Chapter 2 the harvey family

FIRST CHILD

During the next months, we both worked and had deputation meetings. Verna did substitute teaching, and I worked in the family construction business. Support began to come in and we had soon saved close to $1000 towards passage and outfitting expenses. In faith, we booked passage on the "S.S.United States" for July 17, 1964.

It was our final Sunday in America, before the scheduled departure of our ship, the S.S. United States, hopefully with us aboard. We still needed $25 of pledged monthly support, and mission rules forbade us to leave for the field unless 100% had been committed. A wealthy individual who had often asked about our support needs, said after the Sunday morning worship service, that he would make certain that we were not left standing on the pier. "If you are short, just give me a call!" We would see him again in the Wednesday night prayer meeting.

CHAPTER 8 - TO EUROPE

Many friends and relatives had come to see us off and it was a momentous but tearful occasion. Most passengers were just taking a vacation, but it would be 4-5 years before we would see our friends again. It was especially difficult for Verna's parents, whose only daughter and grandchild were leaving for Europe with a man they had hardly gotten to know. With all the experiences of the day on our minds, we headed for our stateroom, wondering what the next days, months and years would have in store for us. Oddly enough, we were not at all apprehensive.

After just six days aboard the fastest passenger ship in the world, we reached the Port of Lehavre, France on July 23, 1964. We took the "Boat Train" to Paris, where we had to wait six hours for a train to Austria.
We shall never forget the railway station in Paris. We searched in vain for a waiting room. We asked at the ticket booth but no one understood English. Verna sat down on a chair in a restaurant to give our six-month-old baby a bottle of cold milk, but a brusque waiter rattled off something in French which clearly meant, "Buy or get lost!"
Our son desperately needed a change of diapers, so Verna performed the task on top of a suitcase in the center of the hall. I took the disposable diaper and looked for a trash can. I finally discovered an entire row of them on the sidewalk in front of the station. Totally exhausted, we made ourselves as comfortable as possible sitting on two suitcases. Junior was not about to accept another unheated bottle and his ear-piercing screams reverberated from the polished marble floors and walls of the station. A thousand eyes stared as we tried to settle him, but it was useless. Finally, a friendly American Army officer saw our plight and ushered us into the American Servicemen's Lounge. They warmed the baby's bottle for us and the remainder of our stay was spent on plush sofas. For the first time, I almost felt ashamed about being a draft dodger!

WELCOME TO AUSTRIA!

It was evening when we boarded the train for the long ride to Austria. Sleep came in snatches. Every half hour or so, a conductor would check our tickets; and when we crossed borders, customs officials came to examine our passports. It was about 7:00 o'clock in the morning, when we crossed the border into Austria. Although we were traveling to Vienna, our train had to stop in Salzburg. We poked our heads out of the window, trying to get our first glimpse of the country we would be calling home. Suddenly, we heard someone calling our names! Two missionaries who worked in Salzburg had come to welcome us with a lovely bouquet of flowers!
For the next four hours, we enjoyed the lovely scenery flying past our windows. Our first impression of the Austrian railroad workers, however, was that they were lazy! Every few miles, we saw groups of the blue-uniformed workers, but they were never working! Most were leaning on their shovels, drinking beer or just standing around talking.
Twenty years later, we were sitting around the table in the Bible Institute, chatting with the students. Somehow, we got on the subject of public workers, and I described my first impression of Austrian railroad workers. One of the students studied me for a moment and then asked, "In all these years, did it never occur to you that they had to stop working when the train passed through?“

THE NEW OLD WORLD

We found Austria to be vastly different in every way, from what we had imaged. The first and last letters of "Austria" and "America" are about the only similarities between these two countries, and even that similarity vanishes when speaking German. The German spelling is "Österreich."

