02/04/2022
BRAMBO FOR UKRAINE 2
A MOTHER, 6 CHILDREN AND A DOG
It took me about a week to recover from the physical and emotional car-lag of my last trip to Ukraine.
You have probably read the updates from Bambi which I shared earlier with you.
Here’s my full story:
FRIDAY 18th MARCH
Early on Friday morning I picked up Bambi Bogert (the reporter) and Mark Power (the cameraman) and went to the Student Hotel on the Wibautstraat in Amsterdam.
At the Student Hotel we met Sofiya Bezuhla and her huge crew of dedicated volunteers.
The crew consisted of many students from Ukraine and Russia.
Sofiya had organised a rent-free room/apartment which was completely packed with goods given by many companies and private individuals.
I saw that I could only take about half of it, so I asked Sofiya what was most urgent.
She said food.
She also had a special box with navigation systems which were über-urgent.
So I started by loading lots of heavy boxes full of noodles, and on top of them I stacked many smaller boxes full of coffee.
Any gaps between the boxes were filled with bags of rice and yoga mats.
When the van was full, I checked the back of it and saw that the bottom of the van was only 10cm from the ground.
I knew we were overloaded, but I took the biggest risk of the whole trip and kept the entire load.
After waiting for Bambi and Mark’s interviews with the volunteers, we could finally head for the Polish-Ukraine border.
Oh, and I got slowed down by ‘Niels News’ who made this video (not bad for a student).
Niels is a second-year journalism student at the University of Applied Sciences in Windesheim.
https://youtu.be/pIhxIkGqfE8
Before the trip Bambi told me several times that she didn’t want me to drive too fast or for too long.
I told her not to worry... experienced driver, no accident history, etc.
Before we drove away from the Student Hotel I warned my travel-friends that we might hit the ground with the back of the van while going over bumps.
And indeed we scraped the Amsterdam asphalt and bricks on anti-speed-bumps five times.
I tried to calm Bambi and Mark by saying that this was normal for anti-speed-bumps.
When we got onto the motorway I could feel that the road-holding sucked big time due to the load and realized that I couldn’t drive as fast as I wanted.
Of course, I didn’t tell Bambi this in order to keep her feeling safe.
Luckily, we didn’t scrape anymore asphalt but my hands were wet on the wheel for the rest of the 1500+ km's.
The Netherlands is full of speed-cameras and the speed limit is 100km/h.
In Germany however, many motorways have no such restrictions.
So when we crossed the border into Germany, I tried to find the optimum speed that was still relatively safe.
This turned out to be 120- 140km/h depending on the surface.
Somewhere in the middle of Germany we stopped at a proper German Autohof for diesel, Scheisse und Schnitzel.
After the Schnitzel my dear travel-friends came up with the idea to direct some moving van shots from outside.
This took another 30 minutes of my schedule.
Our first goal was to reach the Desilva Hotel in Opole in the middle of Poland at around 19.00.
After crossing the German-Polish border, we hit road-works for about 80km with a maximum speed of 60km/h.
When we finally arrived at the Hotel it was midnight.
Luckily, the bar was still open and I loaded myself with some Polish vodka and beer.
SATURDAY MARCH 19th
The breakfast in this hotel was worth waking up for.
Impossible to taste a bit of everything because there was just too much.
Of course, we couldn’t just leave straight away to the Ukrainian border.
Bambi did her blah blah blah for the camera and we did some extra drive-offs just for the video.
And then we were off to our next goal: a transport company in the border-town of Przemyśl. Don’t even try to pronounce that - the correct pronounciation has nothing in common with the spelling.
We arrived at 14.00 at this warehouse location where we met the transport company people.
It turned out to be a Ukrainian transport company managed by a father and his 16 year old son Daniel.
They didn’t want their company named, both for safety and possibly commercially unethical reasons too.
Daniel was the only one who could speak English and he also acted as a translator between us and his dad.
We unloaded the van onto pallets and put it all together with many other humanitarian aid goods from around the world.
Tomorrow this will go into Ukraine daddy said.
The special box with navigation systems left immediately for Odessa in Ukraine.
After filming a full interview with the son and dad, we could finally go to the place where most refugees were staying.
The van had perfect road-holding again, so it was time to tell Bambi how happy I was that we got rid of that load.
Thankfully, Bambi was not angry.
A few days before our trip, I got in contact with Piotr.
Piotr lives in Przemyśl and has worked in the Netherlands.
We agreed that he would be our guide to help find refugees who wanted to go to the Netherlands.
We met Piotr at a carpark which was full of vans and busses from all over Europe.
Next to the carpark was a big hall, inside which were the refugees.
It took a while to find out that you had to register as a driver in order to pick up refugees.
The registration was complicated and there was a long line of drivers.
It was already 17.00 and I wanted to find refugees before it got dark, so Piotr suggested going to the Central Station where people were arriving from Lviv.
The first thing we saw at the train station was a huge line of mainly women who were going back to Ukraine.
Bambi and Mark interviewed some of them and most of them were going back to fight the Russians.
How brave...
Because the clock was ticking, Piotr and I went to the central hall which was full of mothers and children that all looked depressed.
We came to a table with some volunteers and Piotr told them that I had space for six refugees to be taken to the Netherlands.
The volunteer lady took an A4 piece of paper and wrote in Ukrainian: ‘’6 PEOPLE FOR HOLLAND’’.
