Ukraine Battle Map (Twitter)RT
@natsecmedia: I really need to take a moment to share a very startling event that occurred last night and I hope you'll bear with me as I try to remember the events since I'm still a bit shaken up at what happened.
Don't worry. I'm ok, but still piecing together what happened as I drink my coffee. Things happen fast and you have to make sure you get the details right when you're being questioned to recount the events. There are so many fragments coming together, but I'll try to get it right.
so, it is winter now and I decided to go for a late walk. Don't worry it was before curfew, well at least the start of it. But unfortunately I wasn't on the streets as the curfew time passed. Instead, well, ... argh... lots of crazy shit happened. But bear with me, I'm trying to keep it in order.
There is a walkway here I was passing to get back inside when everything went black and I could hear 3 to 4 voices as a bag was thrown over my head and I was dragged into a door way and told to shut up and everything would be ok if I just complied.
At this point there was so much anxiety in my system I was merely trying to gather my thoughts and listen to make out the voices. They seemed familiar but with the bag over my head, I couldn't make them out very well. Thank god nobody was punching me or hitting me, well, not yet.
"WHO ARE YOU? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?" I could make out in Ukrainian. If you're going to do one thing when you get here, learn some basics so when such a moment happens you get it right. "I SAID WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
I took a breath and said my name and that I was a journalist who lives and works here, "Yes, we know this. We know all about you. Don't think we didn't know this already. You have made a very big mistake tonight and you will listen to me carefully, do you understand?"
I was a bit nervous, so I relaxed and tried to at least hear this demand. I'm not someone who threatens easily so it was at least important to find out what was going on and maybe they had someone else in mind.
"We see how you go around here, walking to and from your events and every day we see you. You know this?" the voice shouted at me, not terrorizing tone but damn intense, almost scary but definitely firm.
"Do you understand you could die here? Do you see what mistake you have made? Don't mess with me on this. I know how this works and you, and your stupid ways. Do you know this is Ukraine? Do you understand what you've come here and faced with us?"
"Yes, I understand, I think" I said in Ukrainian.
"Oh, he speaks Ukrainian, wow, how.... Not impressed" returned the angry voice. I was shocked. I couldn't believe that hadn't happened before.
I knew the best thing to do was stay calm and find out what it would take to resolve this issue. So, I asked, "May I ask what mistake I made so I can do better? I'm here to get it right and do right by Ukrainians?"
"OH, you're not getting out of this that easy" came another voice, different than the first. This was followed by, "we will make sure you do things right from now on, young man. You're not smarter than us and you better learn that when we warn you, when we give you the rules around here you better get them right. ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING ME?"
"Yes," I said, finally really shaken and a bit upset. I wasn't going to cry, but this was intense. What could I do to get this right.
"Well, now we have to get to consequences for your failure. Where is your jacket?"
uh, I was so busy I left to the store without and merely my long shirt and a cap that was not meant to be out for long. It was just a trip to the store. "I was going to the store only then..."
I was cut off, "yeah, we know, we asked you where is your jacket? your coat where is your coat?"
"It is upstairs in my room, sorry"
"Oh, you're sorry. So next time you're going to wear your jacket, Mr Tough Guy?" and I insisted, ABSOLUTELY!! ABSOLUTELY!
And after some borsch and bread the 3 babusi let me go home.
