Thursday, September 27, 2007
Technical Difficulties
Hi! So, I’m having technical difficulties with setting up pictures and video. I will keep trying, and hopefully they will be coming soon! The blog pages are in Slovak, and the internet connection here at the facility is dial-up, so that’s the recipe for no success yet! I think I’ve figured out which buttons to press to choose and picture and upload it, but they take a LONG time to upload. Anyway, know that I’m working on it. Ok, more soon!
Arrival in Velky Slavkov
So our little group of nine (the four German girls, myself, Kristen, Mark, and Jessica) arrived in the little village of Velky Slavkov on September 2nd. The train station isn’t really a station, but a little garage sized shack out in the middle of nowhere, pretty much. We were greeted by the Tatras mountains…very beautiful scenary! Much different than being in the city, in Bratislava. We were immediately greeted by two young boys (I would guess about ages 8 or 9). They immediately asked “where is Kya?” Kya apparently was the volunteer from our program that had served there the previous year, and she made quite an impression on this village! Many kids and adults asked us where she was in the first few days, and a reality hit me with this. Volunteers can make quite an impact on people, especially in smaller villages (and my placement is in a smaller village) and are paid attention to very closely! It made me a bit nervous to live up to expectations they might have of previous volunteers, but also excited that I’ve been given the gift of time here. I’ve been given a whole year to build friendships, make connections, and become a part of daily life here in Slovakia, and for that I’m very grateful.
Once Daniela told the boys that we were a new group of volunteers, it didn’t take them long to warm up to us and get excited. They crowded around Mark (everyone we’ve talked to so far is quite thrilled that a male volunteer is in Slovakia!) and gave him a pen so he could write his name on their arms! It was pretty entertaining. They did the same to Kristen eventually. I took pictures, and the boys ran over to me in excitement to see them on my camera screen.
When it came time for everyone to head up the little hill leading into the village, the boys INSISTED on carrying our luggage for us! This is pretty crazy, considering these boys are pretty scrawny, and probably about the same size as the bags we were carrying (and probably about half of the weight…these bags are carrying a year’s worth of stuff!). Anyways, they dragged a rolling suitcase each up the little hill into town, stopping only a few times for breaks. About halfway up the hill, they decided that they were pretty macho and that they could each take TWO suitcases up the hill, one in each hand. So they did. When we finally arrived at the center, the two boys collapsed in the front yard! HAHA! I’m pretty impressed. After carrying just one I probably would’ve been laying there next to them. Hard little workers!
The facility we stayed at was a Christian Retreat Center, newly built within the last few years. It was very nice! All eight of us girls stayed in a big room together, which was REALLY nice. There were actually three separate rooms (one in the little attic, and two downstairs) and a bathroom set. Poor Mark (being the only guy) was again by himself in his own room, but I don’t think he minds too much. The rooms were named after different books of the Bible. The girls stayed in Esther, and Mark stayed in Nehemiah.
After our first meal at the facility (spaghetti with beans and chunks of hot dog in it), we were invited to the church next door for a music concert. Our language teacher, Zuska, said she didn’t know how good it would be, but we went anyway because we wanted to check it out. It was hilarious. The first few rows were filled with people, and then us and a bunch of teenage guys were in the back. The concert began with a blat noise from the balcony above us, coming from a trombone player. This trombone player played for probably fifteen minutes for the first song, but he didn’t actually play a lot…he just sort of held LONG, drone-like, out of tune notes. He held an out of tune note while he traveled from the balcony down to the main flower and held it as he made is way down the aisle up to the front. Once he got to the front, he finally switched to a different note, and then he started spinning in a circle! He was spinning for at least five minutes, still playing this one note, still out of tune. We tried REALLY hard not to laugh, and it was going okay, until Zuska (the only native Slovakian) started laughing out loud when the trombone player ripped the mute out of his instrument and threw it at the ground (it made a loud cracking noise), and after that we lost it. We weren’t the first ones to laugh, or to leave. I felt bad! Most of the people in the church were snickering, and at least fifteen people from the back rows, where we were sitting, filed out of the church before the trombone player finished his first song. We stayed for a few more songs after that, one more number by the spinning trombone player, and then a woman sang a folk song with her guitar (also a bit drone-like and out of tune). It was a pretty funny experience, and I was surprised at how the locals behaved. Especially for a volunteer performance at a church! Pretty crazy.
Once Daniela told the boys that we were a new group of volunteers, it didn’t take them long to warm up to us and get excited. They crowded around Mark (everyone we’ve talked to so far is quite thrilled that a male volunteer is in Slovakia!) and gave him a pen so he could write his name on their arms! It was pretty entertaining. They did the same to Kristen eventually. I took pictures, and the boys ran over to me in excitement to see them on my camera screen.
When it came time for everyone to head up the little hill leading into the village, the boys INSISTED on carrying our luggage for us! This is pretty crazy, considering these boys are pretty scrawny, and probably about the same size as the bags we were carrying (and probably about half of the weight…these bags are carrying a year’s worth of stuff!). Anyways, they dragged a rolling suitcase each up the little hill into town, stopping only a few times for breaks. About halfway up the hill, they decided that they were pretty macho and that they could each take TWO suitcases up the hill, one in each hand. So they did. When we finally arrived at the center, the two boys collapsed in the front yard! HAHA! I’m pretty impressed. After carrying just one I probably would’ve been laying there next to them. Hard little workers!
The facility we stayed at was a Christian Retreat Center, newly built within the last few years. It was very nice! All eight of us girls stayed in a big room together, which was REALLY nice. There were actually three separate rooms (one in the little attic, and two downstairs) and a bathroom set. Poor Mark (being the only guy) was again by himself in his own room, but I don’t think he minds too much. The rooms were named after different books of the Bible. The girls stayed in Esther, and Mark stayed in Nehemiah.
After our first meal at the facility (spaghetti with beans and chunks of hot dog in it), we were invited to the church next door for a music concert. Our language teacher, Zuska, said she didn’t know how good it would be, but we went anyway because we wanted to check it out. It was hilarious. The first few rows were filled with people, and then us and a bunch of teenage guys were in the back. The concert began with a blat noise from the balcony above us, coming from a trombone player. This trombone player played for probably fifteen minutes for the first song, but he didn’t actually play a lot…he just sort of held LONG, drone-like, out of tune notes. He held an out of tune note while he traveled from the balcony down to the main flower and held it as he made is way down the aisle up to the front. Once he got to the front, he finally switched to a different note, and then he started spinning in a circle! He was spinning for at least five minutes, still playing this one note, still out of tune. We tried REALLY hard not to laugh, and it was going okay, until Zuska (the only native Slovakian) started laughing out loud when the trombone player ripped the mute out of his instrument and threw it at the ground (it made a loud cracking noise), and after that we lost it. We weren’t the first ones to laugh, or to leave. I felt bad! Most of the people in the church were snickering, and at least fifteen people from the back rows, where we were sitting, filed out of the church before the trombone player finished his first song. We stayed for a few more songs after that, one more number by the spinning trombone player, and then a woman sang a folk song with her guitar (also a bit drone-like and out of tune). It was a pretty funny experience, and I was surprised at how the locals behaved. Especially for a volunteer performance at a church! Pretty crazy.
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