Ukraine Refugee Assistance

Hey Bill - dropped you a mail with my travel details for Europe.  Will refine them by mid next week before I head out.  
 

AngryCorvair and I have a plan to hook up 6/2-6/3 to pickup the oxygen concentrator.  Should be good for carryon but not sure the best way to get it to you once I'm in EMEA.  I'm deathly afraid of shipping so maybe we can find one of our EMEA GRM members to drop it off with?

In reply to 84FSP :

Got it, sir!  Thank you, I just sent a response.
 

Just a quick update before the long weekend guys, there's not a whole lot to report from my end.  My Swedish friend Susanne stopped by and dropped of a BUNDLE of syringes and needles:

Please pardon the house, this is the one I'm still working on   But it is a good segway, as I have been spending a lot of time catching up on things around that house.  It was our hope to move into it this year and work has been at a complete stop since the fighting started.  This is why not much else has gotten done.

The above picture is 100,000huf worth of goods, and Susanne wanted to make sure we had room in the vehicles for it all before she spent the next 400,000-500,000huf (she also wants to make a "big purchase".  Something like an EKG or a patient monitor).  Today I gave everything a good look and gave her the green light to go nuts.  This is going to be awesome.

Also!  Things from Katie's amazon wishlist continue to arrive as well:

A huge huge huge thank you to everyone who purchased from that.  We do expect more items to arrive the next time the APO delivery is made (still plenty of time before the big trip).

*quick reminder:  The deadline for the wishlist has passed.  Please dont order any more items as they may not make it in time.*

From Amazon.de, forum member M4ff3w sent us a satnav unit for Mrs. Hungary's car:

Mrs. Hungary will be the lead car on this next expedition and this should solve our issues with cell service through no-mans land and into Ukraine where we'll try to purchase some sim cards.  Thanks M4ff3w!!!

I have not yet had a chance to work on the Toyota, so no updates there.  Most of that is because of the house, but also because Mrs. Hungary and I have started riding our bikes to work.  When I returned home on Monday after a trip to Budapest, there was no diesel to be found in our whole town (or the gas station I happened to stop at 45 minutes away).  There's no shortage, but Hungary has been using their government's tax money to artificially keep fuel prices low.  As a result we've been getting a lot of visitors from neighboring countries filling up before they head back home (trucks too).  One thing leads to another, an order gets missed, and then you end up with an American toilet paper situation...  We decided to skip it all and just pedal ourselves around town.  It's a small place and work is seriously 5km away.

Riding bikes will have an added benefit though, in the sense that we wont be spending our normal fuel budget on fuel.  With the surplus of funds, we figure we'll be able to use that money to contribute more to the Ukraine and Ukrainian refugee runs!  (Double win!)

Oh!  As I'm typing this I'm noticing VikkiDp hasn't posted recently.  We're still in contact and she's in good spirits.  I haven't seen any attacks in her home town since the 18th, but please keep her in your thoughts.

Alright, I think that's everything!  With that, I'll say have a great weekend, and I'll see y'all back on here on Tuesday!

Cheers guys.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Oh!  As I'm typing this I'm noticing VikkiDp hasn't posted recently.  We're still in contact and she's in good spirits.  I haven't seen any attacks in her home town since the 18th, but please keep her in your thoughts.
 

I'm here  i had a lot of work this week

You and Mrs.Hungary are doing such great things and great job!!!

About event - it was amazing party and it was a little sad that there were so few people, but the goal has achieved - so it's good news!!!

There were some problem with diesel and gas(benzin) in Ukraine. There wasn't them on gas station some time. I think it could affect your fuel situation.

And i don't think that something will change anytime soon

So i advice you to replenish fuel supplies for a big trip in advance that there are no problems on Ukraine's territory

Bill i heard that Ukrposhta opened their shop on eBay - check it - maybe you can buy stamps there 

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

I haven't seen any attacks in her home town since the 18th, but please keep her in your thoughts.

Unfortunately today's morning we had three hits at 4am

I again woke up from these sounds. A lot of people got hurt. These were soldiers 

In reply to VikkiDp :

I hope you are managing to safe and thanks for the update. As not great as it is to hear.  Our thoughts are definitely with you 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

Bill,

As always thanks for the updates! You guys are doing such fantastic things. I showed another good friend of mine the clocks... he wants *5*.  So as a heads up, I'm starting those inlays and as soon we can catch up with him - those funds will be headed your way. 

