"But first, coffee!"

The journey of going down the caffeine slide would start here. Let's just say that coffee breath, energy boost, shaky digits, firing thoughts, and this white porcelain cup would become my best friends for the next four and a half hours.

☕️

After the success of the last strategic session, we gathered for the second edition of the discussions. A group of 20 Ukrainians who come together to discuss the problems faced by the Ukrainians living in the city.

Last year, I was called in as an expert on the matter and then was chosen to be the representative of the thousands of Ukrainians living in the city.

Before the meeting took off, we went around catching up with the people who attended last year's discussions. Always nice to see familiar faces. This time, quite a few newer faces had shown up which is perfect. There is a need for new perspective when it comes to recognizing and tending to needs.

I want to say by now I was already a couple of cups deep. It was clear that I wasn't keeping count. However, there'd be more to come...to the point I'd lose count.

There's coffee for breaks, coffee for energy, coffee for leisure, and then there is what I was doing - coffee for continuity. A singular bottomless beverage that is consumed for no better reason than to just keep on doing it.

My morning had started with coffee. Let me tell you, coffee feels amazing in a storm.

Later I had more coffee in a short meeting. After that, I made my way to this brainstorm session and had more coffee.

Since the beginning of the day, the psychoactive chemical had been the only sort of nutrition I had ingested. It is not something I'd recommend to do for a whole day, but the quality of interpretation of the brain to dopamine and norepinephrine release from caffeine on an empty stomach, if done rarely, feels incredible.

Things are changing at a rapid pace. Needs are different but there's also a massive gap, in terms of strategy, between different municipalities. It is vital to effectively recognise needs and strengths and then find the common ground which can be doubled down on.

The last time we had such a session it was very chaotic. This time was much more organised. It might be because of the experience from last session, or because there were well defined roles and boundaries - panel, hosts, representative, and subject.

At the cost of sounding absolutely fantastically unreal, how cold my drink was and how dry the coffee stains on the porcelain got were like the spinning totem from Inception.

"Oh, that's cold. Time to take a walk, fill up, and get the brain running again."

"She started talking when this spot was wet. It has dried up and she hasn't yet moved on from the topic. Broken record much?"

A sort of kickback to reality.

☕️

It was a productive brainstorming session. I feel very confident that we are working towards making the lives of Ukrainians in the city more comfortable and fruitful.

I also tried not to miss out on the chance of standing in the storm and drinking coffee. That's one thing I could brag about to kids when I'm old and frail...

"In my times...I drank coffee everywhere...from the hot deserts where the my called it gahwa to the chaotic storms where they called it zwarte koffie"

👴

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