Today I rode the most adorable tram to the library for our children’s Saturday event. It looks like a Disney ride from the 60’s. I’ll eventually remember to snap a photo but am usually rushing to hop on. With 25 sleeps to go I am checking some Czech things off my list. I am hoping to go fabric shopping with a new artsy friend and also take a tour or two of the several communism museums. One tour takes you under a hotel in Wenceslas Square where secrets abound. Hotel Malta has a nuclear bunker and every hotel room was bugged back in the day. It was in the 10th Century, King (Duke) Wenceslas (of the famous Christmas carol), led the country and there are several prominent statues which is the focus of the square. Some things I have noticed, lots of people smoke in Prague. All ages and types and it seems like smoking makes you spit. I have always thought spit should remain in your mouth – argh. You must be careful to remove your shoes when entering your flat. I just finished reading ‘For the Love of Prague’, that tells the story of Prague’s senior expat as he looks back on his amazing 50-year odyssey. The book is compelling and nudges you to think that unfaithful husbands have their reasons but I’m not buying it. The book is an inside-outside view of a cartoonist who remained a US citizen, working in communist Czechoslovakia for 30 years skirting some scary history. He writes about life under communist rule and the end of the party rule. I think ‘communist party’ is an oxymoron because it was no party for people who lived in constant fear and lived in abject poverty while communist leaders did whatever they wanted. Again, the risk arises when you have a one-party system. He writes this on pg 261, “UZ JE TOHO DOST! (ENOUGH, ALREADY!) is one of the most often shouted slogans at the rallies. The people are indeed fed up, and want fast and radical change. Here in Prague I followed every minute of the two-hour general strike on Monday with my video camera. I started shooting as I crossed the bridge into New Town, taking in the gathering crowds as they passed hundreds of handmade posters covering every shop window. Then I just flowed in with the mass of people filling the square. Seeing that I was documenting the event, some people up on a parked truck lifted me onto it so I could get an overall view. It was spectacular. All the church bells were ringing, sirens wailed, horns blew, and the joyous and united crowd picked up and shouted slogan after slogan, their words the very opposite of what they had been forced to shout in previous demonstrations”. This was November 25, 1989 and called the Velvet Revolution because no shots were fired but voices cried out. Deitch also wrote, “The communists well and truly committed suicide in this country; so many unfeeling and unnecessary acts of physical, psychological, and cultural violence against the national pride of the Czechs and Slovaks!…The biggest mistake the communists made was to bury the people’s history and natural culture, and try to overlay a foreign and artificial history. The years between 1918 (when the country was founded by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk) and 1948, have been officially blank here – a heavy cultural and moral loss.” Deitch also writes a chapter call ‘Revolution Reflections’ and this is a good history book for missions communities who wish to share hope from the inside out. You have to know what these people, or any people, have suffered to know their generational pain. They have reason to be suspicious and unfriendly and I have learned a lot by bungling my way around. Sometimes we hold that our version of Jesus is going to be perfect for everyone else – maybe not so. Tomorrow we take the library to church again, giving members an opportunity to access books about Jesus and all things related. Still a lot to learn and I am willing. As my excitement grows to return and see family, I hope I am able to improve on my American pre-disposition to have things my way and do things my way. Yes. Cultural sensitivity is a thing so read their history – wherever you serve. Photos: On a walk with typical small businesses everywhere. This is a melting pot and entrepreneurs are everywhere.
