*not edited
Back at the hotel I was extremely thankful for my systematic bag organization. Even more so when I opened M’s bags and found them to be stuffed with a mish mash of loose items.
We prepped 2.5 bags to drop supplies off at the W&C tent, 1.5 bags to cross the border with, and 0.5 bags to bring to the medical tent. We had decided that we would gradually bring the tremendous amount of items that we have.
We headed back to the border to discover that L had decided to go to Chernobyl with the Ukrainian army to pick up orphans. This situation has remained unclear to me but was unfolding. First apparently they only wanted a woman. Then M was going too. It would take days so the likely wouldn’t be back until Friday which then led to the whole medical tent shift schedule having to be changed and split among me and another physician. In the midst of this B wisely proclaimed he doubted any of this would happen and we should go across the border while we had time. My shift at this point was supposed to start at 4 pm.
Jacob had advised us that if we went we should be efficient and not everyone should go bc even though we had priority in the line we were still taking spots that Ukrainians could be crossing. B and I decided to go.
Immediately we met a woman from Denmark and a man from Romania who would both be taking supplies into Lviv in the next day or so. They were carrying sandwiches and apples from the World Kitchen. After that we met an Israeli EMT who is moving to Tel Aviv and applying to medical school. We waited outside the Polish border gates for what seemed like an eternity but was likely around 45 min. We chatted with our new friends while getting texts about the trip to Chernobyl. M and L were both going, they were leaving first the next day, then that night, then 6 PM then 4 PM. Finally there was a meeting at 2PM. I was now going to cover from 4pm to 1030 am and a French doctor who was leaving was going to cover from now to 4.
After the wait we crossed easily through the polish border and then made the walk into Ukraine. On the way we lost the WK volunteers and took their sandwiches and ran into a Ukrainian family that was returning who could not carry their luggage. B took as much as he could carry and I took the grandmother’s large roller in addition to our misaligned shopping cart. He would take all of their stuff all the way to the curb.
The Ukrainian border was also easily passed. The agents at the border were all women and all very beautiful. We got the other side and met up with 3 people from LA who had brought food over and a guy that helped hand out the sandwiches. I started with handing out stuffed animals while B handed out matchbox cars to all of the children in line. We then attempted to hand out our hats and gloves which was less easy because it was around 50 F. We ended up setting up a table with the help of the LA folks because they would certainly want these things as the temperatures dropped.
While this was happening, two highly made up and coiffed women with pop star mics walked into the very middle of the area and said they were going to sing a song. They turned out to be aggressive Protestants who per the LA folks report refused to hand out any food or goods to the people waiting in line even when they had said the wanted to help.
Many of the women in line were crying. We saw several part from their husbands as they went through the door. Almost all of the refugees are women and children because men under 65 who are able in Ukraine must stay and fight.
After distributed our goods we got in line to cross back over which took about 45 min. The first woman in the LA group was yelled at repeatedly by the border guard from the Ukraine. It turned out she had cut in front of someone who had already passed but wasn’t done?
We switched lines.
The man in front of me in the new line was young and from his expressive speech (which might just be how Ukrainian sounds) made quite a good case as to why he should be allowed to cross. In the end he was not allowed.
The Polish crossing was uneventful and only notable for the border crossing guards question “how do you say your name?”.
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