Neighbor talk.

This morning I had to stay a behind from work and wait for a few men who were coming to inspect the water system in our apartment building. I was told, on three different occasions, that I had to be home from 8 am to 9 am on Wednesday. So, I was there, waiting. 9 o'clock rolled around and I decided that I would wait until 10 after: if no one showed up, then I would be off to work. I got my coat, hat and gloves and stood by the door. When my watch showed 10 minutes, I immediately walked out and down the first flight of stairs leading outdoors. In an instant, I heard our neighbor, Ivan, come out and ask me to stop (Ivan speaks no English). He told me that the men had to run into town to get a part and would back in only 10 minutes. I informed that I had to go to work and that I really had limited time. He asked me again if I would be able to stay for just a little while longer. I agreed and said OK. I am so glad that I did.

Ivan is a great guy. He always is smiling and he will speak to us in Czech and not mind when we don't understand everything he says. I love it. He is always a great man to practice with, because he speaks slowly and genuinely tries to understand our Czech, which I am sure is horribly accented and riddled with horrendous grammatical errors.

I could tell that he felt a little bit sorry that I had to wait longer than was expected of me, so we both started talking. He asked me how I liked Budapest (he was there at the same time we were) and invited me into his apartment. He was very proud of his home and he had ever reason to be. It was much larger then ours and the floors and cabinets were just beautiful; he told me that he built them himself. I asked him about his family and he told me that he has four kids with his wife, who is a physical therapist. We both were throwing questions back and forth; he asked me what city I came from (which he knew) and I wondered how long he had lived in France, since he speaks French; we talked about the school system and I asked him what he study when he was young (geography); he wondered how I viewed these apartments compared to those in the United States; I asked him if he is happy living in the apartment building. Pretty much, I had my first REAL conversation in Czech.

The men eventually came and Ivan sent them to my apartment first, which was very kind of him to do. Aside from the few distractions from the workers, Ivan and I kept up our talking. He told the men that I was from America, but I can understand and speak "wonderful" Czech, which is really not true, but it was nice of him to make me think it. At this point, I knew that I would be leaving for work in a short time, so I took a chance and invited Ivan to the church. I felt that after our little bonding experience, it was the appropriate time to take the next step.

Tomorrow, I am giving a presentation entitled,"Racism in America: red, black, white." The reason why I chose this topic was because of the interest my adults students have in it. Often times in class, the adults will vicariously ask about my feelings on race. They don't want to offend me, but I can tell they are egging for a conversation. So, I felt that I had the right avenue through which to invite Ivan. Hoping that he would find the topic interesting, I gave him the time and the place of the presentation. He seemed very interested and said he would really love to go.

However, there was a second question that was eating away at him and I could tell what it was. He wanted to ask me if I was Christian or not, because the place I told him to go was not in the school or the theater club, but the Evangelical church. I informed him that I was indeed a Christian and I was from the Protestant tradition. Upon hearing this, I played the "cultural-ignorance card" and asked him if he was a Christian as well (this would have been completely inappropriate for another Czech to ask, but being an American, I can get away with some things). He laughed it off and told me that he doesn't believe. He wasn't demeaning at all; in fact, he told me that he really admires a belief in God, except he considers himself a "materialist." I found out, contrary to me preconceived notion of what one was, that a materialist is one who only believe in the material, the physical. I was slightly confused when he said materialist, cause my mind went straight to things: cars, clothes, money, etc. But Ivan told me that in the Czech Republic it is used to denote someone who does not believe in anything he/she cannot see. Consequently, it is too difficult to believe in God, because he can't see, feel, smell or hear him; I found this very interesting. Ivan ended by proclaiming that his gods are health and happiness; things he can see and touch.

I decided to make my leave, feeling very happy about where we ended our conversation. I told him that I hope to see him tomorrow and that I think the presentation would be very interesting for him.

I had finally done it. I had communicated in Czech for almost one hour.

There is something powerful in knowing that I was relating to a man who is completely different from me.

My hope is that we can continue the conversation. Maybe next time, Jamie and I will invite Ivan and his wife over for dinner.