As always... you are doing *amazing* things.. I can't say that or thank you and everybody else anywhere *near* enough. 

In reply to GaryC83 :

Just sent you the transfer for the group purchase of 5 clocks Bill. Thank you again, for ALL you are doing. 

VikkiDp said:

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

I haven't seen any attacks in her home town since the 18th, but please keep her in your thoughts.

Unfortunately today's morning we had three hits at 4am

I again woke up from these sounds. A lot of people got hurt. These were soldiers 

That settles it.  Run #3 into Ukraine will be to Dnipro.  It'll take us 4-days so we'll need to find a time where we can use a weekend with a holiday.  Mrs. Hungary and I will start planning now, and will let you know when we're on our way.

Until then, stay safe.  We're all thinking about you.

VikkiDp said:

Bill i heard that Ukrposhta opened their shop on eBay - check it - maybe you can buy stamps there 

There were some problem with diesel and gas(benzin) in Ukraine. There wasn't them on gas station some time. I think it could affect your fuel situation.

And i don't think that something will change anytime soon

So i advice you to replenish fuel supplies for a big trip in advance that there are no problems on Ukraine's territory

Looks like they sold out already   I saw lots for sale from other vendors, but I think I'll try to purchase them in Ukraine when I send you the firefighting gear first.  Thank you.

I appreciate the heads up about the fuel.  I've got a couple NATO fuel cans, I'll make sure they come with us.

GaryC83 said:

In reply to GaryC83 :

Just sent you the transfer for the group purchase of 5 clocks Bill. Thank you again, for ALL you are doing. 

Amazing and well done, sir!  I saw the notification but haven't logged in.  I'll make sure to transfer your funds to Kisgorbo before I sign off for the night.

Cheers!

Weekend update:

Well, it finally caught up to me.  By Sunday morning, exactly zero of our three vehicles were opperational.  The truck was down with the oil spray (no longer a leak), Mrs. Hungary's Saab's battery died, and the Mazda donated it's battery to fix that, except we lost the only set of keys to Mrs. Hungary's car that morning...  Bill needed to get to work.

The Mazda and the Saab were easy enough.  Put battery back in the Saab (it had been on the charger all week), and put the Mazda's battery back where it goes.  Mrs. Hungary found her keys by our fire pit about that time, so our fleet was back up to 2/3rds capacity.

The toyota took a little longer, but still wasn't bad.  I think I found the reason for the early oil seal failure when I removed the crank pulley:

It looks like someone might have attempted to remove the crank pulley with long bolts, or maybe they installed it with long bolts?  Either way, they damaged the crap out of it and I didn't notice when I put it all back together last time.  You can see the shiney spots where it was making contact with the stuff behind it.  I did check the hardware I installed during reassembly and nothing I had was anywhere near long enough to do the damage that was done...

In this next picture, you'll be able to see where things were making contact:

And here's the new seal compared to the old (3 months old?) one:

And since I'm in there, here's the new oil pump o-ring compared to the old one:

All back together and greased up for good measure:

Pump primed, key turned, and she's back in action:

I drove it to work today and have been watching it like a hawk.  I saw a couple drips when I parked it, but I think those might have just been remnants of the oil spray (it was HUGE there towards the end).  I had to run an errand at lunch and only saw one drop.  I'll check again when I go home.

For now, here's a donation we received on my lunch break:

I have now officially taken my passenger seat out to make more room

 

GaryC83 said:

In reply to GaryC83 :

Just sent you the transfer for the group purchase of 5 clocks Bill. Thank you again, for ALL you are doing. 

Just sent your cash and a note to Mayor Kozma letting him know where it came from.

Thank you!

Alright alright alright, this could be considered the "month end" (or beginning of the month, whichever you prefer) and donations are already starting to come in.  Not shown is GaryC83's contributions which have been transferred directly to Kisgorbo at an amazing pace, I must say, but  we HAVE already replenished Ira's funds from our last delivery.  She now has 50,000 waiting for her the next time she says "hey, we need..."

I do still want to get back out to the Student shelter, and I have at least one more run's worth of supplies for David Kovacs sitting in storage, but I have been 100% frantic trying to get our donations organized for this next medical run.  We have 15 boxes sorted so far, and are coordinating the delivery of more stuff along with a 12-channel EKG machine tomorrow or Thursday   (ooh, and it's looking positive for the GRM oxygen concentrator relay across the pond!)

