“I’m a vagabond.” This is how Ibrahim Mohamed, 71, introduces himself in Spanish after extending his slender hand to the reporter. He is a dark-skinned ascetic and available to speak at any time in the world. A rare bird in an Odessa shaken by Russian bombing these days and where it is difficult to meet a foreigner who is not a humanitarian, military or journalist. Mohamed has been doing somersaults for almost half a century, since 1977. Not even the recent attacks on the Black Sea city where he lives, five in one week, have made him change his plans.
“I paid the rent until August 31,” he said in a message to this newspaper in the early hours of this Sunday, shortly after several rockets fell near the hostel where he is staying in the historical center. The life of this man, an American of Egyptian descent, is a perpetual journey with no set direction, at the rhythm of the joy he feels in enjoying freedom and happiness away from money. He was born in Alexandria (Egypt) and describes himself as an Aswan Nubian. “I want to know the Canary Islands and do the Camino de Santiago,” he assured July 13 while recalling his visits to Spain, giving details such as those of Seville that represent a memory that witnesses years and kilometers. But what is he painting in the Ukraine of war?
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Dream Hostel was a backpacker haven on the Black Sea coast when Russia launched its major invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Away from the luxuries offered by other Odessa hotels, the bunk beds, colorful corridors, common areas, and narrow access through a neighboring courtyard made it the perfect place for globetrotters who travel unhurriedly and without excessive budgets. Such is the case of Mohammed. He was another dreamer (dreamer) among those who stayed at the hostel when the war shook Odessa, but he decided to stay.
“Early in the morning of February 24, my colleague from the Dnipro Dream Hostel called me to say that the invasion had started. At seven in the morning none of the eight employees were here. “They were all gone and I was alone in the front,” says Giorgi Bloshchitsia, the restaurant’s owner, without fuss, leaning against the reception desk. At that time there were long-term travelers from Japan, the USA and Australia… “I estimate that there were about 20 foreigners here when the invasion started. Of these, 17 left in the first week,” adds the person responsible. Finally only Ibrahim Mohamed remained.
Giorgi Bloshchitsia and his wife Veronika were photographed on July 13 at the reception of the Dream Hostel, a few meters from the Orthodox Cathedral that was bombed by Russia this Sunday. Luis de Vega
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“This is crazy,” laments this man, who recently cut off the dreadlocks that hung below his waist from his head and beard. “I can’t imagine the children fleeing the bombs to safety. What can you do? This world is terrible with so many people killing each other.
The meeting with Ibrahim Mohamed took place a few days before the start of the Russian bombing of Odessa. This is the exception among Ukrainians who have fled other war zones and are staying there since the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an NGO with extensive experience in crisis situations around the world, began working with the shelter. Mohamed explains that his life is a permanent journey “without haste and with long stops”. So he came to Ukraine in 2016, and the Russian invasion hit him in that very country. He emphasizes that among the dozens of countries he has visited – “the number is not important” – Russia does not count.
His income is limited to a pension granted to him by the United States government. “Here I survive on a handful of dollars,” he admits. In the dormitory he pays 2,800 grivnas (almost 70 euros) a month for a place in a bunk bed. “I cook up there. “I always eat something simple,” he adds, pointing to the upper floors of the eatery to emphasize his almost reclusive lifestyle.
The bunk beds of these backpackers have been occupied for months now by Ukrainians displaced by the war at home. Around 7,000 people have died in these 17 months. “Now we offer accommodation for 80 people. Many are temporary refugees from regions like Kherson or Mykolaiv (near Odessa) after those areas were liberated,” Bloshchitsia explains. The largest occupation occurred when local troops advanced towards Kherson as part of the counter-offensive last November, driving the invaders towards the left bank of the Dnieper. “We have up to 100 people at a time, some sleeping in the hallways,” he adds.
In general, these are people in transit who are rebuilding their lives far from their home towns. They usually stay in the dorm for about a month, says the person in charge, until they manage to find rent, a job, or recover their papers to try to get their life back to normal before administration.
Giorgi Bloshchitsia regrets that the authorities left them alone after promising to help them run the hostel during the first months of the invasion. He assures that they were promised a collaboration, but it never materialized. “Zero,” he emphasizes. “We manage the first three months alone, with my wife, my mother and a colleague,” he says. The situation only started to normalize when the NRC came into play.
NCR operates a facility in Odessa with four IDP transit centers, three of which correspond to the Bloshchitsia franchise’s three Dream Hostels. The capacity is 200 people and in case of emergency up to 250 people. In exceptional cases, they provide accommodation for up to a month. The NRC offers one hot meal per person per day, as well as free legal and psychological counselling, explains Dimitri Zviadadze, head of NRC’s Southern Ukraine section.
The hostel manager shows the only thing she finally received from the authorities: a diploma of thanks to the hostel owners and staff for keeping the displaced people away, signed by Tetiana Markova, then Odessa City Council officer for culture and tourism. Bloshchitsia and his wife Veronika laugh as he mockingly puts it back on the reception desk as if it were a treasure.
And what about Ibrahim Mohamed? The globetrotter wouldn’t mind changing his travel destination, but understands that his economic prowess prevents him from settling in places that break his modest budget. He repeats several times that he would like to return to Spain, where he hasn’t been for more than a decade, although he doesn’t see the trip as a weekend getaway to the rhythm of hasty tourists.
When asked if the recent Russian bombing of Odessa had changed his plans, he replied in a message that he was not sure what to do after August 31. Shortly before, not far from the Dream Hostel, the invading army had launched a heavy attack on the orthodox cathedral and a dozen buildings in the city center, which have been on the Unesco list of cultural heritage sites to be protected since February. “I would like to travel to the Canary Islands, to Munich, to the USA, to Egypt… But maybe I’ll stay in Odessa,” he dares. Although he eventually describes himself as “tired and already retired,” it doesn’t seem to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bombings and war that shape his path.
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