August 14, 2005: Headlines: COS - Kyrgyzstan: Marriage: New York Times: Katherine Steele and Robert Landy marry - the couple met as Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000
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August 14, 2005: Headlines: COS - Kyrgyzstan: Marriage: New York Times: Katherine Steele and Robert Landy marry - the couple met as Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000
Katherine Steele and Robert Landy marry - the couple met as Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000
"We were assigned to villages at opposite ends of the country, separated by the Tien-Shan mountain range," he said. "The only way to travel between the two towns was a 22-hour car ride on an unpaved road or a flight on a Yak-40, a small Brezhnev-era Soviet jet."
Katherine Steele and Robert Landy marry - the couple met as Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000
Katherine Steele and Robert Landy
Published: August 14, 2005
Katherine Rosemary Steele, a daughter of Patricia Sippel and M. William Steele of Tokyo, was married last evening to Robert Seabrook Landy, the son of Patricia Seabrook Landy and Robert J. Landy of Wilmington, Del. The Rev. Orlanda Brugnola, a Unitarian Universalist minister, officiated at the Fourth Universalist Society in New York. The Rev. John P. McGuire, a Roman Catholic priest, took part in the ceremony.
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The bride, 27, is a law student at New York University. She graduated from Haverford College. Her father is the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at International Christian University in Tokyo, where he is also a professor of Japanese history. Her mother is an associate professor of Japanese history at Toyo Eiwa University in Yokohama, Japan.
The bridegroom, 29, is an associate in the litigation department of Sullivan & Cromwell, the Manhattan law firm. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and received his law degree magna cum laude from New York University. His mother is a vice president of marketing in Wilmington for J. P. Morgan Chase. His father retired as an owner and the president of Cork Products Company, a business in Brooklyn that imported items such bulletin boards.
The couple met as Peace Corps volunteers in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2000. Mr. Landy and Ms. Steele were in a small van on their way to Bishkek, the capital. She had just finished 10-weeks of preservice training. Mr. Landy, a one-year veteran of teaching English in Kyrgyzstan, had volunteered to guide Ms. Steele and two other new volunteers through the stores and bazaars of the capital before she and the others departed to their posts, she to the village of Shabdan-Ata.
Mr. Landy said when he met Ms. Steele his eyes opened a little wider. "But," he added, "it took me a little while to convince her to see me as anything other than just another fellow volunteer."
Or so he thought. It was six months before he could find out where he stood.
"We were assigned to villages at opposite ends of the country, separated by the Tien-Shan mountain range," he said. "The only way to travel between the two towns was a 22-hour car ride on an unpaved road or a flight on a Yak-40, a small Brezhnev-era Soviet jet."
When they did meet again in February, he found he did not have to do a lot of convincing. They ran into each other one night in Bishkek at the American Pub, a popular hangout for American Peace Corps volunteers and expatriates. They had both been called back to the capital, with many other volunteers, to help unload donated books from freight cars. When Ms. Steele saw him at a table with friends at the pub, she approached him to say hello.
"Although we hadn't seen each other in six months, this image of him had grown in my mind," she said. "I had discussed him with my fellow volunteers in my village, and told them what an attractive person he was in terms of what he'd done in Kyrgyzstan. For instance, he had helped start a leadership camp in nonviolent problem solving. I had written letters to my sister and best friend saying that if only we knew one another, we'd be madly in love."
At that second meeting, their affection for each other immediately took root and rapidly grew. Ms. Steele said she knew because she found herself "waiting by the phone" when she returned to her village, "even though most of the time I was waiting, the phone didn't work."
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Story Source: New York Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kyrgyzstan; Marriage
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