March Newsletter

Greetings everybody! I can’t believe March is already finished and I’m writing a newsletter again. I thought that February went fast, but March literally lasted about a week and a half (in my mind). It was a pretty exciting month for me! It was really fun to be here in Hybe for Easter celebrations! This was my first major holiday spent engaged in a church community, and it was wonderful. We went to Maundy Thursday service (called “Zeleny Stvrtok,“ in Slovak, which translates to “Green Thursday“), as well as Good Friday morning and evening service (called “Velky Piatok“ in Slovak, which translates to “Great Friday“). Some of the younger kids in the congregation prepared a little skit for Friday evening’s service, and dressed up in costumes. I was happy to take communion with everyone at Friday’s service also. During Easter Sunday service (called “Velka Noc“ in Slovak), I sang with the adult choir, the two songs we’ve been practicing for many weeks, and they went really well! It’s been a joy to sing with the older folks of the congregation  I also attended Easter Monday service with my family, and I sang with a group of girls from Mladis, which is the older part of the youth group from our congregation. We sang a traditional Czech song, and Mat’a (one of the girls) played guitar to accompany us. Neither the adult choir or youth group sing in church on a regular basis, usually only special occasions, so I think everyone really appreciated the music during services!

In addition to the celebrating with the church congregation, I celebrated some with my host family as well. I spent the Thursday and Friday before Easter hanging out with my family at home, helping clean and getting in on all of the food preparation and baking. I’m not exactly a chef or baker (haha, I think many people would agree with this), so I watched on as my host mom made three different cakes. My host sister Katka made a chocolate layered cake, her first cake ever! She was very proud of it, and it tasted great! Starka prepared pork for Sunday dinner, as well as potato salad. The potato salad they make is very similar to ours, except they use tartar sauce, and they prepare it for both Christmas and Easter meals. On Friday, we’re not allowed to eat meat, so we had potatoes and fried cheese for dinner, which I was quite excited about. Fried cheese is one of my favorite meals here, (and a pretty common meal in Slovakia in general) and my host family knows that I enjoy it so they make it quite often. On Easter Sunday we went to visit my host mom’s sister, Hana, and her family for coffee and cakes. Baking cake is a tradition in Slovakia year-round, but during holidays it doubles! So many cakes, so many kinds, so good. In return, Hana’s family came to visit us on Easter Monday afternoon, to share even more cakes and treats.

One of the most unique and fun parts about my Easter in Slovakia was experiencing the tradition of being “watered.“ So it is a tradition here for the boys and men to “water“ the girls and women in their village, which means they soak them with water. Either they squirt water at them, or dump cups or pails of water on them, or they drag them to the bathroom and throw them into tubs full of water. I’m happy that I got watered, but glad it wasn’t an extreme case like the bathtub scenario. We were all sitting around in the kitchen, reading and relaxing on Monday afternoon (when the watering traditionally happens, the day after Easter) when two of the boys from the youth group came to the house. Jozo and Pet’o came and rang the door bell and everything, all formal and said “dobry den“ (good afternoon, in Slovak) as they came into the kitchen. I wasn’t really paying much attention because I was engaged in my book, and I wasn’t really expecting the watering to happen that day because I assumed that it would’ve happened on Easter Sunday, if it was going to happen at all. I didn’t realize that it traditionally took place the day after. I didn’t even realize that as soon as the boys came into the kitchen, my host sisters and mom left immediately to go upstairs and change into “bad clothes“ that could get wet from the water. Starka finally got my attention though, and I realized that the boys had grabbed coffee mugs from the shelf and filled them with water. They didn’t even tell me or wait for me to stand...they just one at a time came over to me and dumped a mug of water down my shirt, one down the front side and one down the back. It was pretty amusing, and they didn’t even care that I was sitting on the couch in the living room, and that dumping water all over me meant soaking the couch and cushions. Starka just laughed hysterically.

Before the boys left they also sprayed us with strong perfume, which is another tradition. It’s tradition for the boys to spray something that smells strong or terrible at the girls. Around Easter time, in grocery stores in Slovakia, you can buy special green bottles with terrible smelling juice spray, specific for the tradition. As the boys left, family friends of the Turcanovas came to visit. My host mom called me into the living room right away and introduced me to them. As soon as she did, the men in the group squirted me in the chest with water from a water bottle, and then sprayed cologne into my hair. Pretty funny tradition, I think. Another part of the tradition is that the girls or women have to give the boys and men chocolate or money after they are watered and sprayed, so we gave them chocolate bunnies and eggs that my host mom had ready to hand out. There is another part to the whole tradition that the people of Hybe don’t do. It is tradition for the boys or men to hit the girls or women with sticks, in addition to the spraying and watering. Ha, I’m glad that tradition didn’t stick around in this area, although I’ve seen that many people have the sticks with ribbons tied to them and use them as decoration in their homes during Easter time.

