Today is Sunday, so like the well-behaved folks we are, we all got dressed for church. Mary Kay asked us all to wear our Podlasie costumes. All the festival participants who came, arrived dressed in their national or regional costumes. It was a wonderful image of international and interfaith good will. We were unsure about the kind of service it would be--a Roman Catholic Mass, an Eastern Rite Divine Liturgy, or a type of ecumenical prayer service for peace, but given where we were and the kinds of things we were learning about the Lemko, I guessed correctly about the Divine Liturgy, as most are Eastern Rite Catholics. It was a beautiful liturgy, completely chanted, and of course the only Slavonic I was able to muster was "Gospodi homily". But that was okay, because "Gospodi pomiluy" is chanted so many times during an Orthodox or Eastern Rite liturgy, I felt like a real participant. We were all asked to sing at the end of the liturgy, preferably a song of peace or one to the Mother of God. We chose the immediately recognizable American hymn, "Amazing Grace", and surprisingly, so did the Taiwanese (only they sang only one verse, and performed a Chinese fan dance for the instrumental portion). It was a really beautiful moment as we were singing, when the Chinese musicians chimed in with their instruments during our final verse.
Following a quick and more or less forgettable lunch at Gwiazda Gor, we were on our way to Slovakia, our only gig on this tour outside of Poland. It was an extraordinarily beautiful day--sunny, albeit warm. We were greeted in the town of Kurov by children who were carrying signs announcing our countries of origin. I felt sorry for one of the kids, as he was holding the sign for Mexico. The organizers in Kurov had obviously not received the news that the Mexicans had to leave after lunch that day, and would not be participating. So,this boy, Mishko, was not able to march in the parade with Mexico. The poor guy looked really disappointed. A boy named Matej was carrying the USA sign already, so Mishko was really happy when we gave him our flag to carry.
The parade was probably our longest, about 2 kilometers I believe, completely through the village. But the journey on foot, through all that heat, was made easier by the occasional shot of alcohol. We made several stops along the route to toast with one of the locals dressed in traditional costumes (check out those pictures). I think this was the first time in my life that I had alcohol before a performance. Oh, well, when in Slovakia…
As we reached the edge of town, a few local Rom families greeted us, and we could see their "mini-village" just outside of the town proper, characteristic of "gypsy" communities in these parts, I suppose.
We were starving and thirsty when we arrived at the festival area, with kolacja scheduled after the show, and most of us having only Polish zloty to spend. A few remembered to bring their euros with them and had no problems. The rest of us had to rely on Majka's charm to get the vendors to accept our zloty (American dollars are useless here) for some refreshment before the performance. After waiting in line for about an hour, we finally got our beer--warm and flat. But at the same tent I did manage to get some barbecued blood sausage right off the grill. Dee-lish!!!
It was a really long, mercilessly hot day, but we had an amazing time. The festival was well attended by several thousand. We were a great team on stage, once again. Basia and I kicked butt with our duet. The people of Kurov did provide a great dinner for us (including beer and brandy). When we returned to Gwiazda Gor, some folks went downstairs for yet another party into the wee hours. Don't know how. I could only crash for the night.
-Brennan
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