Heavy laden

The first of our Bible school teams arrived yesterday afternoon.  Joe and I fixed a spaghetti dinner, after which we had a brief meeting.  Tesco, a large grocery store comparable to Walmart, is down the hill from the seminary where we're all staying. It's a good place to shop.  

However, twelve people more than two,  something I hadn't considered until we made our purchases. There were no taxis around, and we had no phone. Not that a taxi dispatcher would understand our minimal Czech over the phone.  

Joe and I glared at each other and divided the load.  The pack I carry to ETSU every day weighs between eight and ten pounds; our grocery bags probably weighed fifteen.  Joe had it worse than I did-- he carried six two liter bottles of fizzy water up a quarter mile hill.  I wouldn't have let him, but I couldn't budge the things. 

Due to our physical fitness, an adrenaline rush or the grace of God, we made it up to the seminary.  I was proud of myself. 

After his ordeal, Joe didn't want to be photographed.

Just like home

I understand the appeal of Starbucks.  They have free Wi-fi, clean toilets, and excellent coffee.  Even their bagels are passable.  But why is MacDonald's so popular?  This is not just in the US or the Czech Republic, but all over the world.  Czech food can be a bit heavy, but for grease and empty calories, there is nothing like a Big Mac.

Above: One Prague's many Czech Starbucks coffee shops.
Below: Czech and Chinese MacDonald's.

Make new friends, and keep the old

Around 10 o'clock yesterday morning, which would have been 4:00 AM back home, I emerged from a hypnogogic stupor. The voice from across the courtyard clearly wasn't that of a local.  Dr. Amelia Brown, retired Associate Dean and a member of Cherokee Church had arrived. Amelia has a way of spurring others to action.

After a few hours' rest, she was ready to go exploring, and the three of us-- Michelle, me and Joe-- came along. It was a beautiful day. We reviewed the intricacies of public transit and tramped past castles, churches and statues. We walked past the Charles Bridge over the Vltava River. In the palace gardens, Amelia befriended a peregrine falcon, who like our former pastor, was named Michelle.

No body was meant for this

Yesterday, we arrived in the Czech Republic after 17 hours on flights and in airports. According to the clocks,  it was 7:00 in the evening.  My body knew better-- it was 1:00 AM.  There was a bit of a wait for our luggage, a trip to the seminary where we'll be living, an evening meal at a restaurant where the staff doesn't rush, and a quick trip  to a local market where we scavenged for bread and milk. We did a bit of unpacking. The seminary student next door had given us the network password, and at Joe was determined to get the thing up and running before turning in for the night, day, or whatever time it was. I was so loopy by then that I couldn't tell Joe to stop monkeying around with the computer, which he would have done had I asked.After an hour or so, he gave up and I had a brief sleep.  When I awoke at four in the morning, my body demanded its bedtime snack.  It was 10:00 in the evening back home.  I munched on some day old rye bread and stayed asleep several hours.

Humans are really not meant to travel as quickly as we do on international flights, especially when we go East.  Our bodies adjust better when we fly West, so trips to China aren't as difficult.
 When I woke up once more, I figured out why we weren't getting the web-- the Internet access key, third from the left on the row above the numbers, must have been jostled during our travels, and was now set to "off."

You cannot imagine how happy I was to have figured this out.  Joe is better than I with technology, and he often gloats.  In the interest of full disclosure, I still haven't figured out why the Ipad isn't connecting.

Getting Ready

 We don't leave for the Czech Republic until 5pm.  For the most part I'm packed, so this morning, I'm going to take a walk in Willow Springs Park, which is right near our house and say good by to the geese. A man I'd worked with in China visited Johnson City one time and asked me why I would travel as much as I do, when home is so beautiful.  Guess I have wanderlust.

Gary and Michelle visited with us last week, and I know a little more about our project, though in international work, you never really know what you'll be doing until you get there.  

Joe will be running the Vacation Bible School at the English Speaking United Methodist Church in Prague. It will run every morning.  My part, the English camp, occurs in the afternoon.  

If I get up early, as I have this morning, I'll be able to take morning walks in Prague.

National Marriages

I'm often asked if I'll be working in Czechoslovakia this summer.  Czechoslovakia no longer exists (see map).  While Czechs and Slovakians have related languages, they are different ethnicities with separate national governments.  Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Czechoslovakia  divided into two countries on January 1, 1993. This was accomplished without bloodshed -- a friendly divorce.

Czechoslovakia had been established, not by accord of its people, but as a  political expedient after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary following World War I. The Slovakian section was always less prosperous, and there was resentment of the Czechs to the North.

The United States is similarly affected by sectionalism. Balancing the competing interests of different world views and regions is never an easy task. Only 150 years ago, we had our own Civil War,  and it was hardly bloodless.

In general, Americans think less about history than Europeans. In the Northern US, where I grew up and spent much of my life, people didn't talk as much about states' rights or the American Civil War as they do here in Tennessee.  At times, I think America  is like a married couple which stayed together in spite of serious problems.  Let's hope we find our way out of  Congressional gridlock.

Not the Same River

Last year, Joe and I helped develop an English camp at Prague’s English Speaking United Methodist Church (ESUMC). Along with our friend, Rev. Michelle McKinnon-Young and her husband Gary, we recruited a handful of students— a few business people and a number of mothers who brought their young children.  Some materials, we wrote; others we foraged from the Internet. We conducted classes in half-finished rooms. We were not always trusted, and sometimes our equipment was stolen. Since we were short of staff, I not only ran the English program—I served as camp cook. While exhilarating, the work sometimes made me exhausted and cranky.

In the past year, the program at ESUMC has expanded its outreach under Michelle and Gary’s leadership. The English camp has morphed into a year-round center. The primary clients are mothers and preschool children.  There is a growing library of English resources.

   

We return to Prague the week after next where again I will be coordinating the summer English program at ESUMC.  However I’m not the camp cook this summer— Michelle engaged a Texan ex-pat who is working in Prague. There will be a vacation Bible school which Joe will be coordinating.  A couple of mission “teams” will be coming from Tennessee to work with us. One of these is from Cherokee Church, Johnson City, where we attend. 

Obviously, this summer’s project will be much more complex and better developed than the program we worked on last year.  To paraphrase Heraclitus, no one steps into the same river twice; we keep changing, and the river keeps flowing.

Below: Bridge across the Vitava River, Prague