3. Ukraine: Part 3

I just received a text from a friend from Dalsland that made me think about the things I write on this blog.

These texts from the Swedish guy made me realize that I need to be a bit more honest at times, to paint a more truthful picture of living here. It is not just sunshine and roses.

Yesterday I was at a bar with a new Ukrainian acquiantance. We were having a couple of drinks and a good time, when he told me that he would like to take me to a place with some "really good prostitutes". He was puzzled when I told him that it is not common for a person from Sweden to visit prostitutes, and it must be taken into consideration that there is an abundance of human trafficking and child prostitution in these parts of the world. And 1,5% of the adult population is living with HIV here - at least 10 times more common here compared with Sweden.

Next morning I started out my volunteer shift in the "Blind room". It is a room with 12 cats who have lost their sight, or completely lost their eyes, and a couple of cats with other severe defects. I don't even know how to describe the feeling of having a cat with no eyes climbing as high as it can on your body because it is desperate for some affection, since most people turn them away.

Then I walked 4 different dogs who have nervous disorders because of the missile strikes next to the shelter, who all shied away from me because they were terrified of every new impression.

Then I started to walk back along the halfmelted pools of polluted water and ice in the freezing rain next to intoxicating exhaust pipe on cars along the highway, until I reached the place I had rented for the night, just to realize too late it was a terrible decision to book a night with this shady company.

After waiting outside for an hour I decided to leave, put my phone on airplane mode because I didn't want to explain to that shady company why I ghosted them and don't want to pay their representative, and walked another hour in the sleet and snow to find another place.

There were so many other shitty things that happened today, but it is over the top to describe them all. But it is quite funny that I got SO annoyed of these things that I never even stopped to consider that we are also living in a designated strike zone for the Russian bombings.

Over and out. Next time I will write about sunshine and roses again. 😋