From: allenmk@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Allen Melinda Kay)
Subject: Re: Byelorussian(sp?) .neq. Russian?
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 17:55:12 GMT

rob@dreul1.btg.dec.com (Rob Marshall) writes:

>Hi,

>Sorry, if this is a really dumb question, but I saw someone mention that
>there was a word processing package that offered both Russian and Byelorussian
>(which I assume would be spoken in Byelorussia - around Minsk?).  Is Byelo-
>russian different from "normal" Russian?

Wow!  I want to learn about this too--if anyone has the info, please send it to
me as well.  Also, now "Byelorussia" is "Byelorus."  The people there are
anxious to assert what is now more of a theoretical independence from Russia.

>Also, if anybody has some general information on Minsk, I'd be interested.

I spent the summer in Minsk.  I don't know everything about it, but let me know
what kind of info you're interested in, and I'll see what I can do.  

Just some general things.  The Minsk of today is a relatively new city.  80% of
the old city was totally flattened in WW2, and the people built it back up.
Even the historic old city is mostly rebuilt to look old.  The population is
about 7 million, but it certainly didn't seem like that to my group!  After a
four day trip to Moscow, we were all relieved to return to the quiet and the
cleanness of Minsk, where we had all come to feel very much at home.  The
people of Minsk, like people I have met from all over the CIS, are extremely
generous, and they were all going out of their way to make our stay a pleasant
one.  Even though they don't have much, they gave all they could, to the point
of making us feel guilty--we did not want to offend our hosts, but we also did
not want them to spend the little they had on us.  

While in Minsk, my group lived in the dormitories of the Pedagogical Institute
for Foreign Languages, where each North American (Canadian and American)
student had a Belorussian room mate (they were all English majors, and spoke
excellent English).  Together, we had both Russian and English classes, and
also spent a great deal of time involved in learning about the Belorussian
people, visiting various "touristy" spots, but also just living in the city and
integrating ourselves as best we could (it wasn't possible, sadly, to integrate
ourselves completely--no matter what, we were still "rich Americans," and we
hated it) into their culture.  As they had interest, we also spent time sharing
with them our faith as Christians. 

One thing I noticed among the people there was a great deal of pessimism about
their future.  While the people genuinely want things to improve, they mostly
don't believe that it is possible, and so they don't involve themselves in
working for improvement.  Most young people want more than anything to get to
the West where they will have more opportunities for a higher standard of
living.

Economically, Minsk is actually better off than most of the CIS.  Prices aren't
anywhere near as high as in Moscow or Kiev (we spent a week there before
going to Minsk, and a week after our month in Minsk--while we were in Minsk,
the Ukraine experienced approximately 400% inflation).  Whenever we went to
the market (often), there were lots of fruits and vegetables.  In the little
grocery stores, however, there was not much available.  Meat prices doubled
while we were there--everyone knew the day before that it was going to happen,
and so there were horrendous queues.  One of the hard things was never knowing
whether there would be milk available when you went into the store, never
knowing if you would find what you needed.  Believe me, it was difficult to
come home and walk into one of our plentifully stocked grocery stores!

I won't go into it here, but if anyone is at all interested in hearing about
the small orphanage we did volunteer work at, let me know.  The kids there are
in dire need of help.

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Deutschland!  Wonderful place!


Melinda Allen

-- 
Melinda K. Allen                  The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 
allenmk@ucsu.colorado.edu       and saves those who are crushed in spirit.   
allenmk@tramp.colorado.edu			               Psalm 34:18