Super humans

9.10 In the morning I met with Greg Brook. An American professor who was with us on last tour in April. Said he had to return. Now he is in Lviv teaching English at the university, conversation clubs and giving speeches in various places. But he also volunteers at Lviv Kitchen, peeling potatoes and cutting carrots. An admirable man. "You changed my life with that tour", he said.

Mykola in his workshop

We went to again meet Social Drone, a one-man operated organization. Some 100 people are putting together small drones in their homes, bying parts on Ali Express and send them to Mykola. We visit his workshop in an underground garage. On Saturdays he test them and then they are sent to different units. At the same time he is working full time as a software engineer. After work he sits with his drones long into the nights. He said he donates 70% of his salary. At the same time he is able to keep a girlfriend. Now she wants to marry, something that might give additional problems.

Superhumans

After lunch we took a bus to visit this big organization outside of the city. Their institutions are in three locations and rely entirely on donations without government support. Superumans suffered much from the withdrawal of US Aid. Here, the victims of war come, those who have been fortunate enough to survive, but lost parts of their bodies.

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Here, amputations of arms and legs are performed. They are especially specialized in making prosthetics. Katarina gave us a warm welcome and guided us around the premises.

It was hard to get permission to visit them. There isn’t enough time to show the operation to curious visitors. The condition was that we paid the cost of a leg prosthesis in advance. Without hesitation, I paid €5000 as an advance.

Left. Katarinas husband Leo 32 years Right. Zahar 38 years

Zahar, 38 years old, was seriously injured in the fighting at Bakhmut. He has had surgery 20 times. He has a leg prosthesis and a nerve-controlled left elbow, an eye prosthesis. He used to be a painter, now he’s studying psychology with the aim of helping comrades who have been traumatized by the war. Zahar is married and has two children. But there are 4,000 soldiers waiting for prostheses.

Train to Odesa

Rod from GB waiting in the railway station surrounded by our luggage

In the evening, we’ll take the train to Odesa. At the station, Asya warned us about the risk that the train could be attacked by Russian drones.

I wanted to show that I can still climb, so I took the top bunk in the four-bed compartment. I managed, but realized I’ve gotten older.