lewis-faith - Tumblr blog

[lewis-faith]

Trip 4, final days.  On Tuesday I spent some time planning my trip to Rzeszow that would happen on Wednesday. The first time I went to Poland back in March I spent quite a bit of time in Rzeszow, as that was the closest visa centre to the Ukrainian border. When I returned I learned from my aunt that I had Jewish ancestors that used to live in this region of Poland. My grandfather’s father left in the early 1900’s with a group that mostly went on to Canada and America, many of the family stayed but were unfortunately victims of the hollocaust. My aunt sent me a letter by a Canadian relative who had been to the area in 2005, he mentioned the village where they used to live and the town where they would visit a synagogue. These places were not far from Rzeszow so I decided to go back and take a look. I was able to include driving some refugees from Rzeszow to Warsaw on my way back.

Tuesday would be my last full day so I tied up some loose ends and generally made sure everything was going smoothly for my departure. Thankfully everything seemed fine and after what had been a pretty busy and intense week things were a bit calmer, my illness seemed to be going away so that was a relief, looking back I’m pretty sure I had covid.  

On Wednesday morning myself and James tackled updating the website, which uses Squarespace as the content management system. As a programmer I never get to use these website builder programs, I was shocked at how limited it was compared to the freedom I usually have. Everything had to be pieced together in big Lego style blocks row by row. Getting each row to play nice with the previous row was more a case of making hundreds of random adjustments than following any sensible logic. Eventually we got the design working and it looked pretty good but it took a lot longer than it should have.

James dropped me off at the airport to pick up my rental car and Leonid and Galina were along with us. I said my goodbyes and Galina insisted on getting out of the car for a proper hug and goodbye - she was so thankful for my help and there was no mistaking it. We are hopefully counting the days before her and Leonid can be in the UK and reunited with their daughter and granddaughter. 

Before heading off to Rzeszow I had a bite to eat and got my haircut, when I went back to the car I found a parking ticket on the windscreen -  no getting out of this one. I had parked in Biedronka supermarket but they usually have free parking, some do have parking meters and I just didn’t see these ones. It was only a £16 fine so not worth fighting over,, I had a good 1.5 hours of parking and decently cheap haircut so overall not that bad.

The drive to Rzeszow took about 3 hours. I think it must be a new road because there is only one service station and that is not that far from Warsaw. I spent 2 hours searching for somewhere to stop and all that was on offer was a car park and toilet stop. I checked into my hotel and got some dinner whilst studying Google maps for the next day.

Thursday was my day for having a look round the ancestors' old stomping grounds before returning on Friday. I started by going to the village where they apparently ran a small hotel and shop. It must have been a small hotel because the village is pretty tiny and very spread out. It is also very out of the way and seemed like an odd place to have a hotel. It may have been for farm workers rather than anything recreational. 

The village these days has a small shop, a library bolted onto a fire station, a school and a church. Most of the buildings are modern as  the Nazi’s destroyed the village in 1941 and used the area as a training ground for the Lufftwaffe. Apparently my relatives had missed all this by moving to Rudnik in 1935, not that that helped them as they were moved to ghettos then to concentration camps, some survived by escaping to Russia others did not survive. Wikipedia tells me that Rzeszow was home to Jewish people from the 1400’s and before WW2 about 14,000 lived there, more than a third of the population. Only 100 survived the war in Rzeszow. There were 10 labour camps in Rzeszow and it is estimated around 20,000 were killed at these camps.

I didn’t know all these details until after I had left, they are obviously shocking and it is difficult to imagine this happening in what is such a remote and peaceful place. I had a good walk around the village and surrounding area, I wasn’t thinking of any of the negativity whilst there, more of the simple daily life that went on before things went bad. I visited the library and asked if they had any local history books. They had a few with a little bit of detail about when the village began and how many people used to live there but there wasn’t that much information available. I took photos of what was available nevertheless.

I drove from the village to the nearby town where the synagogue was, this journey I assume would have been done by horse and cart and would have taken well over an hour. With the village being so isolated I imagine a weekly visit was likely to keep in touch with the wider world. Probably quite pleasant in the summer but those winter days must have been a bit more gruelling. The town was small and not very well serviced, no cafes or restaurants. It did have an ice cream parlour but I was really after a coffee. I took the short walk from the main square / park to the synagogue which was pretty big for the size of the town, it was clearly being actively used. There were some cemeteries on the map nearby but these seemed to have been built on by residences. With not much else to do in the town I headed back to Rzeszow. Although there wasn’t an awful lot to see on this trip it was worthwhile experience retracing some steps and having a bit more understanding about this part of the family’s background. I’m assuming Rzeszow was their first port of call when they first moved to Poland and they may have been there for a few generations, some more work may reveal those answers.

Friday was a long day. I picked up a family of 3 from a small humanitarian centre in Rzeszow and drove them to Heavenly Hostel. They had been stuck in Rzeszow for 2 months waiting for their visas to be approved and were very happy to be leaving. We managed to stop off at the single service station on the way back and pick up some food. Some generous Poles were still offering free cooked food to Ukrainians in the car park so they picked up some pizza. After making a quick appearance at Heavenly Hostel to drop off the family I had to head to the airport to drop off the rental car, I was only a couple of minutes late which was pretty good going and didn’t get me any late fees. I asked them how I should pay the parking fine from Wednesday as it wasn’t obvious from the ticket, they said by bank transfer which seemed a bit of a hassle, or at a post office. It just so happened there was a post office in the airport two shops away so I got the ticket paid off.

Due to these back to back trips mentally and physically exhausting me, I'm planning to take the rest of the summer off. I also have some regular day job work to be getting on with. I hope beyond hope there is no work for me to do in the autumn but I am prepared to help out again. I’ll still be working on visa issues over here and hopefully keeping in touch with the people we’ve helped bring over.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 4, day 12. Well I have been doing this on and off for more than 3 months now, many people have gotten very sick along the way and I have managed to avoid any illness. But that changed this weekend. I still don’t know for sure if it is flu or some kind of hayfever but either way it hasn’t been pleasant. I’ve had the worst headache I’ve ever had followed by the sorest throat I’ve ever had. The sore throat has been lingering for a few days but last night I at least managed some proper sleep.

Friday started off trying to deal with the people and pets that were stranded at the humanitarian centre on Wednesday. We had been up until 1.30pm the night before trying to organise things and call in favours. With some help from the people that had originally caused the problem by overbooking their coach we managed to arrange a minibus to take them to Holland where they would be put on a ferry, lifts from various people had been set up to pick them up from Harwhich. This was a big relief and we now just had to hope everything fitted in the van that was coming and that they made it to the ferry ok.

With the van on the way we double checked all the travel documents and pet passports were in order. Taking a pet to the UK is a tricky and convoluted process, they need a passport, to be chipped, to be wormed and to have other inoculations. They then need a licence to travel which is designated to a certain vehicle for a certain period of time. Everything seemed to be ok apart from the worming and vehicle licences, luckily we were able to get these expired documents amended to fit our itinerary.

One thing that was required was a cage for the larger dog in the group. I volunteered myself to find something,  which looked relatively straightforward until it turned out all the local pet suppliers only had small cages for cats and small dogs. I went off to a busier part of Warsaw where there was a pet superstore - if they didn’t have it nowhere would. Thankfully they did have a big range and some dramatically powerful air-conditioning. It was 38 degrees outside and it felt like 19 inside.

By the time I had picked up the dog cage and diverted to collect some volunteers from the refugee centre it was getting close to the pet transport departure time. Everybody was getting ready and getting a little bit anxious, with one failed attempt in the bag and a stranger coming to help us out it wasn’t a clear cut situation.

Paul the driver arrived in his humanitarian aid van, he has been dealing mostly with pet transport and delivering aid into Ukraine so he seemed very clued up and capable. Just as importantly the van was spacious enough to comfortably fit the pets and luggage. His plan was to drive all the way in one go, with some short rest stops. That is 14 hours of driving. Not something I could do anymore but I know it is possible.

It was an emotional goodbye. The Ukrainians were delighted to be on their way having had a good rest at the hostel, they were very thankful to all of us. With a big storm due in we all hoped they were going to arrive safely. We would have to sleep on it to find out.

The first signs of my illness started on Thursday night but I was still ok on Friday, as the days temperature got higher and higher I seemed to be going downhill and a fierce headache kicked in by the evening. We went for a team meal at a local Indian restaurant and I barely was able to manage it. Despite 2 paracetamols my headache was so bad I didn’t manage to sleep until after 2am.

On Saturday I was so depleted I had to stay in bed most of the day but managed to get some work done chasing up visa problems. I also got documents in order for the group that would be flying in the morning to Edinburgh. Sunday was going to be a logistical problem as we had the flight to Edinburgh going at 6.10am and a new volunteer arriving at just after midnight at Modlin airport. This would be a 3am start and a 3am finish so clearly it needed different drivers. I had already opted for the 3am start, there didn’t seem much point changing this it was 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

Around lunchtime I heard that there was a problem with the pet transport, the van had encountered a mechanical problem 2 hours away from the destination. With little chance of making the ferry lots of calls were made to try and get them on another crossing and have the various organised lifts on the other side change plans. The ferry operator was fantastic and put them on the next ferry at no extra charge, it would be overnight so they could get a bed for some much needed sleep. Everyone was able to pick them up the next day so this layer of crisis was dealt with.

