Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Vysne Repase

This past weekend I made a trek to the northeastern reaches of Slovakia to trace my roots. I made the trip with Valent and Pavol Gura, distant relatives I met about a month ago. I have not yet had time to process my thoughts and feelings from this adventure or as Valent put it "expedition", but suffice it to say, at least for now, that my visit to the villages of Vysne Repase (pictured here) and Pavlany, where my greatgrandparents were born and raised, was an extraordinary time, a truly moving experience. Imagine if you will, walking down the village paths, visiting the local cemetery and being embraced by a random, unrelated elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Suchy. Even before I opened my mouth to utter a few sparse words in Slovak, I was warmly embraced. In fact, a few times I didn't quite think people would let me go. How sweet it was to receive hug after hug with the familiar and kind word, "piekna" (beautiful). I arrived in Bratislava with 2 bags, but I left Vysne Repase with about 4! I am eternally grateful to Valent and Pavol who made this trip posssible, taking care of me every step of the way (except for when they left me on my own to use my Polish/limited Czech and Slovak, the combination of which, come to find out is pretty close to Spis dialect [Spis is the region we visited, south of the High Tatry and Poland]). There are many more stories to tell and weathered, yet beautiful and hopeful faces to share with you!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you, Christine for this report and photo.
My grandmother came from the Austro Hungarian empire. Her family name, Komara seems to be primarily from this village. She or her ancesters would have travelled over the Beskid and settled in Folusz, from where she and her future husband came to America.
Do you have any more photos to share?
whitaker.stephen@gmail.com