Stužkova Memories

It's not good for me to go so long between blog posts - I'm not sure I'll remember to include everything!!  It seems like time is going by at warp speed sometimes, so we really try to slow down and appreciate each precious moment, even if we are hurrying off to the next moment on the agenda.   :-)  

This picture is from a week ago Monday, when the 5.AP class dressed up and brought plates of cakes (left over from their stužkova) to all the teacher offices.  It's really sweet of them to share the sweets with the teachers, especially the ones who didn't get to attend the event.  It's also a traditional extra 'opportunity' for the students to not go to classes for another day!     ;-)  

Some of the English Department in my new office.  My two new office-mates are Peter (the tall one in the back) and Ad'ka (in the red).  Tim is in an office across the hall with Katarina (next to Tim), Zuzka (next to me), and Janka (hidden in the back).  Pat'ka and Katka (middle) are the heads of the department.  

Tim played basketball again Friday night for the first time in a couple of weeks because of  other events going on.  Afterwards, there was a birthday celebration for Tim and another one of the guys with a November birthday.  The birthday boys each received a gift from the rest of the group.  

Saturday we walked to get some groceries and do a little other shopping, then spent time at the flat cleaning, doing laundry, etc.  Pat'ka picked us up a little before 5:00 for our third and final stužkova of November.

I've been wanting to get a picture of the stužkova ribbons on the burgundy satin pillow, prior to one of the stužkova's, and thankfully Tim reminded me this time!  

Each of the girls in the 5.BP class was escorted into the stužkova by one of the boys.    
This is Marcela and Martinko.  

Lenka and Richard entering the hall.  The cute thing was, there are only four boys in the class, so they had to sprint back down the hallway on the other side of the wall to escort the next girl in.  They did a super job of being gentlemen, over and over again!!  

Martin was the M.C. for the evening.  The headmistress and the class teacher always receive green sashes bearing their titles.  The pastor also gave some remarks.  

After the pinning of the stužkova ribbons on each senior, there were some lovely speeches by students thanking their parents and teachers for their love, support, encouragement, and help in reaching this point, and also a speech by a parent representative to the students.  It was a nice touch before the official toast.  

And then the dancing commenced with the traditional dance of the students with their parents.  It's so neat watching the faces of those proud parents!  

Next, of course was the student-teacher dance, and I had the honor of dancing with Richard.  He escorted Danka (the class teacher) and me back to our table afterwards.  

Tim was delighted to dance with Mirka!  She's a sweetie!  

The teacher table!  Such fun people!!  

The other end of the teacher table.  :-)  
The roses on the table were presented to each of the female teachers by the students, and the male teachers received sausages so they wouldn't feel left out!  

The food was so good - I think a pork roll with stuffing inside, and a turkey or chicken roll with spinach inside, presented on a rich cream sauce.  It was all delicious!

We had a delightful evening - the students were so wonderful in making sure all the guests were having a good time.  

Our place cards were small boats, relating to their class video which ended with them sending their own paper sailboats off into their adventure of life!   Oh, and the tray of cakes behind our boats was amazing.  Thankfully Tim was willing to split several samples with me, so I could try a variety of deliciousness!  

The entertainment was varied and fun all evening.  It was a long program, interrupted by several periods of music played by the DJ when everyone was out on the dance floor.  That probably facilitated costume changes since there were many of those!!  I've seen this black/white dance on YouTube before - it was even more fun to watch in person!!  

This was the dance done by the communist youth back in the post-WWII era.  

This was a poignant story told in dance, done in silhouette.

Then there was a 'game show' a little like "Family Feud" involving the teachers.  We didn't understand much, but it must have been really funny!!   :-) 

This is another skit that we didn't understand much of, but it involved a mountain rescue crew, which seems to be a common theme for stužkova entertainment!  Local humor I guess!!  

Traditional costumes and possibly a case of mass food poisoning, perhaps??  In any event, they were all waiting to get into the W.C.!  

And of course the traditional sharing of the champagne, followed by the breaking of the jug by the class teacher.  

The wonderful 5.BP class stužkova photo!  They're great kids, and they were so kind to us!   

