Velikonoce!

I spent Easter (Velikonoce) in Husinec. It's a small town or large village in Southern Bohemia and is the birthplace of Jan Hus. Jan Hus is a Czech national hero who started the Protestant reformation about 100 years before Martin Luther. At one point during the 5 days there were approximately 30 young adults at the gym that we were staying at! That's a lot of names to try to remember! But fortunately there is grace and our group is patient with me.

A small group of us left around 8am via bus. This is a unique experience because you never know if you are going to get a bathroom stop or if there will be more people on the bus than there are seats. We set things up and began to relax. The weather the entire weekend was incredible! Temperatures were in the 70s and the sun was shining. Krasna! (beautiful). We spent the weekend playing games involving charades, participating in our sports day- basketball, volleyball, soccer for 4 hours, and eating yummy food. I'm certain that all the weight I had lost is now back.

On Good Friday we fasted and interviewed the community on what easter means to them. I was saddened to discover that most people don't know the true meaning of Easter. For most it is just a day off of work (Monday). We attended a service at the Czech Brethren church. The pastor had us write down out sins and he then nailed them to the cross at the altar. I felt a new found freedom that I had been missing since coming to Prague. I feel like I did when I was living at HDC, which is healthy and good. We then had a worship service just us youth and I was released to worship like I had before coming to Prague as well. Which lead to many people asking me to sing the rest of the weekend. We then wrote down what we were thankful for and headed to the river to set our paper boats adrift. Some of the guys and I danced to the BeeGee's "Staying Alive". I feel free to be me, Emily, with this group.

Easter Sunday we went to church and we were all feeling the joy of Christ's resurrection. We went up on the hill to take a group photo. The day was spent being lazy, playing games, I played guitar for about 2 hours, and that night we watched the movie Fireproof. It was good. A reminder that love is a choice. We also prepared for Monday...

The Monday after Easter is an interesting experience in the Czech Republic. The boys chase the girls with sticks that they braided the day before to keep the girls looking beautiful. I was sweeping the gym when all of a sudden I heard my name being yelled and us girls took off out of the bathroom window, scaled fences, and ran from the boys. They caught up with us and hit us on our rears with these sticks. Everyone laughed when I yelled, "It's so hard to not hit them back!" The boys recited a poem to us about being beautiful and we then presented them with deocrated eggs to keep them from hitting us anymore. I will always remember this Easter. Quite the adventure! I'm very glad I went!

Fines, Success, and Conversations

"You speak English very well but you need to read it on the back of the ticket," says the police man who fined me for not having a proper boarding pass for the metro. I paid my fine and asked him nicely if he knew where I could activiate my open card (year long pass for transphortation). He very kindly told me where to go. Yes the next day I went and activiated the card. Now I feel like I have a new found freedom since I can just hop on a metro, bus or tram without purchasing a new ticket every time. The lesson: always purchase a new ticket for the metro and read the back of it if you are confused as to how it works. Thanks to Peki and Danielle I have successuflly found the Lennon Wall! I've gotten to do some more sightseeing this week (most of it today actually). I will either go on my own or I'm starting to go explore with some new friends from church. This week I went to Petrin Hill and climbed the Little Tower on a cold, windy, rainy afternoon. I was also shown a wall/gate that has tons of locks on it. The story is that couples will put their initials and the date on the lock and they will stay together. If they do break up one of them comes and takes the lock down off the gate. The romantic in me loves the idea. I visited the Bertramka, Mozart's home in Prague. It is very beautiful and a must see if you ever go to Prague. I will confess though that only 3 rooms were open for me to go through and they are doing a lot of reconstruction so his instruments were not in the house. I'll have to go later this year to see more of the house. I have 3 people that I am getting together with to pracitce English. It's been fun conversing and learning about each other. The ages of the 3 people vary and I'm learning that I'm not in the "know" about a lot of American pop culture. As I will continue to meet with these 3 I look forward to the other encounters I will have with people who want to practice English. Of course I do have people who want to practice Czech with me too. This Thursday I will be leaving with the youth group (young adults) for Southern Bohemia for a retreat. We will be sleeping in a gym at another Czech Brethren Chruch. We'll spend the weekend there, relaxing, enjoying the country side, and focusing on Jesus' death and resurrection. We'll return on Monday. I'm looking forward to this time to bond with my youth group and focus on the amazing gift God has given us.

So You are Famous in the States...

