First Movie

Here's a post I put up on my family blog.

I believe the first movie I saw in the theater was The Bear with my mother. I don't remember anything about the movie except that it was about a bear. It wasn't even the first movie I guessed at after putting "the bear" into IMDb. (The review of the first one, by Donald Williams, is pretty funny) It's only noteworthy because on Christmas Eve I told my daughter that Mamutė took me to my first movie, The Bear. What was it about? A bear. What did he do? Bear stuff, in the woods.

The first movie my daughter saw was A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey as 80% of the characters. In addition to the story of my first movie, I had to explain basically the whole story to her beforehand, because I didn't think she'd get it quickly enough during all the Hollywood action. Too, I had to explain that it's just a movie, and she should close her eyes if she gets scared. And that ghosts are like monsters, they're not real (luckily she didn't ask me about the holy ghost). This was especially important because it's a 3D movie--she did bury her head under my arm several times.

We both liked it very much. She liked "at the end, when the man was nice." I was a little confused seeing the actors in multiple roles; I only knew that Jim Carrey had several of them, I didn't know all the actors did. But the acting was great, I laughed out loud several times. My greatest criticism is that there was too much action at the expense of story, I think. I have to read the story now to be sure.

So ends the worst year of my life. So far.

There are many candidates for the worst day of my life.  The day we learned Vaiva's cancer had recurred for the third time comes to mind.  But there were yet actions to take, an operation to arrange, doctors to see.  The day we learned the cancer had spread to the brain was much worse, because her cognition and responsiveness were impaired forever after. But even then, we were given hope by the doctors.  (They don't really know what they are talking about, by the way.)

The fear of the last trip to the hospital, getting the news that it would likely be a "terminal event," sending out the word that Vaiva had only a few days left to her.  The final destruction of hope, all bad, bad, bad. 

December 13, Vaiva's death, marked the end of her suffering as well.  She was a believer, and so it marked the beginning of her eternal life in heaven as well.  So, bad, but not really the worst day.

Death launches the ceremonies, the funerals.  They were marked by very poor weather, by innumerable small problems, but funerals have a momentum all their own.

The worst of day my life was December 24, 2008, the day we buried Vaiva in Vilnius.  That completed all my promises to her, and brought my life to a conclusion of sorts as well.

I'm living in the postscript now. I knew immediately that I would have great trouble constructing for myself a "post-Vaiva" identity. She knew it too, knew how tightly bound to her I was, at my core.  A year later, I am no closer to a solution to that problem.  For all practical purposes, I am lost.

The next year will be harder than the last.  Everyone else can move on.  I cannot, I will not.

"Vaiva prisimenant..."

At our memorial in Hartford, Gita spoke of growing up with Mama, singing, and so she suggested that we remember Mama through song.

Mama perceived Lithuanian songs as deeply textured, as having weave in time and space. We are the “singing culture,” and songs connect us into a single force. We are one people seeking to give and receive solace from each other. When a large group sings at the same time, it is a collective meditation.

Memorial in Vilnius

On Monday, December 14th, Mama's colleagues and I went to the grave at three o'clock. Some other people did too, and some had gone the day before. A memorial service was held at 5:30 and after that we watched the movie my father made. As I explained at the grave site in an ad hoc speech, I was not the one to organize the events. The difference between the 364th and 365th days is lost on me, but I'm glad that if others can get something out of it, they are kind enough to organize it for all.

I didn't mention at the time that I see her birthday as a far more appropriate day to gather and "remember" her (as if we didn't day dream about her daily). We're planning to start the tradition this coming summer.

The service was attended by many indeed, we were all surprised to see about a hundred people; nobody told a lot of people about it, but I guess each person passed it on to a couple more. President Adamkus was there in addition to most of the relatives off the top of my head, all of the colleagues I can think of and many I didn't recognize.