OUR ABODE

We stayed in the Methodist Student Home until we found an apartment. That task turned out to be more difficult than we had imagined. There were many foreigners living in the Austrian capital, which was also known as the spy capital of Europe. Some who had apartments to rent didn’t want foreigners and those who did, expected a lot of money. In just nine days, we found a three-room rental apartment for 1,600 Austrian Schillings, more than half our monthly income. Utilities would be extra.
We hadn't expected the luxuries of American life, but we were totally unprepared for some of the features of our first apartment!
It was a “fourth floor" apartment but Austrians don’t count the ground floor, so it was actually on the fifth floor. Verna was a bit nervous about hauling a baby and coach up and down all those stairs, but the landlady assured us that there was an elevator. After we moved in, we discovered that the elevator was coin operated and businesses on the floors beneath us often blocked it for hours. We wound up climbing stairs after all!
The apartment had a bedroom, small kitchen and a living room. The bedroom doubled as an office and the living room became a nursery. A cast iron/porcelain wash basin in the kitchen provided only cold water – occasionally! If anyone on the lower floors of the building was using water, we had none at all; there just wasn't enough pressure. We would place a bucket under the open faucet and go about our business. When the water started running, we stopped whatever we were doing – usually sleeping, to fill buckets and pans until it stopped running again.
There was no toilet or bathroom in the apartment. These were separate rooms located in the outer hallway and were shared with the landlady and two Italian students. Neither room was heated, but a gas heater located just above the tub would turn on and heat the water as you used it. There was seldom water before 10:00 PM, so we took our baths after that time. Most Austrians are in bed by ten, so we had to be very quiet. The landlady charged 8 Shillings for each bath. That was equivalent to three men’s haircuts in 1964 money. Verna and I used the same bath water and I graciously allowed Verna to go first. When our landlady discovered our trick to save money, she told us that this was not permitted. We needed to pay 8 Schillings each. I said that we were trying to save water, so she reluctantly gave in.
A two-burner gas hot plate served for cooking and heating water. Verna boiled the baby's cloth diapers (we had taken a package of disposable diapers for the trip) and hung them to dry over the kitchen table. It usually took two or three meals for them to dry. An ancient ceramic oven was used to heat the apartment. If the weather was really cold, there was not enough heat and if it was not very cold, there was poor draft. Smoke would fill the apartment so that we had to open all the windows or evacuate.
There were no locks on any doors of our apartment. The Italian students often threw wild parties for their friends. Loud music and cigarette smoke filtered into our rooms and kept us awake. A couple of times, drunk students wandered into our bedroom, looking for the toilet. I had to get out of bed and lead them to the little room in the hallway.
The apartment house was situated on Vienna’s busiest street, appropriately named "Mariahilferstrasse" (Mary Help Me Street). Hardly a day went by when there was no accident within sight of the main entrance to our building. We thanked God many times for getting us safely across that street, but Mary didn’t help several Austrians who were killed trying!
We were amazed at the patience of the Viennese after experiencing a "fender bender." One Sunday morning on our way to church, we saw a pair of damaged vehicles parked near a tramway stop. A policeman stood idly by while the drivers argued about who was at fault. Two hours later, when we headed home, the drivers were still arguing and the policeman was patiently awaiting the outcome.

MONEY MATTERS

According to IRS records, my annual income as a carpenter in 1956 (the first full year I worked) amounted to $2,274. By 1964, I was earning $200 per week and Verna did substitute teaching for $20 a day.
Our starting salary as missionaries was only $215 per month, less than a fourth of what we had been receiving in America. Still, we managed exceptionally well. The Dollar exchange rate was 25 Schillings and we discovered that our income exceeded that of many Austrian workers.
That situation changed rapidly and, within a few years, Austrian salaries matched or even exceeded ours. Only during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, was our income on a par with that of our Austrian friends, but even then, Austrians received social benefits that gave them financial advantages.

