Love sealed by traveling

The Date participated in 2014 Den’s Photo Contest and won in the nomination “Goals of the Millennium” from the UN Development Program. This photo was taken by Mykola Tymchenko in Odesa, at Prymorsky Boulevard. However, people in it are from Donetsk, they moved south in June because of the situation in their native city.

“I came to Odesa for the first time in my life this summer,” Horobets recollects. “We took long walks in the city, visited theaters, museums, various places, and met new people. It is hard to single out the most vivid impression. Perhaps, it was a walk on the beach by night. Such a simple thing, but I was with a very special person.”

Tetiana Hrechyshnykova, Dmytro’s loved one, was in a car accident over 10 years ago and received disability of  the first category. However, Tetiana enjoys an active lifestyle, she has given birth to a son, and has been practicing wheelchair ballroom dancing for several years. In fact, the dance group helped the woman move out of Donetsk when shootings started. “Donetsk is a mess, so I had to take my child away. Dmytro and I went where we could. A lot of us left back then, almost everyone with disabilities, the least protected social group. We moved to Odesa oblast and are now living in a sanatorium in Kuialnyk,” Tetiana says.

At first the couple hoped they did not leave for long, only for a month or so. But now Tetiana’s son Volodymyr went to a school in Odesa, he is a third-grader. The woman looks after the child, Dmytro is engaged in self-education, together they are planning on what to do next. “I worked in the IT sphere in Donetsk. I need equipment and connection to communications channels to work in the same field. All the equipment was left in Donetsk, so I cannot do the same here,” Dmytro Horobets says.

Refugees have different impressions of Odesa. Dmytro points out that people in the south are kinder and more “European” than in Donetsk. However, the city itself is rather untidy. “It seems that the money allocated for public services is misplaced,” Tetiana Hrechyshnykova shares. “The infrastructure for people in wheelchairs is horrible: bumpy roads, inconvenient curbs and steps.”

A lot of the couple’s friends also fled from Donetsk. However, their pets, two polecats, were left behind; Dmytro’s relative takes care of them. The man admits that the current situation did not affect the relations with the close ones. “I take a look at the general picture. What is happening in Donetsk is somebody’s business, it should not influence people’s relationships. I just wish everyone remains in good health,” says Horobets.

Now almost all dance competitions Tetiana was so accustomed to got canceled because of the situation in the country. However, her group holds together and occasionally performs in Odesa. The woman dreams of coming back to Donetsk, she knows a lot will change there, and her dance group will have to start from scratch, but it only adds to her enthusiasm.

“After the USSR collapsed, people in Ukraine have merely been surviving. We are far from understanding mutual partnership, like the one in Europe or the US,” Horobets contemplates. “Ukrainians start realizing they have to stick together and try to do good for everyone, but we are long way from complete understanding of this. The country’s future depends on the youth with unconventional thinking. But they need time to mature.”