Some Current Happenings

Hi everybody! I wanted to wish all moms a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! (Especially mine, Love you Mom!)

In honor of Mother's Day, the youth choir performed during church this Sunday. They sang two songs, both related to moms and family in some way, and a few of the youngest kids said a little poem and few words (pretty cute!). Then all of the kids took a red or yellow tulip (freshly cut, the flowers are really blooming here) and a Mother's Day card, and headed out into the congregation to present their gifts. The cards had a short poem, something like, "Dear God, Thank you for the angel you gave to me, my mom." I gave a card and tulip to my host mom, Jana, and she was grateful and kissed me on the cheek. When we left church, she had a rose and card from me, from Janka, from Katka, and from Zuzka M. (one of my host sisters' best friend), and she was beaming with pride. It was pretty cute!

On a sad note, an older man from the village went missing last week on Thursday, and then was found in the river in Hybe on Friday evening. They aren't sure what happened, I guess he had some medical problems and was taking heavier medication, amongst other things. Please pray for his family and friends, and the people of Hybe. He is at peace now. They announced his death a few days ago on the Hybe loudspeaker (like they usually do with every death in the village). Every village has a loudspeaker, for general announcements, folk music, etc. They play a specific song to go along with each death announcement, and the song is suprisingly cheerful! Well, actually not really cheerful, but it sounds sort of grand and stoic, and honorable, rather than mournful and sad. I like that, helps them go out and style and puts a positive feel to their memorial. At least in my mind it does, anyway, I'm not really sure how the Slovaks feel about it.

Our family made a visit to mother Jana's sister's house in Vychodna (the neighboring village). At first we were all planning to take the bus together because the car was broken, apparently, but at the last minute I was informed that, "the car is only a little broken, so we can drive it now." HA, um...alright....(Luckily we just sort of drive their old bomber red car putzily from village to village on back roads.) So we took a family roadtrip.

Anyways, Jana's sister is Hana, Hana's husband is Marion (who told me I LOVE YOU in english many times on my first day in Hybe, because it was at Hana's 50th birthday party, and everyone had been drinking for like 6 hours prior...) and their kids are Peter and Hana (Hanka, since she is the younger generation). We had cakes and coffee, and usually when we do this I tend to zone out. They speak really quickly and I sort of automatically tune out, but during this visit I understood a lot more of their Slovak conversation than normal, so that's really exciting! I've been practicing more with Zuzka at school, and that helps. It's easier to remember words and phrases when I have a funny memory or situation to associate with it. My host sisters taught me how to say, "I'm here for cake!" and made me say it when we arrived at their house. Katka and Janka had a good time telling their aunt about how they hit a wild pig on the road with the Pastor's car, while their friend was driving it (long story...), and I was able to laugh a little along with them! Really nice. I haven't really been able to understand jokes or funny stories (in Slovak) for 9 months or so now, so I feel like I'm finally making more progress.

The other day I went to the city of Martin, for the first time, on a little trip with my host sister Katka! We met up with her friend from school (also Katka, and she speaks some english too!) and took the bus, a train, and then another bus to Martin. We went to the Slovak National Library. Katka and Katka both are students, studying at the Catholic University in the city of Ruzomberok. Katka (my sister) comes home every weekend and stays until Monday morning, then leaves again, then returns home Thursday night. BUT....she just took her final exams today and now she will be home for the summer!! I'm pretty excited I will see her more often now. :) She is studying education for children with special needs. She has spent many hours in the past month or so watching sign language study videos, practicing for her final exam. Pretty interesting to watch, I've never really learned any sign language.

Anyways, also in Martin, we shopped around in the city center, (after finding the books they needed to order from the library), and then went for pizza. I LOVE PIZZA. And I really miss American pizza. The pizza here is still good, but I miss pizza with tomato sauce (they use ketchup here instead...they also use ketchup for spaghetti) and almost every type of Slovak pizza is loaded with corn and ham. It's usually pretty good, but I miss American pizza. (I was spoiled in college...I had a roomate that worked for Pizza Hut and brought home free leftover pizza quite often.) Anyways, pizza was good, and we went for ice cream afterwards. I had blueberry ice cream, and I ordered it and got to practice my pronounciation, "čučoriedka." Tasted great too. Me and Katka were full and slept on the train and bus rides home and almost missed Hybe. Luckily Katka woke up when the bus stopped at our stop and jumped up, whacked my shoulder, and we made it off the bus in time.

Katka got new fish!! They are very cute, big mouths, orange and white, named Sampson and Delilah. I hope these guys stick around for a long time. It's nice to see a fresh tank with fish in the kitchen again, after a few months of just snails and a dying plant.

A few weeks ago I had a really fun night at the parsonage! I went over to visit Ad'a (the pastor's wife) and their kids, Sara and Sam. Most of the time it was just me and the kids hanging out, and we had a great time!! :) We had yogurt together, they tried to teach me a few songs in Slovak, and we played Pexeso together. (Pexeso is basically memory, matching the cards into pairs, and the pairs have one item labeled in English and one in Slovak, so we can learn new words together.) And we also hung out in their room and they showed me a cd of kiddie english songs they have, and asked me if I knew each one. I knew most of them, and we could sing along together! (Somewhat, because Samko had no idea what he was singing, kind of like me trying to sing along at church and youth worhips in Slovak). It was a great time, and hopefully I will be visiting their house more often from now on.

I'll end with some Starka stories. Last week I was sitting in the kitchen with my host mom and sisters, Starka's daughter, sister, and grandaugther. I was just sipping my coffee when Starka came right up to me and started barking something at me. Like usual, I didn't understand (she always uses slang words, and she has no patience, so she never slows down or really tries to communicate with me effectively). I just kept saying, "What? I don't understand." Then she just started saying (in Slovak, of course), "Come here! Let's go! GO!"

"GO WHERE?!"

Finally Janka translated, after everyone was cracking up, that Starka wanted me to come to the gas station, just outside of the village, with her and Jan because they needed to fill up their gas tank for the car. So I went, and we had a nice little drive. While Jan was in the station, me and Starka sat in the car and tried to have a little conversation about the weather (it was raining a bit). Haha! Our conversations are pretty short and ridiculous, funny usually. Jan came back and gave us chocolate covered banana candy bars, and I was pretty excited.

Also, on Mother's Day dinner at home, Starka was helping cook the meat. She put all of the finished pork paddies in a plastic container in two piles and set them on the table. I thought nothing of it and grabbed a paddy to put on my plate. Then I heard Starka behind me yelling, "Mine! Mine!" And then she came over and stole my paddy from my plate! With her bare hands. Apparently she had chosen a special paddy for herself, but then didn't put it on her plate in the first place....? It was in "the hot pile" and I was supposed to take from "the cold pile". (Slovaks, or at least my host family, have a strange thing with food being too hot or cold...they think hot food is bad.) Anyways, we all laughed about it, pretty crazy. I swear, some days she's just a feisty and stubborn little kid trapped in the body of an 81 year old.