Das Vadanya, Volodya

Yesterday, I was waiting for my evening class to begin when I received a text message from someone in my school's in-company department. She wanted to know how many times I have taught Volodya in the past months and whether there had been any cancellations.

I immediately called her, wanting to know why she needed this information so urgently. She said the person in charge of English instruction at Volodya's company needed to settle the bill. Apparently, my lessons with Volodya are now a casualty of the world economic crisis; the company has to retrench, and lessons like these are the first thing to go. My last lesson with Volodya will be next Tuesday.

I have learned so much from him, about not just how this country works, but how it worked in the recent, Communist past. I got to hear about strategies for obtaining "deficit" goods (goods the government could not or would not produce in sufficient quantities), dealing with interminable lines to buy basic groceries (which apparently existed as recently as the mid-1990s), and protecting your savings in a country that lacks a sound banking system and that, for several years after Communism's downfall, lacked a stable currency.

Alas, my Tuesday and Thursday mornings with Volodya are to be no more. Das Vadanya, Volodya. From me, you got practice with the third conditional and discussions of Jennifer Wilbanks and Andrea Yates. From you, I got a peek into another world.