Afterward we watched the movie in the Jesuit high school joined to the church through back hallways. I had decided with only a few hours left to translate my father's speech and Whitman's poem; I wish I had had time to rehearse it more, but people told me I did well. It was a big hit: people were surprised that the movie was so well made, and many asked for copies of it.

Hammer Nail

What's it called, when you're a hammer all you see is nails? I was just looking for someone's address to send out a Christmas card. I typed in the last name and city into google and that brought me to this page.

One year

My beloved,  my Vaiva, died one year ago today.

My introduction to the DVD about Vaiva

At one time I had hoped to have a stirring address for Vaiva's memorial service.  I thought I might talk about carrying on her work, or my difficulties in coming to terms with her death, or something.  I was not able to do that.  Creating the photo essays was hard enough, something I kept putting off, but did finally finish.


Rather than the speech I hoped for, I simply explained the source for the name of the blog, then called for the DVD to be played.


December 6, 2009

Memorial service for Vaiva Radasta Vebra

Holy Trinity Church, Hartford, Connecticut

Introduction by James B. Gust

Thank you all for coming today, and thank you Sigita and everyone else who worked so hard to make this happen. 

When I started the blog for remembering Vaiva a year ago, I called it “Vaiva, my Vaiva.” The title was a conscious allusion to the Walt Whitman poem, “O Captain, my Captain,” from “Leaves of Grass.” That poem was about Abraham Lincoln, how he had steered the ship of state safely through the civil war, but was assassinated at the war’s successful conclusion.

Much the same sentiment, I thought, applied to Vaiva. Both as to how she contributed to the success of Lithuania’s re-emergence as an independent state, and her role for me. In addition to being a wife, mother, lover and friend, Vaiva was the hero of my life.

Here is Whitman’s poem.

O Captain! My Captain!

1 O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!	5
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
2 O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;	10
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,	15
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
3 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;	20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

I’ve prepared nine short meditations on Vaiva, and put them into a single 35-minute video. You’ll know it’s over when you see my name on the screen.

Speakers

Audience

Program

After the Mass, 100 or  so people gathered in the church basement.  A screen was set up, with a DVD projector, for the program I had created.

Metinės Lietuvoje

Mišios už aa. Mamą vyks gruodžio 14d.(pirmadienį), 17.30 val. Šv. Kazimiero bažnyčioje.

Per/po mišių, mūsų geras šeimos draugas Alvydas prižadėjo bandyti paleisti DVD, kurį mano tėvas sukūrė: tai bus tėvo kalba per metines Amerikoje ir 35 minučių klipų bei nuotraukų kompozicija su įgarsinimu.

Mielai kviečiame visus.

The Memorial Mass

Note the national flags by the altar.

Music before Vaiva's Mass

The wonderful singers came from a Lithuanian parish in South Boston, I believe it is St. Peter's.

Snow day

The view out the kitchen window when I got up this morning.

Just as with the funeral last year, snow would be a factor for Vaiva's Memorial  Mass.

Lokys, Liepa and Teddy scraped off the car.

 

The sun is just getting up, you can see the moon above the apple tree.

Memorial Mass today

As Vaiva's Memorial Mass is today, you might have guessed that it snowed last night, the first accumulation of the season. I don't expect the snow to be a problem, it's just a couple inches.

I have the photo montage ready for the program.  Finished it at about 11 last night, took until 2 am to burn DVDs of it.  I'm burning some spares this morning.  Here are the chapters:

Remembrance
The Immigrants
M.I.T.
First Contact
Twins Arrive
Vaiva's C.V.
In Country
At Home
Life After Cancer—One More  Moment


The DVD  runs 35 minutes.  Two of those chapters are videos that I made some time ago, and Lokys points out they drag in spots.  I agree, but it was not practical to edit them at this point.

I scanned about 60 old photos, which I will add to the blog over the next month.

"If you die, I'll be alone"

Lokys and I watched a recent episode of House on the Tivo.  This was the episode where Dr. Wilson decides to donate a portion of his liver to his friend/patient.  He asks House to attend the operation, which House recommended against anyway.  House refuses. "Why not?" asks Wilson.

