by George Lemak, West Mifflin, Pa.
Recently I visited the Carpatho-Rusyn village of Tjuska, former Marmaros county in Subcarpathia, the birthplace of my father George Lemak Sr. The village is about a 3-1/2 hour drive from Uzhorod heading east.
I left Kennedy International Airport on Monday August 1 at 6:30 PM, and arrived in Uzhorod on Tuesday about 6 PM.
In our group were sixteen Americans from several different states. Four of us left for the villages, the rest stayed at the hotel and visited relatives on a daily basis.
My cousins were waiting for me in their Russian-made car called the "Latta." We arrived in Tjuska about 10 PM that evening, and all my relations were waiting for us. After all the greetings and a very large meal, I took a good hot shower and went to bed. Just about all the new homes being built by the younger people have showers, and some are even putting in saunas!
The weather was extremely hot and the land was parched from lack of rain. The crops were very poor this year.
Most of the young men were home for the summer to help with the farm work, but in late September they leave to find work in other countries. My cousin was going to Russia to work as a carpenter for $10 for a ten-hour day. There are no industrial jobs available nearby.
An Orthodox church was built in the village about four years ago (before inflation set in), and a new Greek Catholic church was under construction, but work stopped due to lack of funds and inflation.
I had the pleasure of meeting a man in his nineties by the name of Symeon who remembered my father leaving Tjuska for America with fifteen other villagers, two of whom were women. Symeon was the village blacksmith, but when the Communists took over he was taken from his home and sent to Siberia for seven years. He wept like a baby when he was telling me this story. Before I left he pointed to the mountains and told me that my father went that direction with the other villagers, never to return home again from America.
While in Tjuska I attended two weddings. I was surprised to learn that the bride and groom do not get dressed up for the Crowning service in church. They attend an early, 7 AM Liturgy at which they go to confession, receive Holy Communion, and get married. The priest puts a babuška on the bride's head and blesses her with holy water. At three in the afternoon the bride puts on her wedding gown and the groom also dresses up, and the wedding feast begins. There was a two-piece band hired to play for two days.
On August 7 an election was held for representatives to the parliament in Uzhorod. Seventy-eight percent of the people in Tjuska voted. Most of them told me that they were voting for Rusyns who would go to bat for them and their interests.
After eight beautiful days in Tjuska with all my cousins and new-found "krajani," it was time to head back to Uzhorod and then home to America.
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Last modified on September 27 1997
URL:http://www.carpatho-rusyn.org/crs/tjuska.htm
Greg Gressa [ggressa@carpatho-rusyn.org]
The Carpatho-Rusyn Knowledge Base