A highlight for me this month was also the history book party event. A man who lives in Hybe just recently finished writing his second book, a history book about the village. In celebration of the book release, the town had a ceremony to celebrate. The celebration took place in a fairly small room (or at least too small for an event like this) in the city building of Hybe. I went to the celebration with my host family, and by the time we got there the whole room was filled with people, as well as the hallway leading into the room. The only place we could manage to squeeze into was the back corner on the right side, right next and literally IN two trees. It was quite funny. My host sister Katka and I giggled quite a bit as we swatted branches out of our faces, and tried to arrange them under and between our arms. Anyways, the ceremony was nice. My friend Vierka, who works as an assistant to the mayor of Hybe, opened the ceremony with a welcome message and poem (although I couldn’t understand much of it). Both an accordian player and violin player played a piece of traditional Slovak music, and Stanislav Ziska spoke a bit about the book and his process of writing it. At the end of the ceremony, we all stood in line to shake his hand and receive a free copy of the book! It was awesome! It’s a nice hard cover book with a lot of pictures (which is great, since I’m not able to read most of it). After the ceremony, everyone gathered in another small room (even smaller than the first) to have a reception, complete with cakes, fruit, alcohol and many other drinks and snacks. This is pretty typical of Slovak celebrations: everyone gathering in a small room around a giant table full of food and drinks, always standing instead of sitting because there isn’t enough room, and socializing and toasting to events. Anyways, the book is a really nice keepsake, and even more special because my host sister Janka had him sign it personally to me. Stanislav Ziska is also my host sister’s history teacher, so that’s pretty fun. She says he is a really great teacher and he is a big reason that she enjoys history so much.

Something new that happened this month was the start of my community English classes. The pastor and a woman from the church thought of the idea to open up a basic English class for whoever was interested in the community, so we held a meeting to see who was interested. It turns out that quite a few people were interested, so the one community class for beginners turned into three community classes (beginner, intermediate, and second intermediate). They have been an interesting challenge, because even though the classes are split up into different levels, there is still a broad mix of ability within the classes.There are mostly adults in my beginner class, and a mix of teenagers and young adults in my two upper level classes. It has been going pretty well and it’s been another great opportunity to meet more people in the community.

Here are some other random highlights for this month: I got my first Slovak Bible! It’s a children’s Bible, so hopefully I will be able to read and understand all of it by the time I leave in August. That is one of my goals. My host sisters and I bought matching kiddy toothbrushes! We were pretty exciting. I love how my family enjoys buying matching things. It’s hilarious, and it really makes me feel like part of the family. I have a green rabbit toothbrush, Janka has a blue puppy toothbrush, and Katka has a purple elephant toothbrush. Good times! I was interviewed for two papers, and for the church magazine (that’s usually published 4-5 times per year). The magazine for our church is called, “Zvon,“ which literally means “bell“ in Slovak. The newest printed edition came out on Easter Sunday, including my interview and picture! Wow, I felt sort of famous! The interview is also published on the church’s website, in both Slovak and English. You can find the interview on the church website (link provided on my blog), as well as on my blog itself, under the posting title “My Interview.“ And, this month I took my first trip “out back“ to see the Turcanova’s animals! I asked my host sisters, sometime in early February, if we could go visit their animals (they live in a little barn that is connected to their garage, right behind the house). They thought I was a little strange, but said yes. And so we finally went in March! They have two rabbits (which they eventually butcher and eat), a cow (which they maybe butcher and eat?? I’m not sure), twelve chickens (or so...they say they don’t actually know), three sheep, and two pigs. One big pig (who they will butcher in a few weeks, to restock their freezer’s meat supply for the upcoming months), and a little pig (who will be butchered next year sometime). I thought it was nice to go back there, just to see how many animals the Turcanovas had, and just because I think it’s fun that the barn is attached to the house (and they live right in town by one of the grocery shops). But from my excitement and interest, they made the assumption that I’ve never seen or been around farm animals before. I tried to explain to them the area in which I live, but I think they still think I’m a bit crazy. But we got to go visit the barn anyway, so I was a happy camper! I also have become a regular at a community aerobics class, held at the school gym on Monday nights. This has been a really nice way to get involved in activity without the language barrier being a roadblock, and it’s been a nice way to work off the steady Slovak diet of meat, potatoes, and chocolate cake.

One more really fun event for the month was the youth choir recording a cd! The younger kids and teenagers are all grouped together to make the youth choir, and they have been practicing these 18 songs for months and months. They finally recorded a cd a few weeks ago, recording all 18 of the songs, complete with flute and recorder additions and solos from the Pastor and some of the kids. And, from me! When I arrived in Hybe back in January, the kids in the youth choir learned a song in English to sing for me in church. Well, we sang this same song for the cd recording, but instead of letting the tape recording sing the main part for them, I sang it and the kids filled in the rest of the song and joined in at the chorus. It was pretty fun, and I hope it sounded ok. We are all anxious to see how the songs turn out! Will keep you posted, and hopefully you’ll get a chance to listen to us sing in the future.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for all of your support! This month I’ve been updating my blog more often, and fixing it up, so please check it out when you have a chance! Ok, hope you all had a fantastic March, and a blessed Easter!

God Bless,
Ashley