Day.4 June16th. Medyka,Przemysl

Day 4. It's chilly and drizzling in the morning. As planned, today is maintenance day at Medyka. The middle-aged men are tired to a certain degree (it was late last night), so they rest until 8:00 a.m. There are no windows in 84, so no morning light comes in, which is perfect for a good night's sleep. The church bells on the other side of the tracks rang at 7:00 a.m. again, waking me up naturally, and Simon and Travis remained quietly asleep, not snoring or tossing and turning. I open my PC and start replying to emails and groupware messages. Travis, who seems to have woken up, is fidgeting on the bed. Simon is clicking his tongue, probably to go to the bathroom. Simon is clicking his tongue, probably because his knee hurts. Simon is holding his tongue, as a middle-aged man should.

I boil water and make a pot of tea. Over a cup of tea, we go over our plans for the day. Cleaning 84 (Sally and Wojtek will be joining us this day), unloading the new (used) van full of relief supplies that WDRAC donated, unloading 89, cleaning and caring for Bessie, Bettie, and Bertha (all three vans have names), organizing 89, and buying non-perishable food. I am not a skinny person, but with these two, I feel as if I am.

So, we started by cleaning 84. There are no instructions, so we start with what we can do. I start by cleaning the toilets, the unit showers and sinks, the kitchen, and the water closet; Simon starts cleaning his desk; Travis starts cleaning his car.

Like the refrigerators shared in workplaces around the world, the 84 refrigerators are also mysterious. A variety of condiments that one does not know when they were put in and when they were used. A brown paper bag that one is not sure what is in it.

Simon sprays bleach mercilessly into such a refrigerator. Then he scrubs it. The mysterious brown paper bag returns to the refrigerator for a long time.

At the same time, laundry is started. On the far left is a fully automatic washer, and in the middle and on the right is a dryer. All the displays were in Polish, so I had no idea what they said. I pushed various switches at random and it started working, so that was good enough for me. I was aiming for a "messy but not filthy" state. After I finished cleaning the water, I started vacuuming. The commercial vacuum cleaners are rugged, inefficient, and have a strong suction power. Of course, this is Europe and the U.S., so I have to wear shoes with dirt feet even in the room. I suck up dirt, sand, and pebbles that are stuck between the joints of the carpet.

After cleaning, I took a short break. The day before yesterday, three women were sheltering from the rain in an abandoned car, but today there was no one there. Where were they headed? The rain kept coming and going. From the grass, a slug-like creature of a kind never seen in Japan wandered here and there. They are almost reddish brown and about the size of my thumb. It is exciting to find something you have never seen before, and I spend a while stroking the mystery slug with a leaf or poking it with a tree branch. I wish I could show you a picture, but it would be grotesque, so I won't.

Back at 84, a new van had just arrived. David, a very soft-spoken and intelligent gentleman in his early 60's, had delivered the van to us after a 3-day journey of about 2,000 km from London.

David, who responded to Simon's call for volunteers to bring his car here with an address and a "84" sign, lives near London and is a logistics engineer. He is Jewish, and his parents immigrated to the UK after suffering persecution while living in Germany. When he thought about his roots and what he could do to help against this invasion, he told us that he immediately raised his hand to volunteer, saying that I should be able to help, just like the people who helped his parents immigrate to the UK. At the same time, he also asked me, "How in the world did you come all the way from Japan (you've come a lot farther than I have) to be here again?" I told him about WDRAC and summarized the whole story of how I came to be here. I told him about WDRAC and summarized our history. It's unusual for someone to come all the way from Japan, isn't it?

The new van, later named Belinda, was filled with relief supplies collected from all over the UK. The Belinda was the size of a 2-ton Japanese car, and was packed full of supplies, including canned and bottled food, used clothes, baby carriages, diapers, masks, detergent, shampoo and body soap, agricultural supplies such as plows and hoes, 50 brand new laptop computers, etc. The Belinda was about the size of a 2-ton Japanese car, and was packed with 89 tons of supplies. The Belinda is the size of a Japanese 2-ton short vehicle, and the tightly packed supplies are unloaded onto the 89.

After unloading our luggage, we head to Przemysl in two vans to do some shopping. We drop David off at the Przemysl train station in the center of town. President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida also flew to Poland and then took the train from Przemysl station (often spelled Přemysl) to Kiew overland. The journey from Przemysl to Keew Station takes approximately 9.5 hours. The journey from Przemysl to London Central Station took about 24 hours.

It was raining, but we stopped at a car wash before returning to Medyka. There was a long line of cars entering Ukraine from Poland. If you are at the end of this line, it will probably be 3~4 days before you can pass through the checkpoint and enter the country.

I also drive a Bertha. It is a rugged commercial vehicle with horsepower but no speed. I like driving, so it is fun to drive in a new place for the first time.

Back at 84, I met up with Sally. She is a teacher at an elementary school and I have met her online many times, but this is the first time I have met her in person. We chatted while discussing plans for tomorrow. I am always nervous about my activities after entering Ukraine, so it was nice to be able to "turn off" at this time of the day.

It was after 8 pm, but we went to Przemysl for dinner. The cobblestones of the ancient city, wet with rain, were very beautiful. Unlike Japan, there are no earthquakes, so these old streets will probably remain as long as they are not destroyed by war. Simon's navigation-less trip reminded him of his activities in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, in 2011. The amount of work that Simon and Travis have done in this area was evident.

We stay at an Italian restaurant until almost 23:00 to recharge our batteries. The Museum of Bells and Pipes was lit up and quiet.

Back to 84, multiple buses lined up at the gate in front of the warehouse, and nearly 100 soldiers were gathered around the buses. The new recruits who had completed their training in England were about to board the buses. Many were young men, and there was not a smile on anyone's face.

I took a shower and went to bed. In no time at all, I fall asleep. At 2:00 a.m., I am suddenly awakened by a knock at the door of 84. The sound gradually turns into a kicking on the door instead of a knock, and I hear a man's grunting. He is probably drunk or something. You prepare yourself in bed, ready to move at any moment. After a while, silence returns.

People from all walks of life gather in this warehouse district. People with good intentions, people with bad intentions. Humanitarian aid workers, traffickers, and traffickers also gather at the border. That's the kind of place this is.

I found myself falling asleep again.