Yesterday you saw the canned goods that we took in, and next week I'll be in California, so today I took 500,000 huf we received in donations to the medical supply store to order more goodies.  Whatever comes in, it really needs to be organized and inventoried by Friday so I'm doing a bit of running around.

After yesterday's driving, I can confirm that the oil spray is gone but I don't think the oil leak completely went away.  There's no leak at the pump or at the crank pulleys but I'm seeing small drip marks seemingly all over the place (I would say 6 total drip marks.  Maybe 5.  All under the car after 15 minutes of driving).  I went back to what DarkMonohue said about the PCV valve:  I gave it another suck and it opens, but I'm noticing a bit of stick before it does...

Now, last time I called this "good" but with the oil leak still persisting despite the new gaskets, etc, I decided to put it in a vice and punch it's guts completely out.

Boop!  There, that takes care of any question marks in there!

Cap the nipple on the plenum, toss on a K&N keychain filter for good measure, and Bob's your uncle!

I ran it for a bit and it runs fine, but not long enough to do a leak check.  I wiped everything down underneath with paper towels to hopefully give me a better chance of tracing the leak.  I did notice a bit of a whistle coming out through the hollow PCV though, so air is flowin

I'll drive it on Friday when I have to head over to the next town to get my travel PCR test.  For now, I'm still trying to stick to that "riding my bike to work" program to save the gas money for our Ukrainian runs

</ percussive maintenance >

 

 Ladies and Gentlemen, I do believe we have a letter from the Mayor of Kisgorbo,

Mayor Kozma said:

Dear Bill, Grassroots Community!

As I always say – any the support helps, but these are only words. I believe, people alone cannot accomplish anything on this scale as we finally managed here in Kisgörbő for Ukrainian refugees. Unfortunately, there were at least as many people who criticized me, then the supporters. Among the supporters, there were you too! Without you, this last three months would not have been possible.

Knowing that the fate of refugees is important to others, that there is someone in the background, someone in the background who understands, feels the purpose, and supports in anything. This trust has often moved through critical moments.

Money is only one thing but being continuous and predictable gives security to the Kisgörbő Shelter. By the way, this promise to send a donation every month - I felt it the first time we met. All this while the community you speak for, acting on behalf of, is not even here!! J

At the Shelter there are ten refugees now, three children, seven adults. I get at least two phone calls every week that they're coming, but in the meantime, they're always disappearing, and they're not coming. On the 2nd of June one additional person will arrive.

Twenty people have already left Kisgörbőt. Eight people went to another city in Hungary for work, five went back to Kiev, five tried their luck in Germany, and two went to Szeged, Southern Hungary. Things calmed down recently, and adults managed to find a legal job. Unfortunately, we have families whose homes have been completely destroyed. They have nowhere to go! I just found out about that. As a result, it is unpredictable how long they'll stay.

Thank you for keeping your word, Bill,  and you're supporting our work every month.

You're an authentic person. I've always loved working with people who immediately understand the point, does not avoid challenges, and are searching for challenges and solutions as a game. I will let you know in case the refugees are leaving the shelter. On the other hand, there has been a 90% decrease in support from people, whether it is equipment, food, money. That's it. We thank you for your perseverance and wish you good health.

Oh, say hallo to the "watchmaker" who is invisible to us like Culombo's wife, but we know that she exists.

P.S.: When the steering of my Daimler Double Six is finally fixed, I'm going to visit you in Pápa.... J

Gábor Kozma mayor

Quick note about Colmbo:  Peter Faulk is of Hungarian descent.  There's a statue of Columbo (with his dog) in Budapest!

Bill, Great work as always.

Sorry for the lack of donations this month. I am working on a new business venture that will potentially bring jobs to your region long term. Looking to HQ outside the US for this one.

Basically filling a niche in the IT landscape that I couldn't find anyone to do globally when I was looking for resources with a $2B company. Trying to make my last run as a service provider for the last chapter of my career. 

Saint William of Hungary wrote:

(ooh, and it's looking positive for the GRM oxygen concentrator relay across the pond!)

the eagle is taxiing:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

Saint William of Hungary wrote:

(ooh, and it's looking positive for the GRM oxygen concentrator relay across the pond!)

the eagle is taxiing:

  There's just so much "Awesome" in that post!  Love it!

bmw88rider said:

Bill, Great work as always.

Sorry for the lack of donations this month. I am working on a new business venture that will potentially bring jobs to your region long term. Looking to HQ outside the US for this one.

