Harvest Festival

Looking at the calendar, I see it is the last weekend in September. We will be missing the Arroyo Grande Harvest Festival.



Today, Gary and I need to go to the farmers' market to buy fruit and house slippers. As soon as we get to the Centrum in the center of the square, we can hear music and see a group of older Fiats in the center of the square. Something out of the ordinary is definitely happening.


Yes, this is the Martin, Slovakia Harvest Festival.

When we get to one of the statues on the square we see a trampoline and gigantic slide for kids.



Then came the booths with handicrafts. Brightly colored, and homemade. Rugs that are handwoven, paintings, glass candle holders and angels, baskets and delicately decorated gingerbread cookies....pieces of art.





Then we got to the area in front of the Roman Catholic Church and encountered the FOOD! There is chicken, sausages, kabobs, and homemade tortilla-like bread. Then there is cotton candy, decorated cookies, candy, candy, candy.

The street between the church and the farmers' market is closed to auto and bus traffic. The street is full of booths with clothes, tablecloths, shoes, etc. Behind the market is the carnival.

And this is the Harvest Festival in Martin, Slovakia.

A Week in Martin

As I wake up this morning, hearing the gentle rain, I wonder how many rainy days we had this past week and begin thinking of all the things Gary and I have done this past week:

Last Friday night we had Larry and Brenda (from Vancouver, OR on their 2nd year here) for dinner. It had been raining most of the day.

Saturday: It’s still raining, so we have a rather lazy day with Gary working on chicken for broth and a chicken noodle soup. Brenda came by to retrieve her passport. Emily hears us talking and comes to ask if we wanted to get to and do needlecraft. That develops into a “happening.” We begin at our place with chicken noodle soup, homemade pita bread and chicken with the dumplings Brenda’s grandmother made from Brenda and Larry and a raspberry/apple pie freshly made by Emily. After dinner, Gary and Larry go to Larry’s flat to watch a DVD on the Bethlehem Star. Brenda does some cross stitch while Emily and I crochet.

Sunday: Early in the morning I hear it raining again. It is not raining when we go to church with Daniel. Daniel is a Scandinavian who is here for the med school. After church we go with him to have some coffee. On the way, we meet a friend of Daniel’s who is also from Sweden. He and Daniel have some “catching up” to do so he is naturally invited to accompany us for some coffee. His parents are from Iran and we learned some things about Iran and the different kinds of people living there.

When Daniel’s friend leaves, we go to the only restaurant open for a good Sunday dinner. Here he tells us that he is going back home because the he was not able to get the money for his med school. He is a firm Christian believer and feels that this is just not the time for him to study medicine. His plans are now to return to Sweden and study German for three years. (He had studied German before.) Then he believes he can go to Vienna to study medicine in German. Because the classes will be in the local language, there will be no tuition.

We walk around after that and then go to our flat to look at some maps. Daniel shows us where he has lived with his Norwegian parents in Sweden. Then he shows us some good places to visit, if we are able to go to Norway. He tells us that Christopherson is not a common name and that they were boat builders. Boat building was done outside Oslo so we may be able to find something there about Gary’s mother’s paternal family.
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At 16,00 we go back to the church for a small band concert. There were five people: one played many stringed instruments including a banjo, one played alto and soprano saxophone, one got marvelous percussion sounds from a bongo-like drum and the wooden box he was sitting on. I thought he had a recording of brushes on a snare drum, but it all came from his “box.” The leader of the group played a guitar, but he also used his mouth as an instrument and could make two different notes at the same time! The fifth person of the group recited poetry. We could not tell if she was speaking Slovak or Hungarian, but the sound of her poetry and the music was very pleasant to the ear. They also included Tomaš, playing his harmonica a very interesting concert.

I ended up the day trying my voice in the church’s choir. It is led by Maria, Pastor Jan’s wife. Maybe 20 people were there, including both pastors.

Monday: The class day is made up of a ten minute opening that includes prayer. Then there are five 45 minute classes, separated by 10 minute breaks. The first period, I meet with a fourth grade teacher to plan what will be taught this week. Second period is with a second grade class. We practice introductions. Then I have two periods off in which I can work on fourth grade plans. Fifth period is the other second grade. I return to the flat to have lunch and at 13,00 I’m back to work with the third grade teachers. The rest of the day is free.

