Day 45: Slovakia Part 2

Do you ever say things but don’t really mean them? I do that all the time. Take yesterday, I said that I would never get caught up, but I didn’t really mean it. I didn’t even believe it myself. I just said it because it seemed like a good opening line, something better than a reference to how long it had been since my last entry. So even in saying that I would never get caught up, I figured I would and couldn’t possibly fail at that, but then today I look and really thought about it. Even though I said something I didn’t believe was true, it will turn out to be true if I don’t do something about it. Which is why this blog is actually being written on my personal computer and will somehow, hopefully be transferred to a computer that has access to the Internet so that these words will make it to your desks and laptops. We will see…

The second day of the Service Project in Slovakia was more of an orientation day than a work day. It was Sunday so the mornings were occupied by the various church services. MCYM is an ecumenical organization so both Catholics and Protestors worship Jesus side-by-side. Mass and church were both held at 0900 hours, but the protestors had to go into town to attend a service with the local population. They loaded up the busses at 0830 and left. Since both services started at the same time, the Catholics had an extra 30 minutes to get ready or sleep in. I hadn’t had a chance to get to know all my guys very well at that point, but much to my surprise, they were all Catholics on Sunday. Being raised a good, moral, non-drinking Baptist, I fell into the protestor’s category, but since all my guys ended up being “Catholic”, I figured then was as good a time as any to attend my first mass.

Mass is very different from what I am used to. They did a whole bunch of things that I had never seen before. The dude up front, I think they called him the priest, did a great job of explaining most of what he did throughout the get-together. I really think he knew that there were a bunch of newly converted “Catholics” in attendance that morning.

One of the memorable things that the priest did was recite the baptismal vows. He would say things like, “Do you believe in God the Father?“ or “Do you reject Satan and all his empty promises and evil lies?” and then everyone else would say, “I do” after each of his lines. Because of my non-conformist attitude, I was unable to fall in line and repeat the “I do’s”. I did however agree with everything he said and couldn’t help but reply with affirming, “Yes’s”, “absolutely’s”, and “Right-on’s”. I think I even said “I do” a couple times on accident. Catholic Mass is awesome and if you haven’t been to one, you should try it out, and the best thing is that after you have been to one, you’ve been to them all. (Just kidding! I did go to mass on Monday at 0700. Again, I was surprised because all my guys reformed Sunday night and none of them were at mass with me. Monday mass wasn’t quite as exciting as Sunday’s, but it made up for the less excitement by being much shorter.)

After mass, we unreformed Christians, jumped on the busses, which had returned, and joined our enlightened brethren at their meeting. I say enlightened not in a spiritual sense, but practical one. See the protesters know how to attract a crowd, they served massive amounts of deserts after their get-together. After meeting up, we all headed out on our separate busses. MCYM had planned a journey into the terra-firma of the Slovak Republic. Near town was a large cave system. All of us were dragged there and forced to walk to thousands of steps up and down observing the numerous stalagmites and stalactites. Being a surface person myself, it wasn’t all that exciting for me. I couldn’t help but think about the billions and billions of tons of material that was gingerly placed over my head while I was under it. It reminded me of the US deficit, but I regress. What would have happened if an earthquake struck at that exact time and all of us were trapped, buried underground forever and ever. What would we have done? I wouldn’t have missed the sun because I am from Seattle, but I would have missed the fresh air. Even in the short hour that we were down there, I started to smell some of the less hygienically proficient high schoolers.

After the cave, we ventured to our work sites for the first time and, again, received an orientation of the coming week. Our excitement began to grow. Josh B. lead our site and he is awesome, but also a whole other blog. Leaving the site, we returned to camp and received a final bit of instruction before dinner. (I also received STT #3 because two of my guys hadn’t mastered the art of going to the bathroom. I didn’t know this then and let them head, un-supervised, back to the cabin. Twenty minutes later and halfway through the final instructions, I tracked them down.)

The first full day was only the start to an amazing weekend and you will have to wait to here more. (Or maybe you won’t because I am not sure if I will get this to the web before penning another entry on my computer. In which case you have probably already read, out of order, what is next. What is next? You have to tell me because I don’t know; I haven’t written it.)

Until then and tomorrow.

Jason