From War To Peace

From War to Peace An Illustrated Timeline

by Yana Belcher

From War to Peace

Yana Belcher Senior Project School of Art & Design George Mason University 2022

All material in this book by Yana Belcher Copyright © 2022.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner.

I dedicate this book to Ukrainians all over the world! We are united, we are strong, and we will protect our freedom and our beautiful homeland – Ukraine! I also want to dedicate this book to my mom, Liudmyla, for raising me and supporting me all my life and for all the love and care you gave me.

I am Ukrainian, and I live in the United States, but my mother still lived in Dnipro, a large city in eastern Ukraine. The world will always remember the day Ukraine was invaded. Two weeks before that, I had a feeling that something bad was coming.

I tried to convince my mother to take a “vacation,” bringing with her all her documents and her cat, “just in case something happens”. Unfortunately, my mom, like many others, refused to believe that something as horrible as WAR would ever happen in our peaceful and beautiful Ukraine.

02.24 On February 24, I woke up at 09:00 to go to my morning class at George Mason. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw many messages from my mom and immediately realized that my worst nightmare had become reality.

The next couple of days were horrible. I could not sleep, trying to talk to my mom all day. There was a big time zone difference – 7 hours – between us. All I could think about was how to get my mom out of there.

02.

My brain was boiling. There was so much to consider.

On February 26, my husband and I decided to buy flight tickets to Poland and figure out from there if we would need to cross the border with Ukraine and get my mom from Dnipro, or if we could meet my mom somewhere near the border between Poland and Ukraine.

.26

02.27 Finally, my mom got a ticket for a train to Lviv.

This train was supposed to leave at 16:30, but it got canceled. This was my third day of barely sleeping.

Packing for my trip

MY TIMELINE Air raid sirens started in Dnipro

MOM’S TIMELINE

02.28 My mom got on a train that was evacuating people from Ukraine. She had no cell service. The last message I received from my mom was at 11:00. These were the most difficult eleven hours of my life, when I couldn’t reach her, and all I could do was believe that everything was okay. Because I was so stressed and kept crying, I was stopped by the airport police before getting on the plane, as my behavior was seen as “suspicious”.

My flight to Lisbon was about to depart when I finally heard from my mom.

PCR tests

22:00 flight to Lisbon

My mom got on a train

03.

While my mom was trying to get to a safe place, I had a ‘situation’ in Lisbon, Portugal. When we landed in Lisbon, I was denied entry because I did not have a Schengen visa. My next flight to Warsaw would leave at 13:05. I needed a visa.

10:20, Landed in Lisbon, Portugal

13:05, departed Lisbon

04:30, my mom arrived in Lviv.

Next, find a way to get to Przemyśl, Poland

.01 Because I was constantly crying, and I had a Ukrainian passport, the airport representatives helped me and I was issued a visa at the airport.

18:05, I arrived in Warsaw

22:00, my mom arrived in Przemyśl, Poland.

She was finally safe

03.

At 04:00, Krakow. This was my mom’s fourth day without sleep, surviving on barely any food or water.

I haven’t slept since I left home.

I could not eat, and I was worried that If I ate, I would want to drink, and if I drink, I might need to use restroom – but who would watch my cat? What if I miss my train or my place in line? I was so scared!”

08:00, I got a text message from a stranger saying that my mom was at the Warsaw Central Station

04:00, Krakow, Poland 07:30, Warsaw, Poland

.02 09:30, MY MOM AND I WERE FINALLY REUNITED.

While my mom was resting, we went to a nearby mall to get all kinds of cat supplies, toiletries, and food.

12:00, exhausted, we checked in to an O3Hotel

03.

We did not have a good wi-fi connection at our hotel, so my husband and I would keep going to the mall.

This day we had two Zoom meetings with lawyers. The first lawyer, “Lawyer 1”, was very rude and kept pushing a “long-term solution”, which was not the purpose of this call, because we already knew about the long-term solution of me petitioning for a reunion with my mom after I file for my citizenship.

The next lawyer, “Lawyer 2”, was “Mr. There Is No Official Information”, just reading all the same news articles and policies we had already read.

In this moment, I felt like I could be a lawyer!

.03 After these long, useless meetings, we decided to take care of all travel requirements for my mom’s cat, Pusya.

The plan was to get her all the necessary shots, a microchip, and a pet passport. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy.