Tuesday: I begin with a third period class. I get there a little early and I am invited to the circle and to say a prayer. In the third grade we are comparing numbers. At 10,40 and 11,35 I teach geography in the fourth grade classes. That afternoon, I get my hair fixed at a salon. On the way back, I meet Bohdon who is with his young son. He casually mentions that the next day is a holiday, St Mary’s Day he believes. It is a national holiday. Is it a school day? He does not think so, but he really does not know. Luckily, as I come to the gymnasium, I meet three other teachers and ask them. Yes tomorrow is a free day.

Wednesday: When I tell Gary about the free day, he thinks we should go somewhere outside Martin and explore. We decide on Ružomberok. We could get to it by bus, maybe an hour with the other stops. We need to catch it at 9,45. However, when we get there, we discover that it was not the bus stop across from the train station, but the one across from the farmers market. So we cross the street and see where the train will take us. We decide on Trenčin. It is where the castle is that we saw as we were going from Bratislava and we stopped for a break in 2009

We walked through a very nice park, under a main road and find ourselves in the “old town.” It is just below the castle. It was steep walking to get to the castle, but well worth it. Unfortunately, we don’t walk as fast as the Slovaks do and we missed the guided tour through the palace. So we took our time going down, taking pictures as we went. We then looked to see what was opened for a bite to eat and found very little opened. We passed a couple of churches and found ourselves in another square with a running fountain and a synagogue. We knew it was no longer a place of worship, but an art gallery. It is closed today, being a national holiday. We did find a place with good pizza and another museum. Then we caught the train to It was a good day. (We rode through some rain, but did not get any on us the whole day.)

Thursday: Thursdays begin with two third grade number lessons. The next two periods are in the fourth grade with geography lessons. I go back to the flat to help Gary get ready for the weekend in Drienca, Sk. near the Tatras. So I buy some more time on our phones and finish the laundry, while he has a meeting with the school psychologist and a medical dr. who is interested in starting a group for alcoholics here at the school. (Interestingly this doctor wants nothing to do with God or a Higher power. We’ll see how it goes.) His friend is here at 16,00 and off they go.

So goes a week here in Martin, Slovakia for Gary and Jeannine.

Poprod Adventure

When we got off the train in Poprad, we did not know where to go so we just picked a direction and went. With a little help from a person at a hotel desk, we found our way to an information office. Before we follow the directions to the “our” pension, we find a museum. It had some interesting exhibits including some of a Neanderthal camp discovered in the area. Very little in English so we did not take as long as we usually do in a museum.



On the way to the pension, we passed by a large mural that was done in small tile. It was commemorating the Russian “liberation” from the Germans at the end of World War II. From what our tour book says, it is one of the few about this event, which are still standing in Slovakia. You never know when and where you will find a piece of art like this.

That afternoon we found the bus to Spissky to see the castle there. This is one of the five largest castles in Europe. You can see it for miles. It is a long walk up to the castle, but well worth it. We were able to get an audio tour of the castle, including legends, in English. They each cost 10€, which was returned to us after we returned them.


The castle’s first walls were built in the twelfth century. From that time through the fourteenth century, owners kept adding to it. It is truly one of our favorite places that we have visited. This is definitely an example of pictures far exceeding words.



Sunday is a day when few places of businesses are opened. Luckily a few food places are.
That was the morning we had gyros for breakfast. As we were eating, we noticed that we could see the tips of the Tatras. I thought Gary got a relatively good picture of them.


The one other place we wished to see was “Old Town Poprod.” We had a couple of people help us get there. When we got there, we were able to get into the old church, (something we were not able to do with the other two churches in Poprod that were in our tour book.) The guide did not speak English, but had a good description of the inside. The rest of the town which we walked through had many picturesque houses that are dwellings.


Before getting on the train to return home, we visited an interesting building that had displays of art. The building, for us, was very interesting, much more than the modern art that was in it. One of the last pictures we took was in a construction area that was fenced off from the public, but it sure looked like a wagon of possibly some nomad Roma family.

God Weaves Us Together

This last eight days has been incredible in the ways God has brought people in our lives to help us.

