Rain, hail, snow and the Kerry pilgrims.
Br. Michael McKeown - Presentation Brother in Spišské Podhradie
Sr. Anne asked me to write something about life on the mission during this past year. The potato
crop was a disaster. Our own garden produced a few bucketfuls of marbles and pigeons eggs. Br.
Vincent got less that a bucketful out of twenty meters. Unfortunately the Roma gardens did not
do well either. We thought we had lost our touch but then we heard that the same was true
throughout Slovakia. Crop failure was caused by a very cold, wet spring and early summer. We
had torrential rain at times. The water table locally was more that a meter above normal. The
river flowing through the town overflowed its banks and licked the doorsteps of houses
opposite the Nano Nagle Center. The water coming down through Kapitula was a river several
inches deep and it ripped up stones and chunks of tarring out of the roads. We had a hailstorm
with stones as big and round as marbles. They were the biggest we had ever seen. But On June
15th we had another hail storm, the like of which I have never seen or heard. The rain had been
torrential for some time and Vincent and I just happened to be at the back door ob-serving in
awe when we saw a very dense downpour coming over the hills from North, north west. It came
with a roar, like a train, then like a jumbo jet: it was frightening. Then the first hailstone struck.
Seemingly the biggest hail-stone arrives before the others. This was not a hailstone, it was a
lump of ice as big as your fist and most irregular and jagged. Then came the deluge, a ferocious
bombardment of blocks of ice, that’s the only way I can describe them. They punched 4 holes in
the roof of the awning at the back door. A magnificent garden which we visited in Bratislava last
year had every leaf and fruit stripped from apple, pear, plum, apricot, vine and every other fruit
tree by this hail. We lost a lot of cherries and plums. Rain driven by hurricane force winds
followed, lashing in from the west, then from the east in frenzied confusion. I thought
afterwards it may have been a tornado which we could not have seen and we were told later
that three tornados had been seen in the Tatra mountains at that time. Rain as we have had it
for the previous six or seven weeks has never before been seen in Slovakia or in Poland.
This November has had daily temperatures averaging 10° c. On Friday 5th it got up to 18°c. If we
can make it to December it will be great – less that four weeks from solstice and lengthening
days. Last winter we built six snowmen, two at the Brothers’ house and others at the Nano
Nagle Centre, a local nursery school, one for a sup-porting family and one at “The big House” at
Rybniček, a house which contains many Roma families. During the time when the bog-fires were
raging around Moscow we had red rain and an unusual sequence of violent thunder-storms.
When the lightening and sizzle-bang come at the same time then it is close – too close. We stay
away from the windows now. We had to stay in the church after Mass one evening because of
the intensity of the rain and lightening. In the end we had to dash for cars because it went on for
most of the night and extended as far as Ukraine. After a big flash comes, run to the car! Don’t
mind the trees and when you get home get out and open an iron gate with iron fencing on
either side. Five or six yards is a long journey in those conditions.
The highlight of the year must have been the visit of three ladies from a prayer group in
Milltown, Kerry. They were Rosemarie Healy, Mary Burke and Breege O’Sullivan. The members
of this group have taken a keen in-terest in the mission here and have been generously
supporting us financially, in their prayer and with moral sup-port and encouragement. They got
a flight from Cork to Pyrzovice in Poland and then had to endure a six to six and a half hour
journey to Spišské Podhradie – allowing for stops. Some of them have been on pilgrimage to
places around Krakow but Slovakia and our house was a new experience. Thanks to the sisters
they were brought by car to the places where we minister to the Roma people as best we can.
The saw the Sisters school, The Nano Nagle Centre. They saw the poverty, overcrowding and
conditions on the ground.
The sisters were able to enlighten them regarding the unseen problems and struggles of these
people. They saw too the devastation of misguided land management under communism,
clustering people into villages and along the roadways. That was to clear the land for prairie
farming. All the peoples’ houses were bulldozed, shoughs and hedges obliterated never to be
seen again. And they were brought sightseeing and shopping. They experienced the unusual
silence of Marianske Hore, the Slovak national Marian shrine. The quiet was particularly notable
within the church, an ideal atmosphere for prayer. The meetings in Milltown and Rockfield take
place every Sunday night and so as not to break the tradition of some 30 years, a meeting was
convened in Wilga Hotel near the airport. Their stay was cut short because of the fear of planes
being grounded due to the ash spreading out from the volcano in Iceland. And they said they
would definitely come back again. Other members of the group are thinking of coming too. It
was wonderful to have them with us for those few days. One can only marvel at their faith and
generosity that they should come so far.