Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Belarus: Portland Kids Meet Belarus Kids
Portland Kids Meet Belarusan Kids
First, the Portland kids met the Minsk kids in Belarus, and then
the Minsk kids met the Portland kids in Oregon. Both trips took a lot of work,
lot of collaboration, and a lot of breaking new ground.
While I was in Minsk, accompanying the Portland kids as
their guide and the person making sure that all the pre-arranged commitments
were carried out—and the interpreter on site, the idea arose with the superintendent
of schools that the Minks kids might benefit from a trip to the Oregon. This
was right after the thawing of relations between the two countries and path existed
at the time to make it happen. So, the educational staff and I met day after
day when my time was not needed to be with the kids. The staff found out what
kinds of documents would be needed to build an exchange from the Belarusan side
and drafted them in Russian; I translated them into English. The faculty from
the Portland Public Schools who had come with the kids were able to sign on
behalf of their school district. (Obviously, there was some behind-the-scenes
communication with officials back in Oregon.) By the time the trip to Minsk concluded,
we had all the documents and plans needed for a follow-up visit to Oregon.
After a few weeks, the Portland kids went back to Oregon,
and I went back to California. I assumed that was the last I would see them
since the nature of a Mary Poppins life reflects floating from place to place
with a set of people and, more often than not, seeing neither again (though, I
often saw places again, just not with the same people).
So, I was surprised a year later to receive a call from Barbara,
one of the school teachers, asking if I could come to Portland for a couple of
weeks. The superintended of schools from Minsk had come with the kids, and no
one could communicate with her.
Fortunately, I was able to get off work with short notice
and quickly flew off to Oregon—so quickly that I forgot to research the weather.
A California gal by now, I ended up in Portland in mid-March with nary a sweater,
let alone a winter coat. Barbara whisked me off to a clothing store and gifted
me with a very nice (warm!) winter coat, payment for my volunteered time.
Then, off to meet the superintendent, a lady. They had
obtained a trailer for her to stay in, giving her independence, but she was
quite welcome to welcome a roommate (me). I followed her around for the
programmed activities and acted as her interpreter so that she could communicate
with the Portland school administration.
The School Board decided that it would be good to establish
an annual exchange. Since the paperwork we had prepared in Minsk only cover this
first exchange, back to work I went, working with the American leadership and
the Belarusan leadership (the superintendent and, surprise, Pyotr, who stayed after
his keynote at the International Rotary Foundation) to develop a long-term bilateral
(and bilingual) agreement.
First, I needed to find a Russian word processor since the
visit and agreement pre-dated modern laptops and computers with keyboards whose
language can be changed at the press of a button. We lucked out, I had a
friend, Sandy, who taught Russian at Portland State University. I called and asked
if PSU had anything we could use, and she graciously not only offered us a word
processor with a Russian keyboard but also workspace.
We worked assiduously—and argued assiduously as well. One
argument I remember to this day. Given the formality of Russian language in agreements,
including many long compound-complex sentences, it is easy to get lost in the
grammar. One particularly ornate sentence had the two Russians convinced that
they needed a plural verb, but the subject was actually singular, with several subordinate
clauses and phrases. Finally, the light dawned, mainly from my experience in
teaching Russian to American students, for whom I usually needed to simplify
Russian grammar. I broke down the nearly page-long sentence into three words:
the simple subject, the simple verb, the simple object. Ah! They agreed, yes,
of course, the verb had to be singular. Pyotr turned to the superintended and said, “You
are the premier educator in Minsk—and an American has corrected your Russian
grammar!” He laughed and laughed. She smiled, but I had a feeling that she did
not find it amusing although Pyotr did not mean it unkindly! Nonetheless, the
change was made in the document.
When the document was finished in Russian and English, we
submitted it to the School Board, where it was accepted while I was still
there. Not long after I returned to California, I received a thank-you letter
from the School Board, along with a memento representing Portland. I put the letter
in my files where I have many such letters and the memento in one of my china
cabinets where I have dozens of these kinds of mementos. They help to remember
details later after many sailings with the Poppins umbrella has covered those
older details with newer ones. Physical items can usually, but alas not always,
help recall the marvels of each short assignment.
Volume 1: ABC Lands
by Dr. Betty Lou Leaver
For more posts about and from this book, click HERE.
For more posts by and about Betty Lou Leaver, click HERE.
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