Thursday night, 19 August, Gary and Jeannine decide to go somewhere on the train (in Slovakia), get reservations for a pension (hotel) and return. We select Poprad, a town east of here by 1 ½ hours by car, just under 2 hours by train. We get to the train station in time to buy our tickets. Buying the tickets was relatively easy because we had printed out the train schedule and just showed which one we wanted.

As we wait for the train, Jeannine notices a student of hers from last year, Helena. We begin talking and it turns out that she is going to Prague, in the Czech Republic, to visit her daughter. So we get on the train with her and get off to change trains after a 7 minute ride. We changed trains; the train from went onto Prague with no changes.

In Vrutky we change trains and find a very nice car with tables between the seats. When the person who checks the tickets comes by, she points to our tickets and says, “Nie, nie, nie.” Oh dear, are we on the wrong train? She finally gets us to understand that we are on the correct train, just the wrong car. She keeps pointing to the number 2 on our ticket. So we go looking for car #2. The next is numbered 2, but it’s a dining car. We are directed to keep going in the same direction. We finally found a car with seats for us, and discovered that the 2 was for second class.

We are asked if we are Americans by a woman in the cabin with us. She is a naturalized American citizen with a little four year old boy who was born in the states. We have only a short time to visit with her because she is getting off at the next stop.

Another passenger in the same cabin begins to speak with us. He lives in Bratislava, and is a philosophy professor at the university in Bratislava. We chat with him until we get to Poprod. He is on his way back to the home village of his family for a wedding. He will get off at the stop after Poprod and ride his bike to that village. Before we depart, He gives us his phone number and invites us to his place in Bratislava and perhaps he will take us to Italy.

We saw many wonderful things in and around Poprod which I will describe on another blog. We did want to go to a rather large castle at the town of Spissky. It costs us less than five Euros for both of us to ride the bus to Spissky. We are watching the map and road signs naming the villages as we pass through, so we will know when to get off. After we get through the last town before Spissky, the bus stops and lets someone out. Jeannine panics and asks if this is the stop to get to the Hrad (castle). She is assured that this is not the stop.

When we get to Spissky, we are told to get off and a couple of people insist that we follow them. They are going to show us the way to the castle. We walked for about a ½ mile as they show us where to go to get to the path towards the castle. These people went out of their way to keep us from getting lost.


Back in Martin, Jeannine received a letter that says the work on her VISA is being delayed until the background clearance comes, but there is less than 60 days to get everything done. (For those who do not know, Jeannine’s fingerprints have been taken twice and rejected twice as not having characteristics with the necessary quality as determined by the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System.) She cannot get somebody to speak to on the phone numbers given, just recordings. Yet she does see on the FBI’s Website that she can send in more than one set of prints at a time (w/$18 per set.)

Lubos has helped Gary and Jeannine every step of the process. He calls up early today (7:30 AM) and says he can take her to the local police station. A father of a student at the Elementary School works on the police department and has arranged for their fingerprint expert will do this for us. Lubos explains the problem and that expert spends a good forty minutes taking my fingerprints. One of the things that is different is that after the hands are washed, she is given grease out of a tube to rub on them for several minutes before she wipes them off. Those were the best prints taken. The question now is, “How can we get them to the FBI in WV the fastest way.

They get back to the Bible School to see a small group from Pennsylvania, packing the car to go to Vienna before they fly home on Sunday. We ask if they would take the prints and put them in the mail when they get home. Sally says she will do that. Yes, we believe they were here this week for this reason (besides painting the two classrooms.)

We keep being amazed at the angels that God puts along our walk in this beautiful country.


Tomorrow Gary and Jeannine will board the train to Prague, that they know about from their encounter with Helena. Bohdon’s uncle lives outside Prague and has invited them to spend some time in that beautiful city. I suspect that will be another story.

Sutovy Waterfalls

Sutovy Waterfalls

After two days of tremendous rains, we decided to make the walk to some waterfalls just outside a small town, Sutovy. We took a bus to this little town l.30 € for each of us. It was about forty minute to Sutovy. We stopped at several towns along the way.

At Sutovy, we start walking in the direction of the sign pointing the way. We leave the town, pass some beautiful green hills, and come to another sign that points to a paved road into the woods. At a parking lot, we read a sign about this being on of the Slovak National Parks.

