The moment I heard that the Ukrainian presidential election was to be rerun on December 26, I knew I would be spending a very different Christmas this year.
I write for a living about corporate responsibility and the democratisation of business. Ukraine offered an opportunity to witness something more tangible.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe wanted to put in place a large international monitoring presence, so I searched the internet and applied online to a non-governmental organisation in the US, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. I flew into Kiev on December 22 to join some 5,000 other international observers.
On the flight I met Benedict, another UCCA recruit from the UK and an old hand in Ukraine. With a good grasp of the Ukrainian language and context he quickly negotiated our way through the usual airport obstacles and into a cab.
I have been kindly taken in by Stacia Nanayeva, the marketing head for the Kyiv Mohyla Business School. Stacia has lived in Kiev for six years with, as she put it, "access to the information". Before I arrived I received emails from her in the opposition's orange colour.
The centre of Kiev is full of opposition symbols, the distinctive "TAK!" (Yes!) flag flying even from the city hall. I had read that the tent city that had occupied the length of Kreschatyk, the main thoroughfare, had been taken down after the election result. Not a bit of it. A substantial community of well over 100 tents looks pretty entrenched to me. One of the occupants told me he had been there for 30 days, and that there were perhaps 1,000 people living under canvas in these sub-zero temperatures.
The atmosphere is provocative. On a post in the fence around the campers sits an orange wearing a grinning face drawn in black marker. Three syringes containing brown liquid are stuck into it, a reference to an apparent comment by Yanukovich's wife that the oranges at the heart of the opposition's uniform were filled with drugs and that the people were drug-crazed.
Later in the evening I returned along Kreschatyk to find it transformed. The small groups of orange ribboned Kievites had swelled to several thousand flag wavers of all ages. I had stumbled on the opposition's last pre-election rally.
I caught the last few moments of Viktor Yushchenko's speech and then that of his deputy Yulia Tymoshenko. I did not understand a word, but I could understand the beaming faces and spontaneous chanting of their candidate's name.
In the bitter -5C temperature this fair weather Brit was shivering with the thrill of just being there.
Andrew Newton
Andrew Newton will be blogging for Guardian Unlimited during the election rerun on Sunday
