Our two Belarussian boys...
 

....had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:16:10 GMT, John H.
wrote:

...had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

They'll never forget that day.

--Vic

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote:
....had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

Very cool! Great idea!

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Jul 25, 8:16 pm, John H. wrote:
...had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

I was wondering how you all were getting along. I think that was a
great idea of your church sponsoring those kids to come to the US and
stay with you. (that is, if I remember correctly)

I doubt if you can speak any russian, and I don't' think they could
speak any english, but it seems like "ice cream" is universal!

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

What's their status? I know someone who brought home a cute Russian orphan
after the bureaucratic fight with the US Gummit, of course. She's going to
be an electrical engineer after graduation....but the boys ARE persistent.

I think they have 3, now....all orphans, adopted.

They know more about the USA than I do!

Firepersons (PC!) love kids. They drive our trucks over in front of
Walmart, suit the kids all up like firepersons and water the vacant lot
next door with a 250', hi pressure ladder truck from way up there!

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

Tim wrote in news:feecded3-83cf-467f-9e65-
:

I doubt if you can speak any russian, and I don't' think they could
speak any english, but it seems like "ice cream" is universal!



Most East European kids speak fluent English and have for a long time. A
friend just came back from Prague. I asked if they learned any Czech.
"Why? Everyone in Prague speaks English. They'll stop you on the street
to speak English to you!", they told me.

The Soviets taught all their kids English so when they took over America,
they'd all be able to tell us what to do.....

All Iranian kids spoke, or tried to speak, English when I lived in Tehran.
English meant you got great jobs working with foreigners. In the 70's,
Tehran had lots of foreigners, especially American and English. Hell, we
had our own TV channel and it was the most popular with Iranians.

Even the street kids in Prague spoke English, they told me....begging for
money and selling their bodies.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:16:01 -0700 (PDT), Tim wrote:

On Jul 25, 8:16 pm, John H. wrote:
...had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

I was wondering how you all were getting along. I think that was a
great idea of your church sponsoring those kids to come to the US and
stay with you. (that is, if I remember correctly)

I doubt if you can speak any russian, and I don't' think they could
speak any english, but it seems like "ice cream" is universal!

You're correct in all.

Yesterday, after their favorite meal (hot dogs at Costco) we took them to
Dairy Queen. They've learned the word 'chocolate'!

It's a great vacation for the kids, and a pain in the butt for us. But when
they leave, we'll have tears running down our face as we say goodbye. It's
remarkable how strong an attachment can be formed in only a few weeks. They
soon seem like part of the family. One of these boys lives with his
grandmother. His mother's in jail for stealing, his father is not to be
found, and his grandfather is dead. The other lives in a two-roomer with
three siblings, a mother, and a father who's an alcoholic. Alcoholism is
the favorite illness over there, it seems. Every boy that's stayed with us,
and had a father at home, had an alcoholic for a father. Damn shame.

We'll probably have them back next year, but don't tell my wife I said
that!

BTW, you sound upbeat about your wife. That's good. Anytime the mood
strikes, give me a call.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:02:36 +0000, Larry wrote:

Tim wrote in news:feecded3-83cf-467f-9e65-
:

I doubt if you can speak any russian, and I don't' think they could
speak any english, but it seems like "ice cream" is universal!



Most East European kids speak fluent English and have for a long time. A
friend just came back from Prague. I asked if they learned any Czech.
"Why? Everyone in Prague speaks English. They'll stop you on the street
to speak English to you!", they told me.

The Soviets taught all their kids English so when they took over America,
they'd all be able to tell us what to do.....

All Iranian kids spoke, or tried to speak, English when I lived in Tehran.
English meant you got great jobs working with foreigners. In the 70's,
Tehran had lots of foreigners, especially American and English. Hell, we
had our own TV channel and it was the most popular with Iranians.

Even the street kids in Prague spoke English, they told me....begging for
money and selling their bodies.

Belarus is nothing like the Czech Republic. While in Germany, Prague became
a favorite spot to visit. The city is spectacular. The Germans didn't bomb
it, and neither did the allies. The Germans blew up part of the city hall
just to let folks know who was in charge, but everything else in the city
remained whole.

