Today is the last class in our current four class set. We will start class with a casual conversation. We will start chapter 3 of a GGGTGL Please note any vocabulary words that are unfamiliar to you. For our listening, I have included a transcript. Please listen and follow the transcript at the same time.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, HOST:
The morning of February 24, Dr. Aleksandra Shchebet woke up at her home in Kyiv to the sound of distant explosions. By that night, the neurologist had left all she owned, driving west with six family members and two friends for 24 hours without sleeping. They arrived in Lutsk in Northwest Ukraine. There, as NPR's Ari Daniel reports, the doctor is looking to help any way she can.
ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Once Shchebet and her family settled down in an apartment in Lutsk, she posted on Facebook that she was offering virtual medical consults free of charge. Three days ago, she told me she got a call from a young woman.
ALEKSANDRA SHCHEBET: She has a grandma who is not able to swallow.
DANIEL: This woman's grandmother couldn't move her left arm or leg and had trouble talking. Shchebet recognized the symptoms of a stroke.
SHCHEBET: I asked her, where are they now? They are in Kyiv in the bomb shelter, and they can't get proper help. So she asked me what to do, and I didn't know what to say. So it was, like, nothing.
DANIEL: She told her to wait - wait until the bombing stopped and try to get to a hospital.
SHCHEBET: But it's a stroke in the brainstem, so I suppose she will be dead in a few hours. And I felt devastated.
DANIEL: Shchebet shared with me that the grandmother did end up passing away.
SHCHEBET: It's like, I'm not saying I'm depressed, but my heart is broken, actually. I'm a good neurologist, and now I'm not able to help.
DANIEL: At least not the way she used to, but she is still helping. Starting at 7 in the morning, she spends 14 hours a day at a cold concrete warehouse in Lutsk, where she sorts, counts and packs up food and medical supplies donated by a volunteer group.
SHCHEBET: So here we go. It - the new packages has come.
DANIEL: The boxes are loaded onto trucks that drive them deeper into Ukraine. Each item she touches, she imagines its final destination.
SHCHEBET: For example, I know this medication will go to the Kyiv hospital, to the surgery department. And I know somehow, it will save a life of someone. Maybe it will be a soldier, or maybe it will be a civilian, but it will save somebody's life.
DANIEL: There's something else she's sending toward the battlefront - letters from people outside the country.
SHCHEBET: I see those letters written by pen, by hand, and it's melting my heart. Actually, when I see those letters, I cry. So I pack those letters of love so just they know, like, how people all over the world are supporting Ukrainians.
DANIEL: Shchebet says, for now, she has no intention of leaving the country. Her sister and little nephew may evacuate to Poland, but she's staying.
SHCHEBET: You know, it's our country. It's our home. We can't leave. I hope the war will end as soon as possible. It's been, like, 10 years, but I may say Ukrainians is a strong nation.
DANIEL: Early Friday morning, a Russian airstrike hit a military airfield outside the city of Lutsk. Shchebet texted me to say she and her family were OK. Ari Daniel, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF DECEPTIKON'S "WAY OF THE SAMURAI")