RELIGION

The greatest difference for us was not the culture or language, but the religious situation in Austria. Most towns had at least one Roman Catholic Church and larger towns and cities often had a many. The larger municipalities usually had Lutheran Church as well. When we arrived in 1964, 90% of the population was Catholic and 6% Lutheran. Churches of other denominations were rare even in large cities. Salzburg, for instance, had 150 Roman Catholic Churches, Cathedrals and Basilicas, two Lutheran Churches, but only one small Baptist church that met in a wood structure that had served as a military barracks during World War II. Vienna, with 1.6 million inhabitants, had three small Baptist Churches. One met in an ex-army barracks and another in a residence.
Missionaries, whose goal it is, to establish a church, could expect opposition from every side. Not just from the Catholic Priest, but from the Mayor, City Council and even neighbors. In America, people treated us like heroes, but in Austria we were seen as perpetrators of a foreign religious sect.
Although most Austrians are Catholic, that doesn't mean that they take church teachings seriously. The church is viewed as part of their cultural and national heritage. The greatest sin for most Austrians, is being unfaithful to their church traditions. Being unfaithful has nothing to do with church teachings or even attendance. Being faithful means to remain members, have their children baptized and to be buried by the church.
This situation has changed dramatically in the past four decades, but I will get to that later.

LANGUAGE

The second major difference we faced was the language. German was difficult enough to learn, but Austrians speak many provincial dialects.
Soon after our arrival, we enrolled in both the University of Vienna and a private language school. We also hired a university student, who patiently coached us with our pronunciation. The cost of language study was our second largest expenditure in the first two years.
During language study, we practiced new words on each other before attempting to use them in public. Austrians would gladly have paid admission to hear our private babblings, but they got enough of it for free!
Even the progression of endearments was hilarious: We started with "Ich lieben Sie" (literal dictionary translation of the words "I love you"). Then we learned that "you" has both a familiar and a formal translation. We began saying "Ich lieben Du" to each other. At some point we learned that there are four cases in German, nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. We appropriately changed the formulation to the accusative case, "Ich lieben Dich." But this was still incorrect, for the verb changes with each case. It was a long time before we could verbalize our affection in proper German: "Ich liebe Dich".
I found the so-called "umlaut" letters (Ü, Ö, Ä) especially difficult to pronounce. Our tutor was just about to give up on me, when I accidentally pronounced the "Ö" properly. She cheered, "That's it!" she cried, “You finally got it!” I tried to think of what I had done differently and said, "It sounded like I was vomiting!" After that lesson, I seldom had trouble with those letters. I simply pretended that I was vomiting!