The Czech's loved Americans, at that time anyway. (This was early '90s.)
And many of them spoke English at least well enough to be understood. Most
of the time we camped just south of town, but one night we stayed at an
apartment. Many of the folks in Prague would rent an unused bedroom for the
night to visitors. This was a little illegal, but what the hell. The folks
at the 'America House' on the city market place had a list of people who
would rent rooms.

My wife, daughter, and I stayed in a rented room for what I thought was
about $40 for the night. The next morning the owners were upset when we
paid them. So, they called America House and got someone to translate. The
owners had meant for us to pay $40 PER PERSON! Well, guess what. Their
failure to communicate cost them, because I didn't have the cash and they
didn't take VISA. (Besides, they were trying to rip us off.)

We had one boy from Belarus who could say a few things in English. He was
from Minsk, his parents had money, he was on a dance team that traveled
internationally, and he'd picked up a lot of English in his travels. But he
was the only kid I've seen in the program who could speak any English. They
do, however, all know how to say 'no' and 'Coca Cola' upon arrival!

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:52:12 +0000, Larry wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

What's their status? I know someone who brought home a cute Russian orphan
after the bureaucratic fight with the US Gummit, of course. She's going to
be an electrical engineer after graduation....but the boys ARE persistent.

I think they have 3, now....all orphans, adopted.

They know more about the USA than I do!

Firepersons (PC!) love kids. They drive our trucks over in front of
Walmart, suit the kids all up like firepersons and water the vacant lot
next door with a 250', hi pressure ladder truck from way up there!


These first two sites give some information about our local program. Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx

(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems the
program is facing.)

http://moran.house.gov/list/press/va...n/Angels.shtml

This last site provides a little more detail about what actually occurs.
This is not from our area, but we do about the same things.

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and then
attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright kid.
After his first visit he went home and began taking English five days a
week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the English teacher
to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He absolutely loved
this country.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
m:


These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx



A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:



John H. wrote in
:


These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx



A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch


The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.

This year the rift between the two governments caused our local program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

Vic Smith wrote:


http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

They'll never forget that day.

--Vic

Neither will JohnH. I believe people who volunteer to help others get
just as much from the experience as those they help.

You can tell from those monster smiles, they had a ball. I would guess
JohnH has a monster smile on his face too.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote:


It's a great vacation for the kids, and a pain in the butt for us. But when
they leave, we'll have tears running down our face as we say goodbye. It's
remarkable how strong an attachment can be formed in only a few weeks. They
soon seem like part of the family. One of these boys lives with his
grandmother. His mother's in jail for stealing, his father is not to be
found, and his grandfather is dead. The other lives in a two-roomer with
three siblings, a mother, and a father who's an alcoholic. Alcoholism is
the favorite illness over there, it seems. Every boy that's stayed with us,
and had a father at home, had an alcoholic for a father. Damn shame.

We'll probably have them back next year, but don't tell my wife I said
that!

I have always thought if people knew how much they get back
from
volunteering, there would never be a shortage of volunteers.

Thanks for sharing the photos, hopefully you have encouraged
a few others to look into doing something similar.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Jul 25, 9:16*pm, John H. wrote:
...had the ultimate treat today - a boat ride on the Potomac. We put in at
the Pohick Bay launch ramp and cruised up to the Lincoln Memorial so they
could see the sights from water. They had a super time, and so did we.
(Except for forgetting the camera!) They fly back to Belarus on Tuesday,
but we're already thinking of having them back again next year.

One day we drove by the local fire station, and saw a couple of the firemen
sitting outside. We stopped, explained who the boys were, and asked if they
could look at a fire truck. Well, the two firemen (one of whom was female)
were just falling all over themselves to show the boys a nice time. I was
wondering if they were going to take them for a ride with sirens and all!

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha181.jpg

and,

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...ndLosha184.jpg

Man, they are grinning from ear to ear!

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
:

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and
then attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright
kid. After his first visit he went home and began taking English five
days a week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the
English teacher to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He
absolutely loved this country.