Says House, in all seriousness, "If you die, I'll be alone."

The line jumped out at me.  Everything looks different through the prism of widowerhood.  Including television and things supposed to be entertainment.

Will the U.S. abandon Lithuania again?

It has been over 20 years since Lithuania declared its independence from the USSR, and nearly 20 years since the world recognized that status, so that genuine freedom was restored to Lithuania. Few Americans today understand how awful the Russian occupation of Lithuania was, how toxic communism truly was (and is).

With independence restored, Lithuania needed a "never again" plan. Economic, political and military infrastructure was put into place to make a Russian reoccupation of Lithuania an impossibility. The crowning achievement in that effort was Lithuania's admission to NATO.

Do you worry that the Obama administration might sacrifice the Baltic States in order to improve relations with Russia? I do. It's not that far-fetched. Need evidence? Read Enlarging NATO, Expanding Confusion in today's New York Times. No, the article doesn't call for abandonment of the Baltic States, that wouldn't be the first step anyway. Rather, the article is a defense of Russia's "legitimate grievances" over NATO expansion.

That's how it starts.

Lithuanian-Americans should fight back against such nonsense, beginning today.

Where amber comes from

Early in our marriage, in 1978 I believe, Vaiva began teaching Lithuanian History and Culture at Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport, CT.  This was an evening course, and as such many of the students were middle-aged adults of  Lithuanian heritage, looking to reconnect to their  roots. 

Down the hall, I was a student, taking a night class in the Lithuanian language from Professor Zukauskas.  We had about 20  students, and we studied with him  for two years.  I picked up a bit of vocabulary, but I never became fluent.  I never got to be Vaiva's student.

Through these classes we became well-acquainted with Bridgeport's Lithuanian-American community.

Interesting footnote.  The President of Sacred Heart held a fundraiser for George H. W. Bush, then running for President against Ronald Reagan, at the University.  We were invited to his press event, which was fascinating for me.  That's when Bush senior was excoriating Reagan's "voo-doo" economics, and I heard him say it in person.  History shows the so-called "voo-doo" brought the longest-running peacetime expansion of the U.S. economy ever.

These memories were brought to mind this  morning because Pat Illingworth sent the poem "Jurate and Kastytis," by Maironis.  This work was in Vaiva's curriculum, and she was an avid student of Lithuanian literature and poetry.  In the poem, Jurate is a sea goddess who lives  in an undersea amber castle. She falls in love with a mortal, Kastytis.  The father-god, Perkunas, is outraged, and destroys the castle with a thunderbolt.

As a consequence, bits of the  castle wash ashore all along Lithuania's coastline.  Here is the poem (click on "more" to read all of it).

Poems by Maironis
(1862 – 1932)

JŪRATĖ AND KASTYTIS

The sun is sinking in the west,
Turn back, Kastytis, in a hurry!
Your dear old mother finds no rest,
She will be wearing down with worry
Until she sees your flapping sails
Approaching on the foaming waves.

But Kastytis
Will not listen!
He's astounded by sea treasures.
Though the blushing sun is setting,
Playful fish he keeps on netting,
Musing over youthful pleasures.

The stars on high serenely shine.
The waters slowly surge and splatter.
But – lo! – emerging from the brine
Appears the beautiful Jūratė:
As white as foam, lit up with gleam,
Below her waist all clad in green.

Thanksgiving

The November roses, pictured two posts below, are still in bloom, still lovely.

I've been going through the family photo albums, haven't had time to post, haven't had much new to say. The approaching one-year anniversary weighs heavily upon me.

One year ago, Vaiva was still lucid, recovering from her mastectomy, participating in Thanksgiving. If you use Skype for your instant messaging, as we did, you have an archive of those "conversations." I've been reading mine with Vaiva from a year ago. They are mundane, inconsequential, heart-breakingly ordinary.

They have no hint that death is imminent.