Basically filling a niche in the IT landscape that I couldn't find anyone to do globally when I was looking for resources with a $2B company. Trying to make my last run as a service provider for the last chapter of my career. 

Never a worry, sir!  If you need IT type folk in the area, I know some english speakers in the business.

Ok, tomorrow I'm off for a work trip so I'll have an online presence but no hands on any material.  That being said, I did have a bit of a boxing/inventory thrash so I can update you guys on that a bit.

First:  The leak.

Still dripping.  But that's all it's doing.  The last time I drove the truck, I saw three drips on the bottom of the oil pan.  I suspect it's the stinky oil pan gasket still, and have some FIP-G on order.  For now I'm calling it a "letter leak" because we're going to let 'er leak

Second:  The truck

Took the seats out!   and it opened up a lot of space.  Here's what we're working with this time:

After I got the seats out, I started packing anything I could in the car.  I'm focused mainly on heavy items (I want to keep them low and centered in the vehicle, to avoid any handling issues while driving), and hospital items.  The Hospitaller items, are packaged in much smaller boxes and I think they'll fit better in Mrs. Hungary's wagon.  Here goes:

Not bad.  The pictures really do a poor job of showing just how many boxes are in there, and how tetris'd they are.  No usable space is being wasted.  We have over 20 this time (we had 6 the last time we went to Lviv).

Which brings us nicely to...

Whats left:

Oh god.  There's so much stuff that still needs to be packed, I really dont know how two vehicles are going to fit it all (but we will fit it all).  Have a look:

Second to last picture?  those two flat rate boxes?  That's Woody's fire gear!  We got it addressed to VikkiDp and it's ready to go.

Ok, so we can probably (emphasis on the "probably") get that stuff to all fit in no prob, but this is where I tell you all the boxes (except Woody's) in that second to last picture came completely out of the blue!  Susanne was able to get amazing deals through the vet's office she volunteers at, and a lot of the stuff that vets use are the same things that doctors and surgeons use (surgical gloves, syringes, needles, etc).  So she dropped some serious coin.

Well, not knowing that she was doing that I had just dropped off the 500,000huf we had collected through our donations at the medical supply store.  So there are probably going to be 4 or 5 more big boxes headed our way

oops!

Honestly, it's no worries.  VikkiDp and I have been working together on the future Dnipro run.  We're taking a good look at the possibility of donating to a children's hospital in the area, as well as donating to refugees from the conflict areas.  Those same things that translate from vets offices to hospitals, also translate easily from adult hospitals to children's hospitals.  If we can't catch it on this one, we'll make sure it gets in the next.

But finally:

Our piece de resistance.  The big one.  Same Susanne, and same vet's office discount.  The Swedish community has pooled their money and purchased a 12-channel EKG machine:

I think being outdone by a random internet forum of broke car enthusiasts must have gotten under their skin a bit.  The price on this badboy easily equals 100% of what we're spending at the medical supply store right now, and Susanne made mention that that's how she was able to purchase the vet items AND she said, that she has another box on the way...

So, well done you guys!  The Swedes were racing us, and we didn't even know it

And last but not least.  The tan military boots you see in one of the above pics... those aren't mine.  Mrs. Hungary and Katie have hooked up with someone doing a uniform drive.  There are a lot of prior military guys out here that still have perfectly serviceable uniforms (myself included).  The two of them are going around and taking a collection to send to Ukraine.  I don't have all the shipping details, but it's not us that's hauling it.  Someone else is headed into theater for that one (more to follow from them, I'm sure).

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'll see you when I get back from the LBC.

Rest well Kisgorbo guests
Stay safe VikkiDp
Stay safe Odessa Cat
Stay vigilant Rambo
Sniff well Patron
Welcome to Ukraine Max
Keep marching peace protestors
Long live the fighters

And most of all:  Keep flyin' Ghost of Kyiv.

You are continuing to do some amazing work!

Safe travels, my friend.

The Eagle has loaded - awaiting a flight to Paris and then over to Milan. Only a minor rub down by airport security but otherwise no issues.

84FSP said:

The Eagle has loaded - awaiting a flight to Paris and then over to Milan. Only a minor rub down by airport security but otherwise no issues.

As my buddy 84FSP would say, "Kinky!"

The eagle has landed in Italy and will get shipped off to Hungary Bill from my office this afternoon!  Have to package it ip safe for the trip as my last security rub down didn't have tape to reseal the package.