scene set: slovakia. outer bratislava. cold, but not too cold. and not snowy.
xmas eve.
the varkenfambly decided to stray from the traditional polish fest which i've been doing since i moved out on mine own (7 courses of white. fishhead soup, opletki, rice pudding, sauerkraut&yellow peas...) well, you get the drift. i LOVE making it. even though most of us dislike EATING it, it's one of those traditions that the family (as young as they are, insist upon). note to mom - i bought some pre-made sauerkraut (a specialty here) AND whole yellow peas. and i'm gonna make it sometime this holiday season for MYSELF (and, since it's no longer xmas eve, i may even add a little bacon fat)!
anywayze, we decided, since this doesn't seem to be the place for "orphan parties" like we are so used to, to join up w/ the embassy folks (the american embassy this year) to volunteer in/at slovakia's largest homeless shelter (located in outer bratislava). it's near the airport, FAR, far away from civilisation - the building was deeded from the mayor a few years ago. i dunno what it once WAS, but it had the feeling of an old airplane hanger - unheated and low-lit as well.
these were some of the 200 or so recipients:
we served soup (sausage and sauerkraut-type goulash) with bread, then fried carpfish and cold potato salad. followed by donated baked goods (gawd, they looked AMAZING) and tepid tea and coffee.
it was COOOOOLD in there. and everyone was bundled up. but the mood was, um, while actually not quite festive, it did seem rather serene.
on most nights, the shelter charges 50 euro cent to enter and sleep. on xmas eve, a full dinner (served by others- us) was free, as well as the night and breakfast the next morn. as we drove in (guided by a caravan of cars of volunteers) we were amazed at the line of people walking beside us, along the dark, unlit side roads. i am amazed we actually found the place at all. and amazed that so many find the place night after night after night so far away from the center of the city...
first, we were given a "tour" of sorts of the place. those w/ a alcohol breathalizer content of more than .30 (POINT THREE OH - NOT POINT OH THREE) are immediately put into a separate room from the main populace. (on a sad note, as we were leaving there was a straggler that hadn't quite made it to the shelter, but our friends managed to move him from the center of the road where he was lying and he was eventually transported in - my guess is directly to the "special" room)
we saw a few other sleeping rooms as well - large room for "married" couples, a room for just the men, and a separate building (where the teeny tiny kitchen lay - the size of an american pantry of sorts) which also provide housing for the "orphans" as they labeled it. we didn't see any children on our night - we were told that a competing(!) church had opened its doors and most of the children were probably there.
this was not like any shelter i've seen in america. and i'm actually at a loss for words to describe our experience accurately. and we did not take many pictures, just because we didn't feel we should. but i reallly wanted to type a few things, just for posterity's sake. i'm quite proud of my varkenchildren, and of the others that decided to give up their warm homes and festive christmas eve celebrations to spend a few hours doing what they could to help.
the kidlets were all put to work immediately, putting together "gift bags" consisting of socks, gloves, deodorant, toothpaste... - bags for MEN and bags for WOMEN. all tied up in the pretty little blue garbage bags they're holding. they spent much of their time downstairs in a nice heated room working like busy elves, and then they carried them all upstairs and sorted them out under the tree (yes, there was one). the woman in charge of the gift bags was quite amazed at how quickly they were able to complete the work, as it normally takes her 5+ hours to do it on her own. as it was, they were finished w/in an hour.
a few hours later, they were able to distribute all these gifts personally to all the people that were gathered for dinner. i think it made quite an impression.
xmas eve dinner was a proper "sit down" meal. meaning all the folks having dinner were served at table. our line of volunteers were a continual serving machine - moving from row to row after row of tables, making sure that NO ONE was left out.
most of the embassy folk already have some slovak language skills - they generally get a year's notice (and a year's worth of language lessons prior to their posts), and surprisingly, most of our guests also had some english skills - enough for the thank you's and merry xmas greetings. surprising, since we were under the impression that most people over the age of 30 only had german as a second language. (as an aside, most of the slovak guests weren't too fond of my german conversational skills) and our varkenfambly felt rather out of sorts, since we had very little to offer other than the smiles on our faces in lieu of proper christmas greetings. and the quickly learned words of "are you finished?" and "can i take that?"
next year we'll have more words.
here are the two girls (varkendaughter and varkenfriend) huddling up by a warm soup pot before serving. they did a fantastic job of helping out and we are so very proud of them. not one of them complained about the cold (or the, um, odors).
although i think they may have snuck a cookie or two... all are looking forward to a next year's new tradition - at least while we are still in country.
