A Perspective on Filth and Beauty

Right, so something strange about me is that I find dirty things fascinating. One of my many goals in taking pictures is to find depravity in all that I see. It may sound a bit... cynical, but I believe that we live in a fallen world- a world that was once created for God's glory and beauty, but it has become a place of filth, grunge, sin and despair. Many people try to only take snapshots of beauty so that they'll remember only the pretty stuff. I take pictures of depravity so I always remember and remind others to remember that our place is not in this world, but beyond it--and that filth is the opposite of Christ. Consider it my small, strange contribution in attempting to point others to Christ in a visual way.

I can see, however, where some may get the wrong idea about this. Some may see that I'm trying to make their country or city look dirty and poor. I've actually gotten quite a few comments about my photography even in the States about how I make their city look bad. Rest assured I mean no harm in this and I think all that yucky stuff beautiful.

So I'd like to take the opportunity to show a few pretty pictures of Trnava, where I live. I could find much better ones but they're mostly on a hard drive somewhere, so these were taken a few weeks ago. Slovakia is a beautiful place, despite all the grungy photos I post. For you Americans, I hope I haven't given you the wrong representation of this awesome place.

Water Fights & a Whip: Easter in Slovakia

Something very interesting happened to me over Easter weekend and I'd like to share it with you. There is a tradition in Slovakia when men (or boys) seek out women (or girls) early on the Monday morning after Easter Sunday to perform a certain...ritual. It's traditional for the boys to drench the women in water and whipping them with thin willow branches, and if the girls wanted long and healthy (fertile) lives, they should not avoid this process. It's also normal for the boys to throw the girls in the bathtub and soak them that way. In return for this 'act of kindness', the boys were to receive some kind of treats from the girls and then invite all the girls over later for a party of some sort.


Well, from my understanding this tradition has been going on here with my friends in Trnava for years. Some like it, but most hate it....and through that hatred some have started turning a helpless drenching into an all out water war. So this year there were 4 of us girls who did NOT want to be woken up early to be drenched and be mad about it. We also didn't want to cower away in a hotel somewhere (as that would not be of good sport). So we decided to find a happy medium.

Somehow in the midst of random brainstorming for this particular morning, we decided to stay up all night in preparation for the boys coming to our apartment so that we would be "awake" enough to get THEM wet too and fight. We thought it was a brilliant plan. The girls came over and we had a very entertaining girl's night, full with hair styling, Napoleon Dynamite, games, junk food, etc. We prepared the hall way for a total soaking, taking out electronics and clothes. We filled pitchers of water and put them in strategic places so that during battle we could defend ourselves. Our idea was that we would all be waiting in the bathtub with buckets of water so they couldn't throw us in, and in the meantime we'd be drenching them too which they wouldn't expect. I even wrote a provoking poem and taped it on the door so that they would know we were not going down without a fight.


This was still a good idea to us, until about 4 am when we were all incredibly tired and irritated that the boys would put us through such an ordeal. We heard from a credible source that they would be coming to our flat at 5 am. So we made it through that hour and were totally ready for war. Then it turned to 5:15, 5:30, 5:45 and we were dropping like flies. I texted Dan (the ring leader) about that time and asked when they would be there to do the deed. I got a text that said, "6:30". By this time were not happy and thought this was a terrible idea....but we were good sports and made it through till 6:30.


Around 6:40 I see their car outside and we lock and load for war. Some of us in the bathtub with Anya ready to open the door. We were READY, let me just repeat that.

After a little coersing Anya lets the boys in. I peekd through the closed shower curtain and saw them with nice clothes on which was my first giveaway that something was wrong. Then I saw some of them with a flower, oh jeez. So they come in the bathroom and we have buckets in our hands ready to throw. Ethan comes in with 3 flowers and that whip thing and gently hits our legs a few times. In the meantime, us girls have a stupid deer-in-the-headlights look on our face, buckets in hands, looking at about 10 guys in our hallway looking at US taking pictures and laughing. I'm sure our jaws were dragging on the ground by this point.


I say something like, "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" and get out of the bathtub with my bucket and they all start moving a little closer to the door. "WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT JUST HAPPENED HERE! SOMEBODY'S GETTING WET!!!" and by this time they were briskly moving out of the house and going down the stairs. I go out to my bedroom window and look down at all of them and say, "Thank you for the flower but WHAT?!" and threw a bucket of water down 8 floors.

So we stand there for a while looking and feeling ridiculous, ticked off at the fact that we stayed up ALL night for that....not mad at the boys giving us the flower (cause it was SO SWEET!!!!) but mad at ourselves for actually staying up. We made breakfast and went to bed and crashed till the afternoon.

Grocery Shopping

I will never think that going grocery shopping in the States is a pain to do anymore. I say this because grocery shopping here is SO much more of an irritant than I expected. Not just grocery shopping, but errands in my daily life. Without a car, life can be simple. I love the exercise and being able to be outside for a minimum of 30 minutes a day by walking. Sometimes though, it can turn an average day of life into a big fat pain. Take today for example...it's time to go buy more food at home. But instead of hopping in the car and getting it over with, there's a slew of complications at hand. First, I empty out my backpack and put inside a large woven bag made for carrying large loads. I walk only about 10 minutes to the grocery store called Tesco (which I am extremely thankful for). So I walk in whatever weather is presented in my coat, scarf, gloves, hat, etc. You must pay to use a cart though, so I dig through my abundance of change to find the right coin to insert. I take off my layers of warmth as I enter the building and put everything I brought in my cart. I have a list of things I need, but I usually don't know where any of it is, so I just walk up and down the isles till I see something recognizable. Most of the labels are in Slovak so I had to quickly learn some staple food names. I remember I don't have a car to lug everything in, so I put back the bottle of oil or toilet paper because I don't have room in my backpack for it. I buy only necessities, because after a certain amount of weight in my hands and on my back, the 10 minute walk home turns out to be a little more difficult.

I push my way through the crowds of people, usually getting my ankles run over by a babka (elderly woman) on a rampage with her cart. I make my way to the International Foods section to see if any new American food has arrived, but remember that it's very expensive (such as peanut butter we just got in stock which cost $6 for a tiny container.) After at least an hour of shopping I go to the front counter to check out. I try not to say anything much, because if I open my mouth I get some interesting stares from the surrounding people. I quickly pack everything into my backpack or the woven bag, put on all my warm layers, return the cart, walk home, dig out my keys and up the tiny 2 person elevator, while spending more money on 2 bags of food than anyone ever should! Another quick transportation problem is when I need to travel outside of Trnava to a nearby village. Taking a bus is fun if I'm not alone, but it's quite confusing if you don't know what you're doing. The other night, for example, we walked 20 minutes to the bus station, waited for 10 minutes, got there 20 minutes later, and walked another 5 minutes to the person's home. It can be frustrating when you're in a hurry and just want to get there!

Prayer: That I would find the joy in seemingly frustrating/different situations.