A visit is an all-day affair. Marta and I will visit for hours at home or out exploring. I had lunch with a family from church and was there from 12pm until 7pm and didn’t feel the rush to leave at all! An Elder from a branch of the church told me that a Czech visit is a minimum of 3 hours and that a Czech likes to go deep on one subject. When you ask a question you need to be prepared for a long answer and the patience to wait for it….I love it! And it is definitely worth the wait. This week I made connections with the international community. I attended a women’s Bible study on Tuesday that I will be attending regularly from now on. We are doing a manuscript study of Micah. The time of fellowship and the chance to converse in my native tongue is great. A lot of the women are teachers at an international school that I may be working with at some point during my time here. If not directly, they are willing to help me with teaching material and forming connections for conversational English in the public school systems. It’s nice to have the options and support. On Monday I got caught in a downpour of rain on my way to the international school. I therefore developed a head cold that is still trying to hang on. The pollen is high here and the temperatures are fluctuating (much like PA and VA weather) so my allergies are out in full swing. Health has been a struggle for me the past two weeks as my body is adjusting to all the changes. Therefore I wasn’t able to get out and explore as much this week. The times I did go out however were precious. Some of the most random acts of kindness I have ever experienced. I was short on change for a metro ticket and a young man purchased a ticket for me. I met a woman in Wenceslas Square who speaks English and offered to go sightseeing with me on weekends anytime during this year. One of the women who work at the church office gave me an apple. Marta invited me to her friend’s home last night and even though I was really late in getting there they were nothing but kind to me. I met another woman there who is interested in conversational English and we will start meeting very soon. God is so faithful and on my days where the doubts plague me, He provides many ways of proving that there is no need for doubts. It’s come to the attention of some church members that I play guitar and sing. One of the youth came early to youth group, therefore hearing me. He asked if I was famous in America. I laughed and said, “No I’m hoping to make it big here.” I’m sure that God is going to use my musical gifting somehow here although I don’t know how that will look. It makes me grateful for the chance to grow into this gifting while at HDC. Continue to pray that I can look upon this season of bonding as a chance to rest, adjust, and nurture forming relationships. I appreciate the email updates, words of encouragement, and prayers. They always arrive when I need them the most.

You belong to us now...

Ahoj! I have been in Prague for one week now and overall it has been…pretty good. The main struggle I’ve been experiencing is making connections with people (Czech and American). I was not mentally prepared for the loneliness that leapt out at me nor the anxiety that crept back in full force. I am happy to announce that connections are being made! I have met an American missionary who was most helpful and there is another missionary family who seems willing to “take me in” as I adjust to life here. The church that I attend/work at is in downtown Prague. It’s about a 20-30 minute metro ride away from my host mother’s flat which is located on the outskirts of Prague. However, it is also an 8 minute walk to Old Town Square and the Charles Bridge. I can’t complain about that part at all! The church has approximately 300 members and is one of the largest Brethren churches in Prague. The church service reminds me of Weaver’s Mennonite church. The youth group that I am a part of now has about 30 young adults in it. We sing, study the Word, pray, and then socialize at a McDonalds afterwards. They are going on a retreat for Easter in southern Bohemia and I have been asked at least three times if I am coming along. “Tell your organization that you belong to us now and you need to come with us,” one woman said to me. My supervisor is away this week but after he returns I will discuss it with him. It does my heart good to be told that I belong. Oh! And one woman in the youth group lived in Mt. Joy, PA several years ago as an exchange student in high school. She even flew into the Harrisburg Airport. It is a small world after all! My host mother, Marta, is so sweet and nice! She gave me a hug on the first day. I probably seem like a crazy American but I give her at least one hug a day. She is an economist and has been studying English for a while. We can talk but sometimes we need to use the dictionary for translation. She is also willing to teach me some Czech and is very patient with me. Today we are going to go sightseeing downtown and tomorrow we are going on a bike ride after church. Actually, right now we are laughing at me because I am typing this blog on my laptop and I’m then going to transfer it to her laptop which is connected to the internet. So I look silly with two computers open in front of me. I’ve done some sightseeing since being here. I’ve mainly wandered the streets of downtown Prague focusing on Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, and Mala Strana. I have no clue what I’m looking at sometimes but I just take pictures and make a mental note of places I want to go back to or be very “touristy” at (i.e. taking a boat ride on the river). My favorite thing to do is sit on the Charles Bridge and listen to the Bridge Band play. It’s a group of 5 or 6 older men who play jazz/bluegrass music. I’ll most likely end up buying their cd before I leave here. The biggest adjustment has been not greeting everyone that I see. It’s a hard adjustment but one I’m picking up on very quickly. I’ve noticed that on the days that I try to dress more like a Czech and walk around like I know what I’m doing I’m less likely to be bothered by the people trying to sell you things. I’ve been amazed at how quickly I picked this up and adapted this cultural aspect. Some mornings I wake up and say, “Today I’m going to be American and be a tourist!” I put on my tennis shoes (which no one wears here) and I grab my camera and water bottle and head out. I figure if I don’t have a set schedule yet I should take the opportunities to go exploring. I’m told time and time again that Czechs are not very open or that you have to earn their trust before you can go deep. I’m learning that overall this can be true (not a bad thing, just a fact) and yet I will have a moment where someone will go deep with me on the first meeting and I’m awestruck and deeply grateful. Please pray that connections will continue and that I will become more comfortable here.