Back from Slovakia

Initial Re-entry Reaction
As I sit and reflect on the trip, I'm feeling a lot of different things. The most apparent feeling is sadness- I was definitely not ready to come back when I did, and I feel like I was plucked out of good soil. I truly miss the team and my friends there- it was the best mission team I've ever worked with by far. I'm also feeling pretty lousy, probably leftovers of the icky sickness from the trip. For those of you that didn't know, I was kinda sick for most of the time in some form or fashion, with stomach cramping and other things that I won't mention. I'm guessing that it was due to the change in environment and the food, but there's no telling. Interestingly enough though, even though I was sick, my friends took care of me and made me feel better so I wasn't all that miserable. Let me also just say that whoever thinks that traveling alone for a long period of time is cool, has something wrong with them. It's okay for a short time, but after a while I just got so lonely- sometimes it's nice to have someone to watch your back and make sure you don't do something stupid. I was basically alone for the last 3 days of the trip, including 20+ straight hours of traveling...not fun. Oh by the way, before I forget, SLOVAKIAN is not a word. That's right folks, it's just Slovak. They made that pretty clear after I made that mistake the first time.

The Big Apple Before The Heart…of Europe, That is.
So let me rewind and tell you a little about what I did there. Before I went to Slovakia, I spent a few days in New York City to visit a friend named Carolyn. It was an awesome experience to spend more than a day in the city, as I've never taken such an extensive trip there. Being there was a really good warm-up for the overseas traveling by myself. I tried to find my way to the subway and couldn't find it anywhere. So I asked a guard where it was and she told me "Right up that hill over there". I say, "You mean up that hill where it says Don't Walk?" She says "Yup", so I'm lugging this rolling suitcase full of peanut butter and toys up this rocky messed up sidewalk through traffic. It was nuts. I had to store a suitcase in the airport and ran into this big meaney at the front counter who gave me the worst ‘tude- that got me ready to have an attitude with people I don't understand who are mean! I had to take the subway from the airport to her apartment. It took me about 2 hours from when I touched down to sit in her apartment! The subway at night when you're alone taking it for the first time is very intimidating. I wasn't necessarily scared, but just really intimidated. I would have been perfectly fine if I had anyone with me. The tram from the airport was really nice, but as soon as we got "into the city" it definitely started to get a little rough looking. People usually just sleep on the trains, whether it's the middle of the day or the middle of the night. In general people in NYC were really nice- wherever I sat in the subway, I always found someone to ask if I was going the right way, or strike up a conversation with. I always found someone who helped me. By the way, for those of you who don't like asking for help when you're traveling, get over it! I can't count the number of times strangers have saved me from making stupid mistakes, or kept me from getting anxious about traveling alone.

Wonderful Places
I finally got to Carolyn's apartment in Brooklyn, though she wasn't there, and slept well that night despite the traffic outside the open windows. The next afternoon she got there and we took a trip downtown to get some food for a party that night. I told myself I could go downtown without using my camera, which was a huge mistake cause I missed some incredible shots. Brooklyn is actually a great location- it's not as scary as the media makes it out to be. It's about a 20-minute train ride to downtown Manhattan, and about 30 minutes from the airport. Carolyn lives in an awesome neighborhood too, right across the street from a lovely park. Anyway, we went to buy some food and came across a mini open-air market. We ate the most unbelievable samples of cheese, veggies, meats, and all sorts of food that made my eyes roll in the back of my head.

Don’t Get Stuck in Brooklyn
In New York City, the rent is about 2 or 3 times more than Orlando, and usually the places are much smaller too. I splurged there and paid for one of those double-decker tour busses to take me around the island. I thought, I'm a young, single white woman with a expensive camera equipment, I'm not about to walk around New York City alone and expect to see what I want to see. So that was a great decision and I saw all parts of the island- I saw Manhattan, Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn, and pretty much everywhere. I took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty too which was free and awesome. It was really hot there though, and air conditioning was very rare, so I was so sweaty the entire time. I got stuck in Brooklyn, which was interesting...from Carolyn's apartment I walked down the street about a mile or so to the supposed tour bus stop. I waited there for almost an hour while calling the company to figure out where the bus was. Those jerks hung up on me 5 times! I was so furious, but I acted polite to them, trying to ask where the bus was because I'm stuck here. Eventually I just walked down to another unfamiliar subway stop, hopped on, and went into the city. I walked right up to their headquarters and complained to them face to face. They didn't care--in fact, most of them didn't even speak English. Anyway, Tuesday afternoon I took the train to the airport, picked up my luggage, and went on my way to Slovakia.

