Re: [Sansevierias] RE: comments on Olga's Sansevieria pictures

After seeing the picture of SKYLINE with its normal uninflated child, 
I have developed a strong mistrust of these plants grown under 
conditions which we could not replicate without growth chambers which 
duplicate "Indonesia".

I wanted to tell Olga a story which the rest of you might find 
interesting. Here it is

Roger and I belonged to some foreign exchange program which 
ultimately led to us having an opportunity to entertain two Siberians 
who had been leading engineers on the dam installed in Lake Baikal. 
They spoke no English. I had a friend of Russian ancestry, born in 
the USA, who spoke almost no Russian, I believe her vocabulary was 
limited to "bolshoi". So Roger and I decided to take along our friend 
and show the Siberians things which we felt they truly could not see 
in Russia, the showplaces of New York City, all glittering with 
bright lights with shops, the very costly shops along Park Avenue and 
Fifth Avenue. They were bored to DEATH. Then we took them to The 
Russian Tea Room and we got out their Russian English dictionaries 
and I got a pencil and began to draw on table napkins and look up 
certain words in the dictionary and I told them I was a painter, and 
they asked what the paintings looked like and I said, which I 
remember in perfect detail, that the subjects were very recognizable 
but that the context of the painting was itself not realistic but 
more like a dream. This bridge to understanding led to lots of bright 
laughter!!!!!!
It is amazing how people can communicate if they have the will to do 
so and some small help. By this time our American Russian speaking 
friend pretty much had nothing to say. And then Roger got a brilliant 
idea, which is that these people after all are ENGINEERS and the 
Verrazano Bridge footings were in the process of being poured and 
THIS should interest them, so we piled into our TINY VW Beetle and 
drove across NY to see the footings. The Russian Engineers were 
HYSTERICAL and talked among themselves, pointing out various things 
and laughed and were clearly VERY PLEASED that somehow we understood 
what would please them. We were so lucky that the Verrazano Narrows 
bridge was in this state of construction and also that it was so acessible!

The other thing about this which was funny, is that our Russian 
speaking American friend was a fellow dog breeder and when I told her 
that two Siberians were visiting, she assumed they were Siberian 
Huskies, a popular breed of dog. We had to explain that they were 
HUMAN Siberians.

Since my ancestors came from Riga, Latvia, every now and then I would 
remember a Russian word, from old childhood memories, but they were 
words like BLINI and  DA and NYET and of course bolshoi and various 
other words you pick up if you see the film IVAN THE TERRIBLE many 
times, which I had done. And sung The Volga Boatman, and other 
popular Russian folks songs like Stenkya Razin.

I LOVED the pix of Siberia and will show them to my husband.

Hermine
Thank you,Olga;



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