Happy Birthday, Jon!

Now Jon is 41, too!  Yay!  I know there will be a big party at the Glenn house tonight--tomorrow morning for me--and I will be thinking of those beautiful friends of mine back in the City of Salt.   Next May I hope we are celebrating 42 in Czech Republic together!!!

The Shelley House

After our rather harrowing day in Hartmanice, we took a crazy road trip with Mark Shelley to the beautiful country home where he lives with his wife, Janete, and their kids, Meagan & Abe. They were exquisite hosts. Their place is like a fairy tale cottage in the woods, surrounded by Janete's magical garden.

They're building a new addition to the house of antique brick. The plan includes an antfarm in the the wall, a bird's nest in Meagan's room, and of course, amazing views of the forest.

Hartmanice

PNE visited Hartmanice on Monday and we held our class in the Synagogue.  Here are a few images of the day, including the PNE '08 group, the Bloch house, and the farm (top two & bottom) where 12 women died on the Death March from Auschwitz.  

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races--the myths about dragons that at the last moment are tranformed into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are only princeses waiting for us to act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises before you larger than any you've ever seen, if an anxiety like light and cloud shadows moves over your hands and everything you do. You must realize that something has happened to you; that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hands and will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Scenes from Sušice

One Night in Chanovice

We went back to Chanovice last Saturday for a traditional woodcrafts fair at the Skanzen. With us were Sara and Tomaš (blue shirt), who had never been to the village. We met the town mayor, Petr Klasek (with long hair and a beard), who introduced us to Josef (in the red shirt), an excellent speaker of English who has been volunteering at the Skanzen for many years. A while later, Michael (short hair & beard) and Meredith (in the hat), arrived with Eva Smolikova, the headmistress of the schools, and wife of the Skanzen director. They had just come from Prague to Chanovice, where they are staying in the Dětský Domov, or Home for Children.

The mayor and his wife, Jarka, fed us tasty grilled fish and Josef later took us on a tour of the Skanzen. That night, we joined most of the people we'd met at the fair in one of the town pubs (in this town of 400, there are three). The mayor passed out rounds of some strange cherry liquor with eggnog shot, and we bought rounds for him, Josef and his parents, and the Skanzen director.

Josef invited us to spend the night in the Skanzen building that houses the project's volunteers. Steve, Sara, Tomaš, and I each had our own bunk and Josef let me use his pillow.

My available language today will not adequately describe the Chanovice adventure, but some of the photos might give you an impression.

Life is daily full here but today I spent in the office writing and editing for our page in the local bi-weekly paper, the Sušicke Noviny. The paper will come out on May 30.

Erin, one of our students created caricatures of each of the PNE '08 participants and here's me.

Lazny photos

My computer is not going to recover, and I've lost many photos.  However, the good Steve is letting me use his to store what I've been shooting.  So, here are two images of some of my "family"  and fishing in Lazny.

Mountain Synagogue Hartmanice

Today Steve and I drove to Hartmanice, a mountain town about 20 miles from Sušice. The area is close to the German border and in the winter, the snow can be as high as 2 meters. After World War II, all of the Germans in the town and the surrounding areas were expelled. Czechs were moved in to occupy the villages, but they were unprepared for the brutal winters, and most left. The villages were then used by the Czech government, as far as I understand, for target practice.

The restored Mountain Synagogue is now as a museum of the Czech, German, and Jewish history of the area. On the first floor, the walls show images of the surrounding villages in the thirties and forties. Beneath each image is another photo taken within the last few years. The barren landscapes show the complete disappearance of these thousand-year-old villages.

On the second floor, that thousand-year history is depicted with images and text in Czech and German. Czech history is drenched in sadness and today some of it came home to me today. When World War II was ending, the Nazis took about 700 women from Auschwitz and marched them 700 kilometers through Germany and into Hartmanice. "The Death March" was their way of "hiding" the concentration camp survivors. As they marched, without shoes through the winter landscape, women died and were buried in the forests, conveniently disposed. That way, the Nazis didn't have to hide 700 bodies. They stopped at various camps and more women joined the March. In Hartmanice, they spent a night on a farm, and 12 women died there who are now buried in the Jewish cemetary outside the village.

In the museum, a few videos are available. One plays the story of a woman, Eva Ehrben, now living in Israel, who managed to survive the March. I cannot describe the impact of her words. Tomorrow, I will try to post more about this amazing museum.

Sweetness

I'm back in the Internet Cafe. When I came in, two students, Maya and Erin, were here. Steve's first class will start in about 30 minutes.

The macbook I've been using still lacks an operating system, so tonight, Brian will try to get one emailed. Then I can post photos. Yay! I have so many of the beautiful Stasin/Lazny area that I want to share with you green-deprived loved ones back in the states.

As I flew into CZ, I noticed fields of yellow dotting the green. Upon investigation and after asking many questions, I discovered that one source of the yellow is cultivated for a kind of kitchen oil and also used for a biofuel they mix with petroleum. The other source of lovely yellow is surprising to one who hails from a weed-obsessed community: dandelions. As far as I can tell (and I may be way off), dandelions are not considered to be pernicious pests like they are in the well-groomed lawn mentality of American landscapers.

Yesterday, I bid a tearful good-bye to my "family" in Lazny. I was surprised how much they seemed to like me after knowing me only 6 days. Melina, the mother, Veronika and Mikola all cried. They printed and framed a photo of all of us taken just hours before I left. Along with two souvenir cups of Stašin (which celebrated its 750 year anniversary in 2004), they presented me with the photo before I left.

This morning I was thinking about the impact they had on me, and that I seemed to have on them. Of course, we were all on our best behaviour, I'm sure, but how sweet to treat strangers with consideration, kindness, and a real desire to understand and to be understood. Melina had no English, and I no Czech, and yet somehow we communicated with each other. Somehow, we bonded.

What if, on a daily basis, we treated those with whom we share tradition and language--our own families--with that kind of attention?

Happy Birthday to Diana Lee

Steve and I are in Susice today. Compared to Lazna (alternately Lazny and Lazna), Susice is the big city (population 11,000). On Monday, I will be moving here to an apartment near the town square.

The family hosting me in Lazny is wonderful. Yesterday they took me on a bit of a hike to see the father's home town in the Sumova forest. I was going to post photos today but my computer seems to have died. I'm typing now on Steve's. More soon.

Happy Birthday to my mother...you made it!

Photos of Praha