I tried going to bed early after dinner and our daily meeting, but because I had been resting all day I couldn’t sleep and the headache wasn’t helping either. It had at least dropped in temperature to 21 degrees but this wasn’t enough to get me away. By 1am I resigned myself to no sleep and decided to try when we got back. 

I took Josh along to show him the procedure for sending people off at the airport, thankfully he was able to drive as I was definitely not up to it. We parked up in the usual place which was more of a drop off zone, but I couldn't recommend trying to park the minibus in the carpark as it was very tight and designed for cars. Despite the early start it was very busy in the airport, with long queues. I sent Josh back to the van in case he was asked to move. It took a good 40 minutes to get checked in but there were at least no problems with the travel documents and I sent them off through security with things going quite well.

When I started to approach where the van was parked I noticed a police car infront of it. I didn’t have the energy to be worried but it did look a bit problematic. As I got closer I could see Josh talking to them, something was going on. There were two police officers in their car and Josh was talking to them through the window as they examined his drivers licence. I asked them if there was a problem and he told us that we were illegally parked and Josh didn’t have his passport on him which was a separate offence. I challenged them immediately on the passport issue and they did a quick turnaround on that.

The illegal parking was going to be a bit more tricky, I knew we were probably over our time limit but we had done this so often in the past (as had so many other people) I didn’t think it would be something the police got involved in. It turns out the bay we had been using was reserved for couriers and deliveries and there were cameras monitoring the bays. Probably if we had been there a few minutes it would have been ok, but someone obviously took umbrage at how long the van was parked there.

I explained to the police officer that we were a charity helping Ukrainian refugees, he said that lots of people say that and how do I know you are not lying. So I showed the reams of photos on my phone, we only managed to get through the past few weeks and he realised I was for real. His tact changed immediately and he said he would call his boss, we went back to the van and waited for the result. The result wasn't that great, a 400 Zloty fine instead of 600. After sitting around a bit longer weighing up our options Josh went back over to their car to ask what would happen if we didn’t pay. That would put the fine up to 5000 Zloty, so probably not a great option. We decided to suck it up and pay but they wouldn’t take cards and neither of us had 400 Zloty. Josh went into the airport to find a cashpoint and while he was gone I proceeded to take lots of photos so we could contest the fine. The first point was that we were surrounded by other vehicles doing exactly the same thing and they weren’t getting fined, also the signs said nothing about any penalties and thirdly the police car was actually parked illegally.

I might have been seen doing this on the CCTV or something else may have happened but before Josh got back with the cash one of the policemen came over to the cabin for a word. He said “I have some good news for you, on this occasion we will not fine you, but if you do it again the fine will be higher”. Wow, a big relief and common sense prevailed. We happily scurried off and got ourselves home for some well earned rest, I managed from about 6-11am.

Sunday is usually our excursion day and because everyone was becoming a little bit weary we just decided to go to a local park and got caught up in a game of volleyball - at least the ones with any energy left did. I cut out early and tried to get some rest. My headache had now gone but I had an intensely sore throat, the kind that hurts each time you breathe when trying to get to sleep. I downed spoons of honey to get through it but woke up in the middle of the night in real pain. A few minutes after I woke up I saw a message come through that the volunteer pick up at Modlin airport was 3 hours delayed, they wouldn't be back until about 6 am. So both driver groups got successive late nights. It was 6am of one and 6am of the other!

On Monday with everyone exhausted from the pet transport and late night flights combo-breaker we tried to refocus on the tasks in hand, namely trying to address the problem of dwindling sponsors. Our list has effectively run dry with the only sponsors remaining being unsuitable for most people, usually because of being in remote,rural locations. We will have to try and liaise with other organisations for matching but also look at the marketing side of this project. Because everyone has been so busy with practical problems the various online media platforms have been a bit neglected. We are putting together a plan to update everything and make the story of the project much clearer and engaging to new people. I started by designing a new web page.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 4 day 7. Tuesday was the beginning of the end for the Heavenly Hostel quiet spell. We had two more volunteers arriving and a family of three. I started by picking up Rajeev from Chopin airport and took him to Warsaw Central Station where we would meet the new family. I’ve now sussed out the parking problem associated with this location, it means a few minutes walk to the station but at least the van doesn’t end up blocking up the main car park so we avoid irate Polish people beeping their horns.

There are quite a lot of welcome desks at Warsaw Central Station for Ukrainians. Although I had waited outside many times before, I’d not yet been in the building. It is modern and well designed, it just needs a proper car park! 

Despite having to pay £10 to use my mobile phone in Europe for the month (avoiding a £2 daily charge) it again didn’t connect to a number of I was trying to call. Last time this happened it cost me an afternoon in Warsaw because I couldn’t get my rental car back, now I couldn’t get hold of a refugee to find them. After a bit of faffing around with other volunteers, the Ukrainian (Fedir) called me and we all met up. He is a teenager with good English along with a mother and young boy. It was baking hot again, around 33 celsius, so the van’s aircon of fully opened windows was engaged and we were off to Heavenly Hostel.

Shortly after arriving, James returned with Josh the other new volunteer and we made a plan for these new guys to work on host matching and visa applications with Martha. It turns out they all know each other from attending Bath University. So this should make for a useful team.

During the afternoon I took Joy and James down to the humanitarian centre in Warsaw, we encountered a large thunderstorm on the way which had the potential for soaking my new set of posters (now with the correct QR code). It seemed to have passed by the time I had collected them though, so we were all good to put them up in the centre. Our desk was pretty quiet so we decided to take the rest of the posters to the larger humanitarian centre outside Warsaw. This place is massive, so massive there is an entire building being used for the charities. The problem with this though is that refugees tend not to go to that building and instead hang around where they are sleeping. There are 4 other massive industrial buildings designed for trade fairs that house the Ukrainians. They each have a reception area where we were able to put up some posters in prime locations.

It was so hot on Tuesday night I couldn’t get to sleep until 3-4am, eating late didn’t help and we are on the top floor so all the heat comes our way. On Wednesday morning I was a bit done as a result of the poor night’s sleep. James and I went on a food shop and I showed him some of the local amenities, including; a charge free cash point, outdoor market, a couple of nice deli’s and the local petrol station. These are all in one area but unintuitively going further out of Warsaw, so easily missed.

The afternoon was designated to going to the visa office, Julia’s mum had her email to say here visa was approved but not the notification to pick it up, you’re not encouraged to check for the visa until a second email is sent but we know from experience they are often there before that email goes out. Along with us were the family from Tuesday, two of them needed biometrics and the other would be taken to the Canadian Embassy by James so he could pick up his passport. He had previously applied to live in Canada but had now changed his mind.

Julia’s mother also needed painkillers and prescription medication for diabetes. Poland are giving Ukrainians free medical care (to a point) and luckily there is a small hospital opposite the visa centre. I took Julia over and we registered her as a patient, I should have realised they would need her passport to register, which was now at the visa office while we waited for the embassy to check her visa against her passport. I managed to use a photo of the passport from our files to get her registered. 

It was a bit difficult to explain to the Polish doctor exactly what we needed but eventually we got there and he gave her a prescription, unfortunately when we tried to use it at the pharmacy the barcode wouldn’t scan so I had to go back to the doctor to print it again. I just knocked and walked into his office, the idea of joining the queue was not palatable. He was very good and printed it off a minute or so later.

When we got back to the visa centre Julia’s mum’s visa was there so that was great news, unfortunately no news about her husband’s so there looks to be a bit more of a wait ahead. The setup at the visa office has completely changed since my last visit. Where before there were about 8 representatives from the British government and some staff from Britain had a reasonable amount of power, there were now only 2 Polish people with very limited access to information. It was also very quiet, with probably less than 20 Ukrainians there the whole afternoon. While this may appear to be good news I worry that it is more to do with it being summer and handling life in worn torn Ukraine is a bit easier than it might be in winter. If the war isn’t over by October we may see more people leaving again. It may also be true that Ukrainians now realise it is better to get a new passport in Ukraine then apply for a visa, this avoids a trip to Poland. 

We headed back to the hostel pretty happy with the way the day had turned out, but before too long we got a call from Joy about an extraordinary situation down at the humanitarian centre. Our desk at the humanitarian centre on the outskirts of Warsaw is next to where coaches drop people off and pick people up. Joy had been speaking to a big group who were waiting for a coach to take them and their pets to Britain. She had a bad feeling about what they were describing and her instincts would prove to be correct. 

When the coach arrived and began boarding passengers it became quickly apparent that there wasn't enough room for everyone. The story goes that the operators of the coach (a small group of people unaffiliated with any charity) had purposefully overbooked the coach assuming some people wouldn't turn up. They were wrong and also neglected the fact that people had already travelled up to 6 hours just to get to the humanitarian centre. Not a genius move on their part. 

Joy called and explained the situation and asked if we could house 10 people and 4 pets at Heavenly Hostel, and pretty much drive straight away to pick them all up. I was told they would only need 2 nights so this appeared viable and they certainly didn't deserve to spend the next 2 nights sleeping on camp beds in the massive communal sleeping spaces after a long and stressful day coupled with huge disappointment and uncertainty.

Of course the big problem of all this was that we would have to make lots of people share rooms for a few nights and with 2 dogs and 2 cats in the mix this was a bit of a puzzle. Myself and James drove down in the minibus to figure it all out. 

When we got there they all seemed pretty lost, and desperate for some good news. After a bit of a conversation amongst us all we figured out a workable configuration of people and pets that not only would work, but would mean no moving of beds between rooms. Moving beds is mine and Wonder Lady's pet hate! 

