We’ll be gathering around the holiday table for — wait, what was that again?
My Christmas season in 1991 was spent in the city of Košice (KOSH-it-sə) Czechoslovakia, population circa 225,000, located near the Ukraine in what is now independent Slovakia.
I was teaching conversational English to doctors and nurses in Košice’s teaching hospital under the auspices of a post-Cold War program called Education for Democracy, and thanks to the abundant generosity of my students, several holiday visits to their homes were booked well in advance.
As you might imagine, those months living and working in a locale with history dating back to the 13th century, one that had been situated behind the ideological Iron Curtain until two years prior to my arrival, made a deep and lasting impression. It was as much of an education for me as them, and 30 years later, I think about it almost every day.
As Christmas approached...
Read more
