Returning to Ukraine

  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 moved to Ukraine 12 years earlier and the way they were acting reminded me of my first trip back to the USA after two years away.   That first week, my wife and I were in awe of how nice people seemed to be when you spoke their language fluently, and how incredibly it was to understand every word people said to us.  We also remember all the things that we couldn’t wait to do in our home country.   Who knows maybe I had been squeaky as well.  

On the road to Ukraine, Nastia had told me about an encounter that she had just a few days before.  She was waiting at a cross walk when an older lady hollered out to her, “Hey refugee!  Go home.  No one wants you here.”  

My heart sank to hear that story.  But I knew that it happened, we all just hoped that the kids were a little more exempt.  

I asked her if she ran into that kind of thing often.  She said yes. 

I couldn’t help but compare the anticipation and joy that both of these girls had at being able to come back to Ukraine with the sentiment that this lady yelled at Nastia.  “Go home, we don’t want you here.” 

I wanted to find that lady and yell back, “She wants to, they are just bombing her city and her country and we’d like her to lived past her 20s!”

When our group fled Ukraine at the beginning of the war they did so telling themself that they were leaving for just a few days.  From the beginning the young people have been asking, “When do we get to go home?”  They would not have fled if they didn’t feel like it was necessary.  Many of them wouldn’t have fled if the decision hadn’t been made for them.  

Unfortunately, there are lots of people who don’t take the time to try and understand the perspective of refugees.  

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The first night that the girls spent in their home in Kyiv, Russia launched 44 missiles and drones at Kyiv.  The whole house was woken in the middle of the night by the sounds of explosions overhead.  All but one of those projectiles were shot down, but 4 people were killed by falling debris. 

Returning to Ukraine carries its risks.