The next problem was getting all the people, pets and luggage into the van and car. There was already a lot of luggage around then someone turned up with a trolley stacked high with suitcases. Did I mention one lady was in a wheelchair with a broken leg? We started the process of cramming luggage into the back row seats of the minibus, by our calculations there was enough room for passengers if the back row plus one seat was used for luggage. Josh called it Tetris, a joke that went down well with the Ukrainians. 

Thankfully one of the seats had no seat in front of it, this was perfect for the lady with the broken leg. We crammed bags into every available space and were becoming triumphalistic, everyone was in and so we're the pets and luggage. But the last piece of the Tetris jigsaw was that the wheelchair was still outside and there was nowhere for it to go - quick thinking time. I asked if there were any small children that could sit on a lap. There was one, and with a couple of passengers moved around we made space for the folded up wheelchair. That one was as close as it gets and we carefully made our way back to Heavenly Hostel, Wonder Lady knew nothing about our new arrivals and was sure to be a bit surprised. As expected she was there standing outside the front of the hostel as we drove in, standing guard and checking up on our latest random acquisition. We got through the explanation of how this was all going to work fairly quickly and she was happy that we had figured it out so well. The evening was a lot cooler so I was very happy to get to sleep at 1am.

Thursday was looking to be relatively easy going, James would be driving 2 hours away to pick up 2 more Ukrainians and I would be later picking up a single Ukrainian from Warsaw East train station. They all knew each other but had been split up at some point. Another job that had transpired from the day before was that one of the dogs needed a cage to travel. It is a really lovely dog, it seems like a mix of border collie and maybe a greyhound, it is thinner than a collie and has sandy brown markings instead of black.

I tried a few local pet stores but they were too small and only had cages for little dogs, so I made my way to a pet superstore in Warsaw and found the right kind of thing. By the time this was all done and dusted I went to the humanitarian centre outside Warsaw to pick up 4 of the volunteers. They said it had again been very quiet due to the location of the building they were in, but it hadn’t been a wasted trip as by chance Miss World had turned up and composed a short video interview with them. We have been promised a post on her Instagram page with links to our hosting form. Our current problem is that we have a lot of Ukrainians to help but our list of UK hosts is quickly running out. She has 175,000 followers so hopefully this will help a bit.

The people we picked up the day before were spending the afternoon making filled dumplings from scratch, it looked all very professional with dozens of little parcels that looked like tortellini being worked on in the kitchen. Unfortunately I would miss this dinner due to picking up the later arrival, in any case it was filled with beef so not within the range of my diet. When I picked the new arrival it turned she and the other 2 from her group are going to be staying in Penrith, my home town. Pretty amazing considering it’s population is only about 15,000. I’ve not met any Ukranians going anywhere even near so far, the closest previously was Bury.

The rest of the evening was spent trying to figure out how to get these people and their pets to the UK. We have a potential van offer that can take 8 to Harwhich but that leaves 2 people and dumps 8 people in a very inconvenient location, some have to go all the way to Scotland. It was very hot again and I seem to have a mild cold, not good sleep, including being woken up by a mosquito. At least today appears to involve no driving. 

[lewis-faith]

Trip 4, day 4. On Friday I left again for Poland. Nick was returning home for a well earned rest and I was asked to take the helm in Warsaw. Unfortunately the date I had to go was in the middle of the biggest train strike in Britain for 30 years and I needed to get to Birmingham by train for my flight. Although Friday was not an official strike day it was in between two strike days and this meant a high chance of trains being cancelled - with 2 connections to make it was not easy to stay calm.

I ended up leaving for Birmingham much earlier than I needed to, not only to buy me more time but it turned out it was the birthday of a refugee who is staying in Birmingham, so I made a plan to take them to lunch. Thankfully the first train of the day was not cancelled, it was very busy though and some people were completely ignorant to the fact there was a strike on. I got a seat and was not delayed enough to miss my connection, so all was well. The connecting train wasn’t cancelled either and in fact contradictory to the timetable it was a direct train to Birmingham. So the plan worked out at I took Julia and her son for sushi, this was the fist time I’d been in Birmingham city centre so was just as out of place as Julia. The sushi was fantastic and we has enough time to squeeze in a quick game of crazy golf. This seems to the new fad in cities, creatively done crazy golf - that and lots of “escape rooms”.

The plane was actually more delayed than the trains and I got into Warsaw quite late. With only 4% of my battery left I had to get an Uber to the hostel without it conking out. It’s a good job I know my way around Warsaw because I noticed a few minutes after leaving the airport we were going the wrong way. I had assumed with word “ogrod” was particular to my destination, in fact this just means “garden” in Polish so I was well off. Thankfully there was just enough power left on my phone to re-route and I arrived about 12:30am. You learn something new every day.

Whilst waiting at the airport I was asked to drive a family to Modilin airport the next day at 9am. As Modilin airport is 1 hour drive away it would be straight to business so I hoped for a good night’s sleep.

The rest was achieved and off we went to the airport, neither mother or daughter had flown before so the airport guide came in useful. When we got to checkin it was not good news. The family had been sent to us by another organisation and they had also booked the flights, unfortunately they hadn’t checked them in online and Ryanair refused to checkin at the airport. With the mother speaking no English and the daughter only having the very basics it was pretty difficult to figure out who had booked their flights, but eventually we got there and I managed to speak to the person directly. Apparently the problem was old Ukrainian passports don’t have an expiry date so they were unable to check them in, obviously they didn’t realise how strict Ryaniar would be about checking in online and didn’t let us know. I suggested using the expiry date of the visa instead and with no other options they did this and it was accepted.

I hung around the airport to make sure they got on the flight, which they did, although there were few panicked messages and phone calls along the way, but nothing major. A electric car grand prix event over the road from the airport kept me busy while I waited, some kind of promotional event but it was free so I took in some laps.

With them safely away I headed into Warsaw to pick up some lunch and to try and print off the new information poster I have designed for our desk at the humanitarian centre. Lunch was very nice, I found a place that did crispy shrimp bao buns, one of the nicest sandwiches I’ve ever had. Bao buns are asian steamed buns with no crust, the contrast of the crispy batter on the shrimps with the soft buns and salad was perfect. Because it was a Saturday all the print shops were closed so that would have to wait. I picked up the 3 volunteers from the humanitarian centre and a Ukrainian who will be staying with us until this afternoon.

With quite a lot of people leaving last week there are not too many Ukrainians staying at Heavenly Hostel and the ones here are fairly old, so our usual Sunday job of taking out families for something recreational was put on hold. Instead the volunteers went down to the visit the old town of Warsaw which is very picturesque and full of impressive architecture. Just as we were about to head home I got a message asking me to pick up 2 new volunteers up at Modilin airport that night, at 12:10am. They had to change their travel plans last minute so Sunday was going to turn into a work day. It has been very hot the past few days, over 30 degrees so I was feeling a bit tired. I took a rest and decided to eat late to wake me up, I made dinner about 10:30pm and this seemed to do the trick. One bonus was that the roads were empty so the drive was a lot easier than usual. The airport though was very busy, much busier than Saturday morning. I suppose it was everyone getting home from their weekend away somewhere.

I had actually met Joy back in March on my first job for Love Bristol but hadn’t sen her since then so it was good to catch up. They will be here for a month and taking over the lead once they have settled in.

This morning I managed to wake up in time to take Abi a volunteer to the airport, just after dropping her off Joy rang me and said she felt unwell and had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for covid. Having woken up with a runny nose this got me worried. I went to a nearby medical centre and bought a couple of tests and some vitamin D. Thankfully Joy’s test was fine so crisis over.

The afternoon and evening was spent in one of the humanitarian centres, I managed first of all to get the posters printed at a professional printers just round the corner. They looked really good and I was pleased with the quality of the print and the design. I would though later regret getting 8 copies printed when it became apparent I had forgotten that the massive QR code was just a place holder image I had used when designing the poster and it was wrongly linking to Investopedia. I’ll have to use our office laser printer and stick on the correct QR codes - that or just get them reprinted.

With the other volunteers working on new signups I found time to try and expedite Julia’s parent’s application. Her mother has received an e-mail saying her application has been accepted but not the notification to pick up the visa. Sadly she needed urgent dental care this morning and had to have multiple teeth removed and stitches put in. More work needs doing and she can only eat cold, soft food. Her husband has high blood pressure and is without his prescription medication, the anxiety is taking its toll on him. With their local city being Severodonetsk and their house being bombed its easy to understand why. Thankfully their case has been put forward for escalation so I hope it will be accepted and they are moving fairly soon.

Soon after this I met a pension aged couple who had been staying in the humanitarian centre for 2.5 months. There was an unknown issue with their host, who they happen to know so were keen to wait for. I advised them that issues with hosts are very difficult to turnaround and they would be better off finding another sponsor. We setup a Zoom call with a potential match that went vey well so hopefully it wont be long left for them now. Other volunteers have being asking them for weeks to stay at Heavenly Hostel but they are unsure about how secure our setup is. I tried my best to reassure the wife and she seemed less frosty to the idea but says her husband would have to be consulted, hopefully he sees sense and they get out of that place, which is clearly doing them in.

Whilst all this was going on we had a group of four deaf Ukrainians approach us, they seem to be on their own with no one with them that could hear. I don’t know how this has happened but they wanted to move to the UK, and only if they could get a job. This isn’t something we can do for them but I promised to try and seek help for them through a UK charity for deaf people, hopefully who will have a network of suitable employers and the ability to find them hosts. It was quite humbling and scary to see them in such a difficult situation, they were clearly capable and friendly people who shouldn’t be having to deal with this level of extra hardship but were coping and getting on with things.

