Uber ride
Note: This is a series that represents my own observations in Ukraine of the strange reality that war creates. Check out the introduction here.
One day while in an Uber (or Bolt, or Uklon, I forgot which) in Kyiv, an Air Alert went off.
We were on some major road. Around us, cars kept moving, the people kept walking. I didn’t see anyone really taking action to hide. Or maybe I didn’t notice.
My driver casually asked me, “so what’s coming?”
At this point, I had just learned that there are Telegram channels that give a live update of what is coming at us.
I pulled out my phone and started to look at the channels.
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I’m thinking, maybe he really wants to stop?
I fished out some information — telling him drones were coming towards the regions named in the posts. I wasn’t exactly sure where we were presently, so I hoped he would say something if a drone was heading towards our area.
Instead he asks me, “you’re not from here, are you?”
Surprised, I asked him how he knew. I was speaking Ukrainian to him, after all.
“Your Ukrainian sounds like you didn’t do too well in school or you’re not from Ukraine.”
I raise an eyebrow, thinking “Ok, my Ukrainian needs some work, but still…” I was shocked.
I tried to explain what happened — I left Ukraine when I was young, and was now traveling to Ukraine for work. That pacified him a bit, and I don’t remember the conversation after that. We may have talked about what was coming at us, or maybe he asked me about the situation in the US with our new president. That’s always a popular question. I really don’t remember.
We continued to drive without stopping for the Air Alert. As we arrived at my destination, I got out of the car. I kind of forgot about the Air Raid alert, focused more on my need to improve my Ukrainian skills at this point.
Man, my priorities have shifted quite quickly.
