An Update …on the ground in Poland...from Becky

I am bumping the other blog post I had scheduled for today to talk about the situation as it is in Poland with regards to refugees from Ukraine.

The War in Ukraine - and what it means for us

The situation in Poland is pretty much what you’d expect. We are receiving refugees daily now. I want to function in the role of a “helper” and not a “hostess” - if at all possible. When you host people that you can’t talk with and that that you don’t already know - the stress level is very high and we’re trying to avoid that. Maybe that is selfish, but I remember how it is hosting people that you don’t know. It’s not easy, but it’s even harder to host people with children when you’ve long ago not had small children in the home and there is neither relation nor a common language.

There are many Ukrainian people living here and many of them are opening their homes to their fellow countrymen. I am going to be seeing how I can help them as they will have extra expenses and responsibilities. Since I don’t have small children at home, I am free to hop in the van and go get supplies for people. It started today.

empty bags - had held food

Yesterday I was contacted about helping and given another name to contact if I wanted to.

Of course I want to!

To make a long story short - today I bought supplies and took them to a couple (Ukrainian/Polish) who live near us (and go to our church) as they will be hosting a family of 3 - a mom with her two children - who are coming through the border today. I offered to get her some food as she’s kind of stuck at home with her own two small children - so I did that. I failed to get pics of that - sorry - didn’t even think about it. I had asked for a list.

One of the things she put on the list was a koc - which is a sort of blanket. I bought one and a duvet and duvet cover - thinking that is what she needed.

I took the food and duvet cover/duvet to her. When she saw it, she told me she didn’t need the duvet cover and duvet - but what she needed was a flat sheet to go on the bed or couch to go under the body and protect the furniture and make it more comfortable. I told her to keep the duvet cover and duvet for the next people who need it - but that I needed to get home and fix dinner, but I’d think about what I had at home.

I didn’t really know where to find a flat sheet around here. I had been able to find the duvet and duvet cover at Lidl, but didn’t see any sheets for sale there. It’s the kind of store that doesn’t carry everything all the time. We don’t have a Walmart type store nearby.

These fabrics I actually bought not for backings but just to use - for example, the blue and red with the Spiderman panels I need to finish up and the brown to use with the Big Fabric Haul browns I have.

I then realized that I have a lot of cotton sheeting at the house - two bolts were pretty wide - in colors brown and red. I bought them last year when we went to the store, Kejt, and bought a lot of fabric wholesale for the backings of my charity quilts.

I asked Viktoria if I could cut off about 2.6 meters and hem the non-selvedge edges and call it a bottom sheet. She said “Sure!” That would make a flat sheet of 86”x102”.

I went ahead and made one for each of the two children as well - but just out of the fabric that is 160 cm (63”) wide. This will give them interesting bottom sheets - which is just about unheard of here. Bottom sheets here are pretty boring - and they don’t use a top sheet - they just use the duvet cover which is two sided.

I do have pictures of that part.

When I went back to her house with the three “bottom sheets”, Viktoria gave back me the bags I took the food to her. That's the only part I have pictures of.

Then I could get back to what I was doing…

I had actually had this project in process - so I had to take it all down - remove the foot, change the thread, put the feed dogs up and sew those sheets before getting back to this. But emergencies require major disruptions, right? LOL OK, OK. It takes just a few seconds, actually to change things out - maybe 30.

Then this evening my husband got a phone call and a missionary friend of ours from Ukraine asked him if we could keep a couple who is leaving Ukraine with a child and heading to Poland. Could we keep them for a day or two before they head on over to Germany?

Well, go back to my previous point - we are really trying to not bring people into our home - simply because we don’t know how long it would be and we can’t talk to most of these people AND it ties us to the house - since you don’t really want to leave your home with strangers in it - do you? I don’t know. I’m conflicted.

Anyway, I suggested that we could keep them at the church building as we have some rooms there they could stay in - they could have their own privacy and we could keep ours. So we’ll see how that works out. I need to get over there and get beds made up with sheets and bedding (and clean the room)!

I’ve written another Ukrainian lady who lives about 15 min from here and is taking care of a lot of refugees and asked if she needed help. I said I would be glad to help, but I need a list of things to get - as I don’t want to get things people don’t want or need. I’m expecting to hear from her again soon.

The Polish government says that they are expecting up to 3 million people. Whether they are here to stay or to move on to Germany - or to go back as soon as possible - is all something no one knows.

So, the situation is in flex. Naturally the talk turns to “Is Poland safe?” I guess no one but God really knows. For now we feel safe enough. Our focus now is to help those who are helping the refugees. That’s how I want to word it. I’ll let you know more as we know more.

Remember how in the states when the pandemic hit, people went for the toilet paper?

Well, here, it’s the gas stations. The lines are incredibly long. They’ve put a limit on how much people can buy for their cars. We can get 50 liters at a time. That’s 13.2 gallons.

They did assure everyone that they have plenty of fuel currently. We’ll see. I’m not sure why the big run on the gasoline/diesel. Maybe because they put a limit? Not sure. Russia is a big supplier of natural gas and my husband said oil as well. So we’ll see.

The other thing that just happened is that the Polish national airlines just suspended flights into Moscow and St. Petersburg.

So you can see that the whole situation is quite fluid - and a bit unsettling.

Last, but not least, I wanted to show you how the Polish people are stepping up for their neighbors. They really do care. I know that Facebook gets a lot of grief about a lot of nonsense, but one of its strongest and best points is the group function - and the ability to let people get together quickly and share common interests. I’ve found two groups that were recently set up to help these people - let me show you.

The title of this group is “Help for the Ukrainians - living arrangements or other help”

and this one

The title of this is “Polish homes for Ukraine.”

Here is a sample post on this second group - I translated it into English using Google translate so you could read.

In our town, Jozefow, they’ve set up a collection point where we can bring things that are needed. Let me show you that. They are taking things at the fire station and the local swimming pool/community sports center.

In the comments under this post, someone also added diapers and formula - don’t forget about that and someone else added women’s hygiene products as well.

So…I want to take some of these things to them. I know you only have so much room for so much when you flee.

Does anyone want to help me as well?

If you do want to help - just click the button below. Rachael will get the money to me.

I didn’t write this post with that in mind - I wrote it because so many of you are concerned about us. At this point - you needn’t fear for us - but our hearts are heavy with the status of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters and friends. My husband has a lot of contacts over there, as you can imagine since he’s been teaching there since 2000. To be this close to a true war zone is the closest I’ve been in my life. Anyway, if you want to donate, you can do it here. I’ll use the money to buy supplies for these people. I now have several places that need things and are actively working to provide for these needs.

Help Ukrainian refugees in Poland

Thanks so much for reading along. I know it’s heavy stuff - and not exactly the ‘light-hearted’ type of blog post we all would prefer.

I’ll keep you posted how it is for us - we appreciate yours prayers and concern.

Becky Petersen26 Comments