It really has been go-go-go (a good thing), but it really has been non-stop. So, with an evening free, Zoryana, Andrii, Derek, and I did what people have done for centuries in Odesa. We went to the beach!
Zoryana leading the way 🙂
And maybe if Derek and I didn’t deserve the break, Zoryana surely did. Lots of driving and running around.
But we got to take a break too. And, honestly, it sure felt good.
While we were there, the air raid sirens went off again. It’s a weird feeling. You know something is coming–cruise missile, ballistic missile, hypersonic missile, drone. But these warnings go off very often in this part of the country. It has been hit more than Kyiv has. Plus, its proximity to the sea (cruise missiles can be fired from ships/subs, though the Ukrainian forces have largely driven the Russian fleet out of the Black Sea), as well as its proximity to occupied Crimea, means that a hypersonic missile will hit in 3-5 minutes. They are launched from that close.
And what do you do? There are no bomb shelters on the beach, and it would take more than five minutes to get to one.
Most people just stay. These are mostly (mostly) false alarms, or the missile/drone is shot down by air defense. But a sort of fatalism sets in. The odds of the missile striking where you are are low (but not 0), but you just kind of “take the chance.” Almost no one left the beach. They just enjoyed the beautiful spring day despite the alarms.
Just a small sample of what the people in Odesa live through every day.
We went out to a nice dinner, went to bed, and got awakened several times during the night. The first one, we all trudged down to the bomb shelter (except for Zoryana—she’s a badass). We hung out there for awhile with some of the other guests. We discussed it a bit, and one by one, we went back to bed.
After that, we just rolled over and went back to sleep for the other air raid sirens. Nothing hit while we were there, though we did hear one explosion that was anti-missile batteries taking one out. But it becomes a way of life that is hard to picture when you’re not there but easy to understand if you live through it. After all, what are the options?
Onward!
Visit https://www.logisticsplus.com/berlins-wall/ to view all Berlin’s Wall posts.