April Fool's Night

 
 
 
 What an exciting night! In these pictures you see the preparations for our big talent show, the April Fool's Night. The band played, the choir sang, and all of the English classes participated. We all had a good time and laughed a lot. I'm still editing the video and other pictures so you'll see them sometime next week. I'm so sorry that I've been pretty bad at posting in the last month. I was sick for two weeks and then preparing for this show, but I think it has more to do with my personal feelings that with how busy I've been. I usually post when I have something on my heart or when I have a huge cultural experience and I need to share it. Lately I have begun to feel like I'm completely adjusted to the culture and my job. I know what I'm doing, who I'm working with, and I know how to get what I want. My Czech sounds pretty good. Amidst all my mistakes of gender and cases, I can say pretty much anything. In the kitchen, I can finally make good soup and several Czech meals, enough to make me feel like a good Czech woman. I can make fruit dumplings, potato pancakes, řizek(Czech schnitzel), fried vegetables, American potatoes(fried potatoes), and a variety of cream sauces. You would think that this makes me want to change my mind and stay here, but it's actually quite the opposite. I'm so submerged in the culture that sometimes I feel like I don't see the tides that I want to work against, and they just roll right by. I've lost that cultural innocence that opens up room for discussion, and in it's place I'm afraid that I sometimes resolve that some things will never change. I finally think I've come to the point where I will feel like I've gained as much as I can from living here, and it's time to move on. I'm also thankful that God has provided two wonderful people to carry on for me. Jamie and Jeremy will come in with new ideas and a new energy that I think will give another boost to the program.
Sure we have many more activities before the summer camp in July, but the April Fool's night was kind of the last big event. I think I enjoyed the event mostly because I put in so many of the things I enjoy: music, theater, and silliness. I have so many great memories from this night and I can't wait to get the movie up and share it with you. Give me a week or so and I'll have a fuller post. Until then you can enjoy the happy faces from our kids. These are the faces of the kids and adults that I can always count on to show up for a fun event. Have a great weekend!

The Seder Meal

Seder Meal click here to see whole album

Yesterday went smoothly for our Czech-American-Jewish Seder. If you click on the photo album you can read my comments and follow along with the events of the night.

 

 

All in all I think everything turned out nicely as we drank wine, took time to think on God's faithfulness and mercy, and enjoyed the food which all had meaning(and tasted fantastic--even the carrots and saltwater). I've always enjoyed Seder meals, each one having more meaning and more charoset:)
 

A multicultural easter experience

Holidays always seem to be an interesting time in another culture. I’m expecting one thing, but something else always happens. This Easter Season we’ve been planning a Seder dinner for people in the community and our church. I’ve been to three of these meals in the US, two in Ponca City at First Presbyterian and then one in Madison with a congregation of Messianic Jews. Although each one was different, I felt like I had a pretty good background to at least begin with planning one here in CZ. As I began to work with Jan, I had to stretch my mind to think of the meal from a Czech perspective. We’re trying seriously to be culturally correct and respect the Jewish tradition without twisting it into a Christian service, plus presenting the meal in a way that it will feel more like a meal than a service. I found it difficult to plan a meal respecting one culture, living in another, and coming from another. However this mix of cultures has made it all the more special for me.

Number one, there is no Matzo bread or mix in the stores of Policka, because most of the Czech Jews have either immigrated to other countries or were sent to concentration camps during the Second World War. There are still Jews living in the Czech Republic, but the number is quite low. So we have asked a few ladies from our church to bake us some unleavened bread, but they still feel reluctant to do it, because it's either something they've never done before or they just think it doesn't taste good. The other symbolic elements of the meal will not be too difficult to make here, although Jan refuses to see horseradish as bitter, claiming that it has a sweet and pleasant taste. I did more research to see what other “bitter herbs” we could have in it’s place, but we decided in the end that it would be too difficult to find some Arugula or other Mediterranean leaves. When we came to the main meal portion, we hit another problem, because each American Seder meal I've been too had a pot-luck dinner, and that would just never fit into Czech culture. They would never eat two to three kinds of meat served along side three random side dishes. Each meal in Czech Culture has a small serving of meat with a larger serving of potatoes, rice or dumplings. The side depends on the meat and certain sides never go with some meats or always go with some meats. As I began to look for recipes and plan for the meal section of the dinner, I kept finding myself stuck in American culture and I really didn’t know what we should do. Then Jan asked if we would have lamb, because the Jews would eat Lamb. So we called some of our friends and they’re going to fix some lamb for us. Even this was difficult though, because for some reason many people don't have any lamb meat left right now. We're very thankful that someone has volunteered to cook what we do have. A friend of mine also brought me a Czech Jewish Cookbook, and this I found very interesting. It was kind of proof to me how each culture changes as it enters another. The recipes in this book talk about the significance of the ingredients to each dish, but the end result still fits within the Czech culture. We decided on a nice salad made of lentils, eggs, cheese, and wine. Lentils were very common in Jewish meals as something they picked up from Egyptian culture. I think Americans would find the dish quite exotic, but plenty of Czech families eat lentils on a regular basis, and we think it will serve as a nice accompaniment to the lamb. So I think the end result will have a mix of Jewish, Czech, Egyptian, and American culture, but I think this will make it more interesting and I honestly think it just wouldn’t be possible to do it without having elements of each culture within the whole meal.

