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From: Gunars K. Neiders neiders@halcyon.com
Date: 10/10/00
Time: 9:37:52 PM
Remote Name: 12.13.226.13
Per,
This paper was, perhaps, the most important paper in the conference for me. Just a few words about me: my career has been as software engineer for Boeing company, but my hobbies, since I stutter, have been psychology and stuttering therapy. I have earned an MA in Psychology, and am a registered counselor in the state of Washington.
I was born in Latvia and, possibly, after I retire in fifteen months, I would like to facilitate stuttering therapy in Latvia. So far my contacts with Latvia have been minimal, partly due to the defense work I am doing and the possible instability in Latvia due to constant Russian threats.
When I look at the horizon, I see nothing but challenges. Even the foolhardy souls, like me :-), are a little intimidated. For example:
1) My efforts trying to contact anybody who does anything like stuttering therapy so far have not been successful.
2) As far as I know there is no organization for stutterers in Latvia.
3) Unlike Denmark, whose language is similar to Norvegian and Swedish the Latvian language is unique.
4) The financial situation in Latvia is such that if $10,000 could be scraped up annually that would be a miracle.
But enough of whining :-), wailing :-), wallowing in self-pity :-), and sniveling :-).
My questions to you, Per (and to anybody who would like to chime in), are:
A) What would you suggest as a starting point?
B) Do you agree that building a website in Latvian while I am still in United States would be a good investment?
C) Can you share your list of frequently asked questions?
D) What are the imminent pitfalls?
E) Besides contacting the Latvian University in Riga, who else should I contact for support?
F) Do you think that my personal library of material on stuttering in English would be of any value to the Latvian speech therapists (if such an animal even exists :-), as I have serious doubts that the Soviet system supported such luxuries :-) )? What I am asking, I guess is: does your library include English books and tapes and have they been found useful? Do you have German language material?
The questions go on and on. I would like you, or anybody else, who has some thoughts on this, besides answering the questions, send me your e-mail address to neiders@halcyon.com, so I could contact you later also.
Gunars
p.s. Sorry I missed the 3rd World Congress on Fluency Disorders in Denmark due to my wife's illness.