My daughter wants to go with a friend to Lithuania for the summer via this program and teach English and tour.
https://ilp.org/lithuania She can get some funding from the honors program at her university. Money is not really my concern. My concern is her going to Europe for a summer even with a group. Maybe I’m be a nervous father but I turned on the TV tonight and Taken is playing. Thoughts? Experiences with Lithuania or similar programs?

Thanks!

Don't watch the movie Taken or you won't let her out of the house.

Sorry I can't help I've never been there. Free bump.

My son's girlfriend taught English there for the past two years in connection with the U.S. Embassy. She loved it. Her father got sick and she had to return home. They love Americans. Very safe.

quote:

Originally posted by rtquig:
Very safe.

Domestically, yes.

But like the other Baltic states, there's a not-insignificant chance of Lithuania being invaded by Russia (again), either overtly or more covertly (like the Crimea/Eastern Ukraine), if Russia were to get belligerent.

They filmed parts of the HBO series Chernobyl in Lithuania. The country is making a comeback after having been dominated by Stalin, Hitler and the USSR.

Friend did her Peace Corps stint in Lithuania about 20 years ago and loved her time there. She spoke glowingly of the people and the entire experience.

If the group is trustworthy and your daughter responsible it should be a good experience. Are there people involved with the program you can talk to without embarrassing your daughter or coming off as a helicopter parent from hell?

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
But like the other Baltic states, there's a not-insignificant chance of Lithuania being invaded by Russia (again), either overtly or more covertly (like the Crimea/Eastern Ukraine), if Russia were to get belligerent.

I believe that it’s very unlikely that Russia will invade any of the Baltic states anytime soon. If they’re willing to take such a step, it would be Ukraine first, IMO.

But one of the things that fascinates me about the history of warfare, especially since WW I, is what happens to civilians, particularly foreigners, in countries that are invaded, and what they did—and especially didn’t do—prior to an invasion. What struck me time and again in my reading is how blind so many of them were to the warnings provided by preattack indicators, many of which were glaringly obvious. It is, of course, the people who have lived there a long time and put down deep roots who are the most unwilling to pick up and leave, but not always. If I were a short term resident of a country like Lithuania I would keep my wits about me and be willing to say, “Oh, I really need to go home for a bit,” if circumstances seemed to warrant.

Otherwise and in the absence of information to the contrary, I personally would have little fear that people are being abducted off the streets of that country. Bad things can happen anyplace, but some places are far more dangerous than others, and it’s usually possible to determine which ones are the worst.

quote:

What struck me time and again in my reading is how blind so many of them were to the warnings provided by preattack indicators, many of which were glaringly obvious.

^^^^^^^^
Hitler made a deal with Stalin regarding Lithuania and the Baltic states, I believe. The nonaggression pact was signed by Stalin. This is my recollection. It may be incorrect. The pact was secret and signed in 1939. It is not like Lithuanians had advance knowledge of what was to happen.

I have never visited Lithuania although I'd welcome the opportunity.

I live near a world renowned resort and they have a program that hires a large number of international workers for temporary guest worker positions. The program is highly competitive and selective, and while they may have landed a couple problem people, for the most part they hire college-aged to young adults, many recently graduated from colleges in their home countries. The internationals selected speak English, are friendly, intelligent, honest, hard working, respectful, and hard working. They work long hours for relatively little pay...but both for the opportunity to place the program on their resumes as well as the experience, and the opportunity to see the U.S. as their schedules allow.

A number of Lithuanians have gone through the program and the ones that I've had the opportunity to talk with are friendly, intelligent, happy to be in the U.S. and enjoy their stays here, and seem to generally like the U.S. and Americans. Many of them speak better English than many U.S. citizens do, albeit with an accent. They are one of several international groups that I enjoy talking with.

I also have met a few local soldiers who have married Lithuanian girls, and again the girls are intelligent, friendly, and seem happy to become Americans.

I do agree with Sigfreund though, in that it is never a bad practice to stay aware of your surroundings and of the political climate, especially when travelling abroad.

My daughter really wanted to do the ILP program in the Dominican Republic. After doing a little digging, it seems like they drop her off at an orphanage and she's basically on her own for weeks at a time. I wasn't comfortable with that situation at all, and did everything I could to persuade her not to go.

Here in UK many Lithuanian health care and home care personnel are younger Lithuanian ladies - between, say, 21 and 25. Our daughter's current 'carers' are part of a team that is chock-full of them. Every one that I've met is unfailingly caring and very good at their job, which can be pretty unpleasant at times. One such young lady has a string of qualifications in health care as long as her name, and felt that UK offered her more opportunities than remaining anywhere in the Baltic states, although Estonia might just win out when here tenure here is through.

Haven't been there, but dealt with the country in my previous job since Germany has the lead of the local NATO tripwire force. Agree that the situation with Russia shouldn't be of any concern, or people might as well not have visited West Germany during the Cold War. This is despite the country sitting smack on the "Suwalki Gap" between Russia proper and its exclave of Kaliningrad. Moreover, of the three Baltic States Lithuania is the least likely for Russia to try some funny tricks of hybrid warfare, since unlike in Estonia and Latvia, ethnic Russians have a single-digit share of the population, and there is little domestic strain over it.

