Nelly Nelson, a 29-year-old Cameroonian entrepreneur and English teacher, has found happiness and success in his adopted hometown of Lviv, Ukraine. Despite war in Ukraine, Nelson decided to stay put in the city he had grown to love.
Discovering Lviv
Nelson first came to Ukraine in late 2018 to visit his older sister who was studying at a medical university in Kharkiv. “Lviv – the best city of Ukraine,” he says. When he was spending his time in the cafes of the city, he politely made an order in Ukrainian language. Nelly Nelson worked as an online English tutor, earning $700 a month. He rented an apartment near his sister, her husband, and his three-year-old niece. A friendly landlord, Roman, was like “a second father” to him.
In January 2022, Nelson met his current girlfriend, a Ukrainian who had grown up near Lviv. Being surrounded by people he cared about and having a regular income, he felt that he had found his new home. After invasion his father called and scolded him for planning to remain in the country. “Leave now!” he said. Despite his father’s insistence to leave the country, Nelson refused to abandon his new home.
Living in Switzerland
Eventually, however, Nelson, his girlfriend, and two friends decided to flee. “I only packed a few things, some clothes, my computer. I knew I would return,” he recalls.
They spent a week in Poland, then they went to Basel, Switzerland. After more than a week of processing their documents, they were housed in an apartment and provided with $400 per month for expenses. But the high cost of living in Switzerland meant that Nelson needed to find another job just to cover basic expenses. After two months of struggling to adapt to a new, strict system requiring a special permit and fluency in German, Nelson realised he wanted to return to Ukraine.
“There comes a point when you have to think what makes your life good? Is it really just safety? I know people who are in Germany now, they are safe but they are not happy,” he says.
On the way back, he called his lessor from Ukraine Roman and told him he wasn’t happy in Switzerland and would like to come back. “No problem, just bring me some Swiss chocolates!” was the reply.
Back to Lviv
Nelson’s experience has taught him that quality of life is more important than just safety. “Here (in Lviv) people want to have fun, they enjoy life more.” He also notes that in Switzerland people simply work and sleep. He loves to live in Lviv even more after his experience. Nelson is now happily settled back into life in Lviv, where he set up a flourishing business, developing websites.
