I decided to volunteer at the Maidan. And I was asked to help out in the kitchen. My first impression… it’s like it was something unreal, a kitchen for an army. So much tea, coffee, other food, dozens of people running around, doing something in the kitchen. Later I saw that this wasn’t even a lot of food, but I was shocked by how quickly these people, who weren’t even being paid a kopek, were actually working. Everyone had like twice the energy of a normal person. Everyone quickly doing their part in the kitchen to feed the people. Time from time someone yells, “Glory to Ukraine!” Then and only then does everyone raise their heads and answer “Glory to the heroes!” I was given a cap, gloves, a white coat (I felt like a surgeon), shown my work spot, and then I began an operation on the sandwiches! Young people from Kyiv and Lviv worked alongside me. “I’ve been here five days now, we have to make sure we get a new government. I won’t leave here easy,” Maria, who came from Lviv, commented in passing. A girl from Zaporizhya stood opposite me, and she said that she comes here every evening. She didn’t feel like just shouting slogans, she wanted to do something useful for the Euromaidan. The spirit of the place is impossible to place into words. There’s this impression that you’re an irreplaceable worker. Somewhat later I was putting buckwheat mash into place, others put the meat in, some preserved vegetables, put the dishes onto trays, brought the food out to the people on Maidan. Some woman from Moscow was standing next to me, an obvious fighting spirit, looking like a real Russian woman. Her answers to my questions were short and rough: “I’m from Moscow. Came here to support you, so you wouldn’t think all of us Russians are jerks. What’re you standing around for, work faster. I’ve been here for some five hours now.” In an hour or two I felt the desire to go out to the people. Yeah, that sounds pompous, but I really wanted to take a look at the people, to give away food, to say two or three phrases, and to hear what they were saying from the stage. So when I got my first tray of hot food and stepped outside, other people — probably volunteers themselves — said, “Make way for the volunteer.” One or two times they even cleared the way from the building itself outside. It was so nice! Self-organization is the best. The people answered me: “Oh, thank you! Can I have another sandwich?” “Nah, no thanks, we’re local.” “Oh, I’m so hungry, thank you!” “What’s in that sandwich?” “Aw, is that coffee? When is there going to be tea? Come here.” “Yay, we’re saved! Tea!” It’s impossible to impart those emotions. Maidan is like some kind of new city, which I really like being in. For some reason I remembered Lesya Ukrainka’s words: “Hope without hope.” I’d like to write now that I have hope that everything we do works out. I’d like to celebrate New Year in a New Ukraine.