In L´viv we were only 20

To the left, our former tour leader Iryna, now is expecting a child in two weeks. Asya (Anastasiia Lazo), to the right has proved an excellent substitute.

Tilman from Germany was not allowed in to Ukraine for reasons not clear to me, nor to Tilman himself. As our driver had already started driving. I told him to stop the car. He refused. I got more and more angry. Shouted, screamed. Had I not been in the second backseat I would have taken the steering weel. Now he understood and stopped. Phoned Tilman who told us to leave him behind.

Sitting in the car I was almost asleep, woke up when the car started shaking. Then I knew we were going on cobblestone and were hence in L´viv, famous for it´s cobblestone roads. Arrived to the hotel at 02.30. Dead tired. Phoned Tilman who got a lift to a nearby town with a Polish borderpolice. He did not manage to catch up with us.

Iryna Popovich, manager at Dzygas Paw

Lviv, Dzygas Paw, BUR and a walk in the city centre

After a very short night we went by tram to Dzygas Paw. A very wellmanaged, efficient organization and very popular among us Swedish visitors. Their adminstrative overhead is only 8% which I know is extremely low. They get requests from different army units, start the fundsing, buy i e starlink laptops, generators or whatever. When they have the money the item is delivered within a couple of days by Nova Posta all the way up to the front. Since the start in 2022 they have collected 7 million Euro.

Replying to my question Iryna said:

There are some 80 000 registered volunteering organizations and many more operating inofficially all over the country

Group photo is a recurrent must

Lunch at Puzata Schata, my favorite eating place. You choose between a hundred items and pay for what you have put on your plate. And how much. They weight it. And it´s cheap.

After lunch we visited Building Ukraine Together (BUR). It was started at the beginning of the war, that was 2014. They work with young people, to strengthen them in building a new society mainly by doing repairs on private houses hit by Russian shelling. They also welcome foreign youngsters 18-30 of age.

Rest of the afternoon we spent walking the streets in the historical city centre. I have done this a number of times, but never tire. I knew Halina, our city guide, from before, Halina. I never heard anyone speak so well about the sorrows of the war. She said;

I am filled with shame. Here I am safe and live in comfort.

Many friends an relatives do not.

When I pay at a restaurant, I donate the same amount to a volunteering organization.

Now I got the idea of inviting her to appear at the manifestations in Stockholm. Some day hopefully.

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