The young people in the whole region are becoming unisolated by lots of new
TV stations in the region. There is MAD TV:
http://mfile.akamai.com/45346/live/reflector:59936.asx
which is just as American and British as MTV....and FREE on the net!

There are many others. My little Linux tablet has over 600 stations across
the planet from broadband. About 20 are Russian.

The rapper crappers are on Mad TV as I type this...(c;

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
:

We had one boy from Belarus who could say a few things in English. He
was from Minsk, his parents had money, he was on a dance team that
traveled internationally, and he'd picked up a lot of English in his
travels. But he was the only kid I've seen in the program who could
speak any English. They do, however, all know how to say 'no' and
'Coca Cola' upon arrival!



In the Middle East, all the Moslem kids know how to say Chevy and PEPSI,
not Coke. There are no Fords or Coca-Cola which are JEWISH companies. One
of my neighbors in Tehran was an Iranian lawyer of some stature. He had a
Ford station wagon about 15 years old and was so proud of it because it was
such a rare car, sold to him by some Americans when they left for home.
Parts to fix it were awfully hard to get. Every place you go, they serve
Pepsi in Iran or the Arab countries like Bahrain. Israel, of course, is
just the opposite.

English was taught in Iranian schools. Kids entering high schools were
taking courses in chemistry, physics, liberal arts Americans would be
teaching in the 2nd year of college! It was amazing to see the high
standards and hard work Iranian kids were doing to stay in school. Failure
was not tolerated. Those unable to cope or too lazy were moved out of the
schools to apprenticeships in industry or used as laborers. Unlike
America, the Shah didn't waste his energy on those who refused to take
advantage of the excellent education the Shah provided. The poorest
Iranian was afforded the best education, just like the lawyers' kids,
unlike here. Shahanshah used education, unsuccessfully obviously now, to
thwart the religious brainwashing of the Mullahs trying to drag the kids
back into the stone age to become their slaves. How awful.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx


A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch


The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.

This year the rift between the two governments caused our local program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.


These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

"hk" wrote in message
. ..



These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.


My understanding is that they *have* families. They are here in the States
to get radiation sickness treatment.
At least that was the case with the friend I mentioned involved in the
program.

He and his wife were the kid's sponsors while they were here. They stayed
at their home and enjoyed participating in his family's activities in
between the treatments in Boston.

Eisboch

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

hk wrote:
John H. wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch"
wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds
of info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the
problems the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx


A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are
involved in this program. This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen
girls from Russia who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at
the Children's Hospital in Boston. They have two pre-teen daughters
of their own and the four girls got along famously, even though the
girls from Russia spoke virtually no English and my friend's kids
spoke no Russian. It was fun watching them communicate none the
less, and they started picking up a few words and phrases in each
other's language.

Nice program. Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed
people to continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch

The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers
who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other
parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.
This year the rift between the two governments caused our local
program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought
fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and
medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull
teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.


These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.


I wonder what their families would think about that.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Jul 26, 1:36*pm, hk wrote:
John H. wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:49:43 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

John H. wrote in
m:

These first two sites give some information about our local program.
Typing
'Children of Chernobyl Program' into Google will provide all kinds of
info.
(Read the first update in the above site to get a feel for the problems
the
program is facing.)

http://www.historicchristchurch.org/.../Children.aspx

A friend of mine and his wife who have a boat in Scituate are involved in
this program. *This summer, they sponsored two pre-teen girls from Russia
who are undergoing radiation sickness treatment at the Children's Hospital
in Boston. *They have two pre-teen daughters of their own and the four girls
got along famously, even though the girls from Russia spoke virtually no
English and my friend's kids spoke no Russian. * It was fun watching them
communicate none the less, and they started picking up a few words and
phrases in each other's language.

Nice program. *Hard to believe that the Russian government allowed people to
continue to live in a radiation contaminated area.

Eisboch

The Belarussian government promised to repay the farmers and villagers who
moved from the area close to Chernoby. Many of them moved to other parts of
Belarus, but then found that the government would give them no money. So,
they moved back and began farming the same lands again.

