Juggling (Day 58)
The only way to make more hours in the day is to sleep less. And prioritise what you do and don't spend your time on. Update from Vienna.
I was addressing envelops to all corners of Austria at 10:30pm last night. I started at 9am, meeting 5 Ukrainian women in front of a local Hofer store. A doctor who needs to learn German before she can work in medicine here. A local woman who brought an elderly Ukrainian woman to shop. Her brother is the Ukrainian army. They need the locals to evacuate. They cannot fight the Russians while having to look out not to shoot the pensioners planting potatoes because it is spring. Another woman in her 30s who told me she stood outside at ACV for three nights in a row to get in, back when there were no appointments. Everyone has a story and you need to listen. It is important to listen. It is important for the women to share what is happening to them here. The doctor offered to come one weekend to the train station and help volunteer, together with teens who speak some German. Would be great.
Next stop 10:30am. Next group gathers at the train station. I know a quiet corner in front of another supermarket. We meet there. A granny came up to me. She had a cane. She asked about the free lunch. I helped her look up the address. It was still a 500m walk fro the tram stop, the tram stop a 100m walk from the station. You get the idea. She is lonely. She wants to go home, but you cannot go home now (Chernihiv). The young women who have also arrived from grocery store gift cards wait patiently while I chat with the granny.
I then run to the ticket office at the train station, and spend the next two hours, essentially alone, translating there. I see everything. Fresh arrivals, going home to Ukraine, wealthy Ukrainians who line up trying to take advantage of the free train ticket offer while it lasts. I ignore them as much as possible. They make me angry. I worry they will ruin this program for those who haven’t left Ukraine yet, who will flee Donbas now. Free tickets won’t last forever. And if free trips to Italy “to see my sister” will be the downfall, that would be very sad.
The line is long. I think we need to pull people to the front who have the big bags of luggage you drag with you when you just fled. I think we need to push the “tourists” to the back. I only manage to bring forward moms with young babies and toddlers. That I can do. That the security guard agrees with. A group of two young moms with five little kids between them. Totally fed up and desperate to get home.
The €10 McDonalds vouchers are a big hit. I hand them out to everyone I help with tickets who looks like they would appreciate it and has a few hours time before their train. Everyone gladly accepts. I will buy more today. I keep them in my pocket and just whip them out when we are done with the ticketing. The McDonalds is about a 50 meter walk from the ticket office on the station, and has outdoor seating too. Perfect once the weather improves. We are still having a cold spring in Vienna. Unusually cold. These days, everything is unusual.
After two hours of non-stop running around as the sole translator, I leave. Because I cannot stay longer. And I cannot help with every ticket purchase. And as I told a journalist yesterday, these should LONG be paid jobs offered to people like me with language skills. It is a state failure to expect such important work to be done non-stop 24/7 by volunteers who also have to earn a living.
Other volunteers stop by and ask me for grocery store cards for their Ukrainian families they are helping. One per person and I promise more when I receive more cards. I have given away 17 by the time I drive home in the early afternoon.
On my drive home, I give an interview to a tabloid journalist. I figure at this point any publicity is good publicity. He agreed we could list the newspaper address if locals want to then send in gift cards for donations. The article will hopefully run on Monday or Tuesday. This is the kind of free paper you read on the subway or in the tram. Not high brow but it should reach a lot of people. Let’s see. I hope I didn’t sound like an asshole. I was fighting a migraine the whole day. I only speak English. At least then I can control how I sound if that makes any sense.
I race home for a parent-teacher video call (my youngest is struggling in German and I haven’t been really supporting her enough nor could I even disguise that in front of the teacher — some kids just don’t like reading, ever). I then drive down the road to a local middle/high school where the director (principal) has collected THIRTY Hofer gift cards from her local community. Amazing. We had a long chat about all of this. She has 11 Ukrainian students in her school and today will sign up a boy I introduced her to. The mom will have to go alone, I cannot help today. The principal promised they will manage with Google translate and the help of an older student from Ukraine. Incredible. So many people really care and are really trying to help.
I then spent an hour interacting with other charity people here, Russian and Ukrainian-speakers, because there may be an opportunity to attract real corporate money (American size money) but only via an official organization. The whole thing makes me a little (actually a lot) uncomfortable because there seems to be this overall charity mindset that the people running the charities know better than the Ukrainians what they need and I simply do not believe or buy into that. I think each person has the right of self-determination and knows her own needs. I like gift cards and direct aid because you give a person their dignity and choice. I have no idea what if anything will come, but my alarm bells started to go off in my head. I was always terrible at teamwork, I work well alone but that has its own limitations, naturally. My point: if you can give each Ukrainian X money or X gift card and let them determine what they need, that seems to me to best the best, most equitable option. We don’t need bureaucracy and then buying and then redistribution that only all gets in the way. IMHO.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this. I also find myself constantly saying: you cannot do this right now, it’s not a good use of your time. Don’t waste time on it. Time is precious.
I have 48 cards, so €2,400 worth of grocery vouchers, to hand out this morning. Two meeting points, one trip to the post office. I’m sure some will be late and I will get pulled out of the train ticket office. I want to help there again for the lunchtime rush. There is always a rush after 11am. Two hours of targeted help I think is better than four hours at a less busy time.
The gift card logistics require a lot of list making and individual chats with all the women. I am not broadcasting any meeting points. I tick every name off a list and agree with each person. Those who cannot come, I try to send in the mail. So far, it’s working well. I ask for photos then of their shopping. So I can share them with you, the generous donors.
Yesterday, this also happened:
And this. A reader immediately offered to help fund this for one year. I wrote her. I haven’t heard back yet. I will check in on her and her son in a few days if I don’t get an answer.
And this. This about sums up my day yesterday:
Thank you for reading. Thank you for your patience. I haven’t been giving you any proper news analysis lately and for that I am sorry. I want to update you as to what I have been spending my time on. It feels like the fire burning in front of me, so I am focused on that. It feels like the right thing to do.
A reader sent me this. Do read it. Eye-opening stuff.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your understanding I am apparently totally incapable of sticking to any kind of consistent publishing schedule. I have written this at 6:13am while everyone else is still sleeping. Four kids in my home this week. The exchange student is charming and interesting and positive. We couldn’t have asked for nicer guest.
So proud of and humbled by your work, Tanja! 🙏
“Four kids in my home this week.” I am jealous actually. I have Dad, who kinda reverts back to being a 12-year-old at times; not the same. Not even close. You are certainly modeling positive, humble behavior. Bravo.