No one should have this level of extra hardship to deal with of course, just after our farewells I checked the news and saw Russia had bombed a shopping centre full of over 1000 people, most likely women and children making up the majority of injured and dead. These direct attacks on everyday folk are a sadsitic menace that needs risks to be taken to stop. Sending weapons to Ukraine alone isn’t enough, Russia must in my opinion be taught the same kind of lesson Germany was, the west needs to push the envelope further and take more action.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 14. Monday started off showing Marcel round the local supermarkets. I will be leaving this job to him so explained what kind of things get used and which shops have special items not found elsewhere. I also familiarised him with using Google Maps for satnav which he was new to. We have a shared list of locations we visit most often so this is the standard application for us.

Julia's father had a biometrics appointment at the visa office and I was also due to check the status of a visa for an elderly lady staying at another location. With Vlad and his mother flying out at roughly the same time as Harriet we had a tight schedule to juggle with our limited transport options. It looked like I could get the biometrics appointment done and be back in time to see off those leaving and swap my car for the minibus.

Julia's mother wanted to come along and I also brought Marcel to show him the lay of the land at the visa office. It was again very quiet compared to previous weeks and there had been a changing of the guard, I only recognised 3-4 faces.

Given how quiet it was I asked if it was possible to move Julia's mother's appointment from Wednesday and avoid them having to do another trip. They obliged and we took them both upstairs to be enrolled and scanned.

Unfortunately there was a bit of a queue so it wasn't going to be possible to make it back in time. Instead I went to pick up the elderly lady and the two people accompanying her. The plan was that Nick would drive Harriet, Vlad and his mother to the airport then he would come to the visa office to take Julia's parents back in the car (which he needed later). I would drive the elderly lady back in the van.

By the time I appeared back at the office with the elderly lady the biometrics were done, but there were some delays at the airport so Nick was still there. We enquired about the visa but it was not ready, the lady's son received his visa the week before so the delay was not obvious or easily explained. The email they had received to attend the visa office was just titled "Dear customer" so it wasn't clear who in the group it was intended for. My hunch is that people who have travelled in recent years are more able to pass automated security checks and that is why they are processed more quickly. Although understandable that does inevitably mean that more vulnerable people would end up waiting longer than others, if my theory is correct.

I had promised I would contact the Home Office at 4pm to chase up Ksenia's permission to travel letter. Through Love Bristol I was able to contact the relevant department although there was no answer. As I was composing an email to them I received a text message asking who I was. I explained the situation and gave some details about the application via a few more messages, an assurance was given that the case would be investigated.

As all this was going I learned that the delays at the airport were so long that Vlad and his mother were on the verge of missing their flight. Thankfully someone at the airport was able to get them quickly to the departure gate but they only just made it on board.

I now had to pack my things and change rooms for one night to let Marcel take a bed at the hostel. As I checked the kitchen for my things the 11 year old girl who wowed us with her singing a few days ago was busy making pizza from scratch. She was busy rolling away dough and promised that we would all have some later. We did at it was bang on, a thin and crispy base cooked to perfection. Vlad's mum had left a big pan of chicken broth which was also delicious.

Whilst chatting to the new family it turns out they will be staying near Stroud. They will only be about 15-20 minutes drive from my brother's new house so I promised to stay in touch. I gave them a few ideas about where to visit when they arrive in Britain, which will hopefully be very soon.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 13. I started off the day by working on a poster for the Love Bristol desks at the humanitarian centres in Warsaw. The posters will explain the services we are offering and include a QR code so people can link to a website and start the registration process in our absence. I got a good way through it but will need to look at it again with a fresh pair of eyes.

Sundays are usually very quiet in terms of logistics and this allows us to do an excursion with the families. It had been forecast to be hot and sunny so I suggested going to a park I had found a few days earlier. The park was in a forest and had an assortment of free and paid amusements including mini-golf, beach volleyball (with real sand), tennis, climbing frames, a water park, amphitheatre and tree adventure park. Nearly everyone joined us so we had a pretty big group.

Before we even managed to get inside the park Vlad had spotted a collection of bouncy castle rides at the entrance, he pleaded to have a go, so I arranged for some of the others to go ahead whilst the rest of the group stood in line for the bouncy castles. They had 4-5 different versions, Vlad picked the bouncy castle slide which was about 20 foot high. The whole thing was inflatable and wobbling away, including the stairs up to the top of the slide area that was wide enough for about 4 kids to safely slide at once (although it was a lot safer one at a time). As the kids waited at the top of the slide, they would bounce up and down waiting for a slot, with huge smiles - it was very funny. Vlad would try and jump as far down the slide as possible, which was about half-way down. The extra speed this generated tested the runoff area to it’s limits but thankfully managed to contain him. After the 10 minutes was up I was glad to carry on the day with nothing having gone wrong, there were a few close calls but they all managed to avoid any heavy collisions.

As everybody met up around the free playground area I went off to investigate the tree adventure park. It had 4 different zones ranging in difficulty from courses suitable for 3 year olds to more difficult courses for older teenagers. The kids would get a harness, 2 carabiners and a zip-line attachment, with a bit of guidance they were left on their own to clip in and clip out for each obstacle in turn. There were many different obstacles suspended up in the trees; wobbly walkways, tunnels, moving platforms, planks, jumps - anything you could imagine. It seemed pretty ideal and wasn’t particularly expensive.

I went back to find them and told them the good news, they all seemed up for it. We started off with the younger kids between 3-7, they were a bit nervous at first but once they got the hang of it they really enjoyed themselves. Vlad was in his element and was clipping in and out like a pro before too long, he enjoyed it so much as soon as it was finished he wanted to go round again, so it had to be done. By now the older kids were in the second level park and were also having a great time. It was that good I was thinking about trying the advanced section, maybe another time.

We were all very impressed with the park and this will be a regular place for us to hang out I’m sure, being in a forrest makes it great for sunny days as there is plenty of shade, but also lots of clearings if you need a dose of the sun.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 12. I kicked off the day helping a guest at Heavenly Hostel try and jump start his car, we seemingly did everything right but it wasn't working. My rental car didn't have a standard car battery setup so maybe it was that or apparently cheap cables don't really work if they are too thin, not sure why they sell such cables. He called roadside assistance who managed to use a power charger when they turned up 3 hours later. I was promised a couple of beers for my efforts.

Our new volunteers Marcel and Anastasia who arrived late last night (after I was in bed), were introduced to the group and we started the process of handing over. Myself and Harriet will be gone in a few days so they will taking on a lot of our jobs. Anastasia has a very interesting story that I can't really publish just yet, she has escaped some difficult circumstances and is on her own. Marcel is a retired English teacher so will be able to deal with the visa apllications and matching processes, and with me gone he will need to do quite a bit of driving.

Despite two food shops in a row, things were thinning out again and with nothing open on Sunday another visit to the supermarket was necessary. The kids of the new family were keen to help us unload the shopping and put things away so we let them get involved. The traffic was very bad so any ideas of going into Warsaw were shelved. There was nothing urgent to do so we stayed around Heavenly Hostel with the exception of Paul, who went to buy us some suitcases and other small items. Paul also arranged a hotel room for Marcel as we were fully booked at Heavenly Hostel. He is being very helpful and generous at a time when we need that kind of support.

As we didn't have time to have a our weekly volunteer meal on Thursday we went out to our regular spot and had some downtime. This worked out well as we could get to know the newly arrived volunteers a bit better. On the way I taught Marcel as much as possible about the minibus and the peculiarities of driving in Poland - of which there are many. After a good meal we dropped of Marcel only to find the hotel had gated and locked the drivers entrance. I had to reverse down a lane about 200 meters and try the other entrance. That was also gated and locked, it was just after 10pm so we were a bit confused. Thankfully another guest was having the same problem and was half way through negotiating with the owners to be let in. We waved keys around and got it sorted as their scary looking guard dog barked away at us.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 11. The day started with Tanya and her family leaving. Out new volunteer Paul drove them to Krakow. They will be staying in Bury which apparently has a well established Ukrainian community (that was present before the war). Tanya has been very useful as an interpetur so she will be missed.

I had a potentially complex day ahead, with the possibility of multiple trips to the visa centre ahead. We would again be checking for Julia's daughter, I also needed to check if the new family were ok to travel with an aunt listed as the kids dependent instead of their mother. A family of 6 would also be arriving in Warsaw by train, they needed to get to the visa center and then back to Heavenly Hostel.

I called up a UK helpline to find out about the rules regarding visas with dependents. The operator confirmed my viewpoint that so long as the person listed on the visa is travelling with them, then they would be fine. However the operator sounded like they were not all that confident in what they were saying so I would double check at the visa office and if necessary come back and get the family to hand in the voided visas.

Certain food items seem to be disappearing very quickly from the communal kitchen so another food shop was required, at least a lot of fruit is being consumed so people are keeping healthy. I added a few boxes of ice creams as the weather was heating up and these seem to go down well the day before.

I took Julia and her daughter to the visa office in the minibus. This was crunch time, if no visa was there or a misprint happened we would have to contact the media. I've been very cordial with the people working at the visa office this week. That can be very difficult under the pressure of disappointment, frustration and anxiety. It is hard to strike the right balance of attacking the problems without upsetting the people working there, but I am improving my skills in a diplomacy.