Below is a page from mid-November. Vaiva's final garden—she was a prodigious gardener—was perhaps her most abundant ever. She planted brussels sprouts in 2008, and was successful beyond all expectations. I was tasked with giving away "excess" produce at the office, and that's the subject of the IM. I think you can click on it to make it big enough to read.

In Vaiva's Memory

Dear Jim and Family,

Almost a year has passed since Vaiva was called to Eternity.  Although her stay in this world wasn't long, her accomplishments surpass most of those who have lived to the ripe age of one hundred...And they will never fade or diminish.  We miss her very much...

Thanking our Heavenly Father for the gift of Vaiva's life, a Holy Mass will be celebrated on December 13th, 2009,  8:00 a.m. at the Blessed George Matulaitis Mission Church (Lithuanian World Center) in Lemont, IL.

We'll be joining other A.P.P.L.E. members in a special prayer.

With Best Wishes and Continued Sympathy,

Ritone and Theodore Rudaitis

November roses

The blossoms from this rose continued well into November.

Eleven months

My beloved wife, Vaiva, died eleven months ago today.

Blogging has been light this month, because I am preparing a DVD photo montage for the December 6 memorial mass. Essentially setting this blog to music. I'm finding it to be an emotionally wrenching task.

It was twenty years ago today . . .

. . .that the Berlin wall came down. We were shocked. Yes, we believed that the wall would come down some day, but had not dared hope it would be in our lifetime.

Once the East Germans were free, could the Lithuanians be far behind?

The next phase was the argument by the Baltic states that they had been incorporated into the U.S.S.R. against their will, which was obviously true. Already Vaiva was thinking about how she could participate in these momentous developments.

Ronald Reagan played a crucial role in bringing the wall down. The peoples of eastern Europe understood this long before I did. Here's an account from Reagan's speechwriter about how furious the State Department was that Reagan asked Gorbachev to tear down the wall. Here's a photo montage in the NYTimes of the wall, then and now.

The Wall Street Journal weighs in here. Note how strenuously "liberals" objected to Reagan's efforts:

Yet it bears recalling that even these obvious political facts were obscure to many people who lived in freedom and should have known better. "Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy," said CBS's Dan Rather just two years before the Wall fell. And when Reagan delivered his historic speech in Berlin calling on Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," he did so after being warned by some of his senior advisers that the language was "unpresidential," and after thousands of protesters had marched through West Berlin in opposition.

Ann Althouse has posted the video of Reagan's speech, and JFK's.

Those were great days. Some of Althouse's commenters draw the comparison to today.

Memorial Mass—December 6

There will be a memorial Mass on December 6 at Holy Trinity Church in Hartford, the same church where Vaiva's funeral was held. The Mass will be at 9 am. Sigita Rosen is making the arrangements, which will include a brunch after the Mass and perhaps a program of some sort. I will try to create a DVD of photos and perhaps video, if I can find some.

Sigita chose December 6 rather than the one-year anniversary of December 13 because on December 6 the Mass will be in Lithuanian.

All Saints Day?

I have a hard time getting my head around this holiday, as do most of us here in Lithuania. Most of us found out a couple years ago, when it was announced, that the day we celebrate, Vėlinės, is not All Saints Day at all, but rather All Souls Day. How am I sure I wasn't the only one mixed up? Because All Souls Day is tomorrow, November 2nd, and very few people will be at the cemetery tomorrow; they were all there today, as evidenced by all the candles in these pictures.

According to the Internet, All Saints Day is the celebration of all saints in heaven, and All Souls Day is the celebration of everybody who died but is not in yet. Because Lithuanians do typically celebrate All Souls Day (on the wrong day), can it possibly be that they purposely "commemorate the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven." -Wikipedia

They think their loved ones haven't been let into Heaven yet? Weird! Before going on I should point out that I don't understand the purpose of decorating graves. We bury people so that they can get up for the resurrection. I'm with you so far. Then we turn the graves into big fancy show pieces. Why? I don't see it. From what I've gathered from my wife, the cemetery caretaker, and a few other people, the person buried there will no longer be respected if his grave doesn't meet certain standards. I call them beauty pageant standards. I don't buy that. "Irregardless," everybody else here does, so we have to play by their rules. I guess it makes sense in a place where your neighbors rate your success in life based on how many wreathes make it to your coffin.