Piotr started addressing people and I followed him with my sign held up.
After about thirty attempts, we finally bumped into a big family who had just come up the stairs into the hall.
They had a friend with them, Svitlana, who spoke good English and translated between the family, Piotr and myself.
At that moment Mark and Bambi arrived and Mark started filming straight away.
The family had just come off of the train from Lviv and had no idea where they would go, except away from Ukraine.
The family consisted of a relatively young mother with six children and a dog.
Under these crazy circumstances they had to make the decission if they wanted to go to the Netherlands.
I told them that we had space for six people to go to the Netherlands.
They said we were seven in total, plus a dog. I could see some of the children were small and could be squeezed in, and I looked at Bambi.
Bambi nodded yes, so I decided to take the risk.
I told the family that I had a film crew with me, introduced Mark and Bambi, and asked if it was okay if they could be filmed on our way to the Netherlands.
The whole family agreed that filming was fine.
At that moment I realized that it wasn’t going to be easy finding a place to stay for such a big family AND a dog.
As we walked to the van I asked them to stop for a photo, which I sent to the organization I’m working with: Project Vervoer en Gastgezinnen Oekraïne.
We loaded the van with the little luggage they had and then Jacqueline from the organisation called me:
“Are you sure you want to take a mother, six children and a dog? It’s very difficult or impossible to find a nice place for them all together.”
I told Jacqueline that it might be a beautiful challenge for us to make this happen.
Then I asked the family their names.
The mother is Vitaly, the sons are Ruslan, Arthur, Artem and Danya, the daughters are Anya and Lisa, and the Dog is called Leo (just like my father r.i.p.)
And then I asked: ‘’who wants Mc Donalds?’’
YES MC DONALDS!!!!!
It’s not my intention to make an advertisement for unhealthy and disgusting junk-food, but at this moment it felt right to feed them fast with filthy food they’d enjoy.
After the dirty dinner we headed to the same hotel in Opole which was still 450km away.
None of the family spoke English, so we communicated mostly via google translate.
Suddenly they told us how grateful they were for taking them with us and bringing them to safety.
At this moment we all had tears in our eyes.
Then I got a call from Jacqueline to say she might have something: a large rectory house in a small village in Zeeland (South-West of Holland).
No shops and no schools, but the whole community would support them.
I called Sofiya and asked her to translate the option.
I could hear the whole family being involved in making this incredibly difficult decision.
School and shops are important for them, but also a place where they can all live together.
They asked if Jacqueline could please look for more options.
Jacqueline said she would look, but that the chances of finding a better option were very small.
She came up with an option where the family had to either split up or get rid of Leo the dog.
So at 23.00 the decision was made to go to Zeeland.
At midnight we arrived at the hotel in Opole and luckily the bar was open again.
We celebrated that we were all safe and Vita drunk two large beers.
SUNDAY MARCH 20th
This time we slept a bit longer and after a big breakfast we all jumped into the van.
All except Mark who needed to film our departure from the hotel.
The family thought that we had left Mark behind, so they all screamed ‘’OPERATOR MARK!!!’’.
This became a running joke along the way.
So 1140km ahead of us to Zeeland.
The family was happy to cross the Polish-German border screaming “GERMANIA!!!”
The hotel had prepared sandwiches for us, so the first longer stop was at Mc Donalds in Kassel, Germany.
I hate Mc Donalds in general, but this one was the worst.
First they didn’t accept my ABNAMRO bankcard, and then it took a long long time.
When the order finally arrived half of it was missing.
I went to the counter and talked to them politely in my best German.
They just ignored me.
The whole situation made me explode and I started screaming and cursing in English.
This helped and we finally got what we ordered.
Once back in the van I apologised to the family for my behaviour.
Crossing the German-Dutch border was special.
The whole van was screaming “NEDERLAND NEDERLAND!!!”
Just after the border is the casino in Venlo.
It was completely lit up in blue and yellow.
That was a great welcome.
At 23.30 we finally arrived in Zeeland and the locals welcomed the family into their new house.
There was a big fruit-bowl on the table and the house was well equipped.
They were all happy with what the local community had done for their new citizens.
After an emotional goodbye, we headed for Amsterdam where we arrived early in the morning.
After sleeping for a few hours, I picked up the hard-drives with video footage from Mark’s place, took them to Jonathan Mechanicus (the editor), and returned the rental van.
Mission completed.
I want to thank everybody who made this adventure possible.
Especially my new friends from Ukraine who have chosen to be part of this story.
Thank you Sofiya with your team and all the people who donated goods to you.
Also big thanks to Nel van Berne (my stepmother), Bill Wirt and Judith Cohen who donated big amounts.
Also big thanks to all the other people who donated.
Big thanks to Incentro who donated for the documentary which is now in the making.
Big thanks to Adrie Jonk who gave the best price for the rental van.
Finally, this trip has been completely funded by donations.
I took the risk and I expected that it would cost me at least €1000,-.
Yes, it took me a lot of time and energy, but I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to do this.
There’s a lot of discussion going on about small initiatives versus big aid (Red Cross etc.).
Small initiatives are not always very efficient and can use more energy.
Donations for big aid pass through many hands and the final destination is unclear.
My trip has cost €4421,68 in total, including the media-budget.
I believe that everybody involved in my last trip has made a difference by contributing efficiently towards winning the war.
Now I am considering going again..........
Documentary coming soon.....
