He likes Uncle Frost more than Santa Clause...

The Pinski Vesnik, a local Newspaper came out today with an interview with yours truly as a sidebar on Page three. Svetlana Petrovna, the lady who wrote the piece came out to the Dome Tvorchstva last week and asked questions about how I came to arrive in Pinsk, what I had been doing, my opinion of the town and other such topics of interest. As you can see by the headline she chose and interesting and seasonal angle for the story. Here is the translation:

Coming the first time to the Polesse ten years ago to find the home of his ancestors, American Adam Goodman had no idea that within a short time would leave New York for Pinsk. The home of his people had for him at that time something that touched his soul.

"After the September 11th catastrophe in Manhattan I found I had to close my bicycle business. Everything changed for me and I thought of Pinsk."

Adam came back to try, not even knowing any Russian. Thinking he at least needed an English/Russian dictionary, he went to the "Polemia" book store. He tried to explain what he needed to one salesperson and when they couldn't understand him, they called on another to help.

"Tatyana was working there. She was interesting and I took her to dinner."

Tatyana was not bad at English and this was how our American with roots in Pinsk found his future partner. Now Adam has his residence permit (green card), speaks Russian very well, has a growing daughter named Anya and seems perfectly content. How is this possible?

"I feel comfortable in this town. This is my homeland. My grandmother and grandfather were exactly from this place.

"I very much like teaching English. I am very happy to help anyone who asks and wants to learn. I also like working on the dacha. In America, if you want to have land like this you need to be a millionaire. Here, you only have to want to do it."

"My husband also writes plays for theatre. (He is an artist by profession). One of them was translated into Russian" Explains with pleasure Tatyana Victorovna.

Now the American from New York is leading an English Language group which, in the words of the teacher has students from 9 to 58. And he tries to help each of them.

When asked how he was going to greet the New Year my interview said with full seriousness:

"I'm going to Lenin Square to dance under the New Years Tree."

And so this is how our New Yorker traded in Santa Clause for Uncle Frost