Here's the view up the first hill in the evening.

Behind my daughter are the graves stones for the Polish soldiers found in a mass grave.

Normally for Vėlinės you tidy up the grave and plant some new flowers and put up some candles.

Then anybody else who wants to comes by and adds to that.

Someone even removed the leaves, which I'm not happy about: we decided it looks nice with the fallen October leaves. They were a nice gold color.

The other thing we did this year was to move the monument to the middle of the grave site and replace the existing epitaph (for Senelis) with one for both of them.

In case you can't make it out, it reads (I have to use periods to get the spacing close to right):

LIETUVOS SAVANORIAI

....PULKININKAS........................... VADOVĖ

........PROFESORIUS.......................ŠVIETIMIETĖ

................GAMTININKAS ...............VISUOMENININKĖ

................JUOZAS ................VAIVA RADASTA

............VĖBRA.............................VĖBRAITĖ

...........1901-1994...........................1954-2008

All Saints Day

Lokys and I visited St. Lawrence Cemetery in New Haven today.

Vaiva's Aunt Lijole designed the tombstone, and she lies next to her sister, Vaiva's mother.

On the opposite side are Vaiva's maternal grandparents.

October roses

Vaiva planned her garden to have blooms in all seasons, as I mentioned earlier.

Adamkus

Mama traveled with Adamkus to a number to schools around September 1st to celebrate the start of a new school year. She may or may not have been at the event pictured below, but she kept the photo in her "President" folder.

2005.03.31

The photos below were, I believe, taken at Arlington National Cemetery. Vaiva is on the left, Dainus Numgaudas is on the right, I think. They are visiting a memorial to an American, Samuel Harris, who, after his service to the U.S. in World War I, was part of a contingent that traveled to Lithuania to help in the fight for independence from the Russians. There he was killed. The operation was financed by the Lithuanian-American Community, and they arranged for this memorial. More details, and a photo of his grave, are here.

2004.02 Celebration at the ministry

Emperor Radastų Vėbraitė

Someone in Lithuania has created a Wikipedia page for Vaiva. The facts are reasonably accurate, if not up-to-date about our kids.

Here's google's auto-translation from Lithuanian into English. Lots of mistakes, because the software is far from perfect. For example, "Vaiva" is translated as "Emperor" and is a "he" instead of "she."

The first dance

Actually, we performed the Rezginele first, I believe.
But this was to kick off the generally dancing after dinner.

Our bridal party

It was gorgeous in October that year, wasn't it?

In the park

I posted the post-wedding photo of my family here, last summer, after the death of my grandmother. Here is Vaiva's side of the family. Marius Jakulis and his wife are on left; Marius sent this photo and condolence last December. Vaiva's grandparents are on my left, her aunt is on her right, her mother is in the pink gown. Oddly, Vaiva's father is not in this one. Like Vaiva, he was generally camera-shy.

Leaving the alter

The most important day of my life,
32 years ago today.

October 22, 1977

In our living room, on the second floor of 235 Lawrence Street, in New Haven.

Vaiva is dressed for our wedding, carrying a bouquet of rue, with flowers in her hair.

Complicated grief

According to The New York Times, there are about a million people each year who, like me, are unable to comes to terms with the death of a loved one within six months. The phenomenon differs from depression, and from post traumatic stress. They are thinking about classifying as a new psychiatric disease, called complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder.

I'd classify it as an aspiration.

Some of the overt symptoms of this new disease include increased drinking (check) and tobacco consumption (check, I'm smoking cigars again). It's also linked to increased cancer risk, which seems more than odd. But mostly it's about not letting go.

