Friday, January 27, 2006

Our Man in Odessa, an update

Here's an update on Bill Fields, the subject of a three-part series last year.

As you may remember, we met in November in Odessa. Bill had returned to Ukraine still limping from the broken leg he suffered while visiting Ukraine, in search of a bride, in February. He had hoped to re-connect with the woman he'd left at that time, but instead he found it impossible to locate her -- even her son couldn't say where she was.

Bill was very disappointed, but after picking up his rented phone and calling a wrong number, he wound up on a date with another woman -- one he'd actually planned to meet, if Oksana, the only woman he'd seen in February, wasn't available (he'd lost contact with her for several weeks). This second woman didn't speak English as well as Oksana, but she had a son who did and so the three spent the week together.

When Bill left, he was still hoping to hear from Oksana (her son said she'd be home in December, back from an extended business trip), though he was also pleased to have met this new woman, for whom he bought a set of language CDs with the hopes of reconnecting at a later date.

Here's the update, received by email this week:

The lady I was seeing while I was in Odessa did not work out due to her son was doing the translating for us and there was a misunderstanding. The lady Oksana who disappeapered has not returned home yet but occasionally I am able to talk to her son and he does not know when his mother will return. She was supposed to be back by Christmas but that did not happen.*


This email brings a lot of questions to my mind, but I'll let them idle till March, when Bill and I will meet again in Odessa. He's still determined to meet a Ukrainian woman, it seems.

I have been corresponding with another lady from Odessa. She is 45 years old and is an accountant. We write each other about every day and I will be coming to see her ... Well I will close for now and write Yulia my letter for today.*


Names changed to protect identities.

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