The First Place in Europe, Vienna
I flew into Vienna on a Wednesday. The plane ride was fine because I took some sleeping pills, but the seats were the smallest airplane seats I've ever sat in, and I was by the window beside two other people- did I mention I'm a minor claustrophobic? Anyway, with the hotel I was staying at in Vienna, I had a free shuttle to the hotel. So I waited for the cab driver, who drove way too fast by the way, to take me to the hotel. I checked in, wandered around the nearby village, and stayed the night there. Unfortunately, I was about 35 minutes from downtown Vienna so I actually didn't go deep into the city because the cab rides are expensive. I went in the city to take photos, have some coffee and dinner- where I ate goulash. The next morning I took the shuttle back to the airport to meet up with Miriam Grady, the leader of the group in Slovakia. She then took me across the border to Slovakia, about a 30 to 45 minute car ride.

Trnava, the Great
We arrived in the city of Trnava and went to The Building, which is the main ministry place. I walked up the stairs into the room and saw a group of people practicing music. Little did I know that these people would become my good friends! We practice music for a while as I beat a little doumbek sort of drum, and realize that there is another guitar in the closet. I go get it, bring it back, and plug it up to the amp- turning the bass up really high, and high really low. Believe it or not, it almost sounded like a bass guitar! We decided to use this for most of the music that week. For the rest of the afternoon, we participated in packing up dozens of boxes and suitcases full of supplies for camp. I went out with Priscilla who took me to get ice cream which was really good! It costs about 8 Slovak Crowns per scoop of ice cream, which is about 28 cents or so. That night a group of 7 or 8 of us went to a great little steakhouse in town and had a wonderful meal. After dinner I met up with Jeff and Ester, a missionary couple who helps at the building, and slept at their house. The next morning I woke up and met up with everyone at the building, continuing to pack up supplies. Eventually the bus came and we loaded up all the supplies and our bodies and hit the road to a village about an hour and a half away called Nove Mesto Nad Vahom.

Getting Ready for Camp
This is where the camp was. We drove up a semi-steep and rocky road to find a small retreat center in the distance. It was essentially what I expected from the photos I had seen from previous years. At the camp there were women's dorms, men's dorms, a tiny little pool, and the main building which was our meeting and eating place. We settled our stuff in and the music team immediately started practicing. After a few minutes we hear from the camp director that he has a drum set and wonders if we want to use it. I immediately say YES!...but don't realize the implications of that answer till later on. I am not a drummer, in fact I've played the drum set maybe once or twice. Well, turns out that I was the new drummer for the band. The lead singer's name was Stano, there was a female pianist, a female guitarist, another female singer and me who switched between the drums and the "bass". We were then called Stan the Man and the Chic Band. We wore it proudly.

What I Did There
We had a few days before the kids came, and we took that opportunity to prepare for camp in whatever fields we needed. I also spent that time preparing a "tech room" where the photographers, videographers and MC's would hang out, edit or charge equipment. That was my 2nd room while I was there, and I enjoyed it very much. One of my main duties there was to edit videos for different things: daily videos shown every night, and other funny or ridiculous types of skits we showed at night to the kids. We made some awesome flicks at the beginning of the week, but when the kids watched them, they didn't laugh very much. Eventually they warmed up to the videos and loved them, but our energy to make them awesome sort of started going downhill as we didn't have as much time to edit as before. The videos were really fun to make though, to say the least, and they're even more fun to watch over and over! After the kids came on Sunday afternoon, our time was then dedicated to being counselors and taking care of them. Immediately I could tell a huge difference in the summer camps I've worked at, compared to this one. First of all there was about 25 staff people and about 23 or so kids. A great ratio, by the way. The kids actually had quite a bit of freedom in that they didn't have to always be with a counselor- they could just go hang out in the down times.

How We Reached the Kids
There were two weeks that I was actually up in the mountains for camp. There were also two different kinds of camp: one being English Camp, and the other being Christian Camp. I wasn't able to finish Christian Camp (which I was very disappointed in) but spent most of my time for the English Camp. In previous years, the team basically scared the kids away by talking too much about the Gospel. The kids' thoughts were: I'm coming here to learn English, not about God. That resulted in 1 person coming to Christian Camp last year. So they changed their strategy for this year. This year English Camp was simply about English. In the morning after we ate, we broke up into our small classes (usually about 3-5 people) and learned English. We would then have lunch, have free time, dinner, and then evening programs till after 11 p.m. The only time the Gospel was ever mentioned was during a nightly talk from the pastor at The Building, and during small group times when we brought up the subject. Usually Jeff, the speaker, would tell a 20 some minute story and then mention the Gospel and say, "If you want to talk more about that, come to my small group". It was actually a very affective way to get interested kids who wouldn't feel embarrassed around their friends by asking questions. We had to be very careful as to how much we should actually talk about... not that we were scared to talk about it, but we just had to be aware that sometimes it does more harm than good to scare the kids away. Basically, for me, learning English was just an excuse to share the Gospel with them. We could tell that the kids were having a ton of fun during camp and they left feeling sad for having to get back to reality.