Sunday morning we were up early despite our late bedtime after the stužkova, and we took the bus to Vychodna where Katarina and her mom met us just in time for church.  Afterwards we went to their house for a scrumptious Sunday lunch.  ('Lunch' doesn't seem appropriate since it's such a big meal!)  We spent the afternoon talking, laughing, and enjoying being together with the family.  Katarina's Grandma and aunt were there too, and her Dad and brother joined us later since they had been out hunting in the morning.  

Juraj found this enormous mushroom out in the woods and brought it back to show everyone.  Janka and Tim were checking out the size!  

It was 30 cm across!  Evidently all the hunters were really impressed with how huge it was too.  

This week has flown by - obviously, since there hasn't even been a blog post!!  HAHA!!  Nothing out of the ordinary really, but we do spend longer days at school this year with our additional teaching loads and all the extra preparation time required.  Last year we usually left school by 3:00 or 3:30, but this year it's always between 4:00 and 5:00.  But we don't take any work home either, so it's a trade-off.  It's getting dark so much earlier now that we always walk home in the dark.

Wednesday night we went out to supper with Marian and Susan, as an early birthday celebration for Tim.  We always have fun with them! 

Then today was Thanksgiving, which is just another routine day at school here in Slovakia.  I have to admit I was pretty bummed about having to work on Thanksgiving, knowing that everyone at home was getting together with family and celebrating the holiday together.  Then this morning as we were getting ready for the day, I rationalized that really, we weren't working during Thanksgiving --- we were only working while people in Iowa were sleeping!!  That helped my attitude a bunch!!  :-)  Also, we skyped in with Beth making pies in the kitchen, then later with everyone at my brother's house, and finally with Tim's mom in Arizona, so we felt blessed to be in touch with family.  We are definitely thankful for our family and friends at home, AND we are very thankful for our wonderful 'family' and friends here in Slovakia as well.  We are doubly blessed!!  :-)  

Tonight my two students, who have become such dear friends, came over and kept me company while I was baking Tim's birthday cake.  The German chocolate takes a lot of time, but it's worth it!  It's not exactly like at home, but it will be tasty when we take it to school tomorrow and celebrate Tim's day.  Eva brought a delicious cake, which was perfect since the one I was making is for tomorrow.  Tana brought some herbal tea (dried from the garden - very delicious), so they provided all the refreshments.  They also brought Tim a birthday present - a giant wall calendar with pictures of Slovakia's beautiful Tatra Mountains.  It brought big grins to our faces when we saw the appropriate title on the calendar:  "Magické Tatry".  Tim has always found a way to experience the 'magic' in life!!  And so it continues, here in Slovakia!  
Have a magical day everyone!!  

Where is Your "Africa"??

We have been hearing messages from several different sources that all have seemed to tie into a common theme recently.  It has been fascinating, encouraging, challenging, and thought-provoking to consider how God continues to 'speak' in living relationship with His people, even in today's world.  

To begin with, a couple of weeks ago, we had a guest speaker at our regular staff "Biblical Lesson" time at school.  Normally the pastor spends most of the time speaking to us, but this time Ján, the young man from church who switches off with Zuzka translating for us, came to give a presentation instead.  He has a solid faith and serves our church congregation in many ways, especially in prayer groups and working with the youth.  His powerpoint presentation was of course in Slovak, but Zuzka translated as we heard about Ján's recent experiences volunteering with mission workers in Zambia.  He shared all sorts of good works that are being done to share the gospel of Christ and to serve the physical needs of people in poverty in Africa.  It was all interesting, with great pictures, etc., but we were most impacted by Ján's challenge to all of us  -----  to think about this question:

Where is YOUR Africa???  

In other words, not everyone can or should physically go to Africa to serve God's kingdom.  It's not for everyone.  And God is certainly not calling everyone there.  Sometimes it's easy to think we can best serve God by going to some far-off place and doing full time mission work.  But Ján challenged everyone to consider where God is calling YOU to serve Him.  

To be honest, some of our colleagues totally missed the point, as afterwards they said, "Sure, if I had lots of money, I could fly off to Africa too.  He's rich, so he can afford it."  We suspect they may even feel that as 'rich Americans', we can afford to fly off to Slovakia to do our mission work here too, but these Slovaks don't have the option of heading off into the sunset to some exotic place.  But the point is, every one of us has a mission field, a calling, a place to serve, no matter where we may be.  