03.04 This day was simple and quiet. I had all day to catch up with my work. Because I work remotely as a Graphic Designer, I had the opportunity to keep working some so I could earn some money and not just keep drowning in debt. Of course, my mom would spend the day sitting with me in the coffee shop because she didn’t want to stay alone at our AirBnB.

03.05 - 03.06 Over the weekend, we stayed at our AirBnB, brainstorming how we could bring my mom to the US. I had contacted multiple lawyers, the US Embassy in Warsaw, the US Consulate in Frankfurt, and the UNHCR. It felt like nobody knew what was going on and was just trying to send you of to some other organization. The US Embassy in Warsaw was a huge disappointment. Following the automated prompts as a US citizen in an emergency only led to even more prompts before finally talking to a representative who answered the phone in Polish and proved to be both rude and unhelpful.

03.07 While my mom was crossing the border, she caught a very bad cold, and I tried to convince her to go to the doctor. Thankfully, I was able to do so. Yet this seemingly simple task turned into yet another nightmare. At the hospital, we were given a list of providers assisting Ukrainian refugees and decided to visit the closest on the list. This ‘provider’ was not a doctor at all, but instead, was responsible for collecting and transporting donations and supplies to refugees.

Fortunately, one of the workers was very helpful and was able to find a doctor for my mom.

Also, we developed a plan on how to move forward, but we wanted to double check our information with a lawyer, “Lawyer 3”. Because of the big time difference, we had to wait until 22:00. We chose a Russian speaking lawyer based in San Diego, California, so we could ask about the possibility of crossing the border by foot at San Ysidro, between Tijuana and San Diego.

03.08 We planned our journey to the US. Finding an itinerary that would only stop in countries where Ukrainians could enter visa-free and with airlines that allowed cats on-board proved to be incredibly challenging. After much research, when I tried to buy flight tickets through one app, my credit card wouldn’t work, and I had a major malfunction.“ WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITHOUT MONEY?!” Thankfully, my husband managed to find all the tickets separately through the individual airlines’ sites, so we booked all our tickets individually. At that point, my credit cards were maxed out, and the expenses kept piling up.

03.09 We were all exhausted. Nobody remembers what we did this day.

TRAVE

03h18m 02h24m

03h40m 04h51m

L MAP 01h45m 02h35m

10h30m

03.10 This was the last day before our long journey to the US, and we tried to go to the vet clinic to see if they received pet passports. Unfortunately, there were no passports, so we had to get a special letter for Pusya stating her good health, being up to date on shots, being dewormed, and suitable for travel. After visiting the vet clinic, we went to get our COVID-19 PCR tests for the flights.

13:00, Visit to the Vet

15:00, Covid test

03.11 This day started with me pulling my hair out at the airport. I call it the “LUFTHANSA PICKLE”. When we were booking our flight, Lufthansa, our airline, did not provide any special instructions for transporting a cat.

It simply stated on the website that if you don’t have a carry-on bag, your cat carrier could be considered your carry-on, and no special tickets were needed. Of course, at the airport, everything was different. We had to have a ticket for the cat, but we couldn’t buy one now because there were already two cats on board. My question is, “would the plane explode with one extra cat on board?”

Fortunately, a kind representative helped me to sort this out – Pusya was flying with us.

09:00 Lufthansa pickle 14:45, departed Warsaw 16:30, arrived in Frankfurt 20:50, departed Frankfurt

23:25, arrived in Madrid, Spain Checked in to our hotel, Esentia Togumar

03.12 This day in Madrid I spent “on hold”. To buy a ticket for Pusya to fly with Avianca, our next airline. I had to call them about five times. Each time, I had to wait on hold for more than an hour before they connected me to a representative. After that, each question I answered was followed by another 30 to 40 minutes on hold. After I finally sorted this out, I was shot with more ‘pleasant’ news. MY MOM DOSENT WANT TO GO TO MEXICO! After all the time we spent talking about our plan and making sure it was safe with the lawyer, a few posts online from random strangers, who had no idea what they were talking about, scared my mom to death believing that she would be separated from me and put in jail. There is a reason why you shouldn’t get your news from Facebook.

03.13 The airport screeners in Bogotá were rude and unprofessional. They were cruel to our cat, and they confiscated a cuticle pusher that had not been an issue at any other airport. We arrived at our gate but had never been issued a ticket.

