2007: The Kyiv Confusion
a trip by Jonathan Campion
From: September 15th 2007
Until: December 31st 2007
When it came I didn't even see the fist. My neck jarred back, then the left side of my face went numb. The next hit came before I could open my eyes, and the heavy bags over my back pulled me to the ground. I couldn't get up, and all I could do before the boots came was cover my face with my forearms, as in a rugby ruck.
Kicks landed over my kidneys, the collar of my coat and side of my neck, and more over my left eye socket, but the worst never happened. The light never went out. I should be grateful that they were both heavily drunk, and swaying.
I got to my feet.
"What do you want?" "Give us our money". I said I would give them my wallet if they let Ana run to the trolleybus stop, but they wouldn't even allow that. I opened it, and tried to give them half of Octobers' salary, but I couldn't control my hands and handed over all of the twenty five 100
hryvnya notes inside.
"If there won't be another problem you won't see us again. But we can find you".
My mobile phone tells me that I phoned Maksim, a lawyer and colleague, as soon as the men ran behind the building and into the night. Everything afterwards is unclear, but I gave a statement to the local
Militsiya, in a dirty office nearby. Doubtless the thugs would have thought that the foreigner and the girl would pick their belongings off the pavement, put them back in their bags and be on their way without saying anything. By going to the
Militsiya and saying who did this to me and where they live, we left the two who organised this nightmare with another reason to harm us.
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'Diary of a Madman'
Trip Length: 3 ½ months
Blog Entries: 12
Photos: 84
Words: 17664
Blog Entries
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