“More freedom”: Why a man from Cameroon returned to Ukraine in 2023

Nelly Nelson, a Cameroonian entrepreneur and English trainer, had not wished to depart his adopted hometown of Lviv in western Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the nation in February final 12 months.

“I used to be not that scared,” the 29-year-old remembers. “The place I’m from, there’s an expression: don’t run from what you don’t know.”

Nelson, who was born and raised within the metropolis of Buea, in southwest Cameroon, first got here to Ukraine in late 2018 to go to his older sister who was finding out at a medical college in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis within the northeast of the nation. He initially discovered it “chilly and bleak”, however a second go to the next 12 months through the hotter months to Lviv, the place his sister had moved for additional research, drastically modified his view of the nation. It appeared a lot friendlier and hotter than on his first go to, and he determined to remain and search for work.

“Lviv is the perfect metropolis in Ukraine,” he says as he sips on a juice in one of many metropolis’s stylish cafés. His heat, welcoming nature is instantly obvious as he politely locations an order from the waitress in Ukrainian. “You can begin a dialog with anybody. In case you are misplaced, folks will stroll you to the place it’s essential to go.” He remembers as soon as asking a middle-aged man for instructions in Kharkiv. “He simply averted me, so I needed to name a taxi.”