четвер, 5 листопада 2015 р.

Dark face of the war at a peaceful home

Last two months were quite happy personally for me, my family and my friends in a terms of how war affecting our life. My cousin was demobilized and got back home after more than a year at the front line as well as all 28 brigade, which we supported all the time also was replaced by new forces and got back home. Now almost all people I know personally are at home, in peace, in most cases not seriously injured. 
Of course war is keep going and we continue our volunteer activities for other people, but emotional stance became much much better, for sure. Good time to celebrate and this year we even made small parties on birthdays:)
But unexpectedly I found few small, from first sight, and hardly to notice, but really deep changes in mind set. The first big surprise was when my backpack broken, zipper was lost and a hole appeared at the bottom. I went to the shop for the new one and found one good for the 1800 Hryvnas = about 72 Euros, it was normal price for such quality good. But I just couldn't buy it, I found that I think "Oleksii it costs about 3 life at the front line" (because of Celox price is about 27$ per unit). Price itself wasn't a problem I had money, price wasn't really big, but I just couldn't do it. Felt like I'm stealing somebody's' life. Suddenly I realized that during the last year and a half I count all my expenses not in Hryvnas, Dollars or Euros, not in money itself, but in this 27$ format - units. And I haven't even noticed that! It was really cruel gift from the war. But it was just a start of the day.
I left my current backpack for repair at service for 400 Hryvnas and got back home with all this thoughts. At home I decided to take my ski backpack to use for the week, when my main one be on the service. My ski backpack is a very nice one with armored frame to protect you during the free-ride in the mountains. It's so strong that certified to use during ski competition. And it was in wardrobe since Maidan times. I used it during Revolution of Dignity, to protect myself if fights happened. So I didn't touch it since bloody days of February 2014, when revolutions has won in Ukraine.
But when I opened backpack I found all the staff to save and be protected from police attacks, including CS gas, as well as first aid kits to help injured from this gas attacks and other types of injures, including wounds. Second time per day I was surprised how all this memories and knowledge popped up. How to protect during the police attack, what to do if they use CS gas, how to provide first aid in this cases, how to fight back with them, how to prepare Cocktail of Molotov, what recipes are the best, why tires are so useful, where to get gasoline and oil very fast... Cloud of thoughts was like a storm.
So this is the knowledge of common citizen in Ukraine - how to fight, how to save, how to provide first aid during fights with police, what to do during revolution, how to support front line during enemies invasions.... And this is a things which millions of people now know and experienced in Ukraine.
But the final surprise was the conclusion about really awful thing - The common citizen now knows How to defend his country from foreign invasions, which is sad, but good for anybody at the planet, but also we have full set of knowledge, skills and experience How to defend our country from inside aggression from those, who have to protect us.
Wild East! And this mind set is the best explanation of what we have now in our country no more explanations needed.
 I wish my children in the future won't need such a knowledge and necessary to use it.