The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 62 with Kyiv, Ukraine Arrival of Voices for Voices
Justin Alan Hayes:
Welcome to a special edition of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Today we're coming to you not from northeast Ohio, not even Warsaw, Poland. We're coming to you from the Capitol of Ukraine, Kyiv. So Voices for Voices, as you know by now, is a northeast Ohio organization with a global reach. And one way we're able to do that is by traveling when given an opportunity to not only help others, others that may be in need, just like others that may be in need where we live, but also to be able to share their voice, their story that may not be given an opportunity to share might be felt like nobody cares, nobody wants to hear it.
But at Voices for Voices, we'd like to think a little bit differently. And so, that's why when given an invitation to come to Ukraine in an active war situation, I had to think long and hard about if that was something that was healthy to do, productive to do, if I'd be able to come home alive to my wife, Charlene, my daughter, Rosemarie. And after doing very thorough research, which my wife and parents may have started to realize something different was going on as opposed to our trip last year where we were able to come to Warsaw, Poland, we were to help over 200 Ukrainian refugees at a convention center. And then, we were also able to go to a mother's house, a home, a residence where there were over 40 mothers, some are pregnant or had small children, individuals that had fleed a war zone for their safety.
And so, that's something that when I was made aware of that last year, given the full invasion of Ukraine, I knew that I had already had a scheduled trip with the American Marketing Association for two conferences, one in Greece and one in Frankfurt, Germany. And it might just be me, but recognizing that I was going to be in the same area, the same part of the world, the same region, I knew that I should probably spend some time trying to help in whatever way I could, or just a small upstart nonprofit organization. We don't have huge backing. We don't have millions of dollars in grants. So these decisions aren't taken lightly because at the end of the day, almost all the money comes out of our own pocket as an organization, as individuals. And as a founder, an executive director, a lot of it comes out of my pocket.
We do get some funding from sponsors, but when it's looked at in the macro level in the whole, it isn't that much. So that could turn a lot of organizations away because well, how many people have additional money laying around and laying around is probably not the best term to use, but extra discretionary income, dollars that aren't being used at the current time. And luckily, being in the position, my wife has really taken over our family as the breadwinner. And so, there are times where I don't feel like I am contributing enough to the family finances or what have you.
And so, I think given opportunities like last year of being able to help people like you and me, these aren't people that sometimes we think about that they're going to have raggedy clothes on and not well-to-do. Some of these individuals, they're doctors, they're lawyers, they're moms, they're dads, they're aunts, they're uncles, they're grandparents. And when I saw that firsthand in person last year, I didn't think that I would be able to turn a blind eye like maybe some of us have, depending on our politics, we hear stories, we check social media, and those things bother us, and they divide us. And wow, as Americans, we need to look out for our self-interest. We also can't, again, turn a blind eye to things that are happening at different parts of the world.
I've said this many times publicly in conversations that it's very easy to look at social media and form a conclusion or watch our favorite news outlet and form an opinion and say, "Wow, that's not right here at home. That's not in the state of Ohio. That's not in the state of California. That's not in the state of New York or wherever you're from, where you live, you reside now, if you live in the states. That's thousands of miles away. Well, we don't care. We don't even speak that language." And okay, everybody is entitled to their opinion, and so am I.
And so, are we as an organization, Voices for Voices. So that's one reason why I sit here thousands of miles away from home while taken an almost eight and a half, nine-hour flight over the Atlantic Ocean, finding myself in Warsaw, Poland, and then deciding, hey, I'm going to take a 13, 14-hour overnight train trip and be rooming with somebody in the car that I don't even know. I don't know if they're going to speak my language. I don't know. I just don't know. I've never traveled by train in that manner.
And so, there's so many reasons to turn around and turn back and to not go forward, not the least is safety. And yes, safety is a premium. It is very important. And prior to my trip, very few people knew, as I got closer, very few people knew that I had even the thought, let alone, an invitation to travel to Ukraine, to travel to the capital of Ukraine, to talk to the people, leaders, educational institution investors, founders like you saw on a previous show that we had, Roman Sheremeta, the Case Western University professor who few months before the full invasion in February of 2022, came over and was tasked to set up an American university here in Kyiv. And little did I know that the university was going to launch the weekend that I was traveling overseas.
