Tuesday, September 2, 2008
10. Were there any Slovaks in the Beijing Olympics?
Yes, and they won 3 medals in canoeing/kayaking, 1 medal in shooting, and 1 medal in wrestling. Woohoo!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Abraham, vision, & new vocabulary
I feel like I have unpacked a deeper set of bags since January. It’s like the difference between living out of a suitcase or deciding to take my things out and hang them up on hangers and put them in drawers.
Since January, I’ve gotten into the habit of sitting in my canvas Ikea chair with my coffee, reading through the book of Romans again, and looking out my window. I can see over 200 windows across the street from where I sit, depending on which way I turn my head. Somehow watching the rest of my neighborhood wake up and open their shades to the east, or come out on their balconies to smoke and watch traffic, or shake out blankets...all brings a sense of reality and time and place to what I’m reading. If what God says is true, then it’s true for my neighbors; it's true for all those people waking up across the street.
Tonight my Slovak textbook reading ended with the phrase: "Ale čo nie je, môže byť. A tak sa učim." (But what is not, can be. And so I study.) This ran into what has been sticking in my head from Easter and from the book of Romans chapter 4, about “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
As I was preparing to come to Slovakia for the first time I had been studying the life of Abraham with my InterVarsity group at college. What stuck out to me at the time was how God told him to “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.” So I jumped into the Abraham adventure and now here I am a year and a half into…an indefinite amount of time here. Abraham had to wait a long time to see the fulfillment of what God promised to do. What does God call the things around me now? What are the things that are not that could be? How does he speak of my students? My friends? My passions and visions for my life and the city surrounding me?
It’s easy to get near-sighted in grading, lesson plans, APU papers, Slovak flashcards, and having a respectable social life for a 24 year old. Pray for me to have long-term, far-sighted vision to see beyond my own living room of the routine I have grown accustomed to, and look out at the reality of the 200 windows across the street from me. What is God's language about these people and this place?
Since January, I’ve gotten into the habit of sitting in my canvas Ikea chair with my coffee, reading through the book of Romans again, and looking out my window. I can see over 200 windows across the street from where I sit, depending on which way I turn my head. Somehow watching the rest of my neighborhood wake up and open their shades to the east, or come out on their balconies to smoke and watch traffic, or shake out blankets...all brings a sense of reality and time and place to what I’m reading. If what God says is true, then it’s true for my neighbors; it's true for all those people waking up across the street.
Tonight my Slovak textbook reading ended with the phrase: "Ale čo nie je, môže byť. A tak sa učim." (But what is not, can be. And so I study.) This ran into what has been sticking in my head from Easter and from the book of Romans chapter 4, about “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed…being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
As I was preparing to come to Slovakia for the first time I had been studying the life of Abraham with my InterVarsity group at college. What stuck out to me at the time was how God told him to “Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.” So I jumped into the Abraham adventure and now here I am a year and a half into…an indefinite amount of time here. Abraham had to wait a long time to see the fulfillment of what God promised to do. What does God call the things around me now? What are the things that are not that could be? How does he speak of my students? My friends? My passions and visions for my life and the city surrounding me?
It’s easy to get near-sighted in grading, lesson plans, APU papers, Slovak flashcards, and having a respectable social life for a 24 year old. Pray for me to have long-term, far-sighted vision to see beyond my own living room of the routine I have grown accustomed to, and look out at the reality of the 200 windows across the street from me. What is God's language about these people and this place?
hound dogs, my innermost being, and swimming pools
An image I took home from my ESI spiritual retreat in March was to be like a hound dog sniffing out what God is doing and follow that track with my nose on the scent and my tail up in the air to announce what’s happening. Here’s what God is doing in Bratislava: churches of different denominations have been united in 24-7 prayer for over half a year now. There’s a thriving group of young and old Christians at my church and others around the city that are excited about being filled with the Spirit and making an impact on their city. I wake up excited to go each weekend.
Now, previously, something said in me, “They’ve got it altogether, (which is true) there’s enough of them that have the right idea, (which is true) so why do they need me around? I am useless here. I just grade the papers.” What a ridiculous lie! The right perspective says, “Hey! Look at all this cool stuff happening around town! I am not the beginning of the work God is doing in Bratislava, and I am not the end of it! But God set me down here to participate fully in it! It’s a coming to terms with saying that the fact that I am living on the "other" side of the world is evidence that God is living and active- here! And in me!
Other scents: I have more longstanding relationships with students who are willing to be open and honest about their lives with me. One of my Slovak colleagues expressed it this way, “I didn’t want to get to know anybody really well just to have to go through seeing them leave again.” Knowing that I’ll be around for another year and a half has amplified my own desire to get more plugged in. Relationships that I've been praying for have been deepening and new ones are sprouting up in my colleagues and students alike.
My Father knows every desire of my heart: One Sunday afternoon I was sitting in a coffee shop killing an hour before going swimming for the first time with three other teachers from school. I was making a list of how I could most efficiently fill the following needs that I had: to be social and have friends outside of school, to practice speaking Slovak, and to get some physical exercise. It was only later that I realized by going swimming with these people, I was able to do all those things at once. There I was scheming when God had already laid it out in front of me.