The news was seemingly good and we got a number for Julia's daughter. I had to leave them to wait as I went off to pick up the family of 6. Before I left it was confirmed that the auntie of the new family can be the dependent for the kids, so that was some good news in the bag and the family are now ready to travel to the UK.

The traffic in Warsaw was very busy and it was a hot day, however I had plenty of time to meet the family of 6. I parked up near the pickup location and found a coffee shop that did a perfect decaf cappuccino from freshly ground beans, very tasty.

Not long after the pickup time passed I received a message that the family was in a different location, in fact the dreaded Warsaw Central train station that has almost no parking whenever I go there. As I approached I was scouring the streets for parking opportunities, assuming they could walk 5 minutes and meet me. There was thankfully some parking available a couple of minutes walk from the stationso I shared my location on WhatsApp and they appeared fairly quickly. During all this I learned that Julia's daughter had received her visa - amazing news and a massive relief. That was an 11 week wait in total.

From what I could gather the family of 6 had left the Kiev region two days ago and spent a couple of nights in humanitarian centres in Lviv then Przemysl, so were pretty exhausted. It was 3 kids who spoke pretty good English, their parents and a grandmother. It turned out they all had visas except the grandmother. She had been notified 4 days ago to visit Warsaw to pick up her visa.

When we got to the visa office I was a bit confused that the grandmother had a biometric passport, this wouldn't usually mean having to come to the visa office. Like the rest of her family I would assume she would get a permission to travel letter.

The immigration officer went upstairs to check for her visa but before they could make it out the room the official was stopped in their tracks by one of the three people who run the computer checks. Apparently the visa was not here at all. A maelstrom of confusing information was mumbled at me by the person checking the computer systems.

Apparently the grandmother had just had her old non-biometric passport renewed and this was done since her application was started. The change in passport numbers had upset the visa system yet again and caused a security check to delay things. But I asked "why wasn't she being sent a permission to travel letter?".

I was told that when someone was processing her application they decided that because she had her biometrics done recently that meant it would be very inconvenient and unnecessary for her to have biometrics done again in the UK. I didn't know exactly why she wouldn't have to do that when the rest of the family do, they all have biometric passports as well. Anyway, they decided it would be better for this group of 6 to travel all the way from Ukraine to Warsaw to get a visa there instead of the grandmother doing biometrics with the rest of the family in the UK (it takes 30 minutes). I honestly can't believe how hopeless Britain has become, please engage the brain instead of randomly pushing buttons.

So I now had to try explain to this poor family why they had been told to travel so far for no reason. The dad had limited English and the kid trying to interpret was understandly completely confused. I asked the officer if the grandmother could be sent a permission to travel letter a.s.a.p instead of waiting for this visa to turn up, he said he would try but it would be Monday before anything could happen.

The family was not really understanding what was going on as we went over things again and again. I also lost the thread and had to ask the computer bloke what the original problem was. All while Julia wss waiting to get home. I eventually got it sorted but it was such a pain. This group was supposed to be here for a few days and now it might be a week. Yet again the government is responsible for wasting our resources, donations are given to help as many refugees as possible, not to plug holes in a failed visa system.

So with the day taking a turn for the worse we headed back to Heavenly Hostel. We only had a 4 bed room empty and 3 beds in a 5 room. The family didn't want to be split up so we had move a bed upstairs and reconfigure things. Then I had to call the families hosts and explain the visa problem. With that done I hid in my room and took a 30 minute timeout.

Once relaxed I played a bit of football with one of the parents, Vlad and another boy. Vlad took to kicking the ball as high as possible, it was a matter of when not if it would go over the 20 foot fir trees and into the neighbours garden. Surprisingly we got a good half hour, I at least got to meet our neighbour, he says it happens all the time. As I was retrieving the football Paul returned from Krakow, apparently the drive back was not so great and added an hour onto the  journey but Tanya and her family were safe in Bury, so that was good.

As myself and Paul decompressed in the kitchen the 3 kids I had picked up earlier appeared and were keen to practice their English. We had a long interesting conversation and eventually it transpired they were all musicians. The next thing we know they are singing traditional Ukrainian songs as a 3 piece choir, with harmonies and plenty of theatrical performance. They youngest, an 11 old girl sang like a professional adult - it was gobsmacking. Myself and Paul were blown away. Other people in the hostel came down as they could hear it upstairs. It was the kind of performance people would pay to see and with the patriotic songs being sung with such passion it was a moving and magical end to the day.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 10. The day started by realising the communal food was getting very thin on the ground so a big shop was needed. We have been stocking up daily on bread and fruit but when the potatoes and onions are running low you know you have a problem.

I took the opportunity to reorganise the cupboards and found lots of things hidden away or in the wrong place. A secret stash of tinned peas was found, only after I had bought a few more tins. Pea soup maybe? We get regular bowls of borsch made by the Ukrainian mothers, I must learn to make this when my crop of beetroot are ready back home.

With a promise of receiving Julia's daughter's visa today and the remaining visa for the new family it was back on my now regular commute to the visa center.

Before I left I met our new volunteer Paul, it just so happened that he had a relative who was living in Poland staying just round the corner from Heavenly Hostel and was able to sleep there. Vlad's mum was also around in the kitchen, she is going to be staying near Birmingham so I showed her a video from YouTube to prepare her for the Brummie accent. She had a go herself and actually took to it quite well. I look forward to hearing some Ukrainian spoken in a solid Brummie accent before to long.

The new family's youngest boy sat up front on the way to the visa office with his dad, this is now a much sought after seat amongst the children. We drive past the airport on the motorway and are usually treated to a plane flying over us at low altitude as it lands.

The news at the visa office was that Julia's visa was ready but not her daughter's, opposite to what we were expecting. I didn't bother trying to unravel this one, it was still a result and we are promised the daughter's is coming today. The new family were informed their last remaining visa was due so it was shaping up ok. We had an hour or so to wait until the visas would actually arrive so I took them all for a drink over the road, at a hotel that had a nice garden area.

To strike up some conversation I asked them for an example of a famous Ukrainian joke, they seemed amused but stumped for an answer. The new family's dad stepped in and typed away on his phone.

I tried to think of a return but struggled to think of anything that would translate properly. I opted instead for teaching the joke "what is black and white and red all over", explaining that "read" and "red" sound the same.

We got back to the visa office and it was unusually quiet, even compared to the day before. We waited in the long corridor of chairs for our numbers to be read out. Whilst waiting I asked Julia if she was afraid or allergic to dogs, her mother was and this was causing us problems finding her parents a host near their daughter. We could only find one host family and they have lots of dogs and cats.

Julia showed me a picture of what I think was a bullmastif, she told me she used to have a dog like that. The catch was it was killed by shrapnel. I didn't know this but her house was bombed when she and her family were there. She showed me pictures of the damage. Luckily no people were injured.

I asked where her house was and Julia showed me on Google Maps, a very small town west of Severodonetsk.

Julia applied for her visa 11 weeks ago so although this city is now very much the focus of media attention that area clearly hasn't been safe for a while. It is hard to understand why the Russian's target tiny nondescript towns in the middle of nowhere, it can only be to terrorise civilians. Julia also showed me the bomb damage to her parents house, they fled last week.

With a journey to Poland taking days and being far from safe it is understandable why the elderly stay put, it is sad to think these decisions don't always work out.

It really should be obvious how bad the situation in Ukraine is. It is also no secret that the British response to needs of Ukrainian refugees has been embarrassingly lacklustre. We live in a world of information and data, the data speaks for itself. When you keep people waiting that just clogs the arteries of aid, and before long the inevitable chain reaction is that people are stuck in dangerous places they would be better off escaping from. Britain is exploiting the stretch of water between itself and the rest of Europe to skulk out of doing its bit, while people are bombed in their own homes. No need to reduce that sentence to a single word or pithy comment.

Julia's visa thankfully had no errors this time and the new family's visa also arrived so we headed home pretty happy. With Tanya and her family leaving for Manchester tomorrow there was gifts of borsch from all angles. Paul very generously offered to fund Vlad and his mother's flight to Birmingham, so that was booked and off they will be on Monday. He also offered me a place to stay in Liverpool on Tuesday, my chances of making the last train home look to be in the 10% range.

I was about to tuck into my helping of borsch and was instead confronted with a late in the day problem. The new family's visa have a potenitial showstopper. Because the dad had been dealing with the officials I hadn't had a chance to check the visas but was intending to do this today. It turns out the kids visas have the dependent listed as the wrong family member. We are hoping this is not a problem but will have to do some checking. As far as I know as long as the dependent listed is travelling with them then that is all that matters, but these things are wildly complicated and will need verifying. Another style of problem to add to the list.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 9. A bit of a same old, same old day with some drama thrown in. Again I was focused on taking people to the visa office. We managed to delay the new group of 6 coming to Warsaw, they will stay in Przemysl a bit longer. It's still looking like the hostel will mostly empty in a few days so no need jumping into new accommodation setups, especially with so few volunteers.

Despite the good news on no new arrivals we still spent some time trying to figure out a way for a group of four to leave. The bank holiday was making things tricky but we managed to find a flight from Krakow. As we have a new and keen driver arriving they will be able to make the 6 hour round trip for us.

The trip to the visa office was threefold, check the status of Julia and her daughter's visa (on their behalf), take the new family to check for their two children, and pick up a group of three retired people from another location. I also took Vlad and his mother to the outdoor market near the visa center.