There is physical evidence for the condition:

Then, in 2008, NeuroImage published a study of the brain activity of people with complicated grief. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, Mary-Frances O’Connor, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that when patients with complicated grief looked at pictures of their loved ones, the nucleus accumbens — the part of the brain associated with rewards or longing — lighted up. It showed significantly less activity in people who experienced more normal patterns of grieving.

Should you click over to the article, be sure to read the comments. Very interesting testimony.

2005.04.07 with Adamkus

Brussels, EU speech 2 (1999)

Here is Vaiva's more substantive review for the European Union of the status of Lithuanian education and international outreach. Note her reference to a.p.p.l.e. near the end; Vaiva modestly overlooks her own role in the founding and leadership of the organization. Note also the emotional close of the speech, her trademark, which always left a great impression on her audiences.

Our current body of law creates no legal impediment to implementing the Agreements between The European Community and Canada of 1995 and between the European Community and the United States of America, also of 1995, establishing co-operation programmes in higher education and vocational education and training. Lithuania is ready to accept all European Union obligations undertaken through these agreements from the day that Lithuania becomes a member of the Union. We hope the agreements will be extended. We look forward to taking part and are confident of our competence in project selection. In the interim various agencies and institutions in the United States and Canada have concluded certain agreements with Lithuania and we are already engaged in joint educational projects, although there are no bilateral governmental treaties.

I must say that our sit - before you as a sort of living: Lithuania and the United States are quite capable and quite willing to share intellectual as well as human resources. I have brought with me from my home in the United States to my job at the Ministry of Education and Science, and that is the personal experience of an education in a developed, democratic, open, information-based society. But I am hardly alone as a former US resident in Lithuania. Lithuania has a thriving colony of Canada and US Lithuanians - while perhaps a million Americans and Canadians claim Lithuanian descent. The fact is - there is a historically well-established infrastructure of support for joint projects between Lithuania and the US and Canada. The fascination with and commitment to Lithuania that was once linked with one’s personal national heritage in North America has since 1990 grown to include many policy makers, educators and citizens with no such prior ties. As a result we have developed a powerful Lithuanian momentum in our common educational initiatives with the US and Canada, even though our school and university systems are very different. I would like to demonstrate this experience and our institutional capacity through a brief sketch of these activities as administered through the Ministry, even though they are not EU based as yet.

On July 6 in 1994, in Riga, Latvia, the Governments of US and Lithuania signed a joint treaty on “Co-operation in the area of science and technology”. A five-year co-operation program was delineated with the possibility of renewal for another five-year period. Its purpose is to strengthen the development of science and technologies in both countries, to broaden the scope of and empower specific projects of common interest, to support scientific and technical co-operation in research for peace, to create an infrastructure for the exchange of information, skills and technical equipment. According to this agreement, both Parties assist State agencies and laboratories, universities and other institutions of higher learning to form bilateral partnerships. A very important facet of this agreement is the protection of intellectual property rights.

Also in the area of higher education I should mention an agreement between the American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study and then the Ministry of Culture and Education of Lithuania. This agreement establishes a program between the US and Lithuania to aid in the advancement of co-operation in the areas of education, scientific research and language study. This program is automatically renewed yearly and provides for the administration of the TOEFL and GRE examinations in Lithuania as a gateway to international study for Lithuanian students.

Although we have signed no agreements with US or Canada mandating student exchange, many young people do travel to study every year, and under individually negotiated admissions agreements some are supported through Lithuanian stipends. these are modest - 1 to 2.500 Litai monthly, but are essential for students receiving them.

A study program of great interest to Lithuania encompasses co-operative links between Canadian and Lithuanian colleagues. The association of Canadian colleagues has forged an alliance with the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania, the Lithuanian College Director’s Association and specific Lithuanian colleges and is providing technical support and curricular consultations. Lithuania is thus better able to reform its college infrastructures and administrative systems and to develop curriculum in two needed areas: tourism development and business administration.

