Sunday, May 4, 2008
April Newsletter
Hello all! Happy spring! (Actually I feel a bit bad sending spring cheers, as you have had snow through this entire month…sorry about that.) The weather is finally getting warm, and it’s so exciting! All through winter I kept asking, “How warm is May, usually? How hot will it be in June? July?” Their weather here is supposed to be pretty comparable to our weather in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so I was hoping for really warm weather this summer. But the answers I kept getting weren’t so hopeful. “Um, well it actually never really gets THAT warm here” or, “It should be pretty warm by the end of July, or early August, around the time you’ll be leaving to go home.” That made me a bit disappointed, but I’m happy to report now that the weather has been pretty warm in the past few weeks! I’ve spent quite a few nice afternoons reading outside against our fence in the driveway path, sporting my big green sunglasses. My host mom and Starka think I’m a bit strange, and often come out to give me more towels or pillows to sit on, and ask me if I’m cold. I will really be tempted to drag a beach towel and lay out in the yard in a bathing suit with a book and my tunes, once the weather gets really hot, but then they make think I’m REALLY crazy. So we’ll see.
The process of getting to know the kids and teenagers in the youth group has been a bit slow and challenging at times, but it’s still going steadily. The pastor is always very encouraging and tells them that they must speak in English to me for practice, but they are still shy. I think they are afraid of speaking because they’re embarrassed of their English, therefore most of my communication with them is in Slovak. This is good practice for me, presents limitations obviously, but we are getting along better and better all the time. I had a really nice time playing with a group of kids last week at the playground equipment near the church. I played tag and hide and seek with them (which was pretty great, I haven’t done that in a LONG time!) and I learned 6 new names: Dominik, Marek, Filip, Tomas, Linda, and Dominika. They even tried to speak some English with me, which was quite exciting! I count that as a lot of progress. Their approaching me in Slovak is progress for sure too, but their attempts to speak with me in English really mean a lot to me. This coming week we will be going on a 3-day retreat together, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity to hang out with them, and will update you on how it goes next time!
I have also found another way to communicate with them this month (well, maybe the younger teens and children, more so than the older kids, but they still find it amusing too). I introduced my cheek flapping talent to them, and it’s gone over REALLY well! Haha! Who’d have thought some stupid useless talent would’ve come in so handy here? Not me, for sure. It’s a super impressive talent, let me tell you! (Or maybe not so much…:-P) When I was 14 and our family hosted a foreign exchange student (Yay Paarnaq!), she dazzled me with her cheek flapping abilities and inspired me to learn. And so I spent a lot of time practicing, and now I’ve passed it on in Slovakia. It’s been a really funny way to connect with the kids, and I’ll take whatever connection I can get! Some of the kids I’d never talked to before, the ones who were to nervous to approach me, now come up to me and smile and point to their cheeks, “Mozes?” (which means, “Can you?”) And then they giggle or smile. It’s pretty fun. I also do a nostril-sucking trick, but this one isn’t as popular (thankfully, because I usually feel lightheaded if I do it too much). Thanks God, for giving me the ability to do stupid things with my face! (Here is a picture of Radko’s reaction to my cheek flapping! :-)
My english classes are becoming more and more comfortable, so that’s exciting! I have some faithful regulars for my community classes now, especially for my beginner class. The same three come every week, and we have a pretty fun time together! It’s a nice challenge for me, speaking only Slovak while teaching them, and in return I get the chance to learn some things in Slovak from them. I really appreciate their willingness to learn the basics, and their enthusiasm with writing and practicing their notes. Their attitudes, and the informal and small class size make the classes really enjoyable! Also, my days teaching at the Liptovsky Hradok school (with the boys) have been really fun this month. I’ve spent a lot of class time helping the boys prepare for their conversation exams in May, having one-on-one conversations with them about various topics. If you’d like to read more about the funny times I’ve had there, please check out my blog and read “Giggly Boys.” I’m especially happy to be there because of the fun atmosphere and because of how much fun I have with Zuzka! She’s a riot.
I got together with volunteers a few different times this month. Kristen came to visit for a nice weekend! We spent most of it with Zuzka, taking her boys for a hike, and she also came to both Mladis and Dorast youth group meetings with me. Also, some of us met up in Secovce (near Kosice) for a weekend to visit Mary. We spent some time with the pastor she works with, Mariana, and had dinner with her family. I had the chance to participate in a Bible study in English (led by Mary), which was really exciting! After Easter, I was feeling especially frustrated with the language barrier at church, so I really appreciated that time, as well as the English church service we went to in Kosice! At the service, we got to meet some other volunteers from the ELCA (volunteers of all ages), which was really fun! They aren’t here through the Young Adults in Global Mission Program, but through the ELCA teaching program. We had the chance to visit with them during fellowship time at the church, as well as visit their apartment afterwards. It was fun to meet more Americans (some from Wisconsin!) and share experiences about living here long-term (most of them have been here longer than a year).
