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IF THERE is one region where people have known poverty, then it is certainly Orava. A good example is the village of Krušetnica, which is surrounded by rough, hostile countryside.
The only fruit available to the people of this village were the crab apples that grew in the wild, and even in the 20th century they still fertilized the land with ashes. Villagers lived mainly by keeping livestock and grazing sheep.
Getting their animals to high summer pastures was an event that involved the entire community. Locals endured the exhausting journey and for the last few metres they even had to carry tired calves in their arms.
And worries about the livestock did not end at sundown. The shepherds had to circle the sheepfolds in the night with burning torches to protect the sheep against wolves and bears.
The postcard from 1938 pictures Krušetnica citizens, probably gathering for a Sunday mass.
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