Henry: Also, this was the only spot that had a Starlink. So people from all over different villages, they would come here, because nobody had any connection. Like even the railroad signs and all that. I don’t know if I told you this before, but there was a sign that literally said, it was so funny, but it said something to the effect of “last point of civilization here” and it was just a railroad track. I thought it was hilarious because we would just be driving past it, but yeah. So this was the very first place to get Starlink for them to contact their families, you know, let them know that everybody was okay. There was probably 80 cords and power plugs and this entire railing all the way around, it just had outlets with it. People would plug in, charge their phone, connect to Starlink, do that, and that’s all it was. And there was a line all the way to that podium, for people to get in line from like the village or from the town to do that.
Vic: Do you know how quickly after the occupation they set this up?
Henry: Well we were here in Balakliia 10 days after occupation, and the line was still backed up so I think that primarily I would say almost immediately. I mean, at least that’s what it seemed like. Some places, it was incrementally getting more electricity to different parts, more running water.
That’s a new generator, because the actual generator was over there. That’s where the generator was pre-full-scale.
Vic: The generator is in the big metal box behind, it not the cage at the front?
Henry: Right. Well they’re both generators, that must be like a donated one.
Vic: Yeah, that one doesn’t look new.
Henry: Yeah, that’s what it was. And then, the last thing I did want to show you, which is a tad bit of a walk.
Vic: Do you know what the statue is over there?
Henry: You know what? No, I don’t. That’s my first time seeing it, they had it covered.
Vic: Oh! So they’ve uncovered it now. Because I see places like Lviv they’ve still got everything covered up.
Henry: Yeah, which is very interesting to me.
Vic: Yeah Kyiv I’ve seen some things uncovered now, but other things remaining. It’s a bit of a mixture really.
Henry: Yeah. I really, really wished that things would be uncovered in Lviv just because it’s so pretty.
Vic: Dog kennel there in the woods. We saw a dog that had a tag on its ear. There’s a capture, neuter, release tag program. Which is cool.
Vic: [Approaching the statue] It looks damaged.
Henry: It does. Probably some, some, Russian-
Vic: Yeah, Soviet couple.
Henry: I’m sure there’s probably a sign or something there.
[..]
Iryna: Right there behind this little construction. It was like a power generator and some of these houses were connected to it, but also it was the only spot in the entire city that had some sort of signal, some sort of reception here. So people would come here and gather here to send messages to their loved ones or just charge their phones. You would have to stay in line to get to, you know, to your turn to charge your battery or your phone or whatever you had on you. And the closer you got to, to the river over there, the worse the signal would be. So you had to try and stay around and then your conversations would not be private anymore. <laughs> Everybody could hear what you were saying.
Vic: Yeah.
Iryna: Yeah, so that was funny.
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