“Somebody tell me six dogs, six refugees - each dog therapeutic for each family member,” Needham said, laughing.Īzizov has been working at the Jackson Hole Airport for a car rental company - sometimes 15-hour days. ![]() She sleeps on a cot in the corner.Īnd they’re living with a lot of dogs too. Upstairs, Azizov’s two older kids share a bedroom with his mother, Needham’s sister, who also came over from Ukraine. There are currently nine people living in the five-bedroom house. “So, my husband said next time, we buy a one-bedroom home,” Needham joked. “People called me ‘the Russian,’ and it wasn’t necessarily incorrect because my mom is half and half, which made the war really weird - she’s half Ukrainian, half Russian,” Brunson said.Īnd now she and her mom have a full house. Her daughter, 26-year-old Brunson, said growing up in one of the most remote areas of the U.S., her family stood out. Remind me of Kyrgyzstan … mountains… so similar.” Then, she came to Jackson to teach gymnastics. She spent 12 years traveling the world as a trapeze artist for the Ukrainian and Moscow circuses and Barnum and Bailey. Many Moldovans and Romanians, for example, have come for summer jobs and ended up staying, as many Jackson businesses rely on tourism and are constantly in need of workers.īut Needham says Eastern Europeans didn’t always flock here. They are joining a growing community of Eastern Europeans. His aunt, Olga Needham, said there are around 20 of them - who all came because they have family in the region. “This second round was definitely a bit different because people stopped caring, people stopped donating.”Īzizov and his family aren’t the only Ukrainian refugees in Jackson right now. “The first wave of family were able to come here completely free to our expense because there were so many donations,” Brunson said. She said they had a lot of relatives in Ukraine who they were trying to help get out, and it was a bit easier at the start of the war. “It was several thousand dollars for all of them to get over here.” “Our extended family had to pay for their tickets here,” Brunson said. And Brunson said it took about 15 pages of paperwork per family member to help get them over. That includes days of travel across Eastern Europe only with a couple of small suitcases. Once their third child, Olivia, was born, there were still many challenges to getting to the U.S. “So if that can save our family, too … For me it’s more population of Ukrainian people.” “So, that’s why we have a five-month-old living with us right now.”īrunson said they’re called “freedom babies.” And - according to Azizov - having a third child has helped many Ukrainian families escaping the war stay together. “But they went back in and then found out that a loophole is that if he was a man that had three children of his own lineage,” Brunson said. They’re supposed to stay and fight,” explained Azizov’s cousin, Inez Brunson, who he’s living with now.Īt first, Azizov’s wife and two young kids went to Poland, but he couldn’t get across the border. “So men between the ages of 18 and 60 aren’t legally allowed to leave the country of Ukraine. The country is under martial law as the war rages on. ![]() It was nearly impossible for Azizov to leave Ukraine with his family. But all in our minds, it’s about our kids and safety, our kids’ safety.” “When you go somewhere when you don’t want it, it’s hard, you know. “We dream about to the US, but like a tourist and not this reason,” Azizov said. ![]() They’ve been in Jackson for just a few months. “Because for the last year, if you hear something in the sky, you need hide somewhere,” he said.Īzizov and his family are from Korosten, a small city close to the border with Belarus - a close Russian ally. He said when his family first got to town, they were often scared when they heard the sounds of planes overhead. “I think it’s, like, 10 bombs, they drop it in our town,” recalled Azizov. ![]() The serene summer scene is much different than what Azizov experienced in Ukraine for over a year. Dogs ran and played in the yard near Game Creek. Nestled between lush, green hills and surrounded by sky-high sunflowers, Tymur Azizov sat on the back patio of a home south of Jackson.
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