Sunday Morning Silence

I've had severe writer's block since the day I arrived and 3 months later I still can't explain why. The task of summing up my day-by-day experiences, my struggles, my joys, and everything in between has seemed to be a nearly impossible task. I presume because Slovak society, though very different on smaller levels, is quite similar to American society on a broader level. It's not as if what I see here on a daily basis is so shocking, so unbelievable that I can't wait to run to a computer and tell you the atrocities I came across. No, life is pleasantly normal and peaceful here. With that said, please forgive how long it has taken to update you on a more regular basis.

What may have temporarily unleashed my writer's block was the sound of silence Sunday morning. Allow me to explain. I'm an extremely light sleeper, to my detriment I believe. Most mornings, especially lately, I've had trouble staying asleep because sound can somehow travel at a disturbing rate in between my apartment building and the building across the street. I hear everything, even 7 stories up. Many mornings I will awake around 6 or 7 a.m. because I hear diesel cars and trucks starting up to get warm before the commute to work. I am even awoken by the sound of shoes quickly crunching through the snow on the sidewalk, yes, 7 stories below. In fact the night before I was rudely awakened by the sound of, what I swear sounded like 5 gunshots at 2:48 a.m., but were not (don't worry, Mom). But that morning I wasn't woken up by these sounds. At 8:45 a.m. it was completely silent. What saddened me was the reminder that this morning was Sunday, and instead of the normal hustle and bustle of people getting ready to go out for the day, they were sleeping in or relaxing instead of running off to church. This silence struck me, as it reminded me that no matter how sophisticated or "religious" a country can appear, it is still in a darkness unseen to the human eye.

Prayer: That someday, those in darkness would see God's light and their cars would wake us up on Sunday morning.





My apartment building- we're on the right side, kinda in the middle, top row.