A former Strand resident recently had to flee across the Ukrainian-Slovakian border shortly after the bombs started falling.
Johan Nel (25), a former pupil of Strand High School, was in Kyiv when the bombs started to fall.
He is currently in Amsterdam where he has found a safe haven, while waiting for a flight to South Africa.
At the outbreak of the war Nel was busy with a trip around the world and found himself in Ukraine to apply for his Mexican work permit.
“I work for an Mexican online teaching company and my initial application for a work-visa was declined in Istanbul due to a communications error. I then had to reapply for my work-visa in Kyiv and the day that I had to fetch my visa, was the same day that the bombs started to fall.”
Nel says he was prepared with his bags already packed.
“When the bombs started dropping I immediately tried to get out of the country,” says Nel.
But the borders were packed and the trains and buses to the borders were also full. “On my third day my friend (a British resident) and I took a taxi to the Kyiv border for $1 000.”
The line to the Polish border was 30 km long and Nel decided to abandon this effort, because he did not have enough food and water left to wait in the line for 90 hours.
“We gave our water and food to the elderly and young children along the route to the border. When we got to the border we didn’t have enough supplies to wait for 90 hours.”
They decided to walk to the border and the 30 km route took them 15 hours to complete.
“There were so many people on the border that I lost my friend that was travelling with me. That was when I heard on a Whatsapp group of two women from South Africa that were on their way using the same route that we had travelled. So I decided to wait for these two fellow South Africans.”
When these two women arrived, Nel made sure that they crossed the border. “I couldn’t cross the border as they prioritised women and the elderly. I waited for another eight hours, but still could not cross the border, so I decided to leave because things started to get a bit heated at this border-crossing as a couple of Nigerians were fighting with border-officials.”
He then took a lift to Lviv where he decided to cross over to Slovakia.
“I had a hard time on my way at all the military check points as they believed I was a Russian and I had to show them my passport to convince them that I was a South African.”
After seven hours Nel finally crossed the border and now he is in Amsterdam.
“I am planning to take a flight back to South Africa soon. Thinking back on the whole ordeal its difficult to explain how it felt. I was in survival mode, just trying to get out as quickly as possible,” says Nel.
