I Was Lucky Enough To Go To Kyiv

I was lucky enough to go to Kyiv for work last year. It was long way to go to conduct a training session but we, my boss and I, were welcome with open arms by colleagues and agencies. After the longest flight of my life, Kyiv was a sight for sore eyes. But not till I was held up at the airport immigration. My boss, Chinese Singaporean, went ahead of me in the same line. I bet the immigration officer had trouble connecting the dots of racial mixture of a country many mistake to be in China. Despite my lovely full-page Ukrainian visa plastered across one of the pages my passport, the border guard was not happy. He called a friend, a similarly terse looking chap, and they spoke in Russian. It's an aggressive sounding language that would make anyone more nervous. They then disappeared for a while and the initial point of service returned to stamp my clearance after about 5 minutes. Phew. No one called the secret police.

My first impression out of the airport was that Kyiv got lots of forest. Our hotel driver was nice and he told us about what Ukraine and it's capital city were about as we cruised along the large highway. I noticed that several Euro 2012 billboards were still up, clearly a source of pride for the nation. Our driver introduced the main river Dnieper and told us that long long ago, a few brothers were on horses and came to river. They thought it was a good place to make ground and settle, surrounded by low hills. One of brothers was called Kyiv and the village, and now city, took his name. It's "Keev" not "Kee-ev" like many of us erroneously say.

The city itself has lovely monuments and seemingly old buildings. I was surprised to learn that many of the buildings aren't that old. The city has gone through many pillages, sackings and resurrections. It even burned to the ground once or twice. There are many cathedrals and churches. I visited the St Sophia's and St Michael's, and one gets swept away in the grandeur of it all. The gold domes of these churches positively glow at sunrise and sunset, like flaming beacons to guide the lost. At St Sophia's there was a patch of the original 11th century floor covered in a glass case for all to compare against the gold and coloured glass that adorns the main hall now. Some streets look very European, like those in Germany or Vienna. Low-rise buildings, usually 4-5 stories, nothing to smear the skyline. Some looking quite worn, others polished to gleam and impress. The luxury of space makes the city less imposing.

It isn’t easy to figure out the people of a city in a matter of a few days. We got by with the English but the locals weren’t terribly conversant. The people we met when we got lost once or twice could pleasantly help us out but beyond that interactions were limited. We had trouble at a restaurant with menus completely in Russian, and luckily ended up with a wonderful prepared piece of pork. I’m sure the people are nice despite the tough exteriors. And yes, there are more than a few model-like ladies sauntering about – a response I had to give several times when I got back home to questions about the famed beauty of East European damsels.

I was quite enamoured with Kyiv in those few days, enough to tell people if the Ukraine had a permanent residency program, people should apply, to add the mere 2.8 million people in the capital now. There was an air of potential there but maybe that was the tourist in me conjecturing.

But sigh, Kyiv is burning now. A rage unseen for a while now but not unfamiliar. A divisive issue to resolve - to be more European or more Russian. It’s quite clear the former masters have issues letting go, regularly poking, prodding, offering gifts, threatening with verbal and economic barbs. It must quite awful being pulled along. The country seems to be split, unsure of a clear path. What’s clear is that the people want to be heard, not sitting silent, not letting the fires, bullets and beatings get to them. The rest of watching can only hope for a peaceful resolution.

A friend told me yesterday that Ukraine was a new country. I replied no. Yes, they’ve just been independent since the Iron Curtain fell in the 90s but as a roughly distinct entity since the 11^th century, just that the hands had changed many times over. From the Mongols, to the Poles, to the Tsars and so on. Maybe a lot of people don’t get that, thinking that it’s merely an offshoot of the USSR. I remind people of the game RISK where Ukraine appears as a country and ask how long has that game been around.

Well, fingers crossed that differences are discussed and not fought over, that the fires outside are put out and the ones burning in the people's hearts are soothed by calm voices.