Russia/Ukraine

 

It was a lovely day as I left my doctor's after a normal checkup. I decided to walk to the train station rather than take the bus.

As I walked through the UN plaza, a woman approached and asked for directions to the train station. I told her I was going there, "let's walk together."

She was at the UN for a conference. She was Russian. 

We bonded as women do. Before I caught my bus and she went her way, we exchanged emails. It started a correspondence that goes on to this day.

A few years later Rick and I visited her and her family. She opened her home to us and saw that we saw all the glories of St. Petersburg possible. A friend of hers, a tour guide, provided us with an incredible amount of history, although my friend shared amounts of knowledge about Russian art, architecture, and daily life. We went to a classic ballet as well as a folk dance.

 

She had provided us with slippers for wearing in her home that I still wear today.

In a treasure chest of memories, a few stand out as extra treasures.

1. Going to a bookstore so she could buy a copy of my book Chickpea Lover in Russian.

2. Standing near the door where Rasputin escaped to jump in the river after he's been attacked. We were also in the room where he was attacked.

3. She didn't like the look of the cab driver that would take us home so she went into the street and hailed a car, negotiated with the driver and it was him who gave us a ride. It was a private car. We got a ride. He made a few rubles for a few minutes work. Fascinating.

4. Our shared love of animals.

5. Her concern for her Ukrainian relatives.

6. The incredible beauty of the underground.

7. Real life for Russians and Ukrainians, past and present. No commercial tour would ever be able to provide that experience.

There are so many questions I'd like to ask her about the current war. 

I won't. 

I remember in Syria, I was told not to discuss the political situation because I could put people in jeopardy.

There in the heart of Damascus, several people pulled me aside and told me the same joke: "I have free speech. I can stand in front of the White House and say anything against Bush that I want." Not very funny. Rather sad. 

Instead I think of her and her family and want the war to end.

Alleged leaders may think in terms of conquest and the weapons needed to win a war. I think of people, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, brothers and sisters who lives are destroyed by power-mad men.