{"id":8676,"date":"2021-04-30T22:44:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-01T02:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8676"},"modified":"2021-04-30T22:49:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T02:49:14","slug":"episode-327-jan-1-1993-the-day-czecholslovkia-disappeared-ceased-to-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8676","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 327 JAN. 1, 1993: THE DAY CZECHOLSLOVKIA DISAPPEARED…CEASED TO EXIST"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 327    JANUARY 1, 1993: BREAK UP OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA INTO CZECH AND SLOVAK REPUBLICS<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 327    JAN. 1, 1993  THE YEAR CZECHOSLOVAKIA DISAPPEARED\u2026CEASED TO EXIST<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
May 1, 2021<\/div>\n

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A STARTLING AND UNFORGETTABLE MARCH HOLIDAY WEEK\u2026.1993<\/div>\n

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\u201cMom and dad, why don\u2019t you fly over here on the March School break?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIs it safe?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPerfectly safe.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe read that Czechoslovakia is splitting\u2026sounds like Civil War.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo danger\u2026the split is not violent.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat will happen to you?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNothing, I will still be teaching English in Bratislava for $125 a month\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you still sleeping the jail?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo\u2026sharing an apartment in an Ex-Soviet building\u2026only difference beween Canada <\/div>\n
and Slovakia that I see around here is that nobody smiles much..except the students\u2026they<\/div>\n
smile a lot\u2026<\/div>\n
\u201cNice kids?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSuper\u2026.How would you  like to be guest teacher for a day in a Slovak High School?<\/div>\n
\u201cLove to, Kevine…We are coming\u2026sounds exciting.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGood.  I will rent a Skoda\u2026no one will know you are tourists.\u201d<\/div>\n
(now that was a laugh\u2026Marjorie wore her bright pink coat\u2026No one else  did.)<\/div>\n

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ON JANUARY 1, 1993 CZECHOSLOVAKIA SPLIT INTO TWO STATES\u2026THE CZECH AND SLOVAK<\/div>\n
REPUBLICS.   <\/div>\n

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Czechs and Slovaks did not really want to split   There were tensions between the two<\/div>\n
groups.  Many Slovaks resented the Czech dominance and general affluence.   But the<\/div>\n
resentment was not the kind that would lead to civil war.  Then why did the countries split?<\/div>\n
That was what they asked each other.  The answer in simplified form is that the two political<\/div>\n
leaders \u2026 a Czech and a Slovak.arranged the split even though it seemed to be against the<\/div>\n
national will.<\/div>\n

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HOW DID OUR SON KEVIN BECOME AN ENGLISH TEACHER IN A SLOVAK HIGH SCHOOL?<\/div>\n

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He needed a job.  Kevin had jus graduated as a Canadian high school teacher but there were<\/div>\n
no jobs in Canada.  At least he could not find a job.  But I am not sure he looked very hard.<\/div>\n
He was ready to venture into the world.  Wanted to do something different.  Then he heard that<\/div>\n
 the American School (an international school) was hiring teachers for the Slovak school system.<\/div>\n
The wages were $125 a month\u2026between $4 and $5 a day.  Money was not the incentive for Kevin.<\/div>\n
Adventure was what he wanted.  Young and full of piss and vinegar as they say.<\/div>\n

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Eastern Europe was in a bit of turmoil.  The Berlin Wall had been pulled down. The Soviet<\/div>\n
Union had collapsed.  Many of the Soviet Republics were looking to the West\u2026to the United<\/div>\n
States\u2026for leadership.  The English language was seen as the key to fitting into the new<\/div>\n
world order.  <\/div>\n

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Kevin was an English teacher.  Certified.  What a wonderful chance to be part of<\/div>\n
something bigger than himself.  He applied for a job\u2026was accepted\u2026and took off almost<\/div>\n
immediately for the new Slovak Republic which promised him free accommodation but did not <\/div>\n
mention the room would be in a former jail.   He travelled blind along with a bunch of American<\/div>\n
newly certified teachers.<\/div>\n

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Then in March 1993, Marjorie and I joined Kevin for a wonderful winter week in a<\/div>\n
place we had never heard of\u2026the brand new Slovak Republic.   Kevin picked us up<\/div>\n
in Vienna and drove us to Bratislava.  We passed a large Slovak nuclear Reactor  that the<\/div>\n
Austrians felt was in danger of melt down.  That put a little extra tension into the visit.<\/div>\n