Food and Drinks
So, the food. At camp, for just about every breakfast we would have cereal and yogurt. The two mornings I remember not having cereal was when we had spam-like hot dogs and ham sandwiches. For all of the meals you would normally find a plate of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the middle of the table. We would sit down, have usually have some sort of soup or starter, and then take our plates up to get filled by the cook, Boshka. She was a short, dark haired, older Slovak woman who was very nice. Most of the meals were doable, but honestly, there were nights I went home hungry. I think 2 or 3 of the meals I took one bite of and just couldn't bring myself to eat another one! My friend Petra got so mad at the cook for switching around meals or screwing them up...she would just go get some crackers and snacks and eat them hehe. Petra is also a wonder woman at making these incredible little cold coffee drinks with instant coffee believe it or not. So, as my personal barista, she would make me special treats when she felt so inclined.

Spiders, Cold Water, and Wet Clothes
Spiders live in Slovakia. Not the big hairy kind, but a spider is a spider is a spider! They'd be in the bathroom stalls, in the corners of the walls, one in my friend's bed, etc. I had two trusted stalls on camp, both of which were ransacked with a broom by yours truly. The water was usually always ice cold, so showers were honestly pretty terrible. I'd turn the water on, get my hair wet, turn it off, put shampoo on, turn it on, rinse it off, turn it off, and it would go like this for the rest of the shower. About a week in, I found that the water had magically turned warm and I felt like someone just gave me a pot of gold--it was a marvelous thing! As for laundry, it didn't really exist. If your clothes needed washing, you'd wash them in the sink and hang them out to dry. Well, the genius that I am washed all my clothes at once...only to discover that the next two days would be cold and rainy! Long story short, we ended up blow-drying most of my clothes to get dry. Traffic wasn't an issue there, and driving was really fun, especially when Petra drove on the country roads. When she drove in traffic though, and a driver made her mad, she would let out this terribly ticked off grunt- absolutely cracked me up every time.

The Unforgettable Good Times
The kids left on a Saturday morning to back to Trnava on a bus along with some Americans that helped at camp. Leaving about 7 or 8 of us for a few days. Saturday was my birthday so Petra and Laura took me into town to eat some pizza for lunch, which was amazing by the way. A $3 pizza for 3 people...can't beat that! We went to the grocery store to buy chicken, potatoes and veggies to cook for my birthday celebration that night. We grilled the chicken on a charcoal grill and started a fire for the rest of the veggies. I will say, it was a great, great dinner, especially after a week of camp food! We then went up the campfire at the top of the hill and sat there for a while, just soaking up the outdoors. All in all, it was a good birthday...even though I didn't have any carrot cake or strawberry rhubarb pie. :(

Stargazing, Kofola and Dead Dogs
That weekend after the kids left, Petra, Laura and I grabbed some blankets and headed off behind a building to do some stargazing. It was about 50~ degrees, absolutely perfect- the millions of stars were out and brilliantly shining. Though it was kinda creepy in the pitch darkness, it was one of the highlights of my trip...one of the times I felt closer to God. I find that all it takes for me to have that connection is for me to just stop what I'm doing, go outside, and look up. During that weekend we had also walked to the nearest village to get some Kofola (a cola that kinda tastes like licorice eww) and to get away from camp for a while. The village was maybe 3/4 mile away from camp, and it was an awesome little walk. We saw dead animals, the countryside, an old shoe, and we almost got hit by a car.

