Ahoj. It is spelled with a j. Last post I spelled it wrong. The weekend went really, really well. I am pleased. On friday we left with 15 middle schoolers and drove roughly 5 hours to Liberic. I was driving a van of 8 girls. And they were never quiet. Ever. Not for a minute. It was actually quite fun though. You learn a lot about people on road trips and it is a great opportunity for good conversation.
The service project was not what you would normally think of for a service project. We were not building or fixing anything, or any physical labor at all. Instead we were providing our english speaking. In Czech learning English is a pretty big deal that most people want to do. They will pay a lot of money for english workshops and opportunities to practice. We were with about fifteen Czech teens and we played different games, did activities, hung out and spoke with them, all in English so they could practice. Some were very good at it already, others spoke hardly any at all. It was really cool to see Czechs and Americans interacting, trying to understand each other, playing games, and just enjoying being together. There was one teen, Michael (not really his name but I can't say or spell how it is in Czech so this is what we called him) he spoke no English, but he and I hit it off. It is amazing how much you can communicate without actually talking. I really enjoyed it.
We also went to a mother-child center. We had collected donations for them from Graf and brought those out. We also built some yard games for them. We built a bags set, or cornhole as non Michiganders call it, and also a bean bag toss game. We got to play w/ the kids, most of whom were in the 2 - 3 year old range. Very fun. A smile is understood in all languages, and playing and throwing things around is great.
The ride back was slightly quieter as a number of people were exhausted from the busy weekend, but they still made quite a bit of noise. Generally I try to take a day to recover after a trip like that, but sadly this week did not afford me that opportunity. We had HS club the next day and MS club today, so we had to get right back at it. Tonight I am headed to Heidelberg to spend the night, then go to the European basketball tournament for the military high schools in Europe. I will also be visiting some Club Beyond staff over in that area, so it should be fun.
Well, time to get back to work I suppose.
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