As summer is approaching, we are beginning preparations for a summer day camp at our organization that we call City Camp. We decided to have City Camp for all of the month of July and split it between two weeks of Sports classes and two weeks of English classes. This way, we can have smaller groups of students, which will be good if group restrictions remain for the summer. My team of translators and helpers are all very excited for City Camp, and we met to brainstorm our favorite activities for English Class and workshops. While in our meeting, it was suggested that we read some of our favorite Elephant and Piggie books with the students - our English Class's favorite picture book series. Of course, I had already planned an Elephant and Piggie book for each day of the week knowing that the kids miss story time! A couple mothers of English Class students had asked if they could borrow some of my picture books since their kids are already looking forward to English Class again. One mother said that her daughter requested any book except Elephant and Piggie saying that these books aren't the same without "Kendra and the translators" and too special to read at home! We are all looking forward to when we will be able to meet together again and are excited to be planning summer activities!
I am always very glad for nice spring days to go on hikes or short bike trips. Being in God's creation always brings me so much joy, and I feel that afterwards I have more energy to continue with all the work we are continuing online. We are still continuing with online activities, and I have been recording stories and sing-alongs for my English Class and Little Linguist students. Though it really isn't the same singing and reading to a screen and sending it to the parents, I think some of my Littles believe they are on a live video call with me! When I saw one of the Littles out in the city last week, she talked with me like no time had passed since she last saw me. As we were saying goodbye, she said, "I'll see you online when we sing 'Hello'!" I wondered if she knows the videos are prerecorded, but then again, one mother had told me that her husband had thought it was live, and tried to talk with me on the prerecorded video!
Even after living in Czech for five years, I am often still learning more about the culture, traditions, and legends. It is one of the great joys as I love learning all these pieces that tie to Czech history. While on a hike with a friend for an outdoor English conversation lesson, we came to these four large stones in the middle of the forest. My friend explained that these four stones are part of a legend:
Long ago, a couple of newlyweds were traveling in their horse-drawn carriage as they took the path in the forest traveling from the church to their wedding celebration in a nearby village. As they went through the forest, they met one woman from the village who had been the only one not invited to the wedding celebration. When they still did not invite her to the celebration upon meeting her in the forest, she cast a spell on them saying because their hearts were stone, they will also be turned to stone.
The large stones are the two horses and the carriage. While it is only a legend, one wonders how the story began and who continued to pass it on. Though, it is quite interesting that there are only a couple large boulders in this area of the forest!
We have had a couple weeks of on-and-off rain. There were a couple days that I caught the sunshine at just the right time for a quick bike ride. I'd sometimes see rain clouds on the horizon, but with the many hills in the area, it can happen that a quick shower appears over one village, but not in the next. It has been fun to see some of the kids out on their bikes as we pass each other on the trails. Many of my Connect Girls tell me that they are looking forward to summer activities that we can all do outside together. They have already decided on bike trips, hikes, picnics, and swimming at the pool for some of our summer adventures!
In the past month, our restrictions have been slowly opening. As a country, we are finally under an average of 2,400 new cases of Covid each day. We haven't been that low since last October! Elementary school children are back in school (1st through 5th grade) and Preschools are also open again. The students have regular Covid tests at school and they are beginning to make plans for 6th-9th graders to return to school as things continue to get better. While we still cannot open our after-school youth programs, we are using the time to get the building ready for when we can open again! There has been much reconstruction on our building as we make it optimal for our club students and for church meetings. On a couple nice mornings these past weeks, I spent a few hours pulling up the bricks from the terrace. The terrace had become warped and overgrown on the edges, so we will make a new, flat foundation and relay the bricks to have a nice outdoor space for the kids.
In the meantime, we have continued with Kid's Clubs online during the week. The group is now very regular and occasionally some siblings pop in to say hello and play a game with us online. This group is growing into young leaders as they also ask to plan and prepare games. Many of the same students that come to Kid's Club online have also been attending out Youth Group programs online in Friday. One day, while we had Kid's Club, one of the girls asked "Kendra, when will you have Bible program?" I gave a little laugh and said, "You're confused! It's only Tuesday, not Friday. Today is club, not youth group." My little friend also laughed at her mistake and then said, "Can you have a short program anyway? I'm always thinking about the program all day and into the night after youth group, and once a week isn't enough for me." The other club attenders agreed that they would also like a short Bible program, so I took out a Children's Bible Study book, flipped to a story, and read the short entry. We had a fun discussion, and I am really excited with all God is teaching these kids during this time we have together. Reading from the devotional book has now been requested at each online club time that I lead. They are so excited to keep learning more.
While we miss not seeing everyone in person, we are very thankful to be able to have youth group online. For the past couple of weeks, we have started our time together with a short video-testimony from our friends in America. One of my translators has been dedicated in helping me create subtitles for the videos and the youth students are all very encouraged by the short stories from our American friends. Many of the youth students say that just seeing the faces of their American friends and hearing a short encouragement means so much to them, especially since it still isn't possible for the American team to come due to travel restrictions. We are very grateful for their thoughtful encouragement!
Spring is one of the best times to go on long hikes in the forest. The plants are starting to grow, but with the leaves still not completely covering the trees, we can see easily through the forest. While on a hike, a little friend and I saw a wild boar dashing through the forest! We were happy it was running away from us as we stood on the ridge over the forest as some of the boars can be extra protective of their babies in the spring. We also came across a beautiful sheep pasture on the top of one of the hills. One friend commented that seeing the sheep and lambs on Easter Monday was the highlight of the trip. I'd have to agree.
Although, finding this creek waterfall in the middle of the forest hike was also a great little surprise that day!
