 Greetings friends! For one who thinks of herself as a leftover 19th century lady devoted to pen and paper this chance to meet you electronically seems nothing short of miraculous! Many of you have written to ask what is happening in my life, family and career. I thank you for your interest and before I start answering some of your questions let me tell you how much it means to an author have an echo from readers. After all, a book only becomes really alive when it makes a connection with a reader.
I am now living in Maine with my husband Seymour Papert, MIT professor, mathematician and pioneer of technology for learning. We travel a great deal both for his work and mine. I touch base in Russia three or four times a year where I live in a tiny but cozy rented apartment in St. Petersburg, Russia is as always a vibrant, exciting challenging place and today it is changing at dizzying pace. Watching the process of Russia reinventing herself is constantly fascinating. I find something new every time I go there. The news we receive in our media is sparse, stereotypical and highly selective. The reality is far more complex and interesting, and along with the bad, there is much good happening. Apart from my continuing interest in cultural history and art I have two major interests in St. Petersburg. One is a small foundation I created ten years ago to help children and young people affected with hemophilia and related coagulation problems. With the precious help of two devoted and talented Russian teachers we have created a computer group to empower these young people and give them a career skill. I am proud to report say that over ten years all our “graduates” have been able to go on to study in universities and/or to find good jobs. The other is connected to my life long love of ballet. I am trying to find ways to help to support the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (the descendant of the pre-revolutionary Imperial Ballet School) - the most famous ballet school in the world whose famous graduates include everyone from Pavlova and Nijinsky to Balanchine, Nureyev, Makarova and Barishnikov. In addition, for several years I have occasionally led small special tours of people who are seriously interested in getting to know Russia in more depth and more intimately than can be accomplished on the customary “boiler plate” tourist excursions. As for my writing, for some time I have been working on a memoir of the thirty eight adventurous and eventful years that I have spent with Russia. In this book I hope that the question I get asked everywhere I go “Why Russia?” will be answered once and for all! As I go along I will be putting some excerpts of this new work on this web site. Also from time to time I will keep you posted about what I see in Russia these days. |
