A week of war has passed

Most of my work and homework have been blocked suddenly.  For the past week, my life has been focused on one topic.  On the contrary, I had to finish my Ph.D…

On Tuesday night, rockets fell a mile distance from our school. As a result of this attack, 10 homes were destroyed.  Several windows fell into our building. Together with other people I spent the night in the basement of the school. I decided to have the anointing oil with me at all times.

On Wednesday, at 7:00 a.m., we left in a convoy of seven cars to the Polish border to evacuate women and children. The plan was simple. The men would leave their families at the pedestrian crossing and return to Zhytomyr.

Unfortunately, after 200 kilometers, our Renault Master bus suffered a serious engine failure and could go no further. It got broke down when we need it so much for the transportation of people and humanitarian aid…

Once again I was very impressed by the solidarity of the people. A few minutes after the breakdown a person came and took us to the trailer to the mechanic. In an hour and a half, another car took our passengers to the border and didn’t want a single penny.

At the border, we discovered huge crowds of people to be able to cross the Korczowa crossing and because of that, we had to stay in the cold all night. On the other side came other friendly people who transported our passengers in their cars to Szegini. There it took about 40 minutes to walk. For the first time in my life, I did not attend the Ash Wednesday Mass.

Today another group of 30 people walked to the Polish border. Among them were our students. When will they come back and if they will come back? What will happen to our school after 27 years of its existence?

Tomorrow we will ensure the transportation of 50 people. Most probably the last one since the Ukrainian railways have launched evacuation trains. Disabled and sick people will stay until the evacuation…

There are more neighbors who want to use our basement. Many of us have an app on our phones that makes an immediate call “Aircraft Alert”. It’s impressive when you suddenly hear sirens from multiple pockets at once.