And so, as I said here today, as you're watching, as it's being filmed, the university is live. It's live. It's in-person, it's online, and in a wartime, Roman was able to... found and set up an American university. He could have turned around and said, "You know what? I'm out of here. I don't want to go forward with it. There's not an amount of money that I can be offered to do this." And while he is of Ukraine descent, he's still a human being. And so, he could have said no, or sorry, I am not going to be able to fulfill this. And he went forward with it and he opened it. And there is, from the moment the train arrived in the Kyiv Passenger Rail Station early this afternoon, the city is alive, Kyiv is alive, people are living their lives. There's construction, there's new building construction, there's new home construction, there are farmers' markets that are taking place.
There are people walking on the streets. There are people riding their scooters, riding their Vespas. There are many motorcycles. The streets are lined with traffic. Stores are open. People are sitting outside, eating dinner, having an ice cream. And so, when I arrived earlier this afternoon, I didn't know what to expect. I read much of the same news as you probably have, or your family or colleagues at work or people that you know, acquaintances. And I really didn't know what to expect. I had made all the arrangements security-wise of clothing that is bulletproof. And so, while some of the items that didn't come in time, because by the time I found out about the invitation of the trip, the material that goes into it, the panels that go into it, there was some production just wasn't able to be done. And so, again, that could have been the last minute, well, I don't have everything that I need. I don't have all that I can have from an individual perspective of traveling via train. And then, walking 35 minutes from the train station to the hotel, went on the website, mentioned it was 10 minutes.
So lots of craziness, lots of times along the way that I could have said no and turned back. But I kept having the feeling of I have an organization, I have reason to come, to help in whatever way that I can. And most of that way is going to be through podcast episodes, through episodes, through shorts, through short videos, through photos, and meeting people, seeing the remembrance wall and laying flowers there for all the Ukrainians and individuals who volunteer to come from their country and serve over here that have lost their lives to just be around people that want to help in whatever way that they can just as human beings.
So that's why I decided to come and very, very excited to finally be here. The travel was long, wasn't fun, wasn't most glamorous, the most luxurious. The train didn't have air conditioning, and the windows were closed through the overnight hours on the train because we are in an active war zone. And so, while it would've been more comfortable to have windows open, there could have been artillery shot at our train any time, any point along the way. And so, that's one safety measure that got taken into account.
So I'm here, made it. The interesting part, a lot of interesting parts, but one very interesting part was arriving yesterday at the train station in Warsaw, again, just not knowing what to expect from the train ride, who I was going to be sharing the car with, because I originally was able to get a one person car, and so I would have more privacy. But once I booked, I received that message that that was not available anymore. So even though I booked it, that was not available. So they moved me to a three-person car that housed three people. And so, when I say three people, these are three bunks, one, then the second on top of the first, and the third on top of the second.
And I didn't know what to expect there. Again, was expecting to have two people that I didn't know, didn't speak their language, and how was I going to get along? Was I going to be safe? Could I walk down the hall and go to the bathroom and leave my luggage? I could take the backpack, but it was very difficult to be able to wheel a check bag and in those small hallways that almost had to walk sideways to really get through. So the interesting part that I refer to is I'm climbing onto the train yesterday. And so, I take my check bag, lifted up the steps, set it on the platform on the train, and then I proceeded to step up and climb on with myself and then my put bag.
And an individual who was going to the restroom was walking in my direction because the restroom was near where the entrance and exit was to the car, said, "Oh, how's it going?" And he said that in English. So that was the first surprise. And he's like, "I didn't expect to see another American these thousands of miles away on the train." And then, the second part of being interesting is he came back from the bathroom and we were bunk mates. And so, here I was thousands of miles away from my home, and an individual who spoke my language was going to be rooming in our car for the duration of the train ride.
And the third part that was interesting about that, so the first is climbing on and an individual that is speaking English. The second was finding that we were going to be bunk mates, roommates for the time for the ride. Then the third part was not only was he lives in Chicago, but he actually has a Russian background. And so, he was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but his reason for coming over is and is now that we're here, is he has Ukrainian friends, people that he had grown up with while the old Soviet Union and the borders had changed, languages stuck around while people were moving. And so, this isn't a show on history. This isn't an organization. I'm not going to get a history lesson. I don't know all about the history.