Although the European Union Agreements with the US and Canada refer to higher education and training only. I would like to ask for your indulgence - I would like to briefly mention a few joint programs which are aimed at general education student populations, but which of course are also available to vocational school students.

In 1997 the US Information Agency of the US State Department signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education and Science specifically supporting the development, publishing and distribution of English as a foreign language textbooks. In general the USIA has been an active partner in curriculum development and teacher training, particularly in the area of civic education based on principles of participatory democracy, minority rights and the teaching of tolerance.

We are pleased with the momentum of our Junior Achievement project. Junior Achievement (JA) is a US based non-profit organisation with the purpose of developing economic education programs for young people. Junior Achievement of Lithuania was founded in 1993. Initial funding was through a grant from The Open Society Fund. The programs: Currently the backbone of Junior Achievement is the Applied Economics (AE) course, which is approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. APPLIED ECONOMICS is taught primarily in high schools and secondary vocational schools and colleges all over Lithuania. The course includes a textbook, workbook, Automatic Test Generator (ATG) computer software system and a teacher’s guide, all of which cover principles of market economics at length and is adapted from US materials and methodologies. PILOT PROGRAMS will be started for business and economic education of students of lower grades. Additionally, an adult education program geared towards employees of newly privatised companies is being explored. Several other programs available to vocational and general schools might be viewed as enrichment programs.

In 1998, Lithuania implemented a program of Strategic Environmental education. At the end of the year, the International GLOBE program issued an invitation to Lithuania to participate through school pilot projects. 38 schools volunteered to conduct ecological research activities. An agreement has been drawn up between the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and Science, the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment and the US Water and Atmospheric Safety Board, which will facilitate participation by schools and provide training for educators.

In the same vein, the International project “Nature’s tale” has drawn in numerous partners: the Lithuanian Ministries of Education and Science and the Environment, the Creative Societies Centre of London, the British and American Arts Association and the European Council program “Culture, creativity and youth”. The European Council has labelled this partnership a model for Europe. In 1999, 9.500 young people participated in this arts for ecology program with US involvement.

Finally, a word about educator in-service initiatives. We have limited contacts with Canada in this area. One spotlighted program is “In-service for teachers of English”. Begun in 1994, the program brings 5-6 instructors to Lithuania yearly. About 100 teachers and 30 school directors hone their English language skills.

A far broader project is the American Professional Partnership for Lithuanian Education. Initiated in 1990 as Lithuania regained her independence, this program has provided in-service to over 10.000 or somewhere over 20% of Lithuania’s general and vocational education teachers over a broad range of subjects including civic and environmental, agricultural education methodologies and administration. This program melds the talents of accomplished US volunteers and acts as a catalyst for grass-roots-initiated change eventually reaching systemic levels. It is telling that the Ministry has stood solidly behind this bilateral voluntary professional program for nine years, although our government has changed political hands in a number of popular elections.

Of course this means that some long-term commitments overarch short-term political change. This is good news for our commitments towards and with the European Union.

There is a very famous by Thomas Wolfe I believe novel called “You can’t go home again”. Although I am not nearly fifty years old, sometimes I have the emotional sense, the false memory, that my country was taken from me for 50 years. I am deeply grateful that this time has ended, that Lithuania is free, and that I have been able to come home. Similarly, I think that Lithuania is ready to come home to take its place at the table, to bring to the European table its cultural riches and its people’s courage. I believe that our educational system will pave the road home and that the journey will be swift. Thank you.

Brussels EU speech 1 (1999)

Vaiva was Vice Minister of Education when she gave this address to the European Union.

