María José, about 50 years old, dressed in black, brings the cart of the shopping crammed with food, especially for babies: milk, jars, cereals…
“Do you have boxes? Because we are going to need some,” he asks Iván, a Ukrainian, with a robust demeanor, serious gesture, at the gates of Ukrainians in Spain, one of the multiple associations that the more than 110,000 immigrants from that country have in ours.
Obtaining no immediate response, María José drives miles to a nearby bakery, on Valmojado de Aluche street. “You sure have boxes,” she can be heard saying as she walks away from her. After a while he comes back with two of them, made of cardboard. And both begin to pass the products from one side to the other.
It is almost eight in the evening and, although the day has been hot for the beginning of March, he begins to make biruji. The two have just met, but begin moving the products with ease. María José, standing; Ivan, a painter by profession, squatting.
– And María José, where do you work?
– I’m stop. I’m a hairdresser, but I’ve been out of work for a while, at least a year and a half
That is to say, and Iván, as calm as he is, gives a start, sits back up and stares at her, as if he doesn’t quite believe it: “But…”. Silence falls. An eternal, moving silence.
“Psss”, María José calms down, “how can I not help? If I have enough for a cane, how can I not have enough to help you?. It’s tremendous what that bastard is doing to you. And besides, this is today for you, tomorrow for me.”
At the end, Iván almost doesn’t want to let her go because of how grateful he is. “First thanks to this country, for its help, and double thanks to you, the people. I’m still in shock. You are helping us a lot, even people who have nothing, no money,” he states excitedly.
The material that is collected will leave next Sunday in a van on its way to the border with Ukraine, either from Romania or Poland. It is more than 3,000 kilometers, for which at least 80 hours of travel are needed.
At the border, volunteers from the country’s big cities come to transfer the products from one van to another, and then distribute the food, medicine and clothing to different points. Sometimes the international Red Cross helps them.
The last van that left the Ukraine with 2,000 kilos of material broke down this Wednesday in Zaragoza, so Iván, the other Iván, a bricklayer by profession who presides over the association, has traveled there to take another vehicle rented that can finish the journey.
“What you are experiencing is horrific,” says María de los Ángeles, dismayed. This retiree also just brought help in her car. All those who pass by the association show their sorrow and solidarity.
Neither Iván nor Ernesto, another Ukrainian who lends a hand in the association, understand what is happening in their country. “We have never caused problems with our neighbors. Never. None,” exclaims Iván, visibly pissed off.
“My family, who lives in Pollava, tells me that he barely leaves the house. It’s dangerous,” says the painter, who only allows a hint of emotion when he says that his niece had a son yesterday in the hospital of his hometown while they fell the bombs out. “Yesterday I spoke with my family, but today I have written to them and they have not answered me.”
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Among the things most demanded by Ukrainian citizens these days there is food and clothes for babies. “There is a need for hats, scarves, really everything is needed,” says Ernesto, from Chernivisy, who is around 70 years old.
“I’m talking to my friends to get especially antibiotics, people who can get them, although in the neighborhood pharmacy they have told me that they are managing this with the College of Physicians”, María José says goodbye, whom Iván does not seem to want to let go and who promises to return soon with more material.