This week with regards to Ukraine!
Well here goes - another week flew by!
Monday -
Monday starting out with a bang.
I headed to the wholesale place near our church and put an order in for picking up on Wednesday.
Then - later that day we got our boxes!
This second huge group of boxes was shipped freight with UPS - not FedEx. We went through customs once with one set of paperwork - and believe me, that was a relief. So, while it was not easy to do the paperwork, by comparison the work for the whole HUGE load was minimal compared to the work of the 31 previous boxes shipped via FedEx. But the experience of working through FedEx and customs meant that we had all the paperwork ready to go - as we had ‘worked out the kinks’ with the previous boxes. But that really isn’t relevant to what was going on this past week.
By Monday we had gotten word that the boxes were ready to be delivered. About 10 am or so, Mike got a phone call from the truck driver and he said he’d call Mike when he was getting ready to leave the warehouse as he had to load the truck first.
He called back about 1 pm saying that he would be at our house in an hour. We asked him to deliver to us instead of the church building as we needed to put them in the tent which functions as a garage to keep them out of the weather. Also the size of the road and the cars parked on that road could make it impossible to get into our church driveway for delivery.
Anyway - if you read here, you realize that we got the boxes on Monday. But here are a couple of pics.
On Monday I also took some quilt kits that Sarah (a teenage visitor who was here with her father) and I had done last Sunday afternoon/evening - we packed up all the quilts that people had mailed me that I had gotten via the Polish Post office. Up until then, I hadn’t actually packed up and shipped those yet. These quilts ALL left Poland for Ukraine this past week.
Here is where I put them while I waited for the next load - which was planned for Thursday.
Tuesday -
After recovering from the big delivery, I had to get busy shopping for Mike’s trip to Ukraine on Thursday. So, Lena and I went shopping and shopping. Lena is a Ukrainian who is living locally and helping a lot.
I had done some ‘internet shopping over the weekend for adult diapers and I got these on Tuesday. I took all of this stuff on over to the garage to await packing up the trailer.
I also met a lady who lives about an hour away and is working with Ukrainian refugees there. She took a car load of these quilt bundles for them.
Wednesday -
We shopped again in the morning and picked up the order from the wholesale place at 2:30 pm (they close at 3 pm). We packed up the trailer after that. We didn’t have a lot of help since the date was a special one here in Poland - Children’s Day - and the time we chose to pack conflicted with all the festivities scheduled around Poland for children. So, just a few of us packed up the trailer.
The red oil drums are filled with diesel fuel for the people in Ukraine who are going to deliver this food - as they are struggling with shortages there.
Thursday -
Mike drove to Ukraine to deliver the trailer load. This load went to a pastor who will deliver it to a section of Ukraine which has been actively attacked by Russia. He met the pastor in a camp near Lutsk. The region who will get the food is also the area where Lena, the lady who helps me a lot, is from.
On Thursday I also went through and worked on inventorying several boxes that arrived and matched up quilts and pillowcases, making quite a large stack.
Friday -
Lena came over and we packed up 20 or 30 more quilts. I didn’t have enough vinyl cases to do more than 50. We had another thing we had to do - so later that day I finished up using the 50 vinyl cases I had. I have since ordered 2000 more!
Mike and I also went to the room where we are storing the vinyl packs and made it better by breaking down the tables and put them behind the door. We took out the other things and got it ready for more bundles. We were tired, however, and I didn’t want to take the time to organize it completely, but we put in a few more quilts and left. I figured I could make it look better later.
Saturday -
I gave away two suitcases to a family who lives here in our town. They needed them - and I’m so glad I was able to meet them. Somehow they heard that I also have bedding - so the blond girl asked me about it (everything was being worked through google translate - so it wasn’t that fast to converse). I had gotten in 50 more vinyl packs and Lena and I had made them up but I had not yet taken them all to the church. I had some of them in the van and let them choose from among those. I explained to them that American women (sorry if you are Canadian or European - but that made the sentences too complicated) made them and sent them to me for them - conversation was laborious. The young man in the black shirt understood the most English. They didn’t seem to understand much Polish.
They were very appreciative!!! I just want you to know how much they appreciated the fact that you all are helping their countrymen!
Here is their picture. There are two families living in one house - sisters and their children.
Sunday -
I took a few minutes after church and organized the room better. Here is the finished photo - and now I am ready to get it even more empty! This is really exciting to me as well!
And now you can see the ongoing cycle - fill it up, take some out, put some in, take them out, and so on.
And there you go. This week, beyond filling up a trailer and truck with food, I did buy the suitcases (I have 5 more coming) - as that seems to be a need for almost every Ukrainian family - plus I spent some time ordering more supplies for the next several hundred vinyl bundles (mostly pillows).
I’m trying to keep you posted because so many of you gave us $$ in this project. I believe I need to keep you informed. I am still using the money you gave us - it paid for the food and diesel to get to Ukraine and the suitcases. I also paid for the next vinyl cases and bought pillows and blankets this week with it. The dollar is doing well right now in Poland, so it does seem like (in spite of inflation) I am doing okay with these purchases - at least by my own standards. I have about 1/3 of what we raised left (about $50,000).
President Zelensky (Ukraine president) has warned of a food shortage this summer and even has used the word famine for some - so I am taking it seriously and trying to do the best I can with this food - focusing on things that provide excellent food value for the money. I don’t know what that does to you but I hear that my neighbors might starve due to famine, it makes me try to be as careful as I possibly can when I buy something for them knowing that my money, too, is finite. :)
Thank you once again for reading here! I do appreciate each of you!
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