www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall email from a Rusyn

Has anyone else received this email? If so, what do you make of it?

CDL

Hello everybody,

My name is Marika and I am a friend of Eileen from Erie. My husband and I moved to Erie in the middle of December. Previously, we had lived in Prague and Bratislava for three years. In January we moved to Pittsburgh and we are just exploring this beautiful city. When I lived in Erie I got to know Eileen and she was great. She invited us to the Rusyn Xmas party and I got to help her prepare the food. We had LOTS of fun making holubky and pirohy.

I come from Humenne from Eastern Slovakia. It is a nice little town not far from the Ukrainian border and close to Presov, Snina and Medzilaborce. My mum is from Jarabina near Stara Lubovna and my dad is from Repejeov near Svidnik, I spent most of my childhood in these two lovely villages in the countryside with my grandparents who uphold Rusyn traditions. My grandma taught me cook all the traditional meals and my grandpa showed me which mushrooms are safe to pick. I love coming back there.

I am writing to introduce myself to you and tell you that I am very interested in joining the Rusyn community in Pittsburgh.

Also, I am an experienced English and Slovak teacher and I would be happy to teach Slovak language to anyone who would like to have a go at it:)

Take care,

Hope to hear from you

Marika

Since I am a cradle speaker of English and have not the slightest desire to learn Slovak, of all things, I don't make anything of it.

Fr. Serge

I haven't received the e-mail, but then I don't live near PIttsburgh. If you're wondering if she is legitimate or not, you might want to try contacting the Erie chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society. I am presuming that you don't belong, but you might. Sorry if you already do belong. I presume the Eileen she is talking about is probably a member of the CR-S and you can find her e-mail or phone number and verify with her whether there was a girl named Marika helping her with Christmas Eve dinner. Good luck.

Tim

I decided not to respond because I don't live even live in the state of Pa. I checked the cc list and it was enormous. She must have found a list someplace and sent it to everyone on the list. I don't know if this was spam or a new trick from Nigeria or if it was legit but I did not respond.

CDL

It has a decidedly non-immigrant tone to it. I'd be delighted to see a letter of such quality written by the average American for whom English is his first tongue and who holds a master's degree in the arts - and I defy you to find many who could produce such. The only line that even suggests English not to be her native language is "I love coming back there." Otherwise, I can only fault her for "from Humenne from Eastern Slovakia" and for leaving the preposition "to" out of the sentence about grandma teaching her to cook.

That said, I find it curious that this young Rusyn emigre has so quickly adopted the use of "Xmas". Finally (and getting back to the polished linguistics), it seems odd that this introduction to the community doesn't come laced with a few meaningful Slovak terms (instead of just placenames and a couple of food items). I'd have found it more genuine if she slipped and used Slovak for 'dad', 'mom', 'grandma', or 'grandpa', anticipating that even her prospective pupils would have those on tongue's tip.

Not sure how one turns this into a scam but, for me, it has that tone to it.

Many years,

Neil

I received this e-mail. There is a Rusyn/Orthodox/Byzantine Catholic group of addresses collected and used by one individual for his personal e-mail messages (without BCC-ing), and I'll bet that Marika got one of those messages and just hit "reply all".

I understand caution, but this message didn't raise any red flags for me. She didn't ask for $10,000 to help ship her diamond collection out of Nigeria--she just said she wants to meet other Rusyns and offered to teach Slovak to anyone interested.

Dave

I just thought it was odd that she did not offer to teach the Rusyn language.

I agree with Dave. If further communication would involve a request for money it would raise a red flag. She could be an interesting speaker at some church affair.

Fr Deacon Paul