Tetyana, 46, and her family remained in her Odesa house for two weeks after hearing the first explosion because they were unsure what to do.
We had never heard a bomb go off before, but we instantly recognized it as such, she claims. “We realized something horrible had started in Ukraine, something we had talked about but didn’t think was possible in our contemporary world.”
“We took a car to the Romanian border, which was the closest. We generally travel for six hours, but it took us fourteen since we had to pass through military checkpoints. We felt so uneasy as we travelled through a conflict area.
After spending two nights there, they chose to fly to Spain, where Tetyana’s school buddy had offered them an apartment to stay in. They travelled through Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, and France before finally crossing into Spain.
A road trip like this would typically be a memorable vacation full of sightseeing and rest. Instead, Tetyana’s family hurried from one nation to the next, hoping to find a secure haven to reside.
Tetyana had been to Australia before; her brother and sister-in-law had resided there for 25 years. Tetanya and her family decided to relocate to Adelaide with their encouragement. Before boarding the plane, they spent three months in Spain organizing the visas.
“We were welcomed at the airport by humanitarian organizations and friends in July,” she says. Since then, we have received assistance every day.
The family knows their good fortune and the irony of their circumstances. “I consider how protected I am in Australia and how my folks in Ukraine are perished [ing] every day. That is not an everyday existence, so we always consider the families and children left behind.
Tetyana wants to advance her profession as a project manager in the ICT sector while she is in Adelaide. Her spouse is a mechanical engineer, and she has enrolled in English studies at TAFE.
“We simply don’t see a resolution. Every day I ask myself, “How much longer?” Maybe another month, maybe two, maybe three. Yet, it has been almost a year, and deaths continue, claims Tetyana.
How our brothers and sisters, our closest neighbours, could start a war baffles me. Although I want to return, I’m still determining what will be left.