Planning this meal has also kept my mind focused on the religious aspect of the holiday. The pagan traditions overshadow the Christians' so much, that many Czechs think Easter comes on a Monday. They have a special Czech tradition where men and young boys visit their friends and family to hit the women with a special traditional whip and the women give them eggs, candy, cakes, and/or alcohol. Although it may sound a little barbaric to our American ears, the real thing can be quite fun. The traditional eggs are so beautiful and the whips look very interesting. The excitement for this Monday morning appears much more enjoyable than sitting in church on Sunday morning or even Friday night. Living in a culture which is predominantly atheist, the whole season of Easter feels more like a multicultural season where many religions and traditions celebrate new life.

I think we have many exciting things planned for this week, with the Thursday dinner, a special Good Friday service and special music on Sunday with our choir and band. My prayer is that this week we will experience what makes Easter more than just keeping traditions, but a time when we can remember and thank our creator and savior for freedom and new life.

A Whirlwind of Fun

Game night and Family Sunday click here for pictures

While the Semi-hurricane Emma was blasting through Europe, we were partying at the Church, for what seemed like a whirlwind of a weekend. It all started with a Game Night on Saturday, where we took a trip to the school gym and played some fun big group games. Just before we were about to finish the power went out!! Imagine a room full of 20 kids when suddenly the lights go out! Luckily it came back on before we left, but we had a pretty funny(maybe scary for some) 5-6 minutes in the dark. Then we came back to the church and some of the kids spent the night. Again we had some problems with the power, but it just made it all the more interesting.
The next morning we had a family worship and our new band played a few songs. You can listen by clicking on the link below or in the side panel. I think they've really come a long way, and we're excited to see how things continue.
After worship we hung around and ate lunch and then went bowling with the families from the church (and people who tag along even without their families like me and Madla). All in all, it was an exciting weekend.
boomp3.com

Another Week in the Mountains? Seriously? Seriously.

Wow, when I think about how far I’ve come in a year, in two years since I committed to this ministry, I stand in awe of God’s masterful plan. I looked back at my posts from last year, and I found that I didn't write about my experiences during the ski trip I went on last year. Maybe I thought it was too humiliating to put on the website. I went to this ski course for youth 24 years and older, hoping to have some good social time and fun skiing. I can't begin now to express the despair I felt all week long. I didn't understand almost anything. My Czech got a lot better, but it was still really difficult to communicate. Plus I had brought down-hill skis, and most people were going Cross Country skiing, the cheaper, more exciting option. Someone was kind enough to let me borrow a pair for the week, but man was it a nightmare. It was just soooooooo hard, finding a rhythm using muscles I didn't even know I had. I cried every day from the overflow of emotions and the extreme exhaustion mentally and physically.
Only God knows why (as we say), I went back to that ski camp again this year. I think I only remembered the warm glow I felt from the people and the beautiful rolling mountains of Krkonoše. On my way back to the mountains, I reread some of my journal entries which expressed my utter desperation to understand and improve my Czech and my skiing. Maybe you are also asking, “Why would she want to go back?” My mother did. However, if you can imagine the exact opposite experience of what I had last year, that was this year. I borrowed some cross-country skis from a friend of similar height and her skis worked just perfectly. (I also discovered that there is a definite Right and Left and after putting them on wrong once this year, I really think that many times last year, I had my skis backwards. The things you might think would be obvious!) So I finally felt like I was picking up the rhythm of this cross-country skiing thing. Plus a lot more people came who were around my age, sharing the same interests in games and movies, and they were closer to my abilities on the snow. They knew when to stop and take off their skis and I never felt pressured to do something which seemed unsafe to me. I took a lesson from them as they knew the difference from quitting when the going gets tough and being honest about their own abilities. Then we also had such interesting programs each night. The minister with our biblical programs presented a fascinating workshop where we searched for the answer to his question, “Does God Exist?” Making this even better, he spoke English quite well, so anytime I didn’t understand, I could just ask. And yet much of the time, I understood, and this understanding and sharing in discussion with others about God, this was the sweetest gem of all. So here you can see me in all of my glory, well it’s not all glory and the glory shone is not all mine. The joy of the whole week is in the way God has been working in my life over the last 3 and a half years since my hand injury. It’s just like with the skis; the harder the uphill trek, the more exciting the trip down the other side.

