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Wait for Rich’s Return
Hello, RAYA friends.On July 6, 2023, Rich was riding a bus to town. His bus got in an accident and he was severely injured with traumatic brain injury. After 6 weeks being taken care of by doctors in Ukraine and Poland, Rich was flown back to the United States. He is now recovering at home.…
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Every Day a Blessing
We are in the height of the cherry season here in Ukraine. A few days ago, a neighbor family here in the village of Sokilets’ invited us to come pick cherries from the trees in their yard. We brought several buckets of cherries back to the nursing home and served them freshly washed to the…
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Oleksandra’s Story
This is the third in a series of brief profiles of some of the internally displaced people (“IDP”s) who have sheltered at the assisted living home where I am volunteering as a nursing aid. Every morning beginning in early spring, Oleksandra Ivanovna goes out to pick a small bouquet of fresh flowers for the dormitory…
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Nursing Home Diary – WiFi Upgrade!
Today we began enjoying a significant upgrade in our internet service, here at the nursing home in the village of Cokilets, Khmelnytskiy oblast, Ukraine, where I am doing voluntary humanitarian aid work.Like everywhere else in the world now, internet access is perhaps a more coveted utility than running water. After all, without piped water, one…
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Redux II
As I described in my post “Dressing Room Redux,” we were hoping to upgrade washing, bathing, laundry and general sanitation facilities at the nursing home for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) where I am volunteering here in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. Thanks to generous cash donations from a few friends and family, we have already…
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In Memory of Leonid D.
This is the second in a series of brief profiles of some of the internally displaced people (“IDP”s) who have sheltered at the nursing home where I am volunteering as a nursing aid. Sadly, we lost a friend today. Leonid Dmitrievich Tkachev was 82 years old. He was born in the peaceful town of Chasiv…
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When Time Stands Still
I recently listened to this very dramatic story about the Ukrainian EuroMaidan Uprising and the Revolution of Dignity, which took place in Kyiv between November 2013 and February 2014. The narrator dramatically describes how time seemed to stand still as a series of events prompted many frustrated Ukrainian students to set up a semi-permanent protest…
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Galina T. – Warmly Welcome
This is the first in a series of brief profiles of some of the internally displaced people (“IDP”s) currently sheltering at the nursing home where I am volunteering as a nursing aid. Galina T. was born in 1939 in the city of Toretsk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. At the age of 16, she began training…
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Dressing Room Redux
As I described in my post “Bottlenecked in the Bathroom,” we are hoping to upgrade washing, bathing, laundry and general sanitation facilities at the nursing home for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) where I am volunteering here in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. We would like to have hot running water available for the residents at…
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Evac Team Visit
Yesterday our shelter for elderly and disabled IDPs (internally displaced people) in Ukraine enjoyed a visit from Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke and one of his partners. Ignatius runs a civilian evacuation team in eastern Ukraine. The members of the team are all volunteers. Some of them are Ukrainians, others are foreigners. Ignatius himself holds a UK passport. …
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