Lots of Activities and More English

Last week kept me moving with many different activities with kids from club, friends, and little host siblings.  Many mornings I spend getting together with friends in town or playing with my host siblings.  My littlest host sister has found out my legs make a good slide, ladder, swing, and bouncy horse - we don't visit the park much anymore ;)

I taught two English Classes last week with the themes of "Stormy Weather" and "Once Upon a Time - Fairy Tales."  In the "Stormy Weather" lesson, we acted out different natural disasters in a game like "Red Light, Green Light."  The students and translators also worked together using cushions to get everyone from one side of the room to the other - as if they were in a flood and using the cushions to arrive to safety!  We also created a huge picture with all the different natural disasters happening at the same time.  In the "Fairy Tale" lesson, the students made paper plate crowns and wrote down genie lamp wishes.  We also played a a fairy game and bingo with all the vocabulary!

(Stormy Weather picture)

(Playing "Flood Race")

On Wednesday, the club kids, some leaders, and I went for a four hour bike ride through the woods.  I quickly realized how flat Minnesota is in comparison to Czech!  Sometimes the journey uphill was hard, but I found out the best view was from the top - and the ride down into the city (which was thankfully built in a valley) was well worth the climb!  Thursday was sports day at the soccer field, and we played soccer and baseball with the club kids.  It is always lots of fun learning new soccer techniques from the club kids, who are all very good at the sport, and watching them get better at baseball, which is not regularly played in this village.

(Plan B biking trip!)

Friday I taught Re-Start club again this week.  We talked about Matthew 5:13-16, being the salt and light of the Earth.  The kids, translators, and I played a game similar to "Capture the Flag," but to save someone who had been tagged, a team member had to bring them a salty potato chip!  We also went on many Hide-n-Seek hunts for a picture of a city on a hill - to show it cannot be hidden forever.  The students and I also painted pictures of the world with watercolors and then sprinkled salt on it, which makes a cool effect with the colors and as a reminder that we are the salt of the Earth.

("Salt of the Earth" pictures)

To end the week, I got to go to a very good friend's wedding!  I am so happy I was able to be in Czech for my friend's wedding and for the opportunity to experience a Czech wedding for the first time.  This friend was in my first English Class five years ago, and I am so blessed by her friendship and encouraged by her faith!  I am excited to see how God will lead her and her husband in the next years of their life together.

This week should be similar to last week as I get together with friends, hang out with club kids, and play with my little host siblings with every spare moment I have!