On a more serious note

I have more photos to post from our student days, but for a week or so I'm going to shift to something that will be more difficult to do, but perhaps more important.

I'm going to post about Vaiva's first trip to Lithuania.

Vaiva was accepted to a program for visiting college students in Vilnius for six weeks in the summer of 1973, when she was 19 years old. It was her first trip abroad. Vaiva had finished two years at MIT, and she was already emerging as a force in the Lithuanian-American Community. For example, in June 1973, before this trip, Vaiva was asked to make a speech comemorating the June deportations and the self-immolation of Romas Kalanta the year before, protesting the lack of Lithuanian freedom and independence.

I don't have that speech. But I do have the letters that Vaiva sent to me from Lithuania, and I have some photographs of her from that trip. I will post excerpts from the letters, and Liepa has helped me identify some of the people in the photos.

Keep in mind that some self-censorship was necessary. The Russians opened the incoming and outgoing mail—we marked our envelopes, and they did not try to hide their espionage. Rather, they flaunted it, to be the more intimidating. But they did let the letters through.