Don’t Arrest Me!
So, I think I might have almost gotten arrested. We were in a big store, similar to a mini Wal-Mart, and I decided to buy some chocolate, as I did not have any for most of the time there. There was a long row of registers at the front of the store, as you can imagine, and beyond the registers were a bunch of shops along the side...sort of like a nail or photo place in Wal-Mart. Anyway, I walk past the registers to see what shops were down there, while visibly holding the chocolate in my hand. A security officer came over and started speaking Slovak to me. I realized I had walked past a line of some sort, so I tried to communicate that I would walk over the line and go pay for the chocolate. He told me to stop a few times, so I did. He kept talking on his walkie-talkie and wouldn't let me leave. I happened to see my Slovak friend, Mishka in the distance and I yelled at her to come over cause I was in trouble. They asked me for my passport and wrote down my address and phone number. They talked for a few minutes, and then the security officer's supervisor came over to talk to Mishka. I told her to tell him I was a stupid American. They talked for a few more minutes and I heard the word Policia, and I knew that couldn't be good. Mishka said that the security officer is usually obliged to call the police when someone walks over the line, but he would make an exception for me. I agreed, and told them I didn't even want the dumb chocolate bar anymore. They made me wait in line to pay for it though! So I waited in line for 15 minutes and had to show the guard my receipt when I left. What an overreaction!

Charcoal Pills Shouldn’t Have Been Invented
I believe it was later that night when I started to feel really awful. My stomach was in knots for the next day and in general felt just plain bad. For some weird reason, I had this freak problem with my heart or lungs for almost 2 days. Have you ever breathed in and for no apparent reason it feels like someone pinched your heart? And then it takes a few minutes and you can breathe normal? Anyway, it happened to me but didn't go away for days. It was really irritating though, because I couldn't get out of breath, laugh hard or even move around in bed that much because it would hurt like the dickens. It also started to make me very anxious because I felt like I couldn't breathe. I had to take charcoal pills, which were so weird and gross. Makes me sick every time I think about them! The night the kids came back to camp, we had worship that night. I came down to participate and sat in the back row in case I needed to jet out. Worship felt good, and I became emotional during singing because it had been a while since I hadn't lead worship. In the middle of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, I suddenly realized that the pain in my heart was gone, every bit of it. I could take a huge deep breath and it didn't hurt at all. I just sat there and smiled as I realized what had happened. Call it coincidence, call it providence, I call that God!

Not The Best 24 Hours of My Life
I knew the next day I had to leave, and I began to feel like I wasn't ready to go. It was hard for me to feel so comfortable with a group of people, to feel so accepted, to have so much fun and be in fellowship with other incredible people, and to think about leaving them. I'm not sure if I've already said this, but this team was by far the best team I had worked with on the field. Anyway, I spent the next morning writing letters to friends, packing up, and preparing my mind to leave them. A few hours after lunch I packed everything up and got ready to leave. Some folks came out to see me off and give me hugs. It honestly took everything in me not to lose it and to keep my smile. The moment I got in the car and shut the door I just lost it. I cried all the way to the train station. Petra and Laura took me, and we went early to buy the train ticket before we grabbed some incredible cheese pizza at the nearby cafe. After that we went back to the train station, and waited 30 minutes together for my train while we talked. The train came 15 minutes late, and Petra said I might miss the next transfer train. She said if I missed the transfer I'd either have to wait about 8 hours for the next one, or get a train to Bratislava where someone could probably speak English. That didn't make me feel too much at ease! The train came eventually and we walked on the platform together to say our goodbyes. It was hard.

A Close Call
I got on the train, found a room to sit in and stared out the window till my next stop. They make announcements for the stops but they obviously speak in Slovak and I didn't understand. I knew it was the 3rd stop though, so I trusted that and got off the train. However, when I stepped off the train, I was in the middle of the train tracks on a platform with tracks on either side of me. There was a male and female guard there and the female told me that the next train was to Prague and I was to wait there. Not even 3 minutes later, the train pulled up next to me. I thank God I didn't get in a bind! This train was much nicer and I had almost a whole car to myself. I sat there and finished my book, taking pictures along the way, editing the photos I had taken in the previous weeks, and reflecting on the people and events that happened.

Sometimes Planning Does You No Good
I arrived in Prague around 10 pm, and I eventually made my way outside. I wasn't sure what side of the building I came out of so it was confusing trying to find my way according to the map. I started walking, but felt a little uneasy about where I was. I just kept walking though, and went towards a busy road. After about a 20-25 minute walk, I eventually found my way to the hotel. The roads there were not marked well, and were especially hard to find at night. I was so relieved when I saw my hotel...but as I was walking towards it, I realized the lights weren't on and there was tape on the windows. There was also a note that said "This hotel is closed for construction, please go to 'this address' to find your reservation." I was very unhappy to say the least. Neither the hotel I was at, nor the hotel I needed to get to was on the map I had. I started walking around looking for any hotel in the area and found none. I then asked someone who walked into the first hotel and said I needed to find my way to the new hotel. They flagged down some police and the policeman told me, "Go up there, make a right, then a left, then a right, then a left and you'll see it." What a joke. After walking around for about 45 minutes, about to break down and cry, I eventually just flagged down a taxi. In my months of research I heard over and over that taxis will rip you off so try not to take them. I didn't care, so I told him the address and he drove me to the hotel. He was driving all over the city though and I started to get upset because he was taking me too far away from the central part of the city. Long story short, we drove for about 20 minutes to the new hotel...come to find out, the new hotel was about a 5 minute walk from the shut down hotel. I was so mad, but just paid the bill and went inside.

