February 14, 2006

  • I've been learning Russian for about 2 years now, and I started around this time in 2004, with lessons THREE days a week at 7 in the MORNING at my apartment.  What was I thinking???   I am not a morning person at all.  Good thing I could wake up at 6:59am right before she came.


    My teacher, a wonderful Uzbek woman named Mavluda, recently told me that I was her "savior".  Why?  Because around this time two years ago, she was still mourning the death of her middle son who had been killed in the Uzbek airways air crash that happened just a few weeks after I arrived.  She, understandably, was in mourning and extreme grief, not wanting to leave her house, not wanting to work, not wanting to do anything... and then I called her house, asking for Russian lessons.  She speaks very little English, and it just so happened that her neighbor, who speaks English, was there when I called.  We made plans to meet, and she came to my office with a smile on her face and a small plastic sheet filled with reference letters. 


    Only during our first lesson did I learn about her son dying in the plane crash.


    And only 2 years later, because my Russian is much better, did I learn how my call came at the perfect time... and how she felt invigorated and energized to teach again... and slowly but surely, she started teaching her other students again... and then teaching at the institute again...


    She wiped away tears as she remembered this tragic time in her life... and I got a bit teary as well.


    And to think that I came here because of another tragic event - 9/11.


    God works in mysterious ways.  But good ones.

Comments (9)

  • huh.  great post.  it's only after you read small amazing stories like these and you realize there are thousands and thousands of them do you see a small part of the amazing and mysterious Plan .. thanks for sharing.

  • Naw, cabbies and other locals need to be kept in check! I think it's more when you're traveling, particularly to areas of the world that are poor, that being a little more open-handed is necessary.

    Ooh, now I feel bad for making fun of cabbies.... everyone needs to be treated with respect and kindness...

    It's funny how we touch each others' lives, isn't it, and how kind we can be to each other. In college I was a bit of a pretentious idiot (go figure, huh?), and one day I decided, hmm, this looks like a good place to lie down, right in the middle of Janss Steps in the middle of campus, and this guy who just happened to be walking by asked me, with enormous kindness, if I was okay, and I remember that to this day. Of course, that didn't keep me from calling our church a circus by accident...

  • wow, that really is great. the two of you seem to have gotten close over these 2 years of study. amazing that she was willing to teach in the first place. i wonder what made her want to do it? your life and the way you lead it is an inspiration, lanahrim.

  • that's a great story, great testimony.    

  • what a beautiful story!  -J

  • amazing how God can use you even when you don't even realize it!

  • awesome story...

    and happy vday.  now go spread some love...

  • Thanks for the sympathy eProps.

  • you're learning just now that you inspire people to change their lives and do better? HELLO! you've been doing that in my life since I was born -- remember how YOU taught me how to read? I think it was "In A People House". Cheesy, I know but it's true. Don't worry about my name -- soooo many people at work think my name is "Cherub" because when I sing the "Hello" song at work, I don't enunciate my name correctly so it comes out as Cherub. How chunsh.

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