Something that has been a bit strange for me in this past month or so is the attention I’ve been getting in the area. Everyone keeps telling me that I’m such a “celebrity” now, because in the last two months I’ve been featured in the church magazine “Zvon,” in the city newspaper, in the Liptov newspaper (the newspaper that covers the bigger region), as well as the country-wide newspaper for educators and school members. My picture has been in all of these, articles of information, interviews with me, as well as interviews with my family (from when they came to visit in March). I’ve met people on the street, and they tell me, “Ah, I saw your article and picture! I know who you are!” It’s a bit strange. I guess it’s pretty common for foreign volunteers to come to Slovakia to teach English, but they are usually only sent to Bratislava or Kosice, to the bigger cities. It’s really rare for a small village to have a native speaker around to help with English classes, or to attend church activities. I’m pretty grateful that I’m in a smaller community (although I admit it’s challenging at times, coming straight from Minneapolis, which I loved so much) because the relationships and experiences I have here will be much more personal. I have the opportunity to get to know people really well, I feel safe and looked after, and the atmosphere is just cozier than it would be in a city.
Also, one thing I wanted to tell you about is something that happened in March, but I thought I would save it for my April newsletter: my family (Mom, Dad, and Jake) came to visit me here in Slovakia!!! :) It was so amazing to see them, and sometimes now it doesn’t even seem like they were really here, a bit hard to believe. They were here for about a week, and it was a whirlwind, but really fantastic! We spent a few days in Hybe, where they had the opportunity to meet my host family (my mom even made Halusky, the traditional food of Slovakia, with my host mom and grandma!), Zuzka and her family, the pastor and his family, as well as many other people from the church and community. They had the opportunity to visit both of the schools I help teach at, see both the adult and youth choirs reherse, sit in on a Lent church service, have dinner with 3 different families, and have hot chocolate at an old castle-made-restaurant. After our time in Hybe, we traveled to Koseca to visit the people and places from my first placement. It was really special that they met people from both parts of my year, and that they were able to see so many things during their time here.
In Koseca (and the area around it) they were able to see the nursing home where I worked and lived, meet some of the nurses, residents, and Zuzka! (And of course, Frankie the bird too.) We went to visit Obchodna Akademia in Ilava, where I first helped teach english, and met with the teachers and the headmaster of the school. We even went into a few of the classrooms while class was in session! They let the students ask my family some questions, and it was pretty entertaining. We also met other friends and people in my life from Dubnica, and then we were on our way again. We next traveled to Bratislava and spent the night there, getting a little taste of Slovakia’s capitol, and took a day trip to Vienna, Austria the next day. In Vienna we tried some fun restaurants, toured the Belvedere Palace, saw the St. Stephens and St. Peters cathedrals, and were able to tour the city center for awhile. We all had a great time together, and it really meant a lot to me that all four of us could be together! We ended the exciting, jam-packed week with a goodbye in Bratislava, and although goodbyes are always hard, it was much more content than the first time. I’m quite excited to see them again on August 19th in Minneapolis! :-)
Although we had no prompt this month for a question to respond to, I thought I would add a few thoughts to last month’s question. “ How is your leadership shaped by the crosscultural or multicultural experience you are facing?“ My response to this would be that it has been shaped into something completely different than I’ve ever had to deal with, because of the language barrier challenge. I’ve felt so frustrated at times because it has been a bit impossible to be a leader (in a traditional way). I would really like to help teach Sunday school classes, or sometimes lead a discussion at a youth group meeting, but the language barrier prevents me from doing so. It has been difficult, trying to think of myself as a leader in this context. I guess my leadership role, in this way, can be filled only with actions and the example that I set with my attitude. It’s not exactly the way I had imagined “leading“ when I was preparing for this year of service, but it has taught me to think outside of the box.
From this prompt, also, I got to thinking about leadership within the communities I’ve served in this year. It is always valuable life experience to work with different types of leaders, watch them, learn from them. This has been a unique experience, in that I’ve had the chance to work with religious leaders this year. I’ve worked near or with pastors in both of my placements and have had two really different experiences. During orientation we were told, “You’re probably going into this year thinking, ‘I don’t have any expections‘ but it’s not true. You all have expectations, whether you think you do or not“ and I’ve found that to be true in many different cases. One being the attitude and leadership of pastors. I had an interesting conversation with my fellow YAGM volunteers about this topic, and some agreed that they’ve had similar reactions to the pastor’s they’re around. I think it really has been great life experience, seeing how different religious leaders approach their communities, their jobs, and how their attitudes reflects their actions.
