
n car. More vital aid received from there
GO Novii Boratyn Foundation
to be transported in. Of course, we forgot to take pictures of the Stockmann donations, which
Pekka
had sent. To save space, almost all the goods were packed in banana boxes instead of wrappers. But they’re here and some of them are already in Irpin, but more on that later. Jallu mailed a few more boxes and took some baking supplies with Raakel to Irina. Then we went home to Lviv. Raakel and Inka went to the city apartment and I went to Mamma’s. Sleep well and get on with it in the morning.
Jallu
n car. More vital aid received from there
GO Novii Boratyn Foundation
to be transported in. Of course, we forgot to take pictures of the Stockmann donations, which
Pekka
had sent. To save space, almost all the goods were packed in banana boxes instead of wrappers. But they’re here and some of them are already in Irpin, but more on that later. Jallu mailed a few more boxes and took some baking supplies with Raakel to Irina. Then we went home to Lviv. Raakel and Inka went to the city apartment and I went to Mamma’s. Sleep well and get on with it in the morning.
