the Slovak Language

I just thought this was interesting...

Here is the Wikipedia link for the page about the Slovak language. You can check this out if you're interested, and get a little taste of what I've been trying to learn and understand for the past seven months. Pretty crazy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_language

The page goes into great detail, and is a bit complicated and drawn out at parts. So, here are some of the basic highlights:
*The Slovak alphabet has all of the letters in the English alphabet, plus many additional dipthongs (two letters together that count as one letter) and other consonants with different types of accent marks.

*Adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and verbs change gender. Yikes!

*Slovak is very closely related to the Czech language, and is somewhat similar (and has been influenced by) the languages Czech, Hungarian, German, and Polish.

*Slovak is broken into four different dialects (the language is spoken differently, depending on which part of the country you live in). I've noticed a decent amount of differences from my first placement to my second placement. The people at my first placement spoke the Western Slovak dialect, and at my second placement the Central Slovak dialect.

Photos :)

Click here to check out some of my pictures from Slovakia!

View Photo Album "Hodgepodge Slovakia": http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051458&l=07e06&id=184900177

View Photo Album "Slovensko and its Ludia": http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056728&l=a2f40&id=184900177

View Photo Album "Ashley and Chris do KOSECA!": http://uwrf.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056800&l=b7252&id=184900177

***Apologies for the lack of pictures thus far. I will make it up to you all. Here's a start!***

Redecorating!

SO, as you've probably noticed, my blog page looks different! I felt like I needed to spice it up a bit, and that it was time for a change. I will be adding more things also, so stay tuned.

I just got back from adult's choir practice at the church. A few weeks ago, the pastor asked me if I could help him. I said I would definitely join. I love music for SO MANY reasons, one being that I can participate and join in with the language barrier, no problem! And pastor said that was good, but he would like me to help each section practice their parts, and that he wanted me to play piano for them! It's been awhile since I've played and took lessons, but I agreed. It's been a pretty entertaining experience. It's pretty fun when things from the past come into play and become useful out of nowhere (like all my years of piano lessons). I think the adults enjoy that I play, even if it is just one hand to help them hear their different parts. I even say "tri, styri..." (which is 3,4....) to cue them in. Funny! :-) Hopefully I can continue to be useful for the choir. They're preparing two songs for Easter Sunday, both of which I already know (that's really helpful!) in English, so now I just need to learn the Slovak words. The titles of the two songs are: "Ja Viem, Zi Zije" and "Velka' Noc". Easter in Slovak, by the way, is "Velka Noc", which literally means Big Night.

P.S. Today I received a little package in the mail from the ELCA, and it was the Global Mission Annual for 2008! Exciting! There is information inside about all of ELCA's missionary and volunteer programs (Young Adults in Global Mission being just one of them), pictures of staff and all of the volunteers! It was pretty fun to look at. I will have it with me at future presentations/visits when I get back. :) I'd totally forgotten that they'd taken our pictures during orientation, and didn't even know why they did at the time. It's nice to see all of my fellow volunteers' faces again! My fellow YAGM's are in India, the Phillippines, Kenya, Germany, Slovakia, the United Kingdom (in Scotland and England), Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico.

So, I have a pray request! Please pray for:

*Beth, Rob and Laura in India
*Gretchen and Ralecia in Phillippines
*Sarah L.and Sarah W. in Kenya
*Vanessa and Toby in Germany
*Jessica, Kristen R., Mark, Mary, and myself in Slovakia
*Katherine A., Christina, Amy, Eric, Amanda, Crystal, Matt, Anthony, Kristin V., Amehed, Lindsey, Kelly, Maren, Candace, and Anna in the United Kingdom
*Kevin, Kristina D., Kristin D., Karin, Kim, and James in Argentina and Uruguay
*Katherine G., Jennifer, Jacob, Sarah R., and Winston in Mexico

Or, you could probably just pray for "all of the YAGM volunteers" :-) Thank you so much for all of your support!

*If you're interested you can check out the website: http://yagm.blogspot.com. There you will find blogs and newsletters of the other volunteers from each country, if you're interested in taking a look.

