Syktyvkar Sister City Delegation Says Goodbye to Los Altos Then Heads Home

Editor's note: For the past week, two doctors and two journalists, members of a delegation from Syktyvkar, Russia, have toured organizations in which they have professional interest.

Dorothy Dickson, president of the Los Altos Sister Cities Inc., wrote the following as the group prepared to leave Sunday.

As our four Sister Cities guests flew back on Sunday to Syktyvkar, Russia, I reflected on what a wonderful relationship we have.

Our community opened its homes to host, to act as tour guides and to share its expertise in the workplace. Our guests welcomed these interchanges with grateful thanks. They were hosted by Gary and Barbara Loebner, Mardell and Gerry Blaufarb, and ourselves.

We were all surprised at the youth of the doctors we were hosting—as a neurologist and head of a cardiology unit, Maxim hadn’t yet celebrated his 30th birthday! His wife, Anna, is a doctor in the emergency room of the same hospital. As well as taking time to see the beauty of this area, they had busy days at both El Camino and Stanford hospitals.

Their fellow travelers, Sergei and Valery, both journalists, spent time exchanging experiences with our local news sources.

It was fun for me to discover that we have a common friend from Syktykar who now lives here, and that two of the Russian-speaking doctors they met at Stanford are parents of one of my ex-students!

I would like to say a great big thank you on behalf of our guests to the many people in our community who made the visit such a wonderful experience.

Before our guests left our home, I remembered a beautiful tradition I had been taught when I visited Syktyvkar a few years ago. With suitcases ready, instead of rushing out, we all sat down together for a few minutes quietly reflecting on
the journey past and the journey now ahead.

There are more journeys planned by Los Altos Sister Cities. If you are interested
in knowing more or in participating in journeys or youth exchanges, please check out our website, losaltossistercities.com

- Dorothy Dickson, president of Los Altos Sister Cities

The delegation included:

• Sergey Morokhin, deputy chairman of the Komi Branch of the Russian Peace Foundation, and a journalist.
• Valery Chernitsyn, editor in the politic and economic department of Krasnoe Znamya Daily.
• Dr. Maxim Cherepyanskiy, head of the Vascular Center of the Komi Republic
• Dr. Anna Cherepyanskaya, physician, Komi Republic hospital