Instead, we seemingly bribed the gate agent to allow us on board.

19:15, arrived in Bogotá, Colombia

14:45, departed Madrid

21:36, departed Bogotá

03.

When we landed in Mexico City, Mexico, and were going through immigration when we had one more delay because of Pusya. She could not go through animal control because apparently, in Mexico, they require internal deworming as well as external deworming. The officers that were working in animal control saw how exhausted I was, and that I couldn’t even cry – my eyes were just falling out – so they allowed us through because of our magical Ukrainian passports. Next stop–Tijuana.

This day was A BIG DAY! BIG BORDER CROSSING DAY! As we got to the border, my heart was sinking. I was so nervous I struggled to breathe. My mom was terrified too, but Pusya was sleeping. How nice it must be to be a cat!

06:00, departed Mexico City 01:27, arrived in Mexico City, Mexico

08:40, arrived in Tijuana

.14 As soon as we got to the border control, we explained our situation to the officer, and he instructed us to “just go where all the people are standing, and wait for an officer to come out; there are Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, and even some Indians trying to cross, but priority is given to Ukrainians with kids, then other Ukrainians, then everyone else–just wait there.”

So, we got in the imaginary line and patiently waited for an officer. Meanwhile, Mexican reporters were interviewing people and were filming the process. When an officer walked out, he asked everyone to show him their passports. A few Russian families were trying to bother him with long stories of why they should go first. But I was following instructions! I lifted my hand high We took a taxi to the San Ysidro pedestrian border crossing

Around 14:00 We crossed the border

03. above my head with two Ukrainian passports and kept my eye on the officer. We were on the second group selected to go to a room to be interviewed.

My husband had to go separately from me and my mom because he is American citizen. I kept quiet that I am a green card holder. Nobody asked, so I said nothing.

I had to stay with my mom.

When we got to the room where officers were asking us why were coming to the US, they were a little frustrated and confused as to why I was there while being a green card holder, but I needed to be there to support my mom. They told me to sit down, and they started questioning my mom. Why are you here?!

Why US?! How long do you plan on staying here?!

Where will you stay?! My mom could not answer anything because she was crying. All she said was, 16:00, checked in to our AirBnB in San Diego, California

19:00, I took my mom to see the ocean at Mission Beach

.14 “I’m here with my daughter…” They told us to sit down and wait. Then they asked me if my mom would be staying with me. Nobody talked to my mom anymore because she was crying. I gave them all my contact information, and after a little wait, they told me to go cross the border alone and that my mom would go with an officer. Twenty minutes later, we were once again reunited, but now on another side of the border. WELCOME TO AMERICA! 21:00, had dinner at a restaurant to celebrate

03.15 At the San Diego airport, we experienced a CATastrophy while going through security. While carrying Pusya through the metal detector, she urinated on me, and we had to finish our screening in a private room.

After clearing security, I took Pusya to the restroom to clean both of us, and when I took her out of the carrier she had already pooped herself. Pusya was so scared, stressed, and ashamed that she was trying to hide and kept crying. I cleaned myself up along with Pusya, threw away my favorite t-shirt and tried to find a fresh t-shirt. Unfortunately, all the shops in our terminal were still closed, so I had to wear my jacket until the stores opened up.

06:25, departed San Diego 06:25, d 09:49, arrived in Denver, Colorado eparted San Diego

16:41, departed Denver 21:59, arrived in Washington, District of Columbia

03.16 After finally arriving back home to our small, one-bedroom apartment, we spent the next several hours unpacking, moving furniture around, and rearranging everything. Pusya was very interested in investigating a new place and kept jumping in front of us while we tried to move things. Our ‘little fluffy helper’ wasn’t very helpful.

04.

A bit more than a month later, and I feel like stress keeps piling up on my shoulders. Now, I have three times as many responsibilities and little to no time to do anything. It is good to have my mom by my side, but there are so many new obstacles in my way.

Sometimes, I feel like there is no light at the end of this tunnel. Fortunately, today is the day when I wrote the last paragraph for my senior project and made the last illustration. One task is done, but a thousand more remain…

.22

One Ukrainian college student living on the other side of the world journeys on the adventure of a lifetime to rescue her mother from the war and bring her to a safety. This book is an illustrated timeline that tells her story.