My Host Family

Hi everybody! Apologies for not keeping up with my blog very well lately. I promise to get much better, and to write more regularily. Ok! :-)

So one of the greatest parts of being at my new placement is my host family! That aren't words to express how happy I feel that I belong somewhere, and that I have people that really care about me and who have welcomed me into their family SO openly! I much appreciate the deeper experiences I'm getting with them because of living here, with the language, food, different aspects of the culture, everything.

So here I will just update you on each member of my host family!

Jana (host mom): She is SO sweet! She keeps close tabs on me and calls me daughter with her two other real daughters. She constantly checks on me, if I'm hungry or cold (and even when I say no, she comes over to me and covers me up with a blanket anyway...). She has learned a bunch of words and phrases in english for me, and it is really funny! :) She tells me I'm very skillful and gets really excited whenever I help her do chores around the house. She is a pretty hyper person, and talks really fast because she gets excited (even my english speaking contact person said that she has a hard time understanding her, in SLOVAK, because she speaks so fast). It was difficult in the beginning to communicate because of this, but it's getting better now. She is learning to adjust to my speed and understanding level with the language, and writing things down in a little notebook she has. And she has a dinner song that she sings and is determined to teach me, which is awesome.

Jan (host dad): He is also very sweet! He is a quiet and smiley guy. He works quite a bit and isn't around all of the time, but when he is he always makes the effort to pop his head into whatever room I'm in and say "ciao ashley!" He's pretty patient. I felt a bit bad in the beginning, because the man lives with his wife, mother, and two daughters, and I was YET ANOTHER girl to add to the household (and his two sisters are here every day to visit). But he handles it like a trooper. Him and Jana took me shopping a few weekends ago and told me that they wanted to buy me pajamahs as a gift. The only stipulation was that they had to have animals on them, so they would match my sisters' elephant pajamahs. HAHA! We like to match here in the Turcanova household. And so I am now the proud owner of blue zebra pajamahs.

Starka (a.k.a. Grandma): She is pretty feisty! She can be pretty funny sometimes, even though we don't really understand each other a lot of the time. The other day we were having coffee together (me, mom, grandma, and sisters), and I left the room for a few minutes and while I was gone Starka put sugar in my coffee! She did it on purpose, because she knows I hate it, but she thinks I need more sugar (and more of everything for that matter). Sneaky Starka! She laughed a lot at my face when I took the first sip and made a terrible face. She is constantly telling me, "YOU DON'T EAT ENOUGH! YOU DON'T SLEEP ENOUGH!" According to her, I don't eat enough, or the right things, and I dont wear slippers like I'm supposed to, and I don't wear enough clothes, or the right clothes, and I should wear hats, and use umbrellas, etc. The list is quite long. Sometimes we struggle seeing eye-to-eye, because our relationship faces not only a cultural barrier, but a big generation/age barrier as well. But we do okay.

Katka (older host sister): Katka tries SO hard to improve her english! And I'm impressed at how much she's improved already since I got here, so I'm excited to see her at the end of this summer! She's very sweet too, and GIGGLES a lot. She has a really fun high pitched cackle-type giggle that makes me laugh. We both like to dance, and we both like to exercise. I'm really excited for spring time, because we have plans to go jogging together!! Should be great :-)

Janka (younger host sister): I have a great time attempting english conversations with Janka! It's usually the two of us together, because she speaks the best english of anybody in the family. And she also has tried to learn a lot for me, and I'm very grateful for that!! I love Janka's attitude and sense of humor with things. When we're in the kitchen and mom or grandma starts talking about how we don't eat enough food, she is the one who rolls her eyes and is like "LEAVE HER ALONE! SHE'S NOT HUNGRY!" I love it. She watches out for me. Also, her and I both like to read. One of my favorite things to do is sit in the kitchen and read with her (when there's actually enough silence to concentrate...which isn't often). She loves Harry Potter. She is currently trying to read one of the books I borrowed her, in english!

I will write again soon about more experiences with them! As well as some pictures!

And Also, Wishing You a...

