I`ve spent the last five years in Ukraine, and I`ve always been impressed by the atmosphere around the holidays, with the streets lit up and everyone getting ready for Christmas. Now its dark out in the streets; there are no more decorations and lights around the city to be seen; there`s just the cold and its pitch black.
That’s what Jay tells me in a WhatsApp videocall. Jay is studying medicine in Odessa, and, like many other Indian students, he was forced to leave Ukraine when the war began. He stayed in Poland for a few days and from there he went back home to India. However, he came back to Ukraine in the autumn and is now still in Odessa:
“Indian students in their first years had no reason to return to Ukraine”, he explains. “They stayed back in India or went on to continue their studies in other countries. But for us, who are in our final year of medical school, there was no other option. We’ve come back to Ukraine to finish school and to get our degrees. I rented an apartment here in Odessa with a few other colleagues in my class, and we live cramped together, as there are several of us. That wouldn’t be such a problem…
When we returned to Odessa in the autumn, things were somewhat quieter, but for about a month or so they have got worse. Sometimes we have no electricity for three to four days at a time, and other days we only have electricity for a few hours. And we also run out of water sometimes. It’s very complicated with the cooking, but we improvise as well as we can. Candles are in high demand now in Odessa; they help us a lot. We have no heat at all; at night we put on as many as three sweaters and that’s that. It’s very, very hard, but we hang in there. Our parents are worried and call us every day, especially with the news as of late. We have a few months left, and we’ll go back to India.”
What surprises me about Jay is that, while telling me all of this, he manages to smile and maintain a warm and upbeat tone. Towards the end of the conversation, I hear a noise, like a pop, and I see it suddenly getting dark around Jay.
“See? The power’s just gone out!”, Jay says bursting into laughter. Then he takes his phone to the window and looks out into the street.
“I also have Ukrainian friends; they’re wonderful people; I’m sorry that I can’t see them anymore. Some have gone to the front; others have left the country. The same as some of our professors from medical school. I have professors who have already left or who are now getting ready to leave for the front. It’s shocking how everything’s changed here. In years past, we used to go out as a big group before the holidays, we used to dance and have fun, not to mention the Ukrainian Christmas food. The best comfort food!”
A story collected by Ionuț Sociu for the ‘Baggage of Abandonment’ campaign. A project funded by CARE via SERA Romania, Care France and FONPC.
