The Red Cross lady had to repeat the message to me a few times because I just wasn't able to concentrate on what she was saying. I was too nervous and scared.
At this point the details are sketchy but I'll try to piece this together as best I can.
My sister Val and her husband John were missionaries working with an organization, International Teams. They were not in a foreign land but worked on staff out of the IT Headquarters in Illinois. Part of the mission of IT was taking the Bible into countries behind the Iron Curtain. The summer after I arrived in Germany Val, John and their 2 year old daughter, Courtney, were going on a mission trip to what was then, Czechoslovakia. They'd be bringing in Bibles and other Christian literature and if caught could possibly be imprisoned. In Czech they'd have a contact, a Christian family. After spending some time in Czech, they'd be going to Austria for a visit.
What made this tricky is well --so many things! My sister couldn't call me directly. The Red Cross had trouble finding me and thus the message to me got delayed by at least 3 days. We were both in foreign countries --different ones at that and them being in a communist country and having to hide the reason they were there, made things all the more difficult. My sister never wrote to me before hand because the nature of their trip, she couldn't.
The message I got was to call my sister Val and a number was given and that she would be in Austria soon. Now you know, I didn't have a phone and calling long distance was crazy expensive, even more so when using a pay phone. Since the Red Cross message had been delayed by a few days, by the time I got it my sister had actually already left Czech and they were on their way to Austria, hoping to meet up with me. I called the number, which was the host family in Czech; the phone call was difficult, at best. You may have a memory (old enough) to recall long distance calls back then were very poor connections. It was difficult to hear, often times there would be a lot of static or that "talking in a tunnel" type sound. Add to the mix, the person I called spoke broken English in a very hard to understand accent. She was helpful as she could be, but all she really could tell me is that my sister had left and I was to meet her in Salzburg.
I immediately put in for a 4-day pass and got ready to go to Salzburg, Austria. I was going in blind. I had never ventured out of Germany on my own so I was more than a bit afraid of that too. Back then, soldiers did not travel abroad with a passport --we just needed our leave papers and military ID with a specific date range of travel. I was always more than a little freaked out I'd get stranded someplace then be beyond my dates of travel and not able to get back into Germany, thus being AWOL then ending up in jail. Because you know, despite the fact I didn't break the laws, I was always afraid of going to jail (perhaps becase I had seen so many "almost innocent" soldiers go to jail). After getting the paperwork/permission I needed, I walked down to the Ansbach train station, purchased a round trip ticket for Salzburg and hopped on the train.
The whole way there I was scared and nervous --and I had very little cash on me too. My monthly take-home was about $600, most of which was spent on eating out as Mess Hall food could get a bit mundane. I used the rest to travel and buy European Chocolate. I also only got paid once a month so $600 didn't last long, even back then.
Had I not been so nervous, I could have enjoyed the train ride to Salzburg much more. The countryside scenery was simply breathtaking --nothing like you'd see here in the US. We made several stops along the way but of course me, being the absolute nervous wreck that I always was, I didn’t dare get off the train. I did have to switch trains in Munich though. Having not ventured out much in Germany and certainly never alone, I had to put my conversational German into action and I was amazed how much I could say and understand. In German, I had to ask where my train departed from, what time and general directional/travel questions. At one point I asked about my train and the Conductor, who was dressed like he just stepped off the Polar Express Train, was able to understand my German but I was not able to understand what he was saying. I kept asking him to, "Sprechen langsamer, bitte." -- Speak slower, please -- and he would slow down but I was still not able to understand him. I think he had a different dialect than what I was used to. I guess it would be like a foreigner learning English then coming to the US and asking someone with a thick southern accent a question -- you just can't hear the words like you expect them to sound. He finally gave up speaking and motioned for me to follow him. Munich is a big city, the train station is quite large and busy --a lot of bustling going on. Walking at a pace I could barely keep up with and luggage in tow, I followed behind the Conductor and he walked me all the way over to my train. He said something to the Conductor of that train, they motioned for me to get aboard and that was that. Now I was really on my way to Salzburg. But I still had no idea where my sister was or how I would find her.
0 comments:
Post a Comment