In the church we eat together, Dutch lessons are given and children receive dancing lessons. The war was commemorated at the center on Tuesday. “It is very important to keep talking about it with each other,” Viktoriia explains. “Many of us have developed mental problems due to the war, so it is good to keep talking.”
Working in Haarlem
Viktoriia has now been working at one for a few years supermarket in Haarlem Northwhere she and many other Ukrainians have found work. She learns Dutch through her job, she goes there by bike and she likes the city. Yet it is not the same. She misses her own city. “In Ukraine I lived in Kharkiv, a student city. It was alive there, people were dancing in the streets and the atmosphere was good. I had my life there,” she says wistfully.
Rebuilding the city
Her city has currently been largely destroyed by the Russians. She hopes to return as soon as possible, but she also knows that little remains of her melancholic memories. “We are going to rebuild the city and I am going back,” she says determinedly. “Hopefully the war will be over in a few months and then I can go home. The past four years really feel like a bad dream.”
