One hobby I have enjoyed doing in recent years is Postcrossing. I like to send and receive postcards from all over the world and often in awe of some of the beautiful postal designs that drop into my mailbox. I love beautiful postage stamps, often commemorating special events, what a fun job it would be to design them!
A few weeks ago I received an expected surprise in my mailbox - a letter and postcards from Ukraine! Understandably, I have not received any postcards from Ukraine since the war began in February so I was delighted it arrived. The sender was a man named Oleksandr, a writer and blogger who is not so dissimilar from myself. I found his letter quite interesting. For the past ten years Oleks has been living abroad but on February 23, he returned home to visit his family, only to be awoken the next morning by the sound of bombs. His wife and young daughter managed to flee to safety but he had to remain in Ukraine. He shared his pain of being separated from his family and not being there when his little girl started school for the first day. In his letter Oleks also told me his fondness for Estonia, he has been there many times and has also visited the Estonian disapora in Russia and has written about them.
I was very happy to receive this letter from Oleksandr, it really made my day!