Doing our part

The bright sunny days belie the war and all the propaganda swirling in the air.  Not immune to it here either.  We took in two Ukrainian women and their children in our old flat.  The previous tenants had moved out in mid-February, and we had just cleaned it for prospective new tenants when the war broke out.  A trickle of refugees soon turned into a flood and so we made the flat available on-line to the state agency looking to house the refugees.  Daina was contacted immediately, and so now we have Olena and Marina and their two daughters and two sons as tenants.  They said they took a Bolt taxi to the food bank, only to be told by the Russian driver that Putin would destroy Ukraine and their husbands would be sent to Siberia.  This was a bit too much to take after all they had been through, so Marina asked Daina if there was anyway to lodge a complaint, which she did.  The city officials said this is sadly not uncommon among taxi drivers.

However, the Ukrainian mothers have been overwhelmed by the support they have been given by most everyone in the stair hall, 16 flats in all.  Rasa, the de-facto manager, has been providing them food, taking them where they need to go, and arranging for food and clothes donations from others.  Only Piotr, the nasty Russian below them, came up to complaint about the noise from the kids running around on the old floors.  He must be ancient now.  He looked ancient at the time we lived in the flat.  Marina was most impressed by the young husband of one of our colleagues, who did his best to talk in Russian when he and Sara came over to deliver some clothes.  So charming, Marina said.  

So far, the number of Ukrainian refugees is relatively low - 20,000 - nothing like the 2 million that have flooded the Polish border. Sara, who is Polish, said her parents, who live near Krakow, took in a young Ukrainian mother and her tiny daughter.  So many people welcoming refugees throughout Eastern Europe.  Here in Lithuania, schools and day cares are being set up for the kids, who represent the overwhelming number of refugees.  There is only one Orthodox church in Vilnius that offers services in Ukrainian.  The Russian Orthodox church has shown its solidarity for the Ukrainians, breaking from the Patriarch in Moscow, making refugees feel welcome in the city.  

The outpouring has been tremendous!   Everywhere you go in the city, you see Ukrainian flags and other shows of support.  The television tower continues to be lit up in Ukrainian colors each night.  The city renamed the street leading to the Russian embassy "Ukrainian Heroes St." so that their address will now have to appear as such.   The local cable providers are now showing at least three Ukrainian news broadcasts and a number of serial shows, including Servant of the People.  But, I imagine most Ukrainians prefer the current image of President Zelenskyy.  He has proven to be a true voice of the people.

Of course, this can't go on forever.  We like others are absorbing the cost for the time being, hoping that the state or EU will eventually compensate for utilities, which continue to run high in late winter.  Daina signed agreements with Olena and Marina that last through May.  They were both quick to find jobs, ironically at Viada gas stations, a subsidiary of Lukoil.  However, Lukoil has come out against the war, one of the few large Russian state companies to do so.  Other local companies have been slow to hire, demanding all their paperwork be in order, which could take weeks.  Mostly it takes time to help them navigate the system, much of our work has been put on hold, but it is worth it, as it lifts a great burden from heart.  We wanted very much to do something to help.

I was talking to my daughter in London last night and said this is one of those things that can be over in a week or drag out for months.  Russia continues to play games, unwilling to move forward on substantive peace talks.  We talked about the young girl, visited by Zelenskyy, who said, "you are a star on Tik Tok."   Akvilė follows the events to some degree but mostly we talked about television shows and what she is doing on break.  She will come home in early April.

We do yard work to take our mind off events.  Seems like Spring has finally sprung, after a couple of false Springs.  Taking the dog for long walks again, the cat following us partially along the street before she feels it marks the end of her territory.  I bought a dog backpack if god forbid we should have to take flight too at some point, but it was too small for our Corgi and sent it back today.  The postal worker couldn't figure out the SK code.  It came to my head later it was Slovakia, one of the distribution centers for Amazon.  Hope it gets there, as she wrote down Germany.   

For now, we focus on Olena and Marina, making their lives as comfortable as possible while their husbands serve on the battlefront.  Neither one of them had ever served in the army, so they underwent a quick training program and are now defending the greater Kyiv area.  Can only imagine what is running through the Ukrainian women's heads at the moment.  Both seem strong, resolute, although not very confident that the war will end anytime soon.  Putin is a mad man, Marina said.