One question posed during the Q & A session after Ján's presentation was:  "How do you know God is speaking to you?"  That led to related queries like - Does God really speak to people nowadays?  and -  How can you be sure it's really God instead of your own desires?  More on that later.  

Then the next Sunday at church here in Liptovský Mikuláš, our Slovak translated sermon was centered around ways that our congregation cares for others who need assistance.  He especially shared about a group of women who devoted their lives to providing nursing care to the elderly in our community.  The pastor told us afterwards that the group was unique to this region of Slovakia.  These 'sisters' began their work before WWII, and during the war some of them were even jailed for their Christian faith.  A group of people in the church continues this ministry to the elderly to this day.  As we listened to this sermon, we both thought -- YES - this is "Africa" for those servants caring for others in Christ's name.  

Within a couple of hours, we were listening to our weekly online sermon, and the message was about the faith journey each of us has.  As 'seekers', we are looking for meaning in life.  We need to hear the Good News to believe.  Then as 'believers', we have found Christ as our savior and redeemer, and we need to accept Him into our lives.  We move along a circle to become 'followers' as we begin to act on our belief in response to God's call.  The sermon emphasized that we need a relationship with God to hear His voice, and that we also need relationship with the body of believers in a community.  So, we were excited to hear these next threads tying into the theme about acting on our faith, as well as being in relationship with God and other Christians.  

Two days later we had a long conversation with an colleague who was equally challenged by Ján's presentation and the questions it raised.  We brainstormed a while and thought it would be a great idea to have the next staff "Biblical Lesson" be more of a "Bible Study" time, with small-group discussion.  We felt that two questions should be posed to kick off the discussion.....

• Where is YOUR Africa?
• How do you know if God is speaking to you?  

Our pastor went along with the idea, so we were able to explore the topic with some of our colleagues.  To be honest, the whole concept of discussion-based Bible study time has not been well established at our school, but we are hopeful that some good will come out of trying to engage people in thoughtful conversation about the Bible, God's purpose for our lives, and our faith journeys.  It was awesome to hear of some "Africas" right here in Liptovský Mikuláš, because there are definitely people here serving others in love.  We each have skills and gifts which God calls us to use.  Sometimes they don't seem like a big deal at all, in fact it just seems like we are doing 'normal' things (according to our colleagues in our discussion), but we need to open our eyes to see that we are indeed serving God in big or small ways that are important in God's kingdom!  And perhaps we can find new 'Africas' too!

Finally, this past Sunday, our online sermon dealt with being in relationship with Jesus/God as the key to knowing when God is speaking.  In any human relationship, communication must be established by spending time together, by speaking, and by listening.  The same is true for our relationship with God.  We need to spend time in the Word - reading the Bible, being with other Christian brothers and sisters in worship and in fellowship, and taking time to pray as we both talk to God and listen for His voice.  In this sermon, we heard that maybe God IS speaking, but we just miss it because of our lack of relationship with Him.  Sometimes God affirms what our heart desires.  Sometimes God tells us to be patient and wait for His timing.  Sometimes God leads us in a direction we hadn't been planning on going, or to do something other than what we've long been expecting to do.  The sermon mentioned that God sometimes sends signs of some sort - maybe obvious, maybe subtle.  Or perhaps there is a genuine peace in your heart 'that passes understanding'.  

Thank you for reading this far.  We have really felt strongly that these two questions are important for every Christian, and we encourage you to contemplate your answers to them.  We were asked if Slovakia is our 'Africa' --- well, maybe in a sense yes, because we truly felt God's call to come here.  But we feel our bigger 'Africa' is in working with young people as we have been doing all our lives - as educators in our classrooms in Iowa, in teaching church Sunday school and confirmation classes, in our home with our own children, and now here in Slovakia as well.  'Africa' can be right in your own workplace, your home, your church, and your community!!  

So, where is your Africa?  

And how do you know when God is speaking to you?  

Dancing the Nights Away!

Last Sunday afternoon we went to a wonderful baroque chamber music concert with Saška and her family at their church in Bobrovec. 

Saška picked us up, as well as our Basic School colleague, Kveta, and her daughter, Katka, who is a student at our school.  They also live in our block of flats.