It was mostly sunny when we left but as we started to approach Warsaw dark ominous clouds were sitting over the city centre. I could see a vertical column of grey streaks that looked about half a mile wide and stretched all the way to the clouds, I assumed it was a shower. As we drove towards it we began to lose the sun and be covered by the patchy cloud. First there were spatters of rain but it quickly turned into an absolute torrent of heavy rain. Even with the wipers on full speed it was not good visibility and the motorway was awash with water - even up hill. I'd not driven in such levels of rain before but the minibus seemed happy enough. It was like this for about 10 minutes and by the time we arrived it was sunny again. Many drentched cyclists and pedestrians could be seen. It at least kept Vlad quiet (he was up front), usually he would be playing with the the buttons on the dashboard or shouting at things. It's nice to know he has his limits.

I checked up on Julia's status, her daughter's was ready but her's was still on route. Not sure how that works as the error with her daughter's was spotted 3 days later than the error with Julia's. The new family got a number for their 2 kids and I orientated the group of older Ukrainians.

I thought it would be a good idea to get some musical instruments for Heavenly Hostel, it went down very well in Przemysl. So I took Vlad and his mother to the market and had a look around myself. It was pretty massive but mainly stocked clothes and shoes. I searched on my phone for toy shops and there was something 10 minutes walk away. For about £25 I got a good selection of basic noise making implements, plus a replacement football and a kit for making giant soap bubbles.

When I returned to the visa office they were all finished, in record time. Apparently the number of visas being issued has dropped quite a lot which is good news for many reasons. There is still a steady stream though and no end is in sight just yet.

The new family got one visa, they now need the remaining child and they can leave. The older group got 2 out of 3 so again some progress but not a complete set. I'll be back again today chasing up these missing pieces of the jigsaw.

As they were all ready to go I called Vlad's mum to see if they wanted a lift back, they did and were still and the market. I set off to pick them up in the beginnings of rush hour. When we got there I couldn't find anywhere to park as all the spaces were taken. I pulled up across the road from where they were waiting, in the exit of some other car park and industrial building. Obviously as soon as I come to a stop someone immediately appears from the carpark wanting me out of the way. Vlad and his mum where in the minibus pretty sharpish but I was so concerned with the person eyeballing me that I started reversing to give them some more room to leave and didn't properly check what was behind me. Or maybe I did but and didn't see a tiny car that had been waiting in the road right behind me. I definitely looked round so I guess it was in a blind spot, and the minibus has and extended footstep on the back which makes it even longer than you think. It was that which put a pretty tiny dent in the rubbish old car.

I've been told that when there is any accident in Poland the police are always called out. So I braced myself for a long wait. It was hot and one of the older group was in their 80s. The guy who's car I hit was busy on his phone, calling someone and taking pictures. I didn't get involved. After about 5 minutes he said he wanted 300 Zloty, about £50. He looked like the kind of person who would relish an argument and despite the minibus having a few Ukrainian flags probably not interested in negotiating. I gave him the cash, shook his hand and was just glad to be moving. I don't suppose he will repair the dent, at least I didn't back into a Ferrari.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 8. A bit of mixed bag with some progress being made for some but not others, and some new challenges on the horizon.

During the morning Harriet was trained up to use the host matching system so she can start finding matches. The system is currently using Google Sheets and is working well enough but we are looking to make things a bit more user friendly. As I'm a programmer I took a look at the full setup, not just the matching part. It looks like we can make some web pages that link to Google Sheets so I'll be having a meeting on Thursday about how we do this. I also took the opportunity to double check all the data relating to people in Warsaw and fixed a few issues.

After a quick shopping run and a hastily made sandwich, it was off to the visa office again. This time to take a mother and daughter for a biometrics appointment and a new family for visa collection. If someone doesn't have a modern biometric passport they need eyeballs / face scanning to get a visa, it only takes about half an hour but has to be done by appointment at a few places in Poland.

Although the appointment was a few hours earlier than the visa office officially opens there were people around to check for the new family. Apparently only one child had a visa ready but they were asked come back in a few hours for more information.

With the biometrics appointment complete I took Olah and her daughter to the bus station, they had travelled up from Slovakia the day before and stayed one night at Heavenly Hostel, they will need to do the same again when their visas are ready.

My mobile phone battery was down to 8% so I decided to try and make the 20 minute journey back to the visa center without satnav. With only two major changes of direction it was ok and I made it with no mistakes. I now have a fairly good knowledge of the major roads running through Warsaw probably better than places I know quite well in England.

When I got back to the visa center there was some good news for the new family, two of them received their permission to travel letters after the admin team arranged for the letters to be resent. No idea why they hadn't been sent in the first place but this system is riddled with holes. They now just needed to wait for the printed visa. The father offered to take his family home by bus so I didn't have to wait around, only when he assured me it was ok I took him up on it and got myself back to the hostel.

I spoke to Ksenia's host about getting more information from her local authority about the long delay. Apparently the local authority have emailed the home office so we'll see what happens there. I also had some more money to change for Ksenia. On the same topic one of the Ukrainian's had setup a Polish bank account but couldn't work out how to transfer money to her card. The letters she had were a bit useless and the app they told her to use was all in Polish. Her English was slim and muddled but we eventually got her show us an IBAN number for her account (that a bank teller had noted for her on a piece of paper). It seems she wasn't given any letters with her bank details on. The note was only partially illegible so I had to ask her to go to the bank again for a new copy.

Shortly after this we found out that Vladimir's mother had received her permission to travel letter so they were good to go. Very welcome news.

The day had been mostly positive, the new family are waiting on one more visa but that will hopefully arrive this week. It's looking like most of the current residents of Heavenly Hostel will be flying out next week. The complication is though that we are expecting a family of 6 tomorrow and another family of 6 on Friday. With no room here and the second accommodation still in the works it will mean some temporary solutions or a stroke of luck to keep things stable.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 7. How do you turn a fiasco into something worse than a fiasco, is there a word for this? Maybe our current government is the only true definition of such a situation. A Johnson? My day was a Johnson.

It at least started out ok. I went to look again at a potential candidate for new refugee accommodation, expanding our offering here in Warsaw. I had arranged to be let in by a cleaner a few days ago and indeed they were good to their word. It's a bit of an unusual setup but in a very handy location. It also has an extensive childrens playground area which would be a great bonus. The apartments are up many floors in a hi-rise, with impressive views over Warsaw.

The rooms are modern bedsits run like a small hotel, half the rooms had full kitchens which would be ideal for us, the Ukrainians like to cook for themselves and we can't afford to take them out for meals 3 times a day.

The tour was brief and I chatted with the manager by text about their rates and other questions. It seems feasible and could enable us to house another 20 people.

I found a cafe nearby that was able to accommodate my dietary requirements and I had an impressive lactose free French toast and coffee from late breakfast. Then it was off to the airport to pick up Harriet our new volunteers. As her flight was delayed I had to hang around longer than planned but we made it back to Heavenly Hostel just in time to take people to the visa office.

We took both Julia's, and their kids to the visa office. Julia from Mariupol had a notification that her son's visa had arrived, other Julia's daughter we were told last week had her visa printed so it could be picked up.

Things were looking ok and both kids were given a number and asked to wait for their visas to be checked. While they waited I took the opportunity to phone the UK helpline regarding Ksenia's long wait for a permission to travel letter. Last week I was told it had been escalated, and if nothing had appeared then to call back on Monday to re-escalate the case.

The person I spoke to denied what I was saying was possible and wouldn't give any feedback back about the case or re-escalate it. He was adamant that that I had been misinformed last week, so I suggested that he report whoever was responsible for misinforming me. That is when he hung up. I called the helpline again and the case was re-escalated.

After all this the kids were still waiting and Vladimir was getting restless, various parts of the hotel lobby the visa office was based in were being moved around and re-arranged in chaotic fashion. We just left him to it.

After half an hour or so of filtering out the mayhem Vladimir had his number called, his visa was ready and had no errors, a good result. Only few minutes later Julia's daughter was called over. I could see from the empty bag is was not good news.

I had calculated earlier in the morning Julia and her daughter had been waiting 10.4 weeks for their visas, it will certainly be 11 eeekd at best before Julia's arrives, but we very confident her daughters was waiting at the office. We were advised by the visa officer that it would be better just to pick up both visas at the same time, i.e wait for Julia's to be ready and pickup her's and her daughter's together. I said we'd rather pickup the daughter's now incase there were any printing errors.

Unfortunately I was right to do so, they didn't say what the error was but apparently it was not the fault of the person making the application. So an internal error on both of Julia's visa last week and now her daughter's as well. All on top of the longest wait we have seen or heard about. In a situation like this we should be promised new visas in 3 days but instead we are just given the same old response, probably by the end of the week. Weeks are very starting to resemble pieces of string, and we are close to snapping.

If no result is forthcoming by the end of the week we intend to get Julia's case some media attention - if she is willing to participate. I hope she feels able to do this and people are held accountable for the mess of a system they are presiding over.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 6. Sunday has been calm and relaxing. I spent the morning catching up with this blog and doing some work from back home. My energy levels are pretty good and this week has not been too tiring, the lack of 3am airport runs has certainly helped that.

I had been promising a trip to the botanical gardens all week but the weather and workload had not allowed it. With Sundays being a quiet day and the weather being a bit more sunny we took the opportunity to go.

I'd been before but didn't manage to see everything last time. This time around we went in the greenhouses which had citrus trees laden with fruit, an impressive cactus section and a tropical section. We also saw more of the grounds which are incredibly well kept, it's a welcome oasis you can easily spend hours in.

