I want to go home and Good Poles

2 weeks in Ukraine instead of the planned 1.5 weeks was a bit longer. If the beginning of the trip was a bit busier, with the delivery of an important but non-public cargo, the handing over to the unit of the bus they had ordered; the IF - Ternopil - Kropivnitsky - Kiev route; the rest of the time was spent in the vicinity of Kiev, attending training, the conference, anti-drone tests at different training grounds, and at intervals, quickly taking care of the unavoidable office work and organising other things.
Martynas was supposed to take me home. Monday. Then the bus broke down. Then, strangely enough, it took a very long time for the garage to repair it. But maybe that's a good thing, because some of the tests were delayed because of the rain.
Well, let's get moving on Thursday evening. We naively expected to be in Lithuania by Friday lunchtime.
Let's load up. What are the valantiors taking home?
- I saw a nice baseball bat in Ukraine. I thought, it will be for auction, it should be interesting;
- Two drones, not working, for repair. Hidden, not hidden? Many carry, should not be a problem. Before the trip, my colleagues and I take a look, „googling“ - one of them is fine as it is; but the other one may cause suspicion or problems because of its camera;
- Wound moulage for training for my company's paramedic unit;
- A few loads that shouldn't be a problem, but may get in the way of a declaration;
- Personal belongings.
I can see Martin's somewhat reluctant look; but... it's necessary, Martyn, it's necessary.
We are driving at night, curfew time, so they stop at every block post at every entrance to the city. Near the border, a police car with beacons catches up. They tell us to show everything we are carrying. I have not experienced that yet. They were unpacking everything, taking things in themselves, untying bags of dirty clothes, unpacking boxes. Somehow I doubt that this is a legitimate patrol action. But that's all. They see drones, they take pictures, they ask questions. We were already thinking that they were going to ask us to fly.
But it wasn't funny then, just not at 3am. It seemed that the inspection would never end. I wanted to ask what they were looking for, we would have told them straight away. Probably chocolates.
I won't tell you how we went from one customs office to another; but eventually we end up in Rava Ruska - well, this is the most familiar customs office, vsio budet dobre.
Oh, no. The Ukrainians were the first to shake things up. Everything. Yes, clothes too. They found a stick. They say they can't get past the Poles. I say, but this is a game stick, I bought it at a petrol station. What about the drones? I say - sometimes they miss, sometimes they don't.
OK, let's go.
And then there's the fun side of Poland.
Border guards checking everything. Yes, from clothes to drones. Drones and walking sticks were told not to pack😊
Then the customs check - which should have been more detailed, but the customs officer, already knowing everything, simply repeated the border guard's actions.
At least she was nice, but at the same time she sent me for an X-ray and a full check-up in the garage. Remember, we are just doing our job. And she said - we will have to confiscate the stick because it is a white gun. - Ok. Will you have to pay a fine? - I don't know yet, we'll see. While she's processing our paperwork, I'm getting a little stressed about that second drone with the TA camera. Okay, we need to get out. I don't like breaking things. I use brute force to hide and break the drone even more. I sit back in my seat. Mhm, the backpacks are still being checked in the garage, I need to put them in my pocket. But I don't have pockets. It took me a while before I dared to ask Martyn to put the camera in his pocket. There's that look again 🫣
Ok, let's go to the X-ray. The easiest part. Oh, I forgot to mention that at the very first stop, the machine's malfunction - the starter is not working - reappeared. Every now and then the MOTOR has to be pushed!
So wherever they ask us to turn off the ignition, we just say no 😊
And the fun part - the garage.
Here, they already tell you to turn off the engine. Ok, it's their own fault.
On the desk, he tells me to unload all my things. We have 8 times more stuff. We pile it on the ground in their greenhouse at +30. They shout something at us in Polish. Then they tell us to unpack everything, EVERYTHING, every single box, they go through every single rucksack, bag and even the contents of the toiletry bag. They are suspicious of drones. They cling to the fuel tanks that Martin carries for supplies. Other items. They say - you have to declare everything here, do you have receipts? I say, 'I'll ask them to send copies right away, because we simply can't find the originals with the dumped stuff. They are shouting something, but we do not understand what.
Then they talk to each other, with a lot of „k**va mach“.
She goes to her room. I won't write what Martynas thinks they do there 🙈🙉🙊
Returning. He shouts something again. We don't understand. We guess that maybe he's telling us to pack everything.
That's ok, as we understand it, so we do. Martynas says - too short a check, pz us.
My uncle comes and gives me my passports. We don't understand. Another uncle comes, brings a baseball bat, gives it back. And he says, "Don't do such nonsense again.
A mini explosion inside. What? Really? Are they letting us out? 7 hours of active... well, how can I put it... active relations; a summons; we thought they were going to send us back to Ukraine... Never before have my, sorry, triceps been touched by 4 different men and women in less than a day 😃
And then he said, "Now we're going to push you out and help you catch up...
In that moment, I even thought I loved them.
Leaving customs.
So what if you realise that maybe life really is beautiful 😃 I've never felt so happy entering Poland 😃
By the way, Small But Strong is auctioning off a bottle of wine from Cherson, which I'm bringing right now. Join us, last chance, there won't be any more. The whole winery is now razed to the ground... Link in the comments.
And yet... I know, summer, holidays, how long can you live with this war...
But I can't keep my hands off. Am I afraid that the war will come to us? For myself, not really. But to some extent, yes; because I see how unprepared we are. We are not prepared even for something as small as living for part of the day without electricity or without water, which is a daily routine even in Kiev. And here, in these weeks, the temperature has been as high as +30-35℃. We are not prepared to be mobilised. We are not prepared to let our relatives go out to fight. We are relaxed. No, not at all, but the general background is very similar to this.
We need to pull ourselves together. To learn, to gather information, to learn. Is there really going to be a war here? Maybe. More likely NO than YES. Nobody knows. But we must be prepared.
The enemy is not going anywhere. He may become subdued, he may turn his attention elsewhere; but his bloodlust will never go away. His desire to trample on your clean house with his s**tty boots will not go away either. Because that is their identity, their identity trait. And we have to do what we don't want to leave to the next generations. Our weapon of choice right now is to help Ukraine, which is fighting the enemy at the highest cost.
That is why I ask for your support for this country.
We are slow on the antidrone campaign. One anti-drone is already in the 78th Regiment, the second is on its way to the 79th Brigade. We already know which antidrones we will buy and for whom in the near future. By the way, our Lithuanian brother is serving in that unit. It is a unit that we have not yet supported.
These tools help soldiers to be more effective and literally save lives. So by contributing to this campaign, you are helping to save lives.
A photo is a picture of the day's experiences. Maybe not suitable for the second part of the post, but... my aim is not to make you sad. My aim is to empower you to fight. I have already told you what our weapon is now.
Thank you to everyone who believes in the volunteers and the help they give to Ukraine, in me and my work.
And thanks to Martyn for this trip. You are my companion and I love you! Even though you're from a different pool 😃
A little confused, a little tired, a little crazy, but not giving up.