1999 balandþio 15-16, Brussels, ES

Esteemed members of the European Commission delegation, or perhaps I should say esteemed colleagues. I am in a sense the “odd man out” at this meeting, for I think it likely that I am the only person present who was born and raised outside of Europe. Although I am a Lithuanian, I have only recent come to understand that I am also a European. This realisation has been a revelation to me, since the European dimension of education, of culture, of history has come late to me and therefore come as a gift which is renewed every day as I discover Europe in my work, in my friends and in my country. My colleagues in the Lithuanian delegation are in a different position entirely. They have been both Lithuanians and Europeans every day of their lives. They have always known that Lithuania has been a piece of the European puzzle throughout this millennium and is integral to Europe now. As I have come to live in Lithuania, to work at the Ministry of Education and Science and to engage with its processes of democratic growth and educational reform I have learned how deep-seated these processes are in my country, how intertwined with the evolution of European structure and European thought.

Just as every ancient culture does, we have much to be proud of as well as some things to regret. We regret our absence from the daily life and natural development of the European network of national connections for fifty years. But we are proud that we are actively in the vanguard of creating a European tradition in our educational system now; a European tradition which is purely our own, which has its roots in the Lithuania of Medaeval Europe, which continued to blossom in pre-war independent Lithuania and which we claim now as the basis for building a modern system for teaching and learning in a free and democratic society of the twenty-first century.

Our population rightfully demands an educational system that gives us a level playing field with all of Europe. We need to achieve and maintain European standards of quality and of accessibility to education for our own sake. We need to open doors and create an open house of education for our European neighbours for our own sake. We have known this for a long time. In 1773 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania established one of the first Ministries of Education in all of Europe. This Ministry (Edukacinë Komisija) put into motion reforms on a state level and sweeping scale. This Ministry declared that “Education is our tool for building a modern nation”. And our Ministry understood that a modern nation cannot be closed in on itself. Without a dialogue of ideas with its neighbours it withers.

Lithuania has a tradition of paying attention to European thought in educational matters. In particular, French reformers found willing, critically thinking ears in Lithuania. The works of Jean - Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot found their way into our educational philosophy. Rousseau was invited to come and live in Lithuania, in a sylvan setting, and to write for Lithuanian schools.

That was a long time ago. But Lithuania is today still in the front ranks of nations in systemic educational reform. Our results are good and our goals are set high. One of these goals is to fully enter a common European educational space. After all, the journey to Europe is a return to our birthright and long-standing heritage. The end result will broaden the common cultural territory of Western and Central Europe, will deepen the foundations of true European Stability and spur human development, which knows no borders.

Whenever Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s intellectual descendants are ready, they are welcome to come and live in Lithuania, to write, to help us build our school system, to provoke our ways of thinking.

Meanwhile, we hope that you will help us through the process we engage in today. This meeting is the second round of deliberations, during which we expect to explain what Lithuania has decided to do and has done during the year since the first multilateral negotiating session. We will explain what still needs to be accomplished in order for Lithuania to become a full-fledged member of the European Union.

We have presented a completed Screening A-List, which should confirm that Lithuania is resolved and ready to undertake all of its European Union obligations from the date of admission.

Agenda 2000, the Opinion of the European Commission made plain the relative ease of transition for Lithuania in the field of education upon entry to the Union. We are gratified by this conclusion, but we also bear a great responsibility for the efficient management of the adoption of European Union Acquis Communitaire. We need to ensure that this process will be as smooth and rapid as possible. We have at our disposal, and at your disposal, half a day’s time, during which we will try to make clear our position and our situation, basing our presentation upon the experience gained at last year’s meeting.

I would like to present the policy - makers and experts that comprise our delegation...

I myself am Vaiva Vëbraitë, vice-minister of Education and Science, and must admit that I am in Brussels for the first time and expect to learn a great deal from my colleagues and from you.

Without further ado, I would like to give the floor to Mister Arûnas Plikðnys, who will address the question of migrant workers. Of course, we also have brought to the meeting some documents to leave with you in the expectation that they will help create a broader context, a more complete view of the changes that Lithuanian education is undergoing.

Ten months

My beloved Vaiva died ten months ago today.

One year ago today we were in the midst of a fruitless course of chemo, which only served to delay the mastectomy and probably hastened her death.

2004.02.16 mano nuotrauka

Seems to have been an Independence day speech in 2004.