The Best Hotel I’ve Ever Slept In
This hotel, called Hotel Yasmin, was unbelievable. The staff was so nice and spoke English, my room was incredible and so was the food. I definitely give it a thumbs up! I slept fairly well that night and woke up very hungry as I had not eaten dinner the night before. I walked down to the lobby because there was supposed to be a continental breakfast there. Folks, let me tell you, it was the nicest continental breakfast I've ever eaten. I'm talking about eggs, bacon, cheeses, breads, coffee, juices, veggies, fruits, everything you could want. I stuffed myself and took my time eating, as I had not had a good breakfast for almost 3 weeks. That day I walked around the city, soaking up the atmosphere. I ate a huge chicken and potato lunch for 3 bucks, it was great. I took tons of photos and felt completely safe the whole time. I walked around for probably 5 or 6 hours and decided to come back and get cleaned up. I did that, and went out to get some dinner and souvenirs. After I realized that the souvenirs were too expensive, I came home to relax. I called my friend Petra from the hotel room to tell her it would be the last time I could call her from Europe. By the way, those two phone calls to her cost about $20! Though I needed to go to bed, I couldn't sleep, so I got dressed again and went out to find an Internet cafe. I found one, caught up on some e-mails, got some ice cream, and came home again.

Get Me Off This Plane
The next morning I was up at 4 a.m. I walked down to the lobby to find my shuttle that I had booked while in the US. They were waiting there for me and he drove me to the airport. I got there around 5 a.m. and started the long journey home. The flights were long, cramped and miserable. The descent coming from Munich to Chicago was the worst 30 minutes on a plane I've ever had. There was so much turbulence, and the plane would lose so much altitude at once. The guy sitting beside me and I started to feel very motion sick. He asked me to put the sunshade down because he was getting a headache. At one point, a flight attendant was holding some luggage in the isle, and the plane dropped so much that her luggage went flying up in the air. After we got past the clouds (when I expected turbulence), there was even more turbulence! I had been clutching the seat cushion in front of me, and at that point I held on for dear life. I closed my eyes, put my head down, and sang "Come Thou Fount" till we landed. When we finally landed the plane erupted in cheers. That experience made me even sicker to my stomach for the rest of the night. Needless to say, I was happy to get off the plane in Orlando. It was so weird to wake up in one country and go to bed halfway across the world. It has been very surreal to be home. Part of me wants to get on a plane and go right back there, but as the days go on I am becoming more calmed down in those thoughts. I will admit, it was refreshing to see English signs everywhere and not worry about translations. It was also so nice to talk to anyone I wanted and to know that most of them would speak English. I loved being able to ask security guards or employees questions and expect that they know the answer. For some reason, when the disgruntled employees at McDonald's and Starbucks didn't annoy me like they normally would, maybe because I could actually understand them!

Reflections on America and the World
As I sat in the airport in Chicago though, eating a McDonald's cheeseburger and drinking my signature Starbucks drink, I sat and thought about America versus the world. It's a common thought in my head as I have experienced other cultures and peoples. I wonder to myself, it is better to grow up in the US or other parts of the world? I wonder if I had grown up in Slovakia, would I love America or hate America? Do they "have it better" or do Americans? America is my life because it's all I've been surrounded by for 24 years- and I thought to myself how long it would take to feel at home in another country. I looked around at moms in the airport who talked to their children like a peer, like a 5 year old arguing with someone in a sandbox. I looked at how hateful they were and wondered why they acted so. I thought about parent/child relationships I saw in Europe and couldn't remember a time I saw anything like that. I thought about the trip I just took, the things I saw, the people I met. I thought about how leaving there was exponentially harder than I thought it would be. Even though it was only 3 weeks, I've still felt so melancholy about it.

Slovakia Still Needs Much Prayer
Please continue to pray for Slovakia. Pray that the work we did in those weeks will continue to bear fruit over the years. Pray that the kids will come back to the Building and build relationships with the missionaries and the local Slovaks. Thank you to all of you who supported this trip, whether financially or in prayer. You all have made the difference. God is such a good God- as much as I thought I organized parts of the trip, He orchestrated the entire thing.