I meet Olga and Angelina
I was waiting and worrying about Olga and Angelina who were on their way to pick up the supplies. Olga described herself as a "media trainer and human rights defender". Angelina is a chamber music vocalist turned "driver" as she was in charge of driving across the border with Olga. Angelina's husband works for the non-profit organization supporting Roma in Ukraine that has been helping coordinate getting the supplies to the journalists on the front line. Olga is an old friend and colleague of my nephew’s partner, Emine, (Ziyatdinova, 2022) who recently published an article concerning LGBTQ Ukrainians in a safe house in Poland, seeking sanctuary from the war. One of Emine's colleagues Alexander Chekmenev (2022) who we were hoping to help by sending these supplies) recently had a photo journalism piece depicting the war experience in Ukraine, which filled the entirety of the New York Times magazine:
Finally, Olga and Angelina arrived and we sat down in the tent to eat some of Lydia's soup, warm up and take some photos
I gave Olga and Angelina a bag of snacks, drinks and coffee and we fit all of the supplies into the trunk of their car. Olga then wanted to organize some photographs, in particular the one above, holding Olga's Ukrainian flag that is a kind of talisman for her as she has been keeping that flag through the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas where I believe Olga is from. Olga was carrying a book of poetry by a contemporary Ukrainian poet, Lyuba Yakumchuk. The book had traveled by mail to Olga through the war from Kyiv to Chernovsti, and Olga gave me the book. Holding the book of poetry in my hands, I thought about the hands it had passed through and what they had endured. After visiting with Olga and Angelina, they were then on their way back to Ukraine to arrange transport of the supplies to Kyiv, and to continue their fight.