Belarus-American Relations

Alla tried to invite our landlord and landlady out for dinner, but they weren’t quick to accept the dates we offered. The landlord joked to me that he and I would work out various economic issues and U.S. – Belarusian relations while the women sorted out matters of entertainment. His joke about economics made immediate sense because he’s a professor and former director of the major business school here and he knows that I have an MBA. I didn’t think much about his other joke until today.

I have commented many times that folks here seem to go out of their way to be nice to me once they learn that I’m a U.S. citizen. Until Evgeny Ivanovich cracked his little joke, however, I never imagined there were any big ideals at work in their kindness. Now I imagine differently, though perhaps I am projecting. Just as I am doing what little I can in pursuit of better relations between our two countries, I suspect many Belarusian citizens feel the same way. It appears to me that at the local level, people are taking steps to build a special bridge, perhaps knowing that our governments are suspicious of each other but hoping to be understood personally.