It seems impossible, but soon high-profile ex-pat and Drum regular Henry Kol won't be in Kyiv anymore
To many Kyiv ex-pats – or patrons of the Drum at least – it seems like forever since Henry Kol, the bespectacled economic and cultural attache for the Dutch embassy in Kyiv, arrived in Ukraine. In fact, this summer marks just four years since Kol started making his mark here, and his time in Ukraine is almost up.
“I’m going to Montreal,” he says animatedly. “I’m so happy I’m going to Canada,” he adds with a grin. “I love Ukrainians!
“I will try to learn Ukrainian in Montreal. It’ll be my first hobby, along with attending Orthodox church on Sundays.”
Often found with a cigarette in hand at the Drum, or at Svitlitsya, his favorite restaurant, where I met him for lunch, Kol is a diminutive man who’s larger than life. It’s unlikely that anyone who has ever joined him for a drink could forget him.
“I love being social. It’s part of my work, but I love to sneak away from all the Kyiv social stuff,” he says. He says he’s going to hide away in the countryside for a while and sell chickens and eggs. He puts on a face and then imitates a rustic Ukrainian reacting to the presence of an urbane Dutchman: “‘Oh, him? He’s from Moldova.’”
Kol orders roasted chicken with mushroom sauce and French fries (Hr 38) as well as fresh-pressed carrot juice (Hr 20). When the food arrives, he tells me it’s excellent.
“They have the best chicken and kartoshka fri,” he says, using his still-improving Russian. “And the mayonnaise is excellent – they add a little gorchitsa to it.”
Honest Origins
Kol, 55, grew up near the Hague in a large family, the fifth of six children. His father was a civil servant and his mother a homemaker. He “vividly” recalls growing up in a post-war Holland that was trying to get back on its feet. Only one family on his block could afford a car and TV set; the whole neighborhood would gather at that family’s house to watch the latter. Kol’s uncle Henry – after whom he is named – was sent to Dachau for taking part in the Dutch resistance, but survived. He was a role model for Kol.
“I lived strongly with that sense of family history,” Kol says. “The fourth of May is still a special day for me, when we remember those that died. I was always very aware of my uncle and who he was.
“And who liberated the Netherlands? The Canadians!” he enthuses for the benefit of his Canadian lunch partner.
Switching from Holland to Ukraine, Kol speaks of his collection of 27 busts of Lenin, which he says he often finds in local markets for just a few hryvnyas.
“I love that in the Soviet Union they had mass production of all these things, even in plastic,” he says. “And I bought this painting of Lenin and Gorky having breakfast for twenty dollars. I had it restored though it is worth absolutely nothing.
“It’s part of the cultural heritage,“ Kol continues. “If people here don’t love it, they don’t love their heritage.”
In general, Kol speaks enthusiastically about Ukraine.
“It’s such a nice country. It’s excellent to live in a country that is just 14 years old,” he says.
“It’s fascinating to see the country develop, constantly change, and it’s nice and big. It’s the best-kept secret in the foreign service.”
‘International Experience’
Kyiv is one of the last few foreign postings Kol will experience: after two more, he is obliged to retire. He started his overseas career in London at the age of 33, after starting out as “a personal human relations guy” in the Dutch foreign ministry.
As it turned out, Kol loved being abroad. Soon after London he was posted to New York City and then spent a lot of time back home in Holland before arriving here.
“There’s been such a big change in the people since I came here,” Kol says of Ukraine. “I’ll miss the way of life; it’s totally different. You have to get used to the fact that they can’t plan.
”It’s going to be one-hundred percent different when I come back,” he insists, “and I’m going to miss it all.”
Indeed, Kol plans to return to Ukraine following his five-year stint in Montreal and a subsequent posting, which has not yet been assigned. But when he does return here, it won’t be to retire in the conventional sense. He doesn’t want to stop working. “Never. Ni-kogda,” he says. “My hobby is to work.”
He’s playing with the idea of working in Ukraine in the future as a consultant, but until then he’ll continue to enjoy life as a diplomat.
“To be successful as a diplomat, it’s not a choice of going to this or that party,” he says. “You simply have to have fun.”
Svitlitsya
13B Andriyivsky Uzviz, 425-3186.
Open daily from 11 a.m. till 12 a.m.
English menu: Yes.
English-speaking staff: Yes.
Average price of main dish: Hr 40.
