Just Got Back From Ukraine (and Boy are My Arms Tired)

[Thomas McCurnin]

Spent a week there exploring volunteer opportunities, mainly rebuilding roofs. Good food, vodka and beer. Nice people

[Mike Allen1010]

I admire your spirit of service to those in need- well done! would love to hear the stories of your visit. Please stop by next time you're in town!

Best, Mike

[Mel Fulks]

Spent a week there exploring volunteer opportunities, mainly rebuilding roofs. Good food, vodka and beer. Nice people

it’s off season there ,and some good deals. If it’s noisy , turn up the TV ! Good Work Mr. McCurnin, glad you are back safe.

[Thomas McCurnin]

Here is a photo of a Babusia, a Ukrainian grandmother, after we gave her presents from the US. Really heart warming story. She spoke to us in the only English she knew, "God Bless You." It was worth the entire cost of the trip to see that smile.


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[Jim Becker]

Thanks for your volunteer work, Tom, especially given the level of potential danger. You're a good person.

[Thomas McCurnin]

So, one of the days we walked out of the hotel to a 60 degree day with a heavy drizzle, light rain, and windy. I turned to the wife, and jokingly said, this would be a nice day for a funeral.

I turned the corner, and there was indeed a funeral, for three local soldiers who died at the front. Our guide quickly scoured the city center and got us some yellow and blue flowers to lay at the foot of the coffins. Most of the citizens stood at silent salute while the coffins went past. We also saluted, and laid the flowers at the alter.

I needed a drink, so as an air raid sounded, we went to a basement bar and waited out the drill, with young men apparently recognizing me as American, bought me shots of ice cold Vodka, "Ukrainian vodka is the best," they repeatedly told me, and I didn't want to debate vodka.

However, they had an indoor shooting range, so for a modest price, I grabbed a sub machine gun and started in on targets of Putin. I am a bit ashamed but I must admit that shooting targets of Putin with a sub machine gun doing shots of Ukrainian vodka with Ukrainians during an air raid will be one of the more memorable things in my life.

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks for your humanitarian efforts! Well done, Sir! Well done, indeed!

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks Tom

jtk

[Mark Gibney]

Well done Tom, and I enjoyed your story of the funeral, the basement bar and the Putin target practice!

How was the work on roofing? Was it similar to working with Habitat for Humanity or such?

[andrew whicker]

Who did you go thru? Did you have a contact there already?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I needed a drink, so as an air raid sounded, we went to a basement bar and waited out the drill, with young men apparently recognizing me as American, bought me shots of ice cold Vodka, "Ukrainian vodka is the best," they repeatedly told me, and I didn't want to debate vodka.


There are a number of us Gen X and younger on this forum that have never witnessed first-hand the impact of war on our daily lives and how life-altering it can be for the men, women and children. We have only seen pictures, videos and read books about the impacts of war - if that. Knowing that most folks in Ukraine are dealing with drastic changes to their incomes, homes, food and family life, it's impressive the young men can welcome a stranger, open their wallets and buy drinks for a new-found friend.

Thank you for sharing your stories.

[Ronald Blue]

Sounds like an amazing trip. Not without some risks involved as well. You made friends, memories, and got a first hand boots on the ground view of their daily lives. The sacrifices they are making to defend their land and homes. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

[Howard Pollack]

Thank you for doing that work, I admire you for it. -Howard

[Doug Garson]

Well done, it's actions like yours that reminds us there are still good people out there.

[Rich Konopka]

Glory to the Heroes!! Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦

[Earl McLain]

Who did you go thru? Did you have a contact there already?

I'm curious like Andrew--if you can share how this trip came about, would love to know more. Glad you had a good trip!!

[Thomas McCurnin]

Well, about November of last year, I got fed up with this war. Yeah, I'm ex military, and I probably obsess with the tactical aspects of the war through ISW, but I felt I had to do something. I'm too old to fight, and don't have those skills anymore, but would if I was 30-40 years younger, so I started to explore volunteer opportunities and kept getting turned down, as most agencies just want your money or want you to fight.

So I hooked up with a tour guide who assured me that she knew groups and there would be no shortage of work once I was here. So, I booked the trip.

My wife said I was crazy, but then again, I've been to Iran, Pakistan, Kashmere, Lebanon, and many other third world countries, so I'm either a fool or brave--pick one or a combination. She was willing to go, so off we went.

Once in the country, there were a dozen groups in Lviv that were doing stuff for the soldiers, just like we did for our boys in Afghanistan and Iraq. The main thing is camouflage netting, which there is a huge shortage of, so we sat around for a day, sewing little green and brown pieces of plastic onto nets. This is super common in churches and schools. Then in the town square was another group buying snacks and coffee and packing them into little care packages, and we dropped probably a couple hundred bucks the next day and wrote notes to the soldiers in the boxes. Then there was a group that fixed roofs--now there is something I can do, although I'm not as limber as I used to be. Most of the roofs were rafter and purlin structure with metal panels, a more or less standing seam type roof--there was very little plywood.