One of the children Vladimir was with us and was running around enjoying every minute of it. He's full of beans like any other 5 year old but manages to keep out of trouble. Always skirting around the boundaries, finding out what is and isn't allowed.

As we came back round to the entrance there was a live piano player in a gazebo, playing classical music in a ball gown. All very relaxing.

I suggested we get an ice cream before leaving, it was looking like rain was coming but we should have enough time.

Whilst in the queue for ice cream I asked Vladimirs mum where they had come from. Mariupol she said. I could only sympathise with facial expressions, what can you say, her situation is clearly beyond description. "Very bad" she said, "very very bad".

I asked when she had left, towards the end of March I think she said. As I had shown and interest she told me about her sons hand. I had noticed some remains of dressings but she explained this was because of shrapne. He had nearly lost his hand and sadly had in fact lost his father, her husband. Her parents had also been hit by shrapnel.

Being in a queue waiting for ice cream I didn't ask what exactly had happened, but it seems mostly likely a bomb hit their house or apartment block. She showed me a picture of his injured hand which looked badly burned.

After getting our ice cream Yulia showed me Vladimirs hand, it was heavily scared and his little finger looked like it hand been sown back on, I doubt he will ever have proper use of it. It's pretty clear he had a very close call and those in his family that survived were also very fortunate not to die. This is the first physical injury from the war I've seen so far and to see it on a 5 year old boy who has lost his father is difficult to process. War should not be a valid excuse for killing and maming children, and when it is done consciousnessly to terrorise people it is no different to any other serial killer or psychopath. In my humble opinion.

Vladimir's mother gave the three remaining volunteers bowls of her home made chicken soup to thank us for her day out when we got home. She did that because she is a normal, friendly and kind person. Hint hint Mr Putin.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 5. The mission for the day was to get Julia's parents safely to Heavenly Hostel from Przemysl. They had fled bombing in the Donbas region and had been travelling for a few days.

I had coordinated with our team in Lviv and Przemysl their journey to Warsaw Central Station. They manged this in just two days even though the train from Lviv to Przemysl is no longer in service and the parents had less than £50 of Ukrainian money.

Just as we were about to head off to the station one of the Ukrainian families asked if they could get a lift into central Warsaw, their mobile phone was not powering up and needed repair. These days the mobile phone is probably the most important possession after a set of clothed. With all their documents and emails stored on it and probably no backups it was vital it could be brought back to life.

We made it down to the station in good time, unfortunately there is only a tiny car park at this station, that is always full. Luckily a taxi made a space on a kerbside taxi rank, it wasn't quite big enough for our minibus but I had little choice and parked up with the end of the van sticking out into the road.

Julia went off to locate her parents with her daughter and after 5 minutes of darting around they found them waiting across the street. There were big hugs all around and a lot of relief on my part. We were ready to go but were now blocked in by someone receiving a ticket from the police. We had to sit there for another 15 minutes while all that was dealt with, but this gave Julia and her family some time to talk and relax. Julia's daughter was so happy to see her grandmother, it was quite a moment and probably the most rewarding thing I have achieved so far, good enough on its own but especially powerful given that Julia has had to wait nearly 9 weeks for visa now and was increasingly upset by all the waiting and false promises.

Julia's parents asked to exchange 2,400 Hryvnia's to Zlotys. It turns out they had very few clothes with them, just one suitcase between them. With them assured we would take care of this, we made our way back to Heavenly Hostel. The rooms were reorganised so Julia's family could share one room. This took some careful negotiation as people are now settled, but they were happy to help once it was all explained. I offered to take their suitcase up the stairs for them but the grandad insisted he do it. They are a resilient for sure.

After a quick bite for lunch I went to the airport to exchange both my car and the Ukrainian money. My rental car wasn't locking so that was not ok. I would then meet the other volunteers down at the next humanitarian centre we are setting up a desk in and get an idea of the level of demand there.

I got the new rental car but the money exchange at the airport was beyond ridiculous, they offered nearly exactly 50% of the market rate. So I decided just to keep hold of the cash and either go to a bank when convenient or just keep the cash until I visit Ukraine. When the war is over I hope visit Ukraine and see the people I have helped in better more peaceful circumstances. It's a common request to change small amounts so I'll just keep it mounting up and give them a decent rate from my Zloty supply.

I headed back for a bit of rest, it turned out we needed permission granting for a place in the new humanitarian centre. The others went off clothes shopping with Julia's parents.

Tatiana had been preparing us all a chicken stew supper so when everyone came back we tucked into that and sorted out some admin tasks. With 3 out of 5 volunteers leaving by Monday and only one replacement we need to tie up a lot of loose ends to keep things manageable.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 4. I started the day off planning with the team a fairly complex but manageable juggling act. We had 2 airport runs to do, some more accommodation to view, another trip to the visa office and host matching at the humanitarian centre, plus Ben (one of the volunteers) was leaving.

I suggested that Chloe and Lydia spend the day at the humanitarian centre doing matching, they had a bit of an idea what to do and Ben was able to bring them fully up to speed. He did this in the car on the way there, I gave them a lift so I could have a proper look round the humanitarian centre. I'd been before to the offices when trying to arrange a desk but not seen how many people were staying there.

Our desk is in a good position right at the entrance, I made a few adjustments and made sure the girls were happy to start matching. Refugees simply come up to the desk, which has a large British flag and enquire about taking refuge in the UK. If a match can be found they are then taken under our wing until they reach the UK.

Myself and Ben had a look around the centre, and old expo centre. Aside from the; matching desks, play area, medical area and a few other services, it was all dedicated to sleeping. Camp beds closely lined up in vast open spaces in rows of about 50. Each space holding about 1000 people. I'd guess the current bed capacity was around 5000 and it seemed about 90% full. This is not the largest centre in Warsaw, we will be setting up a desk in the largest one this week - providing enough volunteers are available. We will be losing four volunteers on Monday with only one replacement so next week might be tricky.

I had just about enough time to visit one of the potential new accommodations, then drop Ben off at the station. The accommodation was decent enough but not really suitable for families. It may be an option for adults only.

Google maps made a pigs ear of getting us to the first accommodation and station, I was now 30 mins behind schedule, it then dumped me at probably Europe's most poorly conceived roundabout. It was a mess of trams, multiple traffic lights, pedestrians, give ways and lane changes (in the middle of the roundabout) and positioned in the busiest part of Warsaw. Another 15 minutes lost.

Plan A had been to get back to Heavenly Hostel and take Julia to the visa office then pick up Vitalii to take him to the airport. Plan B was to get Richard to drop off Julia. Luckily just before leaving in the morning I decided to take all Vitalii's documents with me in case I had to go straight to him. Indeed Plan C was necessary and put into action. No lunch for me just yet.

I was only 10 minutes late for Vitalii and this still gave us plenty of time to reach the airport. His run was of special importance as he has recently lost his wife to Russian bombing. Given all the airport nightmares we had seen it was really important to make his journey hassle free. He spoke no real English but I gave him a copy of the airport guide, which he read through on the way there. I was really pleased to see it being digested page by page.

The queues were very small for check-in and Vitalii thankfully had no issues with his documentation. I showed to him to security then used the guide again to let him know what to do next. He seemed nervous but fine and was coping ok.

In need of some nourishment I went over to an airport hotel and got some late lunch and some Earl Grey tea. They brought a whole pot so I knocked back 4 cups. Another curious thing about Poland is they like to pour about 100ml of water for you then leave the rest in the bottle, you get about a quarter of a glass poured as if you are checking for corked wine. Evidence:

Whilst trying to relax with my tea I got notified that things are not going well at the visa office. Julia had been told again her visa wasn't there, her daughter was told her's was but then they were told after hours of waiting that it wasn't. Somehow Knsenia who had only been there to accompany them had been given a number to wait for a visa even though she is never getting her visa at a visa office - she is just getting a permission letter by email. Even though I had explained this to her some idiot at the visa office had given her completely false hopes. She was in tears after being told it was a mistake. To make matters worse she got an email from TLS during all this that wrongly told her to start submitting her biometrics, something she definitely doesn't have to do!

I had been hanging the airport for lunch as my rental car was not locking, I was advised to wait a few hours for a replacement. Unfortunately it wasn't ready and I had to go and pick up Julia and Ksenia from the visa office.

I got to the visa office just as it was closing, this turned out to be quite useful as I managed to get some time to speak to the boss as they were all packing up. We had an in depth discussion about Julia's situation, what a myre of beauracracy it was. I will try and explain but it is very complicated.

Apparently there is a box on the visa which is used to tie a visa to another visa. So a daughter may be linked to a mother for example, and the daughter can only travel with the mother.

Early on in the war this box had been filled with the details of the refugees hosts in the UK. The thinking being they can only enter with a host.

This was a mistake but apparently customs were told to overlook it. Now that mistake was being enforced, so visas with host information in that box are invalid.

Apparently Julia's was printed with that mistake as her application is an old application, this was only caught after printing so now it has to be reprinted and delivered to Poland. Another unknown wait after a clear promise to have it this week. Hopeless.

Unlike some of the people working at the visa office who have a propensity to make things up, this story was so convoluted it appeared to be real - there was no point losing my rag. I just asked as many questions as possible. I was at least given permission to check the visa status on their behalf due to the abnormal wait period. They won't have to spend any more afternoons waiting around, but with still no definite date it is all a bit much. The situation is only saved by Julia's parents arriving soon, turning the unbearable wait into the opportunity for a happy reunion. They had arrived successfully in Przemysl and would stay overnight, catching a train to Warsaw the next day.

