*Pictured: The stage set-up at the Christian music festival in Bratislava in Hlavne Namestie, a group photo during our hike in Slovenksy Raj: Linda, me, Jessica, Mary, Emilie, Mark, Kristen, Maike, and Anne.
June Newsletter
Hi everybody! As I write this, over half of the summer has already flown by. With each month that goes by, the time just keeps getting faster and faster! June was a jam-packed month, I hardly know where to start. I feel really blessed to be here, and feel more so with each month I spend here. I’m really excited to have my whole summer to spend here with these people, and to experience another (and the warmest, yay!) season in Slovakia. I guess I’ll start from the first day of June.
June was a month full of children’s choir performances, and June 1st was the opener in Brezno. The choir took a great trip to the city of Brezno to sing at a benefit concert. The concert was held for a young teenage girl who has many health problems and health care related expenses. We were one of many groups to perform in the Evangelical church, located in the park of the city’s main city square. We sang four songs for a very full church, and among the crowd were many parents and fans from Hybe that traveled with us by bus (including my host parents). This was one of my favorite performances with the choir, because the atmosphere was really fun. My host mom started clapping at the start of one of our songs and got the whole church to join in within a few seconds, and people everywhere were rooting for us and smiling. It was a great time! Another highlight of this year was our performance in Bratislava. At the end of June our children’s choir took a trip to Slovakia’s capital city to take part in a Christian music festival, Stretnutie Krestanov. We took part in the all-day festival in the city’s main square, Hlavne Namestie, along with many other choirs from around the country. We sang about 8 songs on the big stage for hundreds of people gathered in the square, and we had a blast! Our pastor’s brother-in-law is a pastor as well, and his choir invited us on stage to sing one song with them, which was also great! Their choir also sang the theme song to the popular cartoon show “Krtko,” which was fun and went over really well with all of the kids. I was really happy to see so many parents and friends from Hybe again, everyone is so supportive of us.
Another performance we had, the night before, was at a church in a small village in Jahrndorf, Austria (from Bratislava we drove over the border, it was a short trip). This was a nice night too, and maybe the most fun part for me was that it was in Austria and everyone was speaking German. It was exciting to cross the border with everybody, and to be there when everyone started freaking out. “AH! I don’t speak German, does anybody else speak it? I can’t understand anything! How do we know what to do?” I think it helped some of the kids relate to me a bit better, when I explained that this feeling of being lost in a language was something I experienced on a daily basis for quite awhile when I first came to Slovakia. After the performance, we were invited to the local park shelter for a big potluck-style dinner, and it was delicious! And finally, our children’s choir also performed at a regional festival in the village of Liptovsky Jan. As I’ve explained before in my blog, Slovaks celebrate name days, and the 24th of June marks the name Jan (American version is John) on the Slovak calendar. (My host dad’s name is Jan!) So in celebration of the name day Jan (a big day, because Jan is one of the most popular names in the country), many surrounding villages join together to have a choir festival at the church in Liptovsky Jan (village is chosen because of the name). A great time was had by all. Singing in the children’s choir has been one of my favorite things to do this year, and I have a lot of new memories from June.
In June we had our last official volunteer meeting, a seminar in Slovenksy Raj (Slovak Paradise). The whole group met together for about four days, spending time catching up, hiking, and doing some end of the year evaluations. We also had the opportunity to meet our program’s new coordinator, Nata. We had a really nice time together, as we always do, and it was sad to say goodbye to each other at the end of it. We have grown into a little family, and each other’s support systems, and it was the last opportunity to be all together. But I think we took great advantage of it, and had a great last few days together. We spent an entire day out hiking in Slovensky Raj, took other walks, had great food, swapped photos and stories, and shared a worship service together. We talked a lot about our process of readjusting back to American or German cultures and the reality of coming home, and how we could continue to rely on each other for support. I think it will be a really challenging experience for everyone, and all of our experiences will be quite different, I think. I look forward to keeping in touch with them in the future, and seeing the American volunteers again at our retreat in October! :-) And we spent time at the retreat planning reunions for further down the road, where we could get together and reminisce, try to speak Slovak (if we remember any at that point), and eat the great Slovak food we’re going to miss.
Some other random highlights for the month: I did some traveling in the Czech Republic after our final volunteer retreat; to Prague with 3 of my volunteer friends, and to Pilsen (Plzen) on my own. Pilsen was especially exciting because I have ancestors on my mom’s side of the family that came from there. They left in the 1880’s, moving to the U.S., arriving in New York. I have no surviving relatives left there, but it was a really fun opportunity for me to go to the city and explore. I really enjoyed it. Lubo and Katka Suchtarova (a family active in the congregation, both are in charge of technical aspects of our worship services and the church’s website) had a baby girl! They named her Ester, and she is their second child (the first, their son Timothy who is 2 years old). This month my host sisters and I have made big events out of watching the American movies they play on cable during the weekend evenings, watching them together both at home and at my host family’s relatives’ house across the village. Some highlights this month: Garfield, Shall We Dance, High School Musical 1 and 2, The Prince and Me, and Titanic. It’s been really fun to look in the weekly magazine/television guide and look forward to them! It helps me a lot too, because I know the films in English, and therefore know the context, which helps me to try and understand the Slovak or Czech language dubbing.
One of my best friends/roommates from college, Megan, came to visit me here in Slovakia, and I was able to bring her to both Bratislava and Hybe to meet my host family and others in the community. I was happy to show her what my life has been like this year, the people in it that are so important to me, and to show her how much progress I’ve made with the Slovak language. She has a lot of experience learning languages, so it was fun for me to have her here to relate to. I also had the chance to really get to know another family, the Lofajovci family (Zuzka’s in-laws), because Zuzka Lofajova (the mother) needed to learn English for her new job. I’ve been going over to their house a few times a week to teach her basic English words and phrases that are related to hotel reception. It has been really fun to get to know her and her family better: her husband Marian, her older son Mato (18), her daughter Simona (15), and her younger son Filip (7). Zuzka and Simona’s English has gotten better, and having conversations and trying to teach Zuzka in Slovak has helped me tremendously too. I finished teaching at both of the schools and had nice last days at both. In Hybe, the English teachers I work with and all of the students from grades 5-9 put on a small ceremony to say goodbye to me. It was really sweet! The oldest class even sang a song they prepared for me in English: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! In June. I don’t know why, but I loved it!
I will be in touch again soon with an update for July! As always, I thank you kindly for your support in keeping up with my adventures!! If you get a chance, please check out my blog at ashleyrenslovak.blogspot.com. Thanks!
Peace and love,
Ashley
*Pictured: Me in Prague (with the Castle in the background, standing next to St. Charles Bridge), and one of my favorite shots from Pilsen. This is in the main square, near St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral.
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