It's like being shown this beautiful 50 meter pool in the shell of an ugly old communist building in the middle of a block I have been shopping on and busing around for a year now, just 200 meters from where I had sat and had my coffee an hour before. It's been there all along. And God has been working here all along. I just need to open my eyes to see what he's up to.
Below are some albums of things I've been up to with people I love...click on the pictures to read the captions
Now, previously, something said in me, “They’ve got it altogether, (which is true) there’s enough of them that have the right idea, (which is true) so why do they need me around? I am useless here. I just grade the papers.” What a ridiculous lie! The right perspective says, “Hey! Look at all this cool stuff happening around town! I am not the beginning of the work God is doing in Bratislava, and I am not the end of it! But God set me down here to participate fully in it! It’s a coming to terms with saying that the fact that I am living on the "other" side of the world is evidence that God is living and active- here! And in me!
Other scents: I have more longstanding relationships with students who are willing to be open and honest about their lives with me. One of my Slovak colleagues expressed it this way, “I didn’t want to get to know anybody really well just to have to go through seeing them leave again.” Knowing that I’ll be around for another year and a half has amplified my own desire to get more plugged in. Relationships that I've been praying for have been deepening and new ones are sprouting up in my colleagues and students alike.
My Father knows every desire of my heart: One Sunday afternoon I was sitting in a coffee shop killing an hour before going swimming for the first time with three other teachers from school. I was making a list of how I could most efficiently fill the following needs that I had: to be social and have friends outside of school, to practice speaking Slovak, and to get some physical exercise. It was only later that I realized by going swimming with these people, I was able to do all those things at once. There I was scheming when God had already laid it out in front of me.
It's like being shown this beautiful 50 meter pool in the shell of an ugly old communist building in the middle of a block I have been shopping on and busing around for a year now, just 200 meters from where I had sat and had my coffee an hour before. It's been there all along. And God has been working here all along. I just need to open my eyes to see what he's up to.
Below are some albums of things I've been up to with people I love...click on the pictures to read the captions
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
salt potatoes
I thought everyone ate salt potatoes and beef on weck, but as it turns out, such delicacies belong to my very own corner of the world. So I did a little research. And while Wikipedia is probably not the most anthropologically sound source, it's a good start for looking at myself as a foreigner. (And so that my students see I cite all my sources, all quotes come from Wikipedia as of March 18th, 2008). This is what I've learned about my own hometown culture by living far away from it:SALT POTATOES:
"Salt potatoes are bite-size "young" white potatoes scrubbed and boiled in their jackets. Salt is added to the water to the point of saturation, giving them their name, and unique flavor and texture. After cooking, salt potatoes are served with melted butter.""Salt potatoes are a regional dish of Central New York, typically served in the summer when the young potatoes are first harvested. Salt springs located around Onondaga lake were used to create consumable salt that was distributed through out the north-east via the Erie Canal. Salinated water was laid out to dry on large trays. The salt residue was then scraped up, ground, and packaged. Salt potatoes were created in the nineteenth century by Irish immigrants working the springs who cooked their potatoes in the salty brine."
And my my roommates and their mothers balked at the thought of boiling potatoes in salt water. Ha! I'm not crazy! Of course, I had to pick out the smallest of the old winter potatoes instead of new baby ones, and even though I used every grain of salt in the house, there wasn't enough for that delicious crusty skin. There they are in my pie pan above.
BEEF ON WECK:
I've been told that Slovaks don't eat a lot of beef because of Mad Cow Disease. (I thought that had blown over). But needless to say I haven't hosted any big family dinners or graduation parties which would call for beef on weck, or prepared any beef, for that matter, since I've been here. But oh how I miss it; it has become part of my gilded picture of home.So, for my non-New Yorker friends: a "kummelweck, or sometimes kimmelweck or even kümmelweck, is a salty roll that is popular in Western New York. It is similar to a Kaiser roll but topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Kummelweck is commonly shortened to “weck," and often served in the Buffalo metropolitan area with roast beef and horseradish to form a sandwich known colloquially as "beef on weck."
"A typical style of beef on weck sandwich is made from slow-roasted rare roast beef hand carved to provide about 1/2 inch (2 cm) of meat on the bottom half of the roll. The cut face of the top half of the roll may be dipped in the juices from the roast. Prepared horseradish is usually provided for the diner to spread on the top half of the roll to taste. In the Buffalo area, it is common to see jars of horseradish on eatery tables that serve the sandwich, much as you might see ketchup bottles available in other restaurants. The sandwich was featured on the PBS special Sandwiches That You Will Like."
LAMB CAKE:
Here's a final Buffalo connection: Last Easter when my roommates and I were in Krakow I kept
seeing shop windows decorated with lamb cakes like the one Mom always made me for my birthday from the mold that we inherited from Grandma Hamm. As it turns out, the lamb cake is a traditional Polish Easter food. Poland and Slovakia are neighbors, so the Polish Easter Lamb, or Baranek Wielkanocny is very similar to the Slovak Veľkonočný baránok. This year Karin surprised me with the real thing which I've enjoyed, piece by piece, for the past few mornings with my coffee:
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