When we went to Latvia a couple of years ago, we knew we'd be dancing with a local folk group, who would probably ask us to teach, so Marina learned a fair amount of relevant vocabulary. Turned out the entire group, although Latvian-born and raised, spoke only Russian. She spoke more Latvian than they did. Fortunately she can teach in Russian, and we ended up teaching them Latvian dances, since they didn't know many of those.
It sure is. The Latvian government has threatened our clergy with jail and fines because we are Lutherans but not part of the large, established (perhaps not formally) Latvian Lutheran Church. But that's one fly at a picnic compared to pre-liberation days.
