Ahoj (slovakian salutation. Pronounced: ahoy)!
We made it safely back to Cieszyn, Poland from Slovakia. I had a marvelous time in Slovakia, with the people from the church there and with the group of Americans. If you want a little more detail on our travel back from Slovakia (and see a few pictures I don't have on my blog) you can read carrie's blog (on my blog list).
It's morning--Annie and Alana left already to go to the little market and to bring something back for breakfast--and the weather looks beautifully cool. I've been surprised how cool it's been all summer with only a few really warm spells...
I uploaded the pictures small, because it was taking a long time to upload them the other way...
Here we go...

This is the city square in Cieszyn, where I am now. It's the beautiful little city on the Czech border. The church where we are staying is about 1/5 blocks away from here...

There's Jane and Ray walking along...

When we arrived in Slovakia they had dinner and the youth group waiting for us!!!

This is the sign on one of the bathrooms in the mission house that belongs to Mata's church where we were staying for the first few days in Slovakia...

The guy playing the drum is Mata's brother. He's pretty talented and musically oriented. This is in the mission house called Escape. It's a really great idea. The church actually bought the house with the money they made from producing christmas-cassette tapes after the fall of communism. They sold around 80,000 of them and purchased this house which is now used for all kinds of events with the church and youth, as well as housing people who come to help or visit or anything. It has a kitchen upstairs and downstairs and lots of rooms and sleeping accomodations. It's a really great idea, anyway, and they really use it!

Mata and some others took us on a walk through the little city of Partizanske. You can see the fountain on the right..this whole wide plaza/park thing runs to that apartment building and then there is about 500 meters more of park and grass on the other side of the building. Marina, one of the original christians in this town who started the church, told us that they build that apartment building during the communist era to block people's view of the church at the end of the parky thingy. It's so true. That building is like an ugly, un-matching mass in the middle of the open space of the city...

We went for a walk to this little cafe/pub thing and had to walk by the Gypsy section of town.

The Gypsys are the social outcasts. Mata told us that the Slovaks don't like the Gypsys and the Gypsys don't like the Slovaks. They live in this ghetto (picture makes it look nice) with no doors on their buildings. (I think the no-door thing is cultural...)

Here is the backyard of the Escape house in Partizanske. It was really beautiful. You can see that the whole little town is surrounded by mountains. And back in the back of the picture you can see apartment buildings. Mata's grandparents live in ones like those on the edge of town and we were invited there for lunch. They served us amazing food (lots of it) and we talked to them for a while. They told us cool stories and we had a really great time. Everywhere we went we were singing for people...lots of spirituals and gospel-type songs...



This is Alma, the missionary from Mexicao, and Denis the translator. Alma was intense and fun to be around and Denis is a really good translator.

Here are four of the five ladies who started the church here about 20 years ago. They are all musicians and worked or went to the music school in town. Marina, the lady with the guitar, was the first christian and then the others followed and banded together. They went through hard times and persecution but stayed firm in the faith....

Hilary, Jane, and Annie on the balcony at Escape.

Carrie, Annie, and Alana eating slovakian wafer thingy.

Here is a view of the city where the castle and the zoo are. Slovakia is very mountainous and lush...beautiful countryside.

Here is the little train station in Chynorany, Mata's village where we stayed for the last few nights.

We had a bbq at Mata's house. [I'm getting hungry for breakfast and don't feel like writing so much.]

But we had a really good time, lots of good conversations and singing, and lots of food.

Mata and Esther

Me and Mishko, Mata's little bro.

Ok, I'm going to go make some tea and try to survive until Annie and Alana come back with breakfast, which shouldn't be long!