Much has been happening in Ukraine, and I feel it is time for a few updates. There is little time for social media, as the urgency and number of requests coming in from our friends fighting has increased to an alarming level. We are all doing what we can to help, but it never feels enough.
On a personal note, I hope the news from the US is the beginning of the end of this awful war, but I have learnt to not expect too much.

The latest from me, is that I decided to go on holiday to Ukraine! I have kept this quiet, mainly because I wanted to go for personal reasons, but also because I don’t want you all to think I am using store funds for personal travel expenses. This “holiday” was all paid for out of my own pocket.
Now we have cleared that up :-) let’s talk about what has happened.

After the last mission in April, I had a feeling this would be the last car mission for a while. Although the need for cars, mainly pickup trucks, is as great as ever, the difficulty for us is finding trusted people to give the cars to, who will…
A) Use them on the zero line
B) Are able to do all paperwork to transfer the car legally to the soldier we donate it to.

There are many nuances to donating cars to the army and we are rightly proud that every car we have taken to Ukraine has gone to a front line serving soldier.
But this is becoming increasingly difficult.

Back home after the April mission, I made a decision to go back to Ukraine a couple of months later, just to visit friends, and to do a little work.
This was made even more special when I was told Oleh, Nick’s brother would be having his first leave from the Army since he joined nearly a year ago.

Of course, like we do with the cars, we never leave empty space, so lugging two suitcases, and a rucksack filled with supplies, I left my home and started the long journey to Ukraine. First a flight from my local airport to Krakow,  and then a train from the airport to the City Center, a quick stop at an Army shop I know well, to buy underwear and socks for myself, which were needed as my suitcases were already at the 20KG limit without them! 
Another train from Krakow to Przemyśl near the border with Ukraine, and then the first mistiming of the day, where I arrive 5 hours too early for the Intercity to Ukraine!
Now, for those who have been to Przemyśl, you will know there are very few delights in this border town. Especially with two suitcases now weighing nearly 30KG each, and some magnificently evil steps to navigate to get under the railway lines to the other side of town. Fortunately for me, I accidentally chose the  stairs to take me to the side of the station the intercity train leaves from, but the only amenities on this side of the train station are a porta-loo and the worlds worst supermarket 
After buying some water, crisps and what I thought was a sausage roll, I sit on the steps outside of the Passport Control office and wait for hours for my train to arrive.

After an uncomfortable few hours people watching and being eaten by every flying insect in Poland the Intercity to Kyiv arrives at 23:55 and I finally get on the train and settle down for the long 7 hour ride to Vinnytsia, the City nearest to Ulaniv, where Nick and his family are waiting for me.

The train arrives in Vinnytsia at 8AM, and after a couple of coffees, a stop at the local Metro store for supplies, and a 90 minute taxi ride, I finally arrive and it feels like I am back home.

Now, Ukrainian hospitality is world famous, as I am sure many of you already know, however the welcome I get now is different. It feels more intimate and far closer to being a part of a wonderful family. It really fills me with joy when I arrive at the Fomin house in Ulaniv, my second home.
In fact, during Dinner, Luda (Nick’s mum) even refers to me as a member of the family, which makes me start to tear up!

Now, I mentioned that there was some work involved as well. The first job is to unpack all the items in my suitcases, donations from friends and supporters, I carried 10KG of supplies from our friend Kamil who previously drove for us for a couple of missions. These supplies went to Vova, our Medic friend in 30th Brigade.
We also had supplies from Andriy, the Playboy model! So all this needed sorting out, packing and sending off via Nova Posta. It is worth mentioning one young man and his family who live very close to me. I met Jacob, a student of the Lytchett School, and he has personally gathered an enormous amount of aid specifically for Soldiers. It was mostly this aid that went towards filling the 60L rucksack for Andriy, so thank you Jacob, and your entire family. You are all amazing.

The second piece of work was to do with the School in Ulaniv. As you all know, for sometime we have been working on a project to build a relationship between a local school in Dorset, Lytchett School, and the school in Ulaniv. The original idea was to get the students from both schools talking to each other. A sort of pen pal scheme, but for the 21st Century, so rather than pen and paper, it’s all Instagram and Whatsapp. But the idea is still the same, cultural exchange, broaden horizons and understanding of different cultures and customs. The spin off to that project is that it is starting to become more of a twining of schools as well, so priority number one was to exchange gifts from the two schools. The week before I left for Ukraine, the Headmaster of Lytchett School presented me with a beautiful engraved crystal to present to the Headmaster of the school in Ulaniv. In return, the School in Ulaniv also gave me a gift to give back to Lytchett School. I can’t say more about this gift at the moment, as it will be a surprise, but rest assured it will be made public as soon as I can!
Watch this space as they say.

Lastly, we talked about camouflage netting, I even tried myself to make some, and believe me when I say it is really difficult. Now I am not the most dextrous of people, my big sausage fingers are just not nimble enough. I am totally in awe of these ladies that stand in front of these frames for hours on end. They make it look so easy, but it is really not. 
I was given the most amazing gift as well. They have made me a small 1M frame of camouflage netting, which you can experience how to make netting with, and once it is back in the UK in a few weeks, it is my intention to show people just how hard this work is.
We also had a delivery of 400M of new material which will keep these spiders of Ulaniv busy knitting for another month.
As I have already mentioned on Facebook, I have made a commitment to the school in Ulaniv to keep them supplied with raw materials for as long as they need it. They work so hard, so taking the financial responsibility off them is the least we can do.
UPDATE : It is two weeks since I have returned and we have already had to place another order of 400M of material! I hope this gives you an idea of how hard these ladies are working.

Now, I called this 3 blogs in one, but I am afraid I lied! I think there is a limit to how long you can listen to me ramble on before you get bored and switch off. So my plan is to post this as 3 separate blogs. 
Consider this one, Part 1 of 3!
But the gap between the blogs will be short!
So until next time, Peaceful skies, love and respect and keep supporting Ukraine. 
It is more important that you can ever know!

 

The advantages of travelling to Ukraine overnight are the beautiful sunrises. This was taken around 5AM, still 3 hours from my destination.

Within Hours of me arriving, I was at the Nova Posta Office with supplies to send out!

The next day, I met up with some of the wonderful ladies of Ulaniv, the spiders who weave these life saving camouflage nets.

We also presented this amazing laptop donated by David Barrett via his employer to the school. This Laptop will really help the teachers to supply the remote teaching they are forced to do, due to the regular air raids that occur.

We also presented this beautiful Crystal gifted from Lytchett School in the UK to the Headmaster of Ulaniv School. The start of a wonderful relationship between the two schools.

Any visit to the Fomin Household is not complete without saying hi to the Gnomes from the UK!

Ready to pack up the rucksack for Andriy with some of the items donated by Jacob Piper and his family.

Picking up the camouflage netting material from Nova Posta. This place is like my second home now, the ladies in the Office all know me now!

My gift, this will hopefully educate people in the UK as to how much work and effort goes into these nets, and also how important they are to the fighting men. These nets save lives.

I met this wonderful couple on the train back to Krakow. They have travelled all the way across Ukraine from Kharkiv Oblast to visit their family in the UK. Thank you for making a boring train journey very enjoyable.