Thoughts from the Plane

We are in the air!  Goodbye Ukraine. Next time I visit, if there is a next time, hopefully it will be on my terms. I actually had mixed feelings leaving Kiev, knowing it might be the last time I see it. Kiev is a beautiful, fascinating city and I've gotten to know it quite well.

If I had mixed feelings leaving Ukraine, I can only imagine the rush of emotions Sasha must be feeling right now. Well, he's sleeping right now. :)  But still. Neither of us slept at all last night. Too much to think about, I am sure.

Now that we are safely out of the country, let me tell you about our experience.  You probably know that because of recent actions by the Ukrainian government, tensions between the police and the protesters are running very high. Three protesters died yesterday, changing the whole face of the conflict.  The worst clashes were not happening at Maidan, but further east.  Our apartment was near the Golden Gate, a few blocks west of Maidan.  I was a bit nervous about the location but Victor wanted us to be close to the embassy, and central Kiev is where the rental apartments are.  Unless Victor was driving us to or from the embassy, Sasha and I stayed very close to the apartment. We did not walk down to Maidan.  We did hear lots of booms our first night. Fireworks?  Bombs?  I don't know. Victor thinks probably fireworks; protesters "celebrating the revolution."  We did witness some of the action on our way to the airport this morning.  Our taxi driver picked us up at 3:00am for our 6:00am flight. We drove by an outer set of barricades near Maidan, through a crowd of maybe 50 people. I couldn't really tell what was going on--if there was a scuffle of some sort of if it was just protesters organizing, but it was pretty intense. We stopped at a stoplight and there was a handsome young man right outside my car window, wearing a helmet. Under the new Ukrainian laws he could be imprisoned for this "offense."  We stared at each other for a few seconds while I said a quick prayer for him and the other brave souls who were out there in the middle of the night in the bitter cold, taking huge risks to stand up for what they believe in. Freedom. Something we Americans take for granted all too often.