This is the beautiful and very old Catholic church in Bobrovec.  The acoustics in the sanctuary were amazing for the concert!

The chamber music group was from Trenčin, a city of about 70,000.  From what we understand, it is a community ensemble that specializes in playing Baroque chamber music.  They were extremely accomplished musicians, and we thoroughly enjoyed their performance of Telemann, Corelli, and Bach.  It was an awesome concert!  

Last week at school was normal.  And that equals BUSY!!  It seems like we stayed late at school fairly often to get things done.  Blog readers have heard our schedule before --- church choir rehearsal, volleyball two nights, adult lessons --- nothing out of the ordinary.  Wednesday after school, we did have a special treat, as one of our Slovak daughters, Katarina Joy, came over for tea and conversation before she was meeting with another friend.  It seems like everyone is always on the go at school this year, so it was nice to relax and catch up with her for a while at our flat.  

Monday most of the Oktava class dressed up in formal attire and visited each of the teacher offices, bringing treats left over from their stužkova party Friday night.  We enjoyed visiting with these classy senior students!  

I borrowed Zuzka's stužkova green ribbon for a picture.  This is the ribbon that was presented in the opening ceremony of the evening, and it will be worn all year long until after the Maturita examinations in the spring.  

Tim has also started teaching four lessons a week of Mathematics in English, as a permanent sub for a colleague who will be gone on medical leave for the rest of the school year.  It's a perfect fit, needless to say, and something that Tim will enjoy very much, though it does add more to his schedule.  

On Tuesday, we were thrilled to receive a package from Fairbank, Iowa!!  Lute mailed us our very own Wapsie Valley Cross Country T-shirts, so we were really excited to get them!    Go Warriors!!  It's been a while since we've worn any WV attire!!    :-)   (For those who may not know, Wapsie Valley is Lute's first teaching job, and it was also the first teaching job for both Tim and me, and where we first met!!)  

Fast forward to Friday night, and we attended our second stužkova of the year, with our wonderful 5.AP class.  

The 'welcoming committee' of beauties as we arrived.  Miro, our colleague at left, brought us to the stužkova by car, along with another teacher, Daša, in the 'little black dress'.  

Stanka and Goya are two of my favorite 5.A's - fun gals!!  We have so many
'favorite students' here at EGJT!!  

The teacher table - with Katka, the 5.AP Class Teacher at left, and Janka, our deputy headmistress at right.  

The other end of the teacher table, with several of our colleagues who shared our former large teacher office.  We miss seeing these gals many times a day!!  

After Janka finished with her speech and the presentation of the students' green stužkova ribbons, Sisa, (another of our favorite students) came to escort Tim to the stage.  Since our school pastor wasn't able to attend until later, and a man is needed to give the official toast for the evening, Tim was asked to perform this duty for the 5.AP stužkova.   :-)  

Tim giving his stužkova toast, in English, with Katka (the Class Teacher) translating for the parents.  Of course our students could understand!  He ended with the Irish blessing:  

May the road rise to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

And the rain fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

The program presented by this group was amazing!!  it included drama, dancing and singing, and every aspect was terrific.  This is Juraj playing the Slovak national hero, Janošik, at home with some of the women in his life.  

The girls dancing in part of the medley of songs from musicals.  Very cute!!  

This is Sisa again, on the dance floor with other students and teachers.   The kids  planned the program so that in between parts of their show, they got everyone out on the dance floor.  We all enjoyed dancing together over and over again!!  

The four boys in the class danced to "Greased Lightning", and they were super!  The other Juraj, on the right, choreographed the routine, since he is a world-class competitive ballroom dancer.  He and his competition partner performed several styles of dances.  I've never seen anything like it except on TV before!!  In fact, Juraj is in Tim's section, and I didn't know him, so I thought they had hired professional dancers for the program, not realizing he is at our school.  Wow!!  He's awesome!!  

Katka, (class teacher), presented the kids with Lanterns of Happiness, so they all went outside to light them and send them floating into the night sky!  

Some of the Lanterns of Happiness floating up, up, and away!  

They also had some sparklers to light up outside.  It was a special ending for the evening's program, seeing the lanterns floating away!

The class picture, with the teachers in attendance.  Love these kids!!  