Happy Valentine's Day!!!! :-)

Church Website

So here is my placement's church website: http://www.ecavhybe.sk/

The church has a media committee that regularily updates the site. It's a pretty great page! Lots of pictures and video clips. I have been in a fair share of pictures on here already, so check them out if you're interested. The website is all in Slovak, but you can still wander around and check things out. To get directly to the recent photo updates: from the main site page, there is a column to the right of the church picture, click on the first link that says "NAJAKTUÁLNEJŠIE FOTKY". This will bring you to a listing of the most recent photo groupings (one if even named "Ashley"). Hope you enjoy!

Also, here is a direct link to one of the photo pages: http://www.ecavhybe.sk/index_soubory/Page323.htm

-This is a picture of some of the young people from the church. The two girls in the middle row kneeling are my two host sisters (the one in the blue bandana is Katka, and the one in the pigtails is Janka).

A Helpful Conversation

During my time in Koseca, my good friend Chris came to visit me and it was so great!! It was a quick visit, only two days, but we still had a lot of fun. My Slovak friend Juraj offered to take him to Slovak landmarks, make him Slovak food, and was very anxious for Chris to see his home country. While Juraj was quite excited to show Chris parts of Slovakia, I was much more concerned about just being able to hang out with him and talk/catch up. Juraj was persistant in asking what Chris thought about Slovakia, if he liked the food, what he thought about the language, and much more. I had to ask, “Why do you care so much, whether Chris likes Slovakia or not?”

A conversation branched from this comment. “Because it’s my home country, and I want him to have a good experience here, and have a good opinion of its’ people and beauty. Don’t you care if people like your country?”

I thought about this for a while, and realized that I actually didn’t care. And for this I felt very sorry. I thought that if I really DID care that much about peoples’ opinions (as much as Juraj does) of my home country, I would be so beaten down and discouraged that I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.

“Really? The U.S.? NOBODY likes the U.S., Juraj. I CAN’T care, or I’d go crazy.”

A lot of things were put into perspective for both of us in this conversation, I think. What do I really think about the U.S.? I thought about my attitudes toward my home country that had developed since I’d begun traveling. After spending a semester studying abroad in Europe in 2005, I thought America was awful. I had no outside perspective before, and after spending four months talking to people who thought the U.S. was unjust, money-hungry, and ridiculous (mainly because we elected G.W. Bush…and not just once) I was willing to join in on every “this is why America is terrible” conversation. I joined my very liberal, Bush-hating generation very willingly and spoke harshly without putting much thought behind what I said. It wasn't so much the people I was angry about, but the political and economic situations that my country made. After my semester abroad, when others spoke poorly of any place in Europe, I defended Europe. If others spoke poorly of the U.S., I joined in. I was extremely unfair. The experiences I had abroad were really amazing and eye-opening, but they originally made me really angry because I had been exposed to the reality of the world (U.S. being dominant and the effects) and didn't know how to handle it.

After gaining some more perspective, and having time to reflect on experiences, I realize that the U.S. has its problems and faults. Of course, every country does. I’ve realized the impact and force my home country has, and the conflict and problems it inflicts onto the rest of the world. But I’ve also learned to love my home country, and Juraj (and many other Slovaks I’ve met along the way) has taught me what it means to be loyal to your home country. They’ve taught me a lot about appreciation, and about staying loyal to your roots (regardless if they are in a small country like Slovakia, or in a powerhouse country like the U.S.). It’s been a challenge for me and will continue to be, but I’m happy that the Slovaks have helped me gain some perspective. I’m glad that I’m developing more mature and realistic opinions about the U.S., Slovakia, and the rest of the world. I’m realizing more and more how damaging and real prejudices can be, and how much it can hinder us from connecting and communicating with each other, as societies and as people.

My friend and fellow YAGM volunteer has been working in a church community in Slovakia, and she has spent so much of her time in the pastor’s home. The pastor and his wife have a four-year old son, and she is asked to look after the son from time to time. This four-year old boy has been telling her for months, “You’re stupid! Why don’t you just go back to America! You can’t speak Slovak, and you should just go away, I don't want you here!” It’s so hard to believe, coming from a four-year old boy who most likely knows nothing about America, yet he already has such a negativity towards Americans. Where did he get it from? There are so many influences out there that have lives of their own, and it’s scary. I’m working on being prejudice-free, whether the prejudices are against other countries or my own. I’m apologizing to and currently missing America, my home country that I miss very much, and to all of the truly amazing people in it.