Ok, well this is quite long, so I better wrap it up. Thanks so much for reading this, for your support! I ask you to also check out my blog when/if you get a chance. I’m trying to be more consistant with adding blog entries, and knowing that you guys are reading them makes me excited (and gives me the energy to write even more)! I hope this finds you well! Thanks again :-D
God Bless,
Ashley
The process of getting to know the kids and teenagers in the youth group has been a bit slow and challenging at times, but it’s still going steadily. The pastor is always very encouraging and tells them that they must speak in English to me for practice, but they are still shy. I think they are afraid of speaking because they’re embarrassed of their English, therefore most of my communication with them is in Slovak. This is good practice for me, presents limitations obviously, but we are getting along better and better all the time. I had a really nice time playing with a group of kids last week at the playground equipment near the church. I played tag and hide and seek with them (which was pretty great, I haven’t done that in a LONG time!) and I learned 6 new names: Dominik, Marek, Filip, Tomas, Linda, and Dominika. They even tried to speak some English with me, which was quite exciting! I count that as a lot of progress. Their approaching me in Slovak is progress for sure too, but their attempts to speak with me in English really mean a lot to me. This coming week we will be going on a 3-day retreat together, so I’m looking forward to that opportunity to hang out with them, and will update you on how it goes next time!
I have also found another way to communicate with them this month (well, maybe the younger teens and children, more so than the older kids, but they still find it amusing too). I introduced my cheek flapping talent to them, and it’s gone over REALLY well! Haha! Who’d have thought some stupid useless talent would’ve come in so handy here? Not me, for sure. It’s a super impressive talent, let me tell you! (Or maybe not so much…:-P) When I was 14 and our family hosted a foreign exchange student (Yay Paarnaq!), she dazzled me with her cheek flapping abilities and inspired me to learn. And so I spent a lot of time practicing, and now I’ve passed it on in Slovakia. It’s been a really funny way to connect with the kids, and I’ll take whatever connection I can get! Some of the kids I’d never talked to before, the ones who were to nervous to approach me, now come up to me and smile and point to their cheeks, “Mozes?” (which means, “Can you?”) And then they giggle or smile. It’s pretty fun. I also do a nostril-sucking trick, but this one isn’t as popular (thankfully, because I usually feel lightheaded if I do it too much). Thanks God, for giving me the ability to do stupid things with my face! (Here is a picture of Radko’s reaction to my cheek flapping! :-)
My english classes are becoming more and more comfortable, so that’s exciting! I have some faithful regulars for my community classes now, especially for my beginner class. The same three come every week, and we have a pretty fun time together! It’s a nice challenge for me, speaking only Slovak while teaching them, and in return I get the chance to learn some things in Slovak from them. I really appreciate their willingness to learn the basics, and their enthusiasm with writing and practicing their notes. Their attitudes, and the informal and small class size make the classes really enjoyable! Also, my days teaching at the Liptovsky Hradok school (with the boys) have been really fun this month. I’ve spent a lot of class time helping the boys prepare for their conversation exams in May, having one-on-one conversations with them about various topics. If you’d like to read more about the funny times I’ve had there, please check out my blog and read “Giggly Boys.” I’m especially happy to be there because of the fun atmosphere and because of how much fun I have with Zuzka! She’s a riot.
I got together with volunteers a few different times this month. Kristen came to visit for a nice weekend! We spent most of it with Zuzka, taking her boys for a hike, and she also came to both Mladis and Dorast youth group meetings with me. Also, some of us met up in Secovce (near Kosice) for a weekend to visit Mary. We spent some time with the pastor she works with, Mariana, and had dinner with her family. I had the chance to participate in a Bible study in English (led by Mary), which was really exciting! After Easter, I was feeling especially frustrated with the language barrier at church, so I really appreciated that time, as well as the English church service we went to in Kosice! At the service, we got to meet some other volunteers from the ELCA (volunteers of all ages), which was really fun! They aren’t here through the Young Adults in Global Mission Program, but through the ELCA teaching program. We had the chance to visit with them during fellowship time at the church, as well as visit their apartment afterwards. It was fun to meet more Americans (some from Wisconsin!) and share experiences about living here long-term (most of them have been here longer than a year).