Thankfully we had no agenda for Saturday, at least not for the daytime, so we got to sleep late after being out until nearly 2:00 a.m. at stužkova!!  I got some laundry done, we biked into town to do some errands, and we checked emails and news online too.  Then we had to get ready for our next event; we left the flat at 4:00 to catch a train to Liptovský Hrádok.

We were invited to attend our first ever Venček -- a type of ball.  Many of our students in II.A5, II.A4, and Sexta classes have been taking a ballroom dancing class all fall.  As a culminating event, they participate in this special ball, and they met us at the door with our tickets.  

After all the guests were seated, all the couples processed into the ballroom.  The boys all had flowers for the girls, and the girls brought white handkerchiefs for the boys.  

After they all entered and formed a circle, they exchanged gifts with their partners before starting the first dance.  

The flowers were actually used as part of the first dance, and I think it was a mazurka.  The students all looked so elegant, and they had learned many dances to perform in the 'recital' part of their program.  

It was so neat seeing our younger students all dressed up and doing such a nice job at ballroom dancing.  They were all quite nervous about it, but they did great!  After the 'recital' part, a nice dinner was served to everyone.  

After dinner, each student chose a dance partner from the guest tables.  I'm dancing with Roman, another of our favorite students, who is also our head mistress's son.  I was honored to dance with him!  

LIke I said --- so many 'favorites'!  Miška, in orange, is the volleyball player we went to watch in tournaments last year, and Dominika (at right) is a beautiful singer we've heard perform at concerts.  

Handsome men all in suits!!  Martin (at right) was our host for the weekend with his family in NE Slovakia this fall.  

I was presented with two white venček (wreaths), one from Roman, and one from this young man, Jakub.  They were both excellent dance partners!  

About the wreaths which give the ball its name --- each boy makes 10 white wreaths, (the two boys who gave me one had each made an extra!), and the girls make 10 colored wreaths.  There is one set of dances during which they switch partners and pin a wreath on each dancer that they think is a good partner.  

Then at the end, when all the wreaths have been pinned, the boy and girl with the most wreaths are the king and queen of the ball!  Here are Miška and Roman, the winners!  

The next part of the program, (organized by the dance class instructors), involved six judges from the audience, and I was selected as a judge.  It was kind of an impromptu talent competition involving various activities - singing, dancing, etc.  

Oh yes, another of our favorites, Anna, who has also played volleyball with us on Monday nights.  She's a wonderful dancer as well as volleyball player, and she gave Tim a venček wreath!  I think we'll turn our wreaths into Christmas ornaments someday, to keep forever as memories of Slovakia!    

Another favorite, Lucy, translated for us on the church bus tour a year ago!  

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but of course we got to do a lot of dancing throughout the evening as well.  So it was two nights in a row of being on the dance floor!  Fun times!  We sat at a table with Roman's parents, Janka (the II.A4 Class Teacher), and Miro, our colleague - all good friends and wonderful people.   It was a fun ball, and so neat to experience the traditions of a venček for the first time!  

Sunday morning at church, there was a special service honoring those who have died in accidents during the past year - car accidents, train accidents, hiking accidents, etc. - as well as all rescue workers such as police officers, firefighters, EMT's, and mountain rescue teams.  (After church, kids were allowed to get inside ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks!!)  

There was also a military band at church, and they played 6 or 8 selections during the service.  They were really outstanding performers!  We are so impressed with the musicianship, training, and level of expertise of musical ensembles here in Slovakia.  

It was really cold in church today, so that cup of hot chai afterwards tasted wonderful while watching our online sermon.  After that I actually cooked a big Sunday dinner, for the first time in a while, because of our crazy schedule and travels.  Then soon we headed back to church for an ecumenical service this afternoon (Lutheran, Catholic, and Baptist), because of today's Slovak national holiday - Day of the Fight for Freedom and Democracy.  Our choir sang two of the anthems we've already done before, our two pastors did the liturgical part of the service, the Baptist pastor did some prayers, and the Catholic priest gave the sermon.      There was also a dramatic reading, complete with patriotic-sounding music in the background.  They served cakes to everyone as we walked out of the church.  

And now we are looking forward to skype and FaceTime chats with family at home this evening!  We miss everyone, and really look forward to talking face-to-face each week!!