in september 2003, i was standing on the sandy ground that used to be the aral sea. i had hired a guide (let's call him R) to take me there nukus and as we surveyed the rusting fishing boats that lay on the ground around us, R asked me where i was from.
"near philadelphia" i told him. "no," he said, "where is your family from originally?"
like most jewish americans i am a bit of an eastern european mutt. i started rattling off countries: romania, austria, poland, lithuania...
"lithuania?" R interrupted. "yeah, my grandfather was born there," i told him.
"we're countrymen!" R exclaimed. "our grandfathers were born in the same country. welcome home!" i'd never really thought that coming to uzbekistan, a piece of the former russian empire, would be a return to my ancestral home. i looked over the barren terrain that surrounded us, possibly the worst ecological disaster in the world, and felt nothing.
...
i've been thinking about that exchange lately. actually, the more i think about it the weirder it seems. R was a karakalpak nationalist. he didn't even want his country to be part of uzbekistan, so in retrospect it seems a little out of character for him to view even more distant lithuania as some kind of bridge to connect us.
anyway, i realize that for all my travels i've never been to any of the countries where my great-grandparents lived.* that will change in about two weeks when mrs. noz and i cross latvia and arrive in klaipėda. i keep wondering if lithuania will feel different than anywhere else i've been. there's no rational reason to believe it will, but it doesn't stop me from wondering.
it's not like i grew up with any stories about lithuania or anything. in fact, i don't think i even knew that's where my grandfather was from until after he was dead. whatever relatives my grandfather left behind either got out themselves or were wiped out in the holocaust. so there won't be any reunions with long-lost cousins during our visit. just buildings someone related to me might have once looked at and ground some ancestor of mine might have once stood on. i'm not sure if that matters at all. but i guess that's something i'll find out when i get there.
this blog really hasn't reflected our upcoming trip all that much. it's been on my mind a lot lately, but when it comes to posting the israel-lebanon issue has hogged all the rants. we leave saturday evening and will get back two weeks later. like with my prior travels, this site will probably get a little less political and more like a travel log. because i'm going with mrs. noz and not alone, the posts will be a lot less frequent than they were last year in syria. but i will probably post something.
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*okay, i've been to austria. but my great-grandfather came from a part of the austro-hungarian empire that isn't part of modern austria. so i don't think that counts any more than visiting uzbekistan counts as a visit to lithuania.
