On my way home

I’ve just settled into my bunk on the sleeper train from Kyiv to Uzhgorod (there’s a set choreography to four strangers organising themselves to sleep in a space that’s about five foot wide, six foot long and eight foot high, and I’ve got good at it now), so I’m on my way home. Today was a quiet day with Maria and Denys and just four excited teenagers (!) and then dinner with my Kyiv friend Yulia, My First Ukrainian, through whom I met Sashko and Maria, before the train.

My brain is of course EXPLODING. And I’ve got a brief stop in Uzhgorod to have lunch with Kseniya (from waaay back at the start of this journal) before I leave the country. But I’ve got this 14-hour train journey, then the bus and hotel and flight to sort my brain out. Or rather start doing so – I imagine I’ll get about 5% of the way through the process.

I am definitely not done with posting, however. Two of the most interesting interviews are to come. In Kyiv I had a long talk with a female dobrovoltsa – a volunteer soldier, as women still find it hard to be hired by the professional army (more on that in the post). And back in Zaporizhzhia Masha and Denys made a new friend, a very cool and brave young non-binary person who’s made their way from the occupied territories to Zaporizhzhia and is waiting for their new identity papers so they can start a life in Ukraine with their girlfriend. They asked me to send them some questions via Telegram, and they just replied with their fascinating story.

For now, though, I hope I can get a reasonable night’s sleep.