Hookd on fonicks werked fer mee.

On Who Do You Think You Are, Lisa Kudrow travels to Belarus, to her grandmother's hometown to find out what happened there to her great-grandmother during WWII. (Of course, they killed all the Jews. Duh. Only here it seems their was more involvement by German soldiers, rather than leaving it up to the locals.)

She flies into Minsk, which they describe as "now part of Belarus." Most of the region was old Lithuania. In fact, much Jewish life of old Lithuania happened in places that are now technically part of Belarus.

I think we can only claim towns now, and not countries. Official borders are tricky things.

While there, her guide who runs a Jewish museum takes her around. I am jealous that she has everything - every conversation - on tape.

Her guide is able to translate what she finds in the archives immediately and follow up on the leads. I am jealous of this immediate translation. I have data from the archives, but because I couldn't speak any of the languages in which it was written (only identifying names when I saw them and take a photo of it for later), I couldn't follow up on anything. Not that there was anything to follow up on, necessarily, but maybe...

I remember cursing myself for not knowing Russian and not knowing Yiddish as I sat with the documents. "Why don't I speak Russian???" Yes, I'm prone to drama, but I'm also someone who understands the world primarily through language and text. I am someone who interacts with the world through language and text.

To be foiled by language and a lack of basic literacy is more frustrating and hurtful to me than any other kind of roadblock.