In Vienna: Kyiv, Ukraine...not the place to be.

11 June 2012

My decision to join my friend Adam during mid-May in Ukraine was completely uninformed. I imagine my friend Sarah’s decision to join us leaves her with the same hindsight. I do not have much good to say about this previous soviet region. The water is undrinkable to the point that brushing your teeth in it can lead to a bad case of intestinal upset. The poverty is at 60% and signs of the repression of communism (and its end in 1991) are still clear everywhere. Within a rough triangle drawn with the main cathedrals (St Micheal’s, St Sophia and St Andrews Cathedral), Independence Square and approximately Khreshchatyk Street, there are interesting sights, architecture and main-stream (high-end) businesses. Outside this area (even on the way to the number 1 tourist site, the monastery), the effects of post-communism poor political decisions and poverty are very apparent. And even within this area, all three of us felt strange or vulnerable by the way certain groups of men would look at us (Sarah and I due to the odd feelings associated with fears of being sold into the sex-trade, and Adam due to the ignorant and ridiculous homophobia still alive and well in Ukraine).

I could not get comfortable in Kiev, Ukraine…though I can in the non-touristy areas of Jamaica, during solo travel in Africa and even in Detroit, Michigan. I never wanted to make eye-contact with any men, saw frequent public urination and unfortunately watched a young girl get beaten by her “boyfriend” as his friends and others just watched. This last event made it especially clear to me how uncomfortable I was being that along with the rest of the by-standers, I did nothing to help this girl…

When we planned the trip, we thought it would be interesting and perhaps a bit funny to book the Kiev Communism Tour (our tour guide assumed we were in Kiev for business and asked “why” when I told her we were there only for tourism…). After less than 24 hours in Kiev, we realized it was not funny to have booked this tour but perhaps even more interesting and real than we could have imagined. Getting to see so much history with two great friends makes me not regret the trip but looking back, knowing what I do now, I may not have chosen to take my time to go to that place so full of sadness, hopeless acceptance and still-apparent scars of war and communism.