Right now is our spring break, so I’m enjoying my last chance to travel in Europe before I go home. This summer will go so quickly that I won’t have another chance to get outside of the Czech Republic. So I’m finally traveling to Spain and then Paris! You’re looking at the view from my hostel window. Isn’t life grand? A week from now we’ll be starting the second session of our English Classes, so I’ll be happy to get started with some new themes and new activities. I’ll be sure to keep you posted.



PS If you have not checked out the website for our classes lately, you should take a look and watch our Campaign videos. We ended up with a tie and made some more. It was a lot of fun.
www.anglictinapolicka.blogspot.com

Choosing a President

As I mentioned in the last post, we made some campaign videos in our English classes to help us choose a President of English Classes. We did different activities to discuss what we value in life and each class choose different values to represent their class and candidate for office. Some of our classes chose to say that Mobile phones, computers, and sports are important in their life, and every class choose to say that they value family and friends. Some classes even saw the importance of Peace for the world as a value. You can watch all of our videos on the kids' website(click here), but here is the video for David, who got the most votes this week.



After the kids watched the videos, it was interesting to watch their decision making process. Some kids voted for the students that they knew, others voted for the funniest video. Some people, however, voted for the underdog, just because they wanted to give them some points. It was very necessary for some students to keep their vote hidden. I made sure to insist on using secret ballots, and I was glad when I saw that many students felt free to vote for someone different from their peers. My High School students had a crazy idea for electing a marker for president. Ironically he looks like a great candidate, the video turned out really well, and many of the kids voted for it, because it was such a funny idea. I was just happy that they wanted to participate.

So, we hope you enjoy the videos. Maybe they can enlighten you as you contemplate the values of our different candidates for office. I'm afraid that during the Super Bowl and the Super Tuesday Primaries I'll be skiing in the mountains for our spring break and without Internet access. Hopefully YouTube and CNN will help me stay connected when I return.

The Primaries

It's a very special year in the US and the Czech Republic as we both choose a new president. In the Czech system, the Parliment elects the president, and the process is completely different than in the USA. So I thought it would be fun for the kids to learn about our process while they're hearing and reading about it in the news.

This week we had our own round of Primaries where we selected candidates from most of the classes to run for President of English Classes. Next week we will form our campaign and make a video, which will be shown in the classes during the following week when they make their final decisions.

You can follow our progress and even vote in the poll for your favorite on our website: www.anglictinapolicka.blogspot.com

Our Adult classes have been considering different issues at hand, such as "Should a woman be able to serve as President?" and "Should the President be chosen by the popular vote of the people or by a governing body?" I enjoyed discussing these issues with them as I myself have been tossing these thoughts around in my own head. I'm finding it a challenge to understand the candidates from so far away, especially when I live in a different society and culture. I find myself looking for a President who would be the best representative to the world, dealing with social issues and conflicts, instead of trying to match the candidates platforms with my own beliefs. I cannot vote in the Primaries, because I don't have an address in Wisconsin and I'm no longer registered in Oklahoma, but I can't help checking every morning after to see the results as the parties choose their candidates. This is the most interesting race I can remember; whether we end up with a woman, a black man, a Morman, or an ordinary white man, I think the race will be entertaining to say the least.

Note: I hope no one takes the last comment as offensive, because I do feel that a candidate(and every person for that matter) cannot be judged by the labels that society gives them. However, I think the world and history will take notice if we elect anything other than an ordinary white male with protestant beliefs like the forefathers of our country. I wonder where American stands, because I'm not sure I can tell from here.