Entry 4: The Worst-Case Scenario Guide to Learning Enterprises

Towards evening, as the impenetrable pine forests of the taiga gave way to the rolling foothills of the southern Urals, we decided to hold our (mandatory) orientation. Though not uninteresting by any means, I believe the only matter of particular interest to come out of it was the following story, which Brett proposed as a worst case scenario, to be avoided at all costs:

Apparently, a couple years back, one of the volunteers in the Learning Enterprises program in Mexico started having a romantic relationship with his (that's right, his) host father. Although this particular volunteer just looked upon the relationship as something casual, he and his host father were using terms of endearment that suggested that their relationship was, in fact, something more serious. When it came time for the volunteer to leave, his host father showed up with baggage of his own. "What's going on?" the volunteer asked. "I'm coming with you," his host father replied. When the volunteer tried to refuse, his host only insisted and claimed, "well you called me [such-and-such a term] and insisted that I was your [such-and-such]". Again, the volunteer tried to defend himself, insisting that he was only following the father's example. But alas! all was in vain. The host father had left his wife and children and ended up stalking the volunteer all the way to his home town in the US. The incident completely ruined this whole village in Mexico, and Learning Enterprises had to get rid of that program (one of their biggest and oldest) entirely. So far as I can tell, there's not much of a possibility of that happening in our program ¾ at least not with my situation ¾ but it's always best to be forewarned... in Russia one has always to be especially vigilant.