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Nowadays you can hardly avoid news about “Events/special operations” in Ukraine. Even the official report of “Russia Today” discuss the casualty report and progresses of the “special operations” there. But I am not here to discuss current events but to recall my own experiences with Kyiv some 49+ years ago.

It was half a century ago in 1973, during a brief attempt at thawing of the cold war, the US and USSR initiated a friendly scientist exchange visit program. I was nominated by the US to visit and lecture in Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibrisk (Siberia) and Kyiv (was part of the Soviet Union then). My then pregnant wife (with third child), and boy (11 years old) and girl (10 years old) all four of us went on a month long trip in USSR. Kyiv was known as Kiev then. We were young and adventurous. Nowadays we cannot conceive doing such foolhardy things

I don't remember much about Kiev except for one thing. One day there was pouring rain. But I saw a road cleaning truck spraying water on the street and try to clean the road because (I assume) it was road cleaning day. Typical bureaucratic rules!

Another incident in Siberia came to mind. Our daughter then 10 years old got sick with persistent cough. None of us speak any Russian. So while I was away lecturing, my wife went to the local pharmacy via drawing pictures and hand gestures, she manage to get some cough medicine. However, hand gesture and picture cannot accurately convey the direction for taking the medicine. She told our daughter  to drink the medicine instead of gargling with it. Anyhow, our daughter survived the misunderstanding and she is 59 years old today.

Watching the news report these days reminded me of the Sino-Japanese war in the 1940s when we had to move around in the interior of China as the Japanese army invaded China. I empathize with the refugees today.