Something that has been a bit strange for me in this past month or so is the attention I’ve been getting in the area. Everyone keeps telling me that I’m such a “celebrity” now, because in the last two months I’ve been featured in the church magazine “Zvon,” in the city newspaper, in the Liptov newspaper (the newspaper that covers the bigger region), as well as the country-wide newspaper for educators and school members. My picture has been in all of these, articles of information, interviews with me, as well as interviews with my family (from when they came to visit in March). I’ve met people on the street, and they tell me, “Ah, I saw your article and picture! I know who you are!” It’s a bit strange. I guess it’s pretty common for foreign volunteers to come to Slovakia to teach English, but they are usually only sent to Bratislava or Kosice, to the bigger cities. It’s really rare for a small village to have a native speaker around to help with English classes, or to attend church activities. I’m pretty grateful that I’m in a smaller community (although I admit it’s challenging at times, coming straight from Minneapolis, which I loved so much) because the relationships and experiences I have here will be much more personal. I have the opportunity to get to know people really well, I feel safe and looked after, and the atmosphere is just cozier than it would be in a city.
Also, one thing I wanted to tell you about is something that happened in March, but I thought I would save it for my April newsletter: my family (Mom, Dad, and Jake) came to visit me here in Slovakia!!! :) It was so amazing to see them, and sometimes now it doesn’t even seem like they were really here, a bit hard to believe. They were here for about a week, and it was a whirlwind, but really fantastic! We spent a few days in Hybe, where they had the opportunity to meet my host family (my mom even made Halusky, the traditional food of Slovakia, with my host mom and grandma!), Zuzka and her family, the pastor and his family, as well as many other people from the church and community. They had the opportunity to visit both of the schools I help teach at, see both the adult and youth choirs reherse, sit in on a Lent church service, have dinner with 3 different families, and have hot chocolate at an old castle-made-restaurant. After our time in Hybe, we traveled to Koseca to visit the people and places from my first placement. It was really special that they met people from both parts of my year, and that they were able to see so many things during their time here.
In Koseca (and the area around it) they were able to see the nursing home where I worked and lived, meet some of the nurses, residents, and Zuzka! (And of course, Frankie the bird too.) We went to visit Obchodna Akademia in Ilava, where I first helped teach english, and met with the teachers and the headmaster of the school. We even went into a few of the classrooms while class was in session! They let the students ask my family some questions, and it was pretty entertaining. We also met other friends and people in my life from Dubnica, and then we were on our way again. We next traveled to Bratislava and spent the night there, getting a little taste of Slovakia’s capitol, and took a day trip to Vienna, Austria the next day. In Vienna we tried some fun restaurants, toured the Belvedere Palace, saw the St. Stephens and St. Peters cathedrals, and were able to tour the city center for awhile. We all had a great time together, and it really meant a lot to me that all four of us could be together! We ended the exciting, jam-packed week with a goodbye in Bratislava, and although goodbyes are always hard, it was much more content than the first time. I’m quite excited to see them again on August 19th in Minneapolis! :-)
Although we had no prompt this month for a question to respond to, I thought I would add a few thoughts to last month’s question. “ How is your leadership shaped by the crosscultural or multicultural experience you are facing?“ My response to this would be that it has been shaped into something completely different than I’ve ever had to deal with, because of the language barrier challenge. I’ve felt so frustrated at times because it has been a bit impossible to be a leader (in a traditional way). I would really like to help teach Sunday school classes, or sometimes lead a discussion at a youth group meeting, but the language barrier prevents me from doing so. It has been difficult, trying to think of myself as a leader in this context. I guess my leadership role, in this way, can be filled only with actions and the example that I set with my attitude. It’s not exactly the way I had imagined “leading“ when I was preparing for this year of service, but it has taught me to think outside of the box.
From this prompt, also, I got to thinking about leadership within the communities I’ve served in this year. It is always valuable life experience to work with different types of leaders, watch them, learn from them. This has been a unique experience, in that I’ve had the chance to work with religious leaders this year. I’ve worked near or with pastors in both of my placements and have had two really different experiences. During orientation we were told, “You’re probably going into this year thinking, ‘I don’t have any expections‘ but it’s not true. You all have expectations, whether you think you do or not“ and I’ve found that to be true in many different cases. One being the attitude and leadership of pastors. I had an interesting conversation with my fellow YAGM volunteers about this topic, and some agreed that they’ve had similar reactions to the pastor’s they’re around. I think it really has been great life experience, seeing how different religious leaders approach their communities, their jobs, and how their attitudes reflects their actions.
Ok, well this is quite long, so I better wrap it up. Thanks so much for reading this, for your support! I ask you to also check out my blog when/if you get a chance. I’m trying to be more consistant with adding blog entries, and knowing that you guys are reading them makes me excited (and gives me the energy to write even more)! I hope this finds you well! Thanks again :-D
God Bless,
Ashley
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