This year the rift between the two governments caused our local program to
have a rough time getting the kids here. I wonder if the program up there
had the same kinds of problems.

This update gives a good idea of the problems the program faces:

http://www.ccalex.org/OutreachAndMis...rusMay0208.pdf

If you'd like to help out a little, offer to take the two girls shopping
for a winter coat. When we picked up our boys, everything they brought fit
into a small back pack. They'll go home with 77lbs of clothes and medicines
and healthy teeth. Our dentist is kind enough to fill cavities, pull teeth,
and even did a root canal for one of our boys.

These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You idiot! In your knee jerk reaction, you failed miserably to get
your facts before posting. And you consider you try to tell everyone
you're an ex-newsman? You must have been awful at it.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:47:54 +0000, Larry wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

http://tinyurl.com/5hvyum

The first child we had will be graduating high school this year and
then attending the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. Very bright
kid. After his first visit he went home and began taking English five
days a week in school. He also talked his parents into paying the
English teacher to come to his house one night a week for tutoring. He
absolutely loved this country.



The young people in the whole region are becoming unisolated by lots of new
TV stations in the region. There is MAD TV:
http://mfile.akamai.com/45346/live/reflector:59936.asx
which is just as American and British as MTV....and FREE on the net!

There are many others. My little Linux tablet has over 600 stations across
the planet from broadband. About 20 are Russian.

The rapper crappers are on Mad TV as I type this...(c;

Larry, you can't include Belarus in generalities about the 'whole region'.
Belarus is still your basic Communist dictatorship without many of the
freedoms found elsewhere in the region.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:56:49 +0000, Larry wrote:

John H. wrote in
:

We had one boy from Belarus who could say a few things in English. He
was from Minsk, his parents had money, he was on a dance team that
traveled internationally, and he'd picked up a lot of English in his
travels. But he was the only kid I've seen in the program who could
speak any English. They do, however, all know how to say 'no' and
'Coca Cola' upon arrival!



In the Middle East, all the Moslem kids know how to say Chevy and PEPSI,
not Coke. There are no Fords or Coca-Cola which are JEWISH companies. One
of my neighbors in Tehran was an Iranian lawyer of some stature. He had a
Ford station wagon about 15 years old and was so proud of it because it was
such a rare car, sold to him by some Americans when they left for home.
Parts to fix it were awfully hard to get. Every place you go, they serve
Pepsi in Iran or the Arab countries like Bahrain. Israel, of course, is
just the opposite.

English was taught in Iranian schools. Kids entering high schools were
taking courses in chemistry, physics, liberal arts Americans would be
teaching in the 2nd year of college! It was amazing to see the high
standards and hard work Iranian kids were doing to stay in school. Failure
was not tolerated. Those unable to cope or too lazy were moved out of the
schools to apprenticeships in industry or used as laborers. Unlike
America, the Shah didn't waste his energy on those who refused to take
advantage of the excellent education the Shah provided. The poorest
Iranian was afforded the best education, just like the lawyers' kids,
unlike here. Shahanshah used education, unsuccessfully obviously now, to
thwart the religious brainwashing of the Mullahs trying to drag the kids
back into the stone age to become their slaves. How awful.

In the public high school in which I taught, kids were taking Multivariate
Calculus, normally a 4th semester calculus course. They didn't have to be
lawyers kids, or wealthy. They simply had to work.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:47:02 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"hk" wrote in message
...



These kids need to be adopted, not taken for a vacation.


My understanding is that they *have* families. They are here in the States
to get radiation sickness treatment.
At least that was the case with the friend I mentioned involved in the
program.

He and his wife were the kid's sponsors while they were here. They stayed
at their home and enjoyed participating in his family's activities in
between the treatments in Boston.

Eisboch


I don't know where he comes up with his ideas.

You are correct. They have families, and we normally get letters from the
parents introducing their child and, once they return, thanking us. The
children bring pictures of their families. That is not to say that no
problems exist in the families, but we have the same problems here in the
USA.

