7/31 Morning showers, breakfast, and we were all (Joe, Lyn, Serge, Mamer, Merlines and Matthew) off to Sunday service at St. Thomas - a beautiful church inundated with embellishments on every surface in true baroque style. The mass was in English, which was nice, and the harmonies of the three-woman-choir were quite angelic.
St. Thomas Church
more of St. Thomas Church...
After mass we walked across the street to Starbuck's for coffee and snacks before beginning our journey to Dobriv - a small village of about 2000 people - and home to the Maseks - relatives of Joe's great grandmother. Sister Kath and her daughter Amy uncovered the Maseks on a visit to the Czech Republic in 2009 by using a birth certificate from Joe's grandfather, Frantisek Zenisek to identify the village. Once there, locals helped them track down the Maseks and thus began a transoceanic correspondence. The advantage we had on this visit is that they knew we were coming and thus had prepared an itinerary to give us as much information about our family roots in the village as possible.
Starbucks, Starbucks, everywhere ...taking over the world
One and a half hours after leaving Prague, across a predominantly forested landscape strangely reminiscent of the Cascade foothills as home, we arrived in the small village of Dobriv, searching for the Masek house.
We knew we had found the correct cottage when we saw Edward Masek (Eda) - the senior at 82 years old, waiting outside the front hedge with a warm smile to greet us. We were immediately shepherded through the front door and into the living room where the assembled family members stood in a line to welcome us. Present was Eda and his wife, Vera; their son Edward, his girlfriend Anna, and his daughter Andrea; and a childhood friend of Vera - also Anna - whom they had asked to join us as a translator. Absent were Eda and Vera's daughter, Vera and Edward's son, Jan who both live in Prague and whom had arranged to meet us tomorrow. We sat close around a long coffee table provided with coffee and tea and homemade sandwiches and pastries. Eda almost immediately produced a family tree he had drawn tracing the genealogy and ownership of the land back to 1804 and the construction of the cottage sometime afterward. He provided us with a copy and asked that we complete the tree up to the present day - which Serge agreed to complete soon after returning to the States after which he promised to send Eda a copy. it was cozy, noisy and ice with Anna acting her part to carefully translate. At one point we broke out a small album of relatively recent family pictures and the gift of a Pendleton wool blanket from Oregon which we offered to Eda and Vera against the cold Dobriv winters. Eda also shared a book he had written about the history of a local Sokol for which he had received awards and commendations. He authors by hand - no typewrite or computer. We were informed that his next project was going to be a Czech history! May we all have such ambition when we are 82! During the chat we discovered that Andrea - a teenager just starting the equivalent of ninth grade - was also quite fluent in English, and Serge spent a great deal of the rest of the visit exchanging information and finding out all kinds of things about the Czech language and culture.
finally found the roots ... Eda, Anna (the interpreter), Anna, in green (Eda Jr.'s girlfriend) ...
Vera, a school teacher loves children, with granddaughter Andrea and guest, Matthew...
Before we knew it, it was time to regain the shoes which we had left inside the front door upon entering earlier and continue to the next stop that had been planned for us - a historic water-powered iron works. We just had time for a quick tour of the downstairs of the cottage and then we were out the door - Eda, Vera and Anna in one car, Edward, Anna and Andrea in their van, and we following behind.
with Andrea, Anna, Eda Jr., Vera, Eda Sr., Anna, the interpreter
with Mamer, Merlines, and Matthew
A short drove later we arrived at the site which consisted of a long building beside a narrow canal which directed water through a sluice gate and down a raised trough along the side of the building that once fed five water wheels connected to various instruments inside the building for working the locally mined iron ore. The instruments included two large 'hammers' that were lifted by the turning of the turning of wheel shaft and allowed to drop on hot iron to shape it. Large billows for heating a small furnace and smithy had also once been driven by the water wheels. There was also a still-active system of belts and wheels that powered sharpening wheels and other tools. During the tour, guides demonstrated the power of the water -hammer to shape iron. Serge and Mamer were also given a chance to shape a nail on an anvil by the forge. Eda explained to us that our grandfather, Josef Zenisek, had been a local iron worker and had moved to Cleveland along with other locals to work in the steel mills after the iron industry in Dubriv had slowed down during the late 1800's. Joe was reminded of his daily trips in high school on the Cleveland Rapid Transit past the iron mills billowing fire and smoke in the flats...
the iron mill....
inside the iron works with Eda, Sr., Anna and the tour guide...
Serge trying his hand at smithing ...
From the iron works we walked a path between the canal and the river that had been dammed upstream above the iron works to feed it, at one point crossing a small historic bridge reminiscent of some we had walked in Venice, called the Swedish bridge - complete with guardian statuary. We continued on the pathway, enjoying the water, greenery and trees - Liden, the national tree, Andrea informed us. We continued on until the path turned away from the river, gently climbing, until we reached a historic hillside district consisting of old cottages including the Czech version of a log cabin - a cottage built of squared-off timbers - dark with white caulking. We walked a bit further, welcomed by several barking dogs, until we came to cottage number 65 which we were told the Zeniseks had occupied before leaving Dobriv over a hundred years ago for Cleveland! We got the impression that ringing the bell and announcing ourselves would not be appropriate, and so we satisfied ourselves with snapping pictures of the house behind its surrounding fence and hedge and eventually began the walk back to the cars.
cottage no. 65 ... the last known dwelling of the Dobriv Zeniseks ....
feeling the past ...
the blood relative from USA - cottage no. 65 ...
lovable Eda ...
crossing the Swedish bridge...
From this immersion into the past, we moved back into the present with a visit to Edward's (the junior) home - which he had built himself over a period of about three years and continued to improve on. It's a small, well-kept, attractive home with a walled in garden that can be appreciated through the glass doors and windows from the living and dining rooms, where we sat and enjoyed another round of snacks as well as a champagne toast. Edward and Anna bestowed a gift of homemade dandelion wine - which we look forward to sampling at some future auspicious occasion as they suggested waiting one or two years to let it peak before opening it. While their they shared a book Anna had created of their month long, 2400 mile, bike trip through Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The photographs - as well as the journey itself - were beautiful, attesting to Anna's skill at her hobby of shooting pictures. We invited them to peddle across the United States to visit us in Portland.
Eda, Jr.'s front yard
"Lolo" (Grandpa) Eda & "Lola" (Grandpa) Vera ...
chatting with cousin Eda, Jr. ...
Anna, our translator, then informed us it was getting late and we needed to move on to our final destination, a historic farm turned restaurant a few kilometers outside the village - a venue they use for special occasions. Once there, we spread ourselves out around a long table marked with "Reserved" signs, with our two translators - Anna and Andrea in the middle. We proceeded to enjoy the conversations and a delicious meal. Serge enjoyed a traditional Czech dish, roasted duck, at the recommendation of Andrea. The meal ended with an exchange of addresses, emails, and finally, if briefly, of songs - including what Serge could remember of Czech song he had learned in one of his music groups some years ago - to the great delight of our hosts. This might have been just the beginning of a bout of singing (Joe was certainly willing) except that we could see that the oldest and youngest members of our party were growing tired. Next time!
good times had by all...
We parted with warm hugs, handshakes, and cheek kisses in the parking lot - wondering when we might next see these wonderful people who have completely endeared themselves to us, fully aware that at least we would maintain contact through letters and emails and Facebook. Edward, Anna, and Andrea remained waving us off as we turned and headed back to Prague…
happy family ....
so long and goodbye until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment