18/7 Woke to the news that Russia conducted a massive missile and drone attack on Odesa last night. The city I’d just been the week before. Thankfully air defence worked well and there was only minor damage and injuries from fragments of shot down missiles. This morning had to say goodbye to Yulia our translator who I’d gotten to know well. It was so lovely and touching that she gave us a present of some traditional Ukrainian embroidery and a very lovely card and hairpin. She is a lovely young lady that I hope to stay in touch with.
Today we caught a train from Kyiv to Fastiv to be picked up and taken to the CMA medical retreat. It is a several day team building retreat to allow some of the doctors and volunteers to have a break and rest in a relatively safe and peaceful place after such a tough year and a half with more to come. They are all so tired…
It is in a beautiful, forested village setting with beautiful birch and pine trees and a village full of fruit trees. We settled into our first night with some very nice people and were able to take part thanks to the help of a translator.
Later in the day I was introduced to army chaplain who works on the frontline. He didn’t speak English, but we spoke briefly through the interpreter. He looked very burdened as I watched him with his little dog. When I said I’d like to talk to him more later in the camp he mentioned he may have to come and go as he has five funerals to go to this week….??
19/7
The doctor’s retreat has been a great chance to rest a little and recharge and catch-up with some work and video editing etc.. I can imagine that these guys here working amidst war need that rest 1000 times more than I do. Good to see them get it. Some of them are from the region that was hit with another massive missile attack last night. Russia is aggravated because Ukraine hit a bridge that is crucial to military strategy and supplies that Russia uses to annihilate Ukrainians and steal their land. So, they retaliate by hitting multiple civilian targets, wounding civilians and hitting grain warehouses where grain is shipped to poor countries reliant on World Food Programme Aid. I later learnt they had destroyed 60000 tonnes of grain and there were civilians wounded and killed. If it wasn’t for air defence the casualties would have been much higher. Why can’t the world see how evil and unjust this war is and do more to stop it?
Spoke to a guy at dinner who said sometimes if he’s tired he starts to feel depressed and wonder what is he doing here in Ukraine with this war going on. But then he gets his strength back and says to himself ”we must win. We must believe in this.”
I told him the story of my grandfather and the history of the fighting Cossack spirit of Ukraine. I told him of our experiences around Ukraine and seeing the positive things that are rising out of this misery and evil and the wonderful things happening amongst Gods people. He struggled to find the English words but finally said through his google translate how kind and encouraging these words were and then I think was a little emotional and had to leave.
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