SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

The work took place in the worst heat of the summer, so it was not surprising that on the first day one of the seven workers became sick and asked for a glass of cold water at the first house. Such an event in a small village takes just a few hours to reach everyone... and so it began. 

The next morning, Stanka Škarja approached the workers and offered them coffee. "I would love to." Not only coffee, as is the custom in Dolenjska, but she also baked a strudel and some biscuits. To make sure that her husband Miro would not be left behind, he brought them a cold drink in the afternoon heat. 

The next day again. And again. Even when they weren't at home, the workers were told, "In the morning, before seven o'clock, coffee will be waiting for you here on the terrace. Come and have a drink." So every morning they started the day with coffee and homemade cakes. "And you have a fridge down here," Mirko added. "There's always a cold drink inside." He was careful to make sure the fridge was always full. "They thanked me so much every time," Stanka points out. "Grateful. Kind. Smiling. Hard-working people. They even brought me a packet of coffee."

But they were not the only ones. Neighbours would come and say, "Today I'm going to bake something," and another, "Kufe I'll cook it." So surely more than half of the villagers provided coffee, drinks, snacks and cakes for the workers who were working on the pavement in the intense heat. 

But just as every sunny day has its part of the night, so too are there some concerns in the stories of goodness. Thus the comment, "Well, they're all paid, so what do they futrate!" 

So why? 

"I've worked all over the world," Mirko said, referring to his work as a bricklayer, "and I was always happy to get something. Even a glass of cold water was appreciated, let alone anything more. Someone who knows what it's like to work 12 hours or more in the bitterest cold or the strongest sun will at least bring a drink for every worker. In the countryside they like to give them, in the cities less so. When we worked in Ljubljana, the landlady would just count us in the morning and bring each of us a beer and a sandwich, but we worked from six in the morning until eleven at night, every day. A shaggy dog came by and took such pity on me that I gave him the salami from the sandwich."

What about Stanka, why? "As long as we have the opportunity, we will give everyone something to drink and something to eat. Money is money, but compassion is compassion. You can't pay for everything."

They say that Hrastovica is a village that is still used to receiving and giving. "This is hospitality towards people. It doesn't matter if they are Albanian, Croatian, Bosnian, Austrian... We all still have that much and the other villagers also like to give. I don't know what kind of person you are to look after yourself. If a person knows what it is like to work hard in life and to receive a nice gesture, he will return it. But if he hasn't done anything concrete in his life, he probably won't give anything either."

Petra Škarja, 27. 1. 2025