Obviously you shouldn't stray over the border without authorization - up in Estonia the Russians have repeatedly arrested people on their side in confusing spots like this one - but I never heard of such incidents in Lithuania, and the line with the Kaliningrad exclave is fenced. In fact the location is conveniently close to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad (ex Königsberg) for day trips, though I would recommend hearing local security advice about that. Otherwise obviously all of the EU is open to you for unimpeded travel from there.

As political sentiment goes, it's probably hard to find a more pro-American area in Europe than the Baltic States, even going back before NATO's reassurance policy and forward deployment since the 2014 Ukrainian crisis; the US always recognized the three countries' claim to independence from the USSR throughout the Cold War. As noted the local Enhanced Forward Presence battlegroup of a little over a thousand is under German command, but there is always a small American military presence in support, and frequent exercises involving more. An additional 500 US troops are currently in country for a half-year deployment lasting until spring, and the American-led eFP battlegroup is just over the border in Poland.

General security-wise, from what I have seen the Baltic States have somewhat higher crime rates than the rest of the EU, but that may be a statistic function of small populations combined with Eastern European socio-economics, opportunities for cross-border smuggling, corruption etc.; think West Virginia in crime terms. And historically, the Baltic area is highly interesting.

quote:

Originally posted by BansheeOne:
General security-wise, from what I have seen the Baltic States have somewhat higher crime rates than the rest of the EU

You can say that again. Much of the violent crime in this part of the UK, Eastern England, which has a very high ex-pat Baltic state population who are employed in regional agriculture, is carried out by Lithuanians, who are top of the class for internecine assaults and murders. Even killing local girls, as well as each other. They seem to get a free pass out of jail back home, even for violent assault and murder, then come over to UK and carry on their career of crime. One bunch last year was convicted of people trafficking - in reality nothing less than slave labour - and handed down hefty sentences. Every one of the gang members was a known criminal back home, with extensive prison records to prove it.

Yeah, unfortunately like other Eastern European countries they are exporting their criminals along with the honest workseekers (well, and the mostly honest sexworkers) across the EU. They're statistically not conspicious here, by virtue of a small population; per the 2018 German national crime report, Romanian suspects contributed the biggest group of foreign EU citizens with about 23 percent, followed by Poles with 21, Italians about eleven and Bulgarians abought eight. Everyone else was under five, with Lithuanians at 2.3. But anecdotally they show up in a lot of reports about Eastern European organized crime gangs, though particularly cybercrime.

I noted their comparatively high homicide rate at home on a global chart some time ago, which I tend to put down to the same reasons often quoted for their Finnish and Russian neighbors - long winter nights and lots of alcohol. But numbers have gone down somewhat since 2012, and again, that's no worse than West Virginia or Arizona. Also, the chart shows the problem of statistic anomalies for small populations: the Arctic Canadian province of Nunavut shows up almost as dangerous as Mexico, but that's probably because with a grand total population of 37,000, a couple murders will go a long way if calculated on a basis of per 100,000.



Bigger detail map of Europe.

Thank you. Especially to those of you with more direct knowledge.

A lesson in critical thinking:

Whenever discussing murder rates, the very first question that should be answered is who is killing whom and why? General rates without that (and other information) are essentially meaningless for predicting how likely a particular individual is to be murdered.

In 2018 about 435,000 people were believed to have died of malaria worldwide. In the same year, the world population reached an estimated 7.5 billion. Does that mean the probability that I would have died of malaria in the mountains of Colorado during 2018 was one in about 17,000? (A rhetorical question that I hope no one here needs answered.)

Of note, Lithuania reached Tier 1 (best) in efforts to combat Human Trafficking in J/TIP (Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons) in State in 2017. That means they complied with the minimum standards, but does represent an achievement.

Keep in mind, Taken is made by Hollywood, playing on the fears of the naive and inexperienced. No different to horror movies portraying every small town and rural community as a bunch of inbred killers or a haven of bigoted-sociopaths. Travel anywhere, one should be aware of their surroundings, no doubt Europeans are aware of venturing to the Southside of Chicago or, around public housing projects that dot American cities. Lithuania was the first of the Soviet states to breakaway and declare independence. The people there are not Russians, nor do they appreciate being compared to the Russians; they don't like 'em too much.

American students abroad usually come in two flavors, the ones who are really interested in the experience and then there's those who treat it as a twisted vacation. The last two times I was in Florence, there was a gaggle of American high schoolers, clearly there on a student-abroad program, who acted as if they were in a Vegas nightclub. We see the same idiocy with kids from South America working at various US ski resorts/lift areas on J-1 visas. I'm gonna assume you've raised your daughter right, she has a sense of awareness & surroundings and she's responsible, thus, I'd give her a lot of credit to approach you about this adventure. Think of it as an opportunity that while she's there, you and your wife can take advantage and go visit, have a temporary local show you around and make your vacation that much more enjoyable.

IME, very nice folks, and my gosh are there some gorgeous women there