Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1526409
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2024 DIARY OF A VOLUNTEER the most welcome sight; my dad is waiting at arrivals for me, and as I embrace him in the Maltese sun the smell of dust and heat confirms to me that I am home. On the drive home, we talk little of Ukraine, focussing more on what's been happening since I've been away, and what the plans are for the upcoming weekend. He drops me off at home, knowing I'll want to shower and unpack before the chil- dren come home. When they get in, I'm clean and back in my normal clothes, I've unpacked and done the laundry, erasing all signs that I've been away. Grace comes home with flowers for me, and Merlin gives me his toothy grin when he realises I'm there. I'm immediately bombarded for presents and I dish out my sou- venirs as though I'm returning from a summer holiday. When I give Brian his small token, he hands me something in return – it's a small bundle of yellow post-its. He says that every time he thought of me while I was away and wished for my safe return he wrote 'please' on it as a kind of manifestation. The pages are covered, front and back, with his illegible scrawl. Together, we place Kalenda's nephew's patch on our mantle, and stand together to wish him home safely. Within minutes the children are fighting over a balloon, the dog is barking at a neighbour and my mother is tidying up around me. I'm home, and all is back to normal. Not so for my colleagues in Ukraine, nor for the families I met along the way. For them normal is an impos- sibly long way ahead, for even once the fighting is done, rebuilding their beautiful country and healing their resilient, but traumatised, commu- nities, will surely take decades and leave scars that will not fade. I hope to use this visit, my reflec- tions and experiences, to bolster the support we offer to our teams on the ground and partners in the field and I hope beyond hope that if my coun- try, my community, my family, were ever in such a vulnerable position, that teams with the compassion, ex- pertise professionalism and capaci- ty of the MOAS teams I've met this week are around to help. I am incredibly proud of the small part I play in the work MOAS does, in Ukraine and also in our other programmes around the world. I marvel at how one medium sized Maltese NGO can be having such an impact on communities in crisis around the world. End of the series Roads are lined with evidence of war, including an old MOAS base, destroyed in an air strike copy Christina returns home to a relieved family in time to celebrate her daughters KG1 graduation The MOAS 68 team bid farewell to Christina before heading back to their front-line base