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The Austrians feared this Slovak nuclear reactor was not safe.  No provision for the <\/div>\n
retention of radioactive water in a containment pool was one of the reasons\u2026I think.<\/div>\n
  It was years later<\/div>\n
that another Soviet reactor became world famous at a glance called Chernobbyl.<\/div>\n

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WHAT WAS LIFE LIKE IN THE NEW SLOVAK REPUBLIC?<\/div>\n

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COMPLICATED.  Best answer I can put forward.  Life was  grim for many.  Some Slovaks were happy.  Some Slovaks were unhappy.  <\/div>\n

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\u201cBest not to smile when riding<\/div>\n
the Busses, Dad.  Most Slovaks are having a tough time right now.  Not much to smile about.  Many still believe<\/div>\n
that Marxism could have provided a Worker\u2019s paradise. Problems happened when Joseph Stalin and Russian communism not took<\/div>\n
hold of Eastern Europe. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cSeems the bullets of World War II have pock-marked some of the buildings.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat war \u20261939 to 1945 \u2026is still part of the Slovak consciousness.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Why was this sign on this bridge in English?   <\/div>\n

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We went to church on Sunday and could not help to see the huge ruin of a burned our synagogue next door to the Roman Catholic cathedral.<\/div>\n
That was chilling.  I wondered why the ghostly hulk was left standing.  Perhaps a symbol of the Soviet victory of Nazi fascism.   But I am<\/div>\n
not sure why?   Then there was a bridge with a memorial place engraved in English\u2026also a reminder of World war II.<\/div>\n

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Behind this overgrown scrub forest was a burned out synagogue as seen below.<\/div>\n
A reminder of the anti semitic terror that swept through eastern Europe in the 1940\u2019s<\/div>\n

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TEACHING HISTORY IN A SLOVAK HIGH SCHOOL<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe have a guest  today,\u201d announced the principal as we wedged ourselves into the packed classroom.<\/div>\n
\u201cWelcome,\u201d  And all the students\u2026senior students in Grade 12\u2026all of them immediately stood<\/div>\n
up and welcomed Marjorie and me with bug smiles. That courtesy does not happen in Canada.<\/div>\n

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I do not remember what I taught on that cold March morning in 1993.  What I do remember, however, were the<\/div>\n
warm smiles \u2026 the joy the students seemed to feel \u2026 the hope they shared, hope that the West would change <\/div>\n
their world.  The need to speak English.<\/div>\n

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Take a look at their faces.  They were 17 and 18 in 1993.  Today they would  be 45 and  46 with teen age children of their<\/div>\n
own.  A really nice bunch of very typical high school students whose skills in English were very good.  Hopefully they can still smile the way they did in 1993.<\/div>\n

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Elementary school students<\/div>\n

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AT the back of the room, left to right, Marjorie Skeoch, VP, Kevin Skeoch, School Principal<\/div>\n

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Principal of the Slovak High School in 1993<\/div>\n

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We had quite a few adventures in our week.  Perhaps the most humourous was when<\/div>\n
Marjorie got mugged by a group of five or six older women.  Likely Roma.  They surrounded her outside a Slovak coffee shop<\/div>\n
where she lined up to go to a washroom.   Public WC\u2019s were hard to find.<\/div>\n
wile Kevin and i were paying the bill.  Suddenly, Kev, yelled.  \u201cMom is getting robbed out there.\u201d<\/div>\n
And sure enough the women were all around her in the line up which they used as cover.  Pushing\u2026while looking<\/div>\n
away\u2026.distracting Marjorie while one woman slipped her hand into Marjorie\u2019s purse and grabbed  her wallet.  Only it was not<\/div>\n
her wallet.  It was her glass case.  The women took off as Kevin arrived hollering like a stuck pig.  So the mugging turned into<\/div>\n
an adventure where no one got hurt\u2026and five women were sharing an empty glass case.  Another group of gypsy women<\/div>\n
encircled me at the same time so Kev used back to save me.  I was in no danger\u2026wallet tied down.<\/div>\n

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NEXT EPISODE ON SLOVAKIA WILL BE AMUSING IN PLACES\u2026STARTLING IN OTHERS.<\/div>\n
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