So now we start our walk, which is not too strenuous, but should take us 1 ½ hours to get to the falls. It takes Gary and Jeannine about 2 ½ hours to get there. About two thirds the way there, the path is not paved. Furthermore, the ground is saturated and the path is running water. Not too bad, but definitely wet and we try to walk out of the water. I think that is one of the reasons that we are so slow. However, many people pass us and they have children with them.


We do make it to the falls and they are well worth the walk. After some pictures we decide that we better head down to Sutovy to make the last bus of the day back to Martin. All day it has been cloud and sometimes threatened to rain. Yet we never got more than a few drops.

We made it in time to get a drink buy some water, and just barely caught the bus. As we’re counting our change, to pay for the ride home, the bus driver must turn on the windshield wipers, because it is now raining.

We had a day full of happenings and blessings.

Getting Settled

The team left 8 days ago. We have one more week before the teachers of the elementary school begin work for the upcoming school year. So what have Gary and Jeannine been doing?

Mainly we’ve been settling down in our third story flat. We had to buy comforter covers and pillow cases, towels, stock our kitchen and find places for everything that we brought. Most of the Center for Christian Education staff is away from the school, either on holiday trips or working on their houses.

We are not alone. Monday morning Larry and Brenda Fast knocked on our door and wanted to know if we wanted to go to Tesco with them. We grabbed our list, our shopping bags and the backpack and were on our way. It is roughly a 3 mile round trip walking to Tesco.



Larry and Brenda have volunteered for two years and came in October 2009. They taught conversational and beginning English to the workers of the City of Martin. This coming they will be teaching workers of the Water Company for Martin. They invited us to their flat that evening for a delicious dinner of cornbread, beans and rice. The next day, Larry took us to the train station to get a senior rail pass, which will save us 50% on train tickets.

All total, we made 4 trips to Tesco, two trips to the Martin center and one to the farmers’ market. It has been interesting to shop with little or no language shared, but people are very patient with us and try their best to figure out what we’re shopping for. This is a definite reason for learning more Slovak.

For us, today’s weather was unbelievable. Last night there was so much lightning that Gary could see clear across the room. This morning the rain came in a deluge, the lightning still flashed and the thunder was quite loud on the top floor. Good thing the front door to the church is just steps away. We keep remembering the beautiful countryside that God is watering.

Except for the restaurants and cafes, the town closes between 17:30 and 18:00 on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays. With our internet services down a good deal of the time, sometimes it feels as if there is nothing to do, yet God knows what we need, even if we don’t. After two and a half months of a hectic move out of our house and packing, we
are enjoying this time.

Having trouble putting more than one picture at a time so we'll end here.

Gary and Jeannine Jenks

Viewing Slovak Houses and Dances

After we said good-bye to most of the team, Ivan & Estella, Leon & Joann, Larry & Brenda and Gary and Jeannine decided to go to the outdoor museum. As we passed on the town square, we saw some people in dressed in native Slovak clothes and remembered that there would be some dances this evening. We stayed to watch a couple of dances on the square.

Ivan and Estella decided to go to the Slovak Culture Museum while the rest of us decided on the outdoor museum. First, we had to find the bus that would get us the closest to the Outdoor Museum. After that, we had about three quarters of a mile walk up a hill with a gradual incline. This museum has many different types of houses that have been built in this area.



We saw so many interesting things in the exhibits, but we wanted to be back to Martin by 16:00 so we could see the dancing, so we left before we had seen everything.






When we arrived at the outdoor auditorium, the sun was hot and all of the vacant seats of the auditorium, were in the sun, so we decided to sit in the shade. Ivan and Estella found us within five minutes of us settling down. We were listening to an orchestra, and viewing a hawk which was being held quite near us.


We waited and waited. The program began at four as scheduled, but it was a politician speaking, then some singing, then another polotician....for an hour. Leon & Joann decided return to the dorm, and Larry & Brenda went with them. We decided to get closer to the stage, which was now mostly in the shade. As we were moving, the Slovak National Anthem was played. After that, the hawk was let loose to fly above the audience. Then the dances began. It was quite evident that this was a professional group and the dances were great.