Trip update 3

We woke-up In Stryi, Ukraine with temperature around minus 15 Celsius. We could not get breakfast or coffee as the electricity was down.

Then we drove onwards and met Іван Цимбала (Ivan), Христина Цимбала (Kristina) and Rostyslav in the town of Skole at the dental clinic. The official handover of the ambulance was done at the city hall with the major of Skole followed by a nice lunch.

The people here are super warm, communicative and friendly. Besides small talk and lots of laughter, the war here is very real: only at certain hours of the day there is electricity, air alarms are common, the local railroad bridge was bombed, sons and fathers are in the army and families are separated.

Ivan and his wife Kristina brought us back to the border of Poland and without many problems we returned to Rzeszow.

The final pieces of the mobile dental-station will be completed in the next weeks! Then in January it will be used by Ivan, Rostyslav and their dentist friends in the East of the Ukraine.

Best - Guido

Ukraine trip update

After dropping off the supplies from Jelle van der Knijff to Agnes Sz who leads the Polish distribution center in Krakau, we drove to the Medyka crossing to enter the Ukraine.

Literally miles and miles of trucks & cars are backed-up waiting to enter the country. Fortunately we could play the ‘medical-aid card’ and drive past with our ambulance. After a confusing and stressful 90 minutes of paperwork / waiting / etc we crossed the border!

On the Ukraine side there are very few lights, the roads with snow are super slippery and we saw some cars that spun off the road. Tonight we will sleep in Stryi a couple of hours south of Lviv….

Monday the 19th it is st Nicolas day in the Ukraine. We have been preparing an planning for an amazing gift.

In the east part of the ukraine there is a shortage of Dental clinics because of the war. We have converted a modern Ambulance into a mobile self powered dental station. This will enable dentists from dental hospital Skole, close to Lviv will make weekly trips to the east of the Ukraine and treat people at no cost!

Currently Vincent and Guido are driving to Krakow with the converted Ambulance to drop off a full load of emergency supplies. After this the trip continues to Skole in the Ukraine.