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Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church
Installation of Missionaries: August 2009 Back Row: Sarah, Rev Arden Haug Global Mission Europe, Slovak Pastor, Mark, Rev Phil Schmidt, Dee Front row: Meghan, Colleen (Sarah and Colleen are in Cieszyn Poland) Heidi (Sarah and Heidi are in Tisovec) Sue Schmidt (Phil and Sue are in Bratislava) and Claudia Nelson, our trainer.
Typical street in Kosice early one Saturday AM, 2009. - Dee Wright in Slovakia
January 25, 2010
Dobre Rano! Good Morning from Kosice! Tuesday morning was an adventure. I was the last roommate to leave the flat and it was about a half hour later than usual. I decided to take the tram. It would take me to a stop one block away from school. I walked to Marathon Square Tram stop, got on the tram, punched my ticket and sat down. Several minutes later I looked out the window and we had passed Moyesova Street where the tram should have turned and were now at the corner of Kaufland Galleria, a supermarket and mall! Oh NO! I was on the wrong tram; it was tram #6 instead of tram #4! I walked up to the driver’s window and knocked. “Pan, idzie do Dom Umennie?” “Do you stop at the Philharmonic Theater called Dom Umennie?” “Ahoj!” he said. Which means “Yeah?” OK that was good; it was just a few blocks from school. So I sat back down in a different seat. There was a notice placed on the side of the car with the stops listed, I had not seen this before. I counted the stops, 1, 2, …12. Twelve stops before I would get there. Then I spotted a landmark. US Steel built a large sport-concert center, just on the right side of the hill. I can get off there; I know where it is, then walk to school. This was about 2 stops before Dom Umennie. I got off the tram, and started to walk down the hill—the sidewalk disappears and the street is quite busy here. I walk halfway back up the hill, around the cement divider to the walkway next to the arena, down the hill and finally to an intersection where I can cross the street and get to school. Fortunately it was only 26 degrees F, and no wind, so not too cold. By this time I am on the cell phone to let my roommates know that, yes, I am on my way to school. I finally signed in at 8:00 AM! There is too much too tell to bring you up to date, but I will give you an overview. One roommate is leaving at the end of January so a new teacher who is LCMS and on an assignment in Presov (about 40 minutes north of Kosice) will be joining us February 1. Also, Sue and I will pick up two more teaching hours so we will have 24 hours per week (plus prep and meetings). It will be a busy semester. Our Christmas break was three weeks. I was invited to a traditional Slovak Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. This began with a wafer (like a pancake size communion wafer) called Oplatek spread with honey and eaten with a clove of garlic for good health. “Kapustnicka” a sauerkraut soup with sausage and potatoes was served next with “Chopin” white wine. Then a type of sweet called Opeckance which is dumpling size pieces of dough mixed with ground, sweetened poppy seeds! Then we visited over coffee and candy before the fish course was served (yes, some families put the carp in the bathtub, but some prefer salmon or white fish!). This is served with potato salad and a regional Tokay wine, followed with wonderful coffee! That Sunday I was able to go to the International Lutheran service in Bratislava with Pr Arden Haug. They have their coffee hour in a café across the street and I met people from the Congo, Nigeria, and Long Beach! The next day I left for a wonderful visit to Granada, Spain. I was able to see the large Cathedral there with many Flemish oils. Also of course the exciting La Alhambra with its fortress, two palaces, church and gardens as well as the adjacent Generalife “summer” palace. My hotel was right across the street from this complex and I enjoyed walking past the area everyday to get to town! After a long day of plane travel, buses, a triple-decker sleeper car, I arrived back in Kosice at 5 AM! Rested and ready to do laundry! Dee Wright in Slovakia
September 20, 2009 September in Kosice, Slovakia has been very pleasant. We have had two or three days of rain, but overall it is sunny with temperatures in the 80s, although a little more humidity than we are used to in Fresno. Today, Sunday, it is exactly a month since I left Fresno. My two roommates are Lynda McConnell from Roanoke, Virginia and Sue Streakel from Reno, Nevada. I have learned my way around "Stare Miasto" or Old Town Kosice. It has a population of 235,000 people in Kosice proper, has a large US Steel plant at the South end of town and another American school, QSI, which serves the children of US Steel plant workers. This week there have been concerts in the promenade street which is Hlavna. It is the Festival of Central Europe. It has included some pop singing, dance contests and yesterday we were treated to a Kosice Philharmonic concert of classical music complete with Slovak singing and Italian arias!! Really quite good. I am looking forward to a series of organ concerts this month at the different churches including the Slovak Lutheran church. Our apartment, or flat, is at the north end of Jesenskeho street which runs north and south. The kitchen faces the east and my room is on the west side of the flat. There is a large hallway where we hang sheets to dry. Each of our three rooms comes equipped with a drying rack--clothes dryers are not very common here and you often see clothes hanging on balconies when the weather is nice! The largest grocery chain in Central Europe must be TESCO. They carry everything, you can bring your own bags or buy one, and you always pack your groceries. There are more kinds of rice, flour, and yogurt than you ever see in our stores and chocolate flavored everything is on the shelves: candy, yogurt, desserts etc. We have had only two days of teaching due to Constitution Day. The school year began with a service at the Lutheran Church--all teachers and most students filling the sanctuary and balconies! I have 16 to 18 students in most sections of English Conversation. I will meet the rest of my classes this week. It has been interesting to learn about their curriculum organization, class names, and schedule. It is similar to the British system so you don't meet your classes every day--but we do meet each class twice a week at different times. I have signed up to have lunch on Friday and I have a round magnetic tag which is scanned each time to pay for the lunch. It fits on a key chain and is quite efficient. Today I will attend
the Slovak Lutheran church for the second time. I have to stop by the office to
borrow a hymnal for the service. The pews are about twelve inches deep with a
straight back and a box on the floor to put your feet on. The service is only
one hour so it is possible to "perch" on the pew comfortably for that length of
time! Well, the sun is out and I must get ready for church, so "dobry den" or
good day!
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