— Greetings to you, Ms. Yevgenia, please tell us about your life before the start of a full-scale war.
— Before the invasion, I worked as an interior designer and visualizer. I was engaged in painting in my free time, painted pictures with oil paints.
At five in the morning on February 24, my friend woke me up and told me that the war had started… We went to my mother, because she lives near the subway. First of all, we bought products. Our first night was spent in the parking lot, then we went down to the subway because it is safer there. Father was still with us then, and then he joined the Armed Forces. That’s how it all started.
We were in Kyiv the first 2 weeks, from February 24 to March 11. Only after we decided to leave. It was very cold and damp sitting underground, so we got sick. A neighbor was the first who suggested we leave the capital, and we were thinking of leaving together, but then her plans changed and my father wrote to his friend who lives in Poland. He asked if we could come to her place and she agreed to help.
— So you went to Poland, right? Please tell in more detail what happened next.
— And we went to Poland. We received a very warm welcome there. Volunteers met us at the station and a friend greeted us with bread and salt.* After we were sheltered, I decided to look for some kind of volunteering or work to be useful. I wanted to earn and settle in a new environment. I managed to find volunteering. We made dumplings for about a month, and then sent them to the Armed Forces. It was a volunteer center for refugees, which also provided humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. At the same time, I was looking for any kind of job, because I didn’t know Polish.
At first, I worked as a cleaner and then friends advised me to teach children and teenagers, because they knew that I draw well. Then the family where I worked as a cleaner needed an interior design project, so I started working on it. Lucky me that I took a laser tape measure with me, because I knew that I should take everything that can help me in my work and be useful.
One person ordered two paintings and continues to order even now, when I have already returned to Ukraine. I met very nice people in Poland. They are so caring, customers have already become like close people.
— Ms. Yevgenia, how long have you been in Poland and do you want to return there?
— Return — no, until Victory comes (smiles). I’d like to stay in Ukraine with my family and friends. I was abroad from March 12 to September 23. These 7 months lasted very long for me.
— How would you rate the experience during your stay in Poland? Was it useful for you?
— Before the full-scale war, I thought about it. But I was worried if I went somewhere abroad, how I would live there. There were some thoughts about the unknown, how I would survive. It so happened that the war gave me an opportunity to try my hand.
I’m grateful for this experience, for the acquaintances and people I met. I never thought about teaching. In addition, I tried to delegate my work. Since I’m a visualizer, and there was no specific computer in Poland, I found specialists in Ukraine and delegated the work to them. It was a cool experience. I reached a conversational level in Polish. I also realized that if I want to, then I can do anything!
— Do you think that going abroad at the beginning of the invasion was the right decision?
— The first weeks in Kyiv were terrible, but the property in our apartment remained intact. But I wouldn’t change anything. After all, the main thing for me was that I felt useful. Now I already think that it’s possible to find a job in Kyiv, because at that time the field of design and interior design wasn’t on the rise at all.
Now I`d like to continue painting. I`ve never painted as many pictures as in Poland. I want to decorate something or even make repairs at home! Because I missed my apartment.
While I wasn’t in Ukraine, I understood that the most valuable thing is family, that the closest people are parents and friends. Some people kept asking me every day: “Zhenia, where are you, how are you?” Especially when it’s very noisy and scary, such people become the closest. I have to protect myself and my family. I want to quote another phrase “In dark times you can clearly see bright people”, because that’s how it is.
*Bread and salt is a welcome greeting ceremony.
Translator: Bohdana-Nikolietta Terekhina