The kids we get are not in a radiation treatment program. These guys have a
cancer free bill of health. The goal is to help prevent them from getting
cancer. Thyroid cancer is a big problem over there. The biggest health
issue we normally see is bad teeth. Apparently there is no fluoride in
their water, and toothpaste seems like something new to these guys. They
arrive with a mouthful of cavities. One of ours, this year, had a root
canal. One little girl was almost blind, but the church folks got together
and bought her some glasses. That was a real treat, seeing her lit up face
when she could actually see something again.

But no. This is not an adoption program, nor was it meant to be.

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
:

Larry, you can't include Belarus in generalities about the 'whole
region'. Belarus is still your basic Communist dictatorship without
many of the freedoms found elsewhere in the region.



Oh that's pretty easy to see, even in Russia, where just a different set of
Mafioso warlords run the country than the Soviet warlords.

Nothing much has changed. They all still rattle those sabres....

Our two Belarussian boys...
 

John H. wrote in
:

In the public high school in which I taught, kids were taking
Multivariate Calculus, normally a 4th semester calculus course. They
didn't have to be lawyers kids, or wealthy. They simply had to work.



I taught Electronic Technicians in a technical college, not exactly the
cream of the crop, in SC for 8 years. The high school graduates from
the local high school were about 7th Grade, 6th month in the social
promoted school system back in the 70's. We had to test them upon entry
and had an entire department of remedial education to bring these 18-
year-old grade school students up to a level so we could, at least,
communicate with most of them in simple English and help them learn
basic arithmetic so they could stop counting on their fingers doing
simple computations.

I was called into the school president's office where I was confronted
with a full bird colonel USAF, flight commander's wings and all. "What
have you done to my son?", he wanted to know. "My son has flunked every
math course he ever took. The other night he comes to me watching TV
and wants to buy a SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR! I spilled my Scotch all over
my shirt!" I told the colonel we had no time for math for math's sake
at TEC, so concentrated study on real life mathematics, not theoretical
math the high school tried to spoon feed them with...without showing one
PRACTICAL use for it.

Case in point is a capacitor in series with a resistor across an AC
source. If you add up the AC voltage across the cap to the AC voltage
across the resistor in series with it, like you would in a DC circuit,
you get MORE voltage than the source. How can that be? The students
tried it themselves in the electronics lab, FIRST, then came to me in
the classroom unable to figure out why this PRACTICAL measurement was so
wrong. AT that point, and not before, we set the electronics books
aside and started learning aircraft navigation, field surveying and,
very quietly so as not to panic them, (tiny type here) trigonometry,
necessary to figure out what voltages to expect and measure the phase
between voltage and currents and how to correct it (resonance). Trig
had MEANING when I got done. Stealing the surveying equipment from the
civil engineers was lots easier after a few years to measure off the
property, flagpole, angles of the sun, etc. We even ended up in the
dark out behind the auto shop near midnight to measure our lat/long
with.....gasp....a sextant! Trig takes on a whole new meaning when it
has a REASON...instead of "We study Trig because the state board of
education educrats tell us we have to pass this requirement to get a
diploma." I stole this trick from the Navy who used it on me when I,
not a great math mind, needed trig.

Spherical trig wasn't needed, but when you get 'em cranked up you can't
stand to just drop a hammer on them and say "we don't need that for this
course", so that was part of the clandestine navigation course.

The colonel was a great contact, by the way....He was a constant source
of new aeronautical charts I used to backdoor teach a little trig to the
masses...(c;

I did it for 8 years before I came to the realization TEC wasn't going
to pay me enough to be very comfortable. I made $7200 on a 12 month
contract in 1972. By 1979, I was all the way up to the breathtaking sum
of $14,600...OVER DOUBLE my salary 8 years earlier. I quit and took a
job at triple that back in the defense industry working in a calm, cool,
airconditioned calibration lab without all the pressures.

Teaching kids was wonderful, even adult kids. I loved it. Working with
the vast array of professional educrats to get to teach kids is like
being sent to Hell by an angry god....very painful and unavoidable, no
matter how you try...