The Voices of Ukrainians

  Both of the girls were more … squeaky … than normal.  They are both 19, but they sounded a few years younger.   I was taking Inna and Nastia into Ukraine.  Not just to visit, but to stay.  To live in Safe Haven, their home, and to go to their schools this year, not just just take an occasional course online in between work.   It had been a year and half since Inna had been in Ukraine.   As we approached the checkpoint on the Ukrainian side, Nastia took a picture of the sign that said “Ukraine”.  A few minutes later, I felt the car start to shake, and it took me a minute of looking around before I realized that she was just bouncing her leg in anticipation of actually being back in Ukraine.   After we crossed the border, we pulled in to a gas station, and as we were leaving, Inna said dreamily, “Everyone spoke Ukrainian.”  Nastia added, “And they were SO nice.”  She just sighed contentedly.   It was very interesting being able to watch their reentry.  I myself had

  “Mom, how long are we going to stay here in the Czech Republic?” 8 year old Bodya asked Anya as they walked home one day. “I’m not sure.  One month, maybe two.  We have to get you and your brother back to Ukraine before school starts in September.”   Anya had only brought the boys back to Czech Republic from Ukraine earlier in the week.  “Why are you asking?”   “It’s easier here in the Czech Republic.  It’s easier away from the war.  I’m tired of the war.  In Ukraine everyone is always talking about the war.  I just wish that they would stop.  At night the sirens wake me up and I don’t like the sound.  I’m tired of always having to go to the basement during school.  And I don’t like the sound of the explosions.” Each sentence that Bodya spoke hit Anya like a punch in the stomach.   Bodya and the rest of his family in Kyiv, Ukraine had just lived through the two most difficult months that that part of Ukraine had experienced since the first days of the war.  Two months,

     I have been in Ukraine during many air raid alerts and have been close enough to hear and feel a number of explosions (primarily Russian missile being shot out of the sky), but, strangely, I haven’t actually been around Ukrainians throughout the duration of an air raid until this past week.   I had gone to a small warehouse store where I buy nails for my framing gun.  In the middle of placing my order, everyone’s phones started dinging.  Kyiv was under an air raid alert.  The young man who was helping me just kept working on his computer, but his colleague immediately stood up, looking at her phone and started wondering out loud if we should go to a shelter or if we should stay put.  Within a few seconds another worker came in from outside, and a lady came down the stairs.  They were all on their phones.   “Ballistic missiles.”   said the man “… heading towards the Kyiv area.”  Said the woman who had just come down the stairs.   There was a moment when everyone let t

Late in 2022, I was driving to visit our friends in the outskirts of Kyiv.  As I neared their house in a more residential area, I watched as, ahead of me, about 30 kids crossed at the crosswalk.  This was the middle of a school day, so I was immediately curious what they were doing.  As I watched, they joined 50-100 people who lined the side of the road.  Some had Ukrainian flags, some had flowers.  It was a somber group. Something was happening, though I didn’t yet know what.  The light turned green, and I drove forward along the crowd with the other cars.  We kept our speed down. As I approached the end of the line of people, I saw two things.  A police car came around the corner, driving slowly with lights flashing.  Behind the police car was a military personnel vehicle with flags flying on both sides.   At the same time, on my side of the road, at the end of the line I saw a man in the crowd step forward and throw a small dirty mat onto the road right at the outside

 One thing that didn't make it into this video:  I asked Pasha if he was scared when the air raid sirens went off.  He said that at first, it was scary, but you get used to it.  Every time he heard the sirens, there was this thought of, "This could be the time I am hit by a missile."  But you know that the statistics are really small and the country is really big.  So you move on with your day.   I completely relate to this from my time in Ukraine.  

    We moved to Ukraine in 2011 before Ukraine grabbed the world's attention.   Before the Maidan Revolution.   Before former president, Viktor Yanukovich fled the country to Russia.   Before Russian forces moved in annexed Crimea.   Before Russians started paying people to come into the Donbas and carryout what they falsely labeled as a civil war in Ukraine.   And long before the full scale invasion of 2022, when Ukraine surprised the world by holding off the world’s second most powerful army.   I recently met a lady in the Czech Republic who was amazed at the resilience that Ukraine has shown as they are standing up to a much larger army.  She noted that the Czech people have had professional armies to defend them … but those armies have never done a thing.  She was referring mostly WWII and the Czech Revolution in 1958 that was put down with little resistance by the Soviets.  Her perspective piqued my curiosity and we ended up speaking for quite a while.  Even after the con