But what was interesting was we had a conversation for hours of him sharing growing up in the old Soviet Union and then coming to the US. And he said recently as 2017, he was over here in Ukraine with his family. And so, I had asked him, because I guess I wasn't really thinking everything through when I was speaking with him. I said, "Oh, so you took the train in? Did you fly into Warsaw and take the train in the Kyiv?" And he said, "Oh no. In 2017, the airport's open, so it's able to fly right in. So this is an experience for me too, of taking the train in."
And so, to have a conversation thousands of miles away with an American who also has ties to this country at Ukraine and grew up in Russia, and it was just very, very interesting just to have a conversation and to listen, which some of you're probably like, "Yeah, right. Justin never listens. I always see these podcasts come out, these TV shows come out, and he's constantly talking." And yeah, that can be the case at times, but I sat and listened for a long amount of time. And so, that was interesting, cool, to be able to have that type of a connection for that many hours. Because I was thinking, what are we going to talk about if the person knows the language? And I had assumed that the person or the persons weren't going to know the language.
So luckily, we only had the two of us in the car. So the one bed, one bunk was left vacant, and it was very tight quarters in there. So you'll see with some of the photos that I took while on the train of being in those close quarters with somebody absolutely I have no idea who it's going to be. So I'm here, and I don't think any of this footage is going to be released. Actually, I know it's not going to be released. While I'm here in Kyiv, while I'm here in Ukraine for security purposes, the tracking of phones being an American, many reasons as you can well understand.
So there's going to be a lot of exciting things coming forward, coming out, interviews, conversations from people, leaders, average people that live here and found themselves in the middle of this full-blown invasion. And our organization being Voices for Voices, we're giving a voice to people who, some might get a little bit of airtime to share their voice, their experience, their story, but some aren't and some won't. And so, the very fact that an American is here in Ukraine that just show support, to shake a hand, to give a hug again, again to lay flowers at the wall of remembrance, to just take everything in, as an individual, it's very humbling and I just got here. I have a few more days of being here and look forward to that time. And the weather's been absolutely gorgeous. Very few clouds in the 70s Fahrenheit.
So I wanted to share this little intro podcast episode. This isn't with a guest, this particular TV show and podcast episode. This is really how I got here, how we got here, why we're here, and what we hope to accomplish, and what we're going to accomplish. And then, once we get back to the states to be able to share the voices for the voices. Some of the voices are going to be from the individuals that are going to be sharing their voices, so they're going to be sharing the voice of their voices. Some are going to be family members.
And then, I'll just leave on this note. When the train was pulling into the station, and there's a lot of people on the train. And so, as we're getting close, everybody's jamming into the little hallway area, looking out the window. And some people that were on the train, their family was waiting for them at the train station, and I'm getting a little emotional. And there was a little boy, he was with his mom, and only back up just a second. So my bunk mate was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but he also, he knows Russia, Ukraine, English. And so, he's able to converse in those different languages, so he's able to understand what people are saying.
And so, this little boy was standing at the window and this just happened so there was no way for me to document footage and the privacy, want to impede his privacy without asking. And so, that's something else that I've learned that make sure you talk and ask people before you film them, before you talk to them, before to take your picture with them. And so, as this moment was happening, it really brought things home because here's this little boy where you stand next to his mom, his mother, I assume. The train's pulling in the station. And he points out the window, And he says, in Ukrainian, "Daddy, daddy!"
And my bunk mate said... And so, I didn't understand the language, but I was putting everything together. That was probably some part of his family. And my bunkmate said, "That little boy said, daddy, daddy, I'm home." I'll just leave this episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast. Be on the lookout. Our organization's doing big things, and hopefully to anybody watching, listening, seeing a post can hopefully see that one individual can make a difference. And while we might think that we can't, and I've had my doubts on many things, and thinking this organization, we can't do things without having just hundreds and thousands of people apart and volunteering. And while we're not there yet, the things, the experiences that I have and am having and will continue to have as the founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, nothing can replace that. And so, I can't wait to be home. I didn't kiss my wife Charlene and give my daughter Rosemarie a hug and a kiss. So please join us on another episode of the Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast.
Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate
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