Most of the repairs were common deferred maintenance or an errant fragment of a missile creating holes in the roof. So it was easy enough to pull off the metal, expose the framing, sister a rafter, sister a purlin, then replace or re-attach the metal panels. We did that for a couple days.

Here is one of the homes, a widow whose husband was an artist who made intricate concrete castings with concrete and old pottery and bottles, much like the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. This was a quick fix and she was very appreciative.

I am presently making plans to go back for a much longer stay. I can rent a room for under $150 a month and cook my own simple food. I am planning on staying perhaps a month.

The idea is that I hate this war--it is just awful, and I need to do something, as it is just eating at me every day. Moreover, I'd like to see Putin defeated and I'd like to say I played a part in that, even if it is as simple or stupid as sewing pieces of green and brown plastic onto fish netting. I can go to my grave knowing I played a part.

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[Dave Zellers]

Thank you.

I don't know what else to say.

You are a hero.

[Mel Fulks]

Good work Sir. Thanks

[andrew whicker]

Well, about November of last year, I got fed up with this war. Yeah, I'm ex military, and I probably obsess with the tactical aspects of the war through ISW, but I felt I had to do something. I'm too old to fight, and don't have those skills anymore, but would if I was 30-40 years younger, so I started to explore volunteer opportunities and kept getting turned down, as most agencies just want your money or want you to fight.

So I hooked up with a tour guide who assured me that she knew groups and there would be no shortage of work once I was here. So, I booked the trip.




I really appreciate you sharing this and I also think it's such a good thing to go over help out. This has been on my mind for a while now (going over and help w/ building stuff like that). When I have Googled around I didn't really find anything promising. I'll have to look around again, contact some people and make solid plans. Make it go from the 'back of my mind' to actually doing it.


Cheers and thanks for doing the work.

[Earl McLain]

I really appreciate you sharing this and I also think it's such a good thing to go over help out. This has been on my mind for a while now (going over and help w/ building stuff like that). When I have Googled around I didn't really find anything promising. I'll have to look around again, contact some people and make solid plans. Make it go from the 'back of my mind' to actually doing it.


Cheers and thanks for doing the work.

Agreed. I'm thinking i'll put out feelers for helping with a church rebuild in Maui or the Pacific Northwest once the media hype over the fires dies down a bit. The immediate outpouring of help is awesome, but after that comes the real work of putting things back together. Kind of like having a baby--the pre-natal showers take care of infant diapers & onesies, but a year later the kid is still around and changing sizes every 3 months...not to mention teething!!

[Thomas McCurnin]

No organization would really want to solicit you to go into a war zone. But once you are there, you can establish contacts and volunteer. Most people under 40 speak English. And if you're American or British, you will be welcomed with open arms. Can't fly to Ukraine, so you have to fly to Krakow or Rzeszów, Poland and then cab, taxi bus to Przemyśl, then cross over by foot. Plenty of cabs and buses at the Ukraine side of the border near Shehyni, Ukraine, and its about 45 minute drive to Lviv, might run you $15 for a bus or $50 for a private taxi. From Lviv, there are trains, buses, and private rides everywhere. Stay at a hotel for a few nights and check out Airbnb for single apartments. Most cities still have a "Tourist Information" center, where you can get a list of volunteer organizations, or see the priest at the local church or go to city center and just ask.

The danger in my opinion was overstated. Yeah, a missile hit a town (pick a town) yesterday and 3 people killed, but its not carpet bombing. The odds of a missile hitting you in that particular town at your location is a million to one, and you have a better chance of dying in Northern Mexico this year. Oddly, and I don't get this, the missile attacks are at population centers, apartments, and not infrastructure. It's as if this is rerun of Goering's blitz on London which might have been successful if targeted at air bases, electrical grids, and military targets, but instead he wasted valuable planes, pilots and bombs on civilians. It's a head scratcher for me.

There are 5 miles of trucks and train cars bringing in supplies from Poland which I saw, and the back up is amazing. That's why its much faster to walk over the border, unless you want to spend the better part of the day in a car in a line near the border.

[Tom M King]

Tom, many thanks for doing this. I wish I could go, but just can't right now. Thanks for telling us about it too. I also hate the war.

[Jim Becker]

Folks, please don't ruin this uplifting thread by "going there".

Jim
Forum Moderator

[Bill George]

Tom as I was saying thanks for the Post I feel the same as you and If I was younger I would do as you did. Now I just root for them (Ukraine ) and hate the Russians for what they are doing to that beautiful country. It seems there is no end in sight, unless someone does away with Putin.

[Thomas McCurnin]

We spoke with our sponsors about charity donations. United 24 is one of the best, rebuilding homes, caring for wounded and widows, and yes, making drones. Mark Hamel of Star Wars is a big sponsor and fan.

Postscript: I'm 73 and grew up in central Iowa as well, Iowa City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids. Get some fresh sweet corn for me and eat up some, the time is about right.