When we got back I was so glad to see Tatiana, she was able to inturpret the complexity of the situation to Julia. It would have been impossible with the phone translator. Tatiana is very intelligent and I only had to explain things once and off she went, talking it all through to Julia in Ukrainian.

Tatiana had spent the day with her son at the airport, they had 4 hours with her husband. He had flown from Equatorial Guinea where he had been working as a commercial airline pilot. His next destination was Kyiv where he would join the airforce. That is after being treated for RSI for his arms, he is over 50. They hadn't seen him for about a year. Clearly they don't know if he will survive the war but Tatiana is upbeat and positive about the war and Ukraine's chances.

Tatiana also received a replacement letter for the mistake made on her sons permission letter, so they can both, and her sister all go to the UK now.

By the time I finished dinner it was past 10pm and we had a team meeting. The other airport run went well and the girls were busy at the humanitarian centre. So overall it was a good day.

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 3. I started the day off by writing another letter to my MP, Dr Neil Hudson - I will include the letter at the end of this post. Essentially it is a complaint that we are still dealing with people waiting more than 6 weeks for a visa. This is causing the refugees a lot of stress and putting a massive financial burden on our ability to offer support, not to mention clogging our system up, which stops new refugees being able to be assisted. We are now approaching the third month of the war so I think time is up for teething trouble excuses. Action is needed that yields observable change.

My next job was to take part in a Zoom meeting back home, a very important one that I couldn't miss. Typically the hostel WIFI that has been rock solid until now went down, so I had to nip to a local McDonalds and use my phone and some headphones. It works fine on the mobile and the meeting went ok, it certainly felt a bit odd at first but these are the wonders of modern technology. The main task for the day was to go through a long list of potential accommodation that myself and others had collated. I would go and visit as many places as possible to either find a candidate for our second Warsaw property or narrow the list down to a top 3. I had about a dozen places to look at so needed to figure out an efficient way of doing this. I realised this would be too difficult to do whilst driving on my own so borrowed Ben, one of the volunteers.

Myself and Ben put together a Google maps list of all the properties so we could see them on the map of Warsaw in one go. With that done we devised a fairly logical route through it all.

The first two properties were close to each other, the neighbourhood was ok but not fantastic. Just as we arrived at the first place the owner said it was a 6 month minimum contract, this seemed an odd policy for what looked like a hostel - so that was straight off the list. The second place was more than a little shabby, quite a lot of broken things around that looked ready to injure someone, definitely not ok for children.

The next place we looked at was far more promising, although in an apartment block the communal garden area was very large with an extensive childrens playground, lots of benches, trees and a football pitch. We did have a bit of trouble finding the place, again Poland's numbering systems became a little creative. We were looking for 78, apparently that was on building 6 which had rooms from 99 to 120. No idea how that works! It turned out we couldn't go in as a code was needed and there was no reception. I called the company and although they initially just wanted me to book online I explained our situation and they were very helpful. We will go back on Monday morning for a proper look around when guests have left. The location of this place is almost perfect so we hope it is going to work out.

As we got the car the wind was really bad and it started pouring with rain, it was also now rush hour so we decided to hide in a nearby cafe for half an hour.

Things cleared up and the traffic jams eased off so we went to the next cluster of two. The first one had a backgarden of old car tyres and the front looked in a bad state, it was also right on a very busy road - not a contender. The next location felt very familiar as we approached it, I had actually taken some people here some weeks ago. It is not too bad but the location is a bit out if the way from our usual ports of call so it is more of a reserve.

We managed to knock 3 more off the list without having to visit them and as time was getting on we headed back. There were two more to check on the North side of town, I'll try and work those into a trip that is over that way during the next couple of days. When I got back I sat down with Julia to work out the progress of her parents coming from Lviv. They have arranged to get a bus in Przemysl so I gave her instructions on how to find Love Bristol who will then take care of them and get them on a train to Warsaw, and if needed get them a bed for the night in Przemysl. We will have to reconfigure people in Heavenly Hostel to allow her parents to stay here but it seems possible as we have two people leaving.

With that done we went off for dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant that was really very good. Plans were hatched for the next day which is a busy one with multiple airport drop offs, and a run to the visa office.

Dear Neil Hudson

Thank you for last reply. I am glad my feedback is making its way back to ministers and I hope changes can be made as a result.

I am now back in Poland for my third trip.

Last time I was in Warsaw it appeared things might be becoming more streamlined, with some applications being approved within a week or two. However this appears to have been a blip and I am again dealing with many cases involving a 6 - 8 week wait.

This is double what we would be hoping for and I think should be achieved. It means our direct support costs are double for each person and we can manage half the amount of people. With less funds available as this situation drags on it really is making it difficult for our charity to deal with the demand.What would be very helpful is there could be a cutoff point where outstanding applications are expidited and processed within a few days. I would suggest 40 days since the application has been received would be a good point at which this could occur.

At the moment there appears to be no rhyme or reason to the time it takes for an application to be approved, this uncertainty is very difficult to manage and obviously creates stress for the individuals affected as an unknown wait period leads them to think they will be rejected.

On another matter, as mentioned the small charity I work for is definitely struggling to mange financially. I am aware there is pooled funding across larger NGO's and governmental organisations but it is not clear if it possible for smaller charities to access this kind of funding. If you are aware of any avenues of support we may be able to access that would be incredibly useful as we would logistically be able to scale up our service which broadly is working very well.

Many thanks 

Lewis Faith

[lewis-faith]

Trip 3, day 2. My main job for the day was taking 7 Ukrainians to the visa office. Julia and her daughter have been waiting 8 weeks for their visa, Ksenia 6 weeks, another Julia and her son nearly 4 weeks. A mother and teenager at least had an email to say one of their visas was ready.

It was raining heavily again and I wasn't particularly in the mood for a showdown at the visa office, it being my first full day back I decided to take a calm approach and assess the current lay of the land.

Before we got going it was reported that the minibus key was broken and the passenger door wouldn't open. Indeed the key had split along the metal, not advisable to use in the ignition as it could easily get stuck. It turned out someone else had managed to get another key cut the day before so that drama was avoided. On inspection of the passenger door the main handle was definitely done for, I noticed through a tiny hole there was a long metal rod going back through the door, to another handle. That one worked, but only from the inside. We can now get it open by clambering through the cabin seats which is sufficient.

With the van ready to go I introduced myself to the passengers and got an idea of each person's case. I devised an order to speak to the Home Office, starting with the more difficult cases first.

It was interesting on first arrival at the visa office, a new desk / waiting room had been configured. It appears to be created to prevent the likes of myself and refugees approaching Home Office employees to easily. It used to be just one desk, now there is a pretty stern receptionist, then a first row of home office desks for lower ranked infantry and the higher ranked staff are safely working a few meters behind - thankfully though in ear shot. It's all still very ramshackle and feels like its teetering on the edge of collapse most of the time.

Julia who has been waiting 8 weeks was told last Friday she would get her visa on Tuesday, on Tuesday she was told 3-6 days. I was now told "definitely by the end of the week". Does that mean by Saturday I asked, "oh yes" they confirmed. They checked some log they have and it all seemed plausible but not exactly fully believeable. So I gave them the benefit of the doubt and made a mental note of the distinct promise given. If nothing appears by Saturday there will be some serious questions to answer, not least about making false promises.

Whilst this was all going on I checked Ksenia's documents and noticed she was due to receive a letter by email instead of a printed visa in Warsaw, so there wasn't much use for her being there. Nevertheless her application was checked and they said just to wait longer, with it being 6 weeks of waiting we will contact the Home Office in the UK to try and get the application moving.

I was having a phone based Google translate conversation with Julia while we waited with Ksenia and she asked how her parents may be able to get from Lviv to Poland, apparently the trains were no longer running. I asked what her parents plans were because if they were also coming to the UK then we had people in Lviv that could get them to Poland, and perhaps even to Warsaw before she got her visa and flew out.

I contacted a few people to make sure this was possible. As it seemed it was, I got to work on joining the dots, meanwhile the next group was ready to be seen. This was the otherJulia and her son who had been waiting 3 weeks, they were simply told to wait longer. It appears the hope of a more routine 1-2 week waiting period for new applications is not materialising and we are stuck with this unpredictable and very slow barrier to entry.

The last group had got themselves a ticket to wait for their visa so we at least had one potential success on the cards. They also offered to get a bus back to the hostel and let me take the others home.

We stopped to get some food on the way back to cheer everyone up, by this time the plan to reunite Julia and her parents was coming together so a silver lining to her long wait was emerging, I really hope we can pull it off and she gets her visa by the end of the week.

When I got back I spoke to Tatiana who had helped sign off the translation of my airport guide. We looked at her CV and I offered her some advice regarding job hunting in the UK. She is actually qualified to train pilots in English. English is the standard language across the aviation industry so all pilots have to learn a certain amount and probably lots of jargon. I let her know about the Civil Aviation Authority who might be able to help her further.

Tatiana told me her husband was working in Equitorial Guinea as a pilot and was flying to Warsaw on Saturday. She and her son would see him at the airport for just a few hours before he leaves to Ukraine to be signed up for the military. She hasn't seen him for a year. I asked where she was from which lead onto how she left Ukraine. When she saw a missile fly over her home that was the final straw and she packed up and left her town in central Ukraine. Her description was so vivid I had a dream of a missile flying over my house in the UK, not fun.

Better news for the day was the mother and son we left at the visa office both git their visas, so at least one positive result for the day.