GERMAN - ENGLISH MISTAKES

German is actually quite similar to English in many ways. If you look at books written in English or German back around 1600, the two languages were even more similar than they are today. Unfortunately, Germans no longer talk like Martin Luther and Americans don't talk like King James.
Many German words have been adopted into the English language, such as kindergarten, iceberg and sauerkraut. And thousands of English words have been adopted by the German-speaking world. Computer geeks in America and Germany don't need to learn a foreign language in order to communicate with each other. When our Austrian and American grandchildren first got together, they soon discovered words that were similar and began talking excitedly with each other about balloons, ponies and parties.
I became acutely aware of differences between German and English during our first shopping excursion in Vienna. We had just arrived and needed items to set up housekeeping. We lived right across from Vienna's two largest department stores, "Herzmansky" and "Gerngross." These large stores offered the same products, but they attracted customers by competing with each other in their advertising. Few Austrians were aware of the fact that both stores had the same owner! Since we had no car and public transportation cost money, it was only natural that we should do most of our shopping there. Our first shopping experience was a memorable one!
We took much time comparing prices and looking for the things we needed. After a while, I sensed an urge to visit what Americans call "the bathroom." We all know that stores don’t have bathrooms and even if they did, who would want to take a bath there? The British say they need to use a "wash room" and the international name for a toilet is "WC," which stands for "water closet." Austrians have bathrooms, but these are only for taking baths. The toilet is generally in a separate room.
Verna asked me if I knew the German name for a restroom. That is another name Americans use for the toilet, but "relief room" would seem more appropriate. I told Verna that I would look for a "WC" sign or a pair of narrow doors with little pictures on them. I soon found a sign which said "Toiletten" and an arrow pointing into a hallway. With relief, I followed this until I came to the expected pair of narrow doors. Unfortunately, there were no pictures on the doors, but the words, "Damen" and "Herren." I thought to myself, "German is going to be breeze!" "Herren" has got to mean "her room," and we all know that Germans have trouble pronouncing the English "th" sound. Obviously, Germans would say "da men's room."
I entered the door marked "Damen" with great confidence and was promptly met by an indignant female patron on her way out! The German language was not going to be so easy after all! I made a hasty retreat and walked to the door marked "Herren." After some hesitation, I shoved the door ajar and stopped abruptly. A woman was sitting at a table just inside the door! I excused myself in English (I had not yet learned to say "Entschuldigung") and returned to where I had left Verna. "Did you find the restroom?" she asked. I replied, "I can wait until we get home."
When we arrived back in our apartment, I looked up the words in our German-English dictionary. "Herren" means "men" and "Damen" means "women." We related this experience with a fellow missionary, who got a good laugh. He explained that there is usually a "Klofrau" in public toilets. The Klofrau is a woman who keeps the place clean and collects money from those who use the toilets. There is often an opening between the two facilities where she can collect without going back and forth. I will share more about public toilets later.
The German language is much more complicated than English, but at the same time it is more expressive and exact. All nouns have one of three genders (masculine, feminine or neuter), as distinguished by their articles. It is easy to determine the gender of some words. The German nouns meaning "man," "father," "husband" and "son" are masculine, so the article used is "der." The German nouns that mean "woman," "mother," "wife," and "daughter" are feminine, so the article is "die" (pronounced "dee" and has nothing to do with death in German). Other nouns are not so easy to figure out. Because the noun for "child" does not denote a gender, it is given a neuter article, "das." The logic stops there. The German noun for a young girl ("Mädchen") is neuter, but the three main words for "boy" ("Knabe," "Bube," and "Junge") are masculine. The German word for a young woman, "Fräulein," is also neuter.
The utensils we eat with are called "knife" "fork" and "spoon" in English. The article for all three is "the" and we don't worry about gender. I soon discovered that these utensils have three different genders in German. A knife is called "das Messer" (nouns are always capitalized in German), a fork is called "die Gabel" and a spoon is "der Löffel" (to pronounce it properly, pretend you are vomiting!).
A knife is neuter, a spoon masculine and a fork is feminine. No rule determines gender; you just have to memorize it. I learned the gender by association. Kids (neuter in German) shouldn't play with knives; the knife is neuter. Men usually have a protruding belly; the spoon is masculine. Women are said to use their tongues a lot; a fork is feminine.
To make matters even more complicated, the spelling of nouns, adjectives, verbs and articles changes according to usage. With 4 cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative), 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), 3 tenses (past, present and future), and singular or plural forms, there can be a dozen variations in the spelling of almost any word in a sentence.
It is also important to have the words in their proper order. As a rule, the verb is normally at the end of a sentence and German-speaking people delight in long, complicated sentences. In a news broadcast, for example, you may hear the name of a person at the beginning of a sentence followed by several descriptive phrases before finally concluding with the verb. You are held in suspense for what seems an eternity before learning if the person was killed, promoted, or won a contest for creating the longest sentence.

When I speak to kids in churches, I like to explain why there are such long words in German. You can combine adjectives and nouns to create almost endless words. I show the kids how to spell "red" in German by writing the word on a chalk board. I'll do it here:

Donaudampfschiffsgesellschaftskapitänshutknopfpoliermitteldosendeckelbeschriftungsfarbe
It is quite simple if you break the word apart. Donau= Danube, dampfschiff= steamship, gesellschaft= company, kapitäns= captain's, hut= cap, knopf= button, poliermittel=polish, dose= can, deckel= lid, beschriftungs= text, farbe=color
By starting at the back of the word, you learn that it is the color of the text on the lid of a can of polish used to polish the button on the Danube Steamship Company captain's hat.
As our language study progressed, the mistakes we made were fewer, but more hilarious - at least to others. When you speak better German, people are less forgiving. We could identify with Mark Twain, who wrote, That Awful German Language.
Here are a few German/English mistakes that we and others have made.
There are several prefixes to verbs, which change the tense and often the meaning. The same verb can use several different prefixes, but the meaning changes. There seems to be no ruling which tells a person which prefix to use under what circumstances. In language school, one of my classmates asked the teacher if there was a rule that tells you when to use the prefix "ge-," "be-," "ver-" and "zer-." The professor thought for a minute and said, "When I think about it, the prefix "ver-" seems to be used when the word has a negative meaning, such as "verloren" (lost), "verdorben" (spoiled) and "verboten" (forbidden)." Another classmate, who was obviously better at German than most of us, spoke up and added, "verliebt" (in love), "verlobt" (engaged), "verheiratet" (married).
A wrong prefix can change the meaning drastically. A missionary was preaching about serving the Lord and said, "Everyone in this church has a special gift, from the preacher in the pulpit to the one who converts the floor." By adding the common prefix "be-" to the word "kehren," which means to sweep, he changed the meaning to "convert."
My wife once made the same mistake. We invited an elderly lady for Sunday dinner. Instead of encouraging her to help herself, she told her to behave herself ("benehmen").
Three arks are mentioned in the Bible: Noah's ark, the Ark of the Covenants, and the ark into which Moses was placed. A missionary once preached on the Ark of the Covenants, not realizing that the German Bible uses a different word ("Bundeslade"). He described the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenants on their shoulders and when they stepped into the water of the Jordan River, it parted so they could walk across on dry ground (Joshua 4). The congregation could only picture the priests carrying Noah's ark across a dry river bed!
A summer worker wrote out his testimony in English and translated it into German. He wanted to tell his listeners about the great change that had taken place in his life after becoming a Christian. What they understood was, "My behind is divided into two parts. One part is sinful and one part is Christian."
At a conference of Christian workers, a missionary was asked to give thanks for the food before the meal. He prayed a good prayer and then invited everyone to be seated. But instead of saying "You may now be seated", he said "Sie dürfen jetzt platzen" ("You may now burst").
"Stille" has two meanings. One definition is "quiet" and the other means to breast-feed a baby. During a theological discussion on the role of women in the church, a missionary once said, "According to scripture, the woman should breast-feed herself and not speak in church ("sich stillen und nicht reden").
Once, when our daughter came in from play, she didn’t take off her coat. Verna told her, "Take off your clothes and hang yourself!" ("Du sollst dich ausziehen und aufhängen").
Austrians celebrate Corpus Christi, called "Fronleichnam" (literally "holy corpse"). Verna once mispronounced it, calling the holiday "Frohleichnam" which means "happy corpse."
A missionary was teaching Sunday School on Mother's Day and gave each of the children flowers for their mothers. Since it would be a while before they could be handed out, the missionary filled a large vase with water and told the children to put their flowers in it until later. But instead of telling them to insert their flowers into her large "Gefäss" (container or vase), she told them to put their flowers into her large "Gesäss" (posterior)!
Another missionary was trying to explain that missionaries are just ordinary people. The German word "ordinär" may sound like "ordinary," but it means "vulgar" or "obscene." She said, "We missionaries are obscene people just like you."
An American was explaining to an Austrian that it was dangerous for a woman to walk on city streets at night without an escort. Instead of using the word "ohne Begleitung" (without an escort), he said "ohne Bekleidung" (without clothing). In other words, he said it was dangerous for a woman to walk the streets at night in America without clothing.
In describing his goals for the church, a fellow missionary spoke of his "kurzsichtige Ziele" instead of "kurzfristige Ziele." He meant "short-range goals," but what he actually said was "short-sighted goals"!

Directory: documents
documents -> Concept stage
documents -> Concept stage
documents -> The great global switch-off
documents -> Nonprofit grant application
documents -> The Truth about the Rwandan Genocide
documents -> Annual InStructional unit plan
documents -> Chaos equipment included

Download 2.2 Mb.

Share with your friends: