Thursday

Thursday we taught the kids how to play American Football. It was interesting trying to explain the line of scrimmage to them.


On Thursday another one of the campers, Romana, celebrated a birthday.


Thursday was also the day that we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the English Camp in Navsi, so we decided to lift Jiri up on a chair.


To help celebrate the camp's anniversary past students were invited back for a small presentation and a cookout.


We got to watch a slide show of the previous ten years.


There was also a cake.


I don't know if we just didn't have enough plates and forks for everyone or if this is the usual way to eat a birthday cake in the Czech Republic, but I know Lucy would love birthday parties even more if she got to eat cake like this.



Janice enjoyed seeing some of the students she had in 2006.


Here is a picture of the campers, past and present, in front of the church.

Wednesday

Wednesday is the field trip day at English Camp. We took a two hour train ride to a town called Stramberk where there is a castle tower that you can climb to the top of. While we were on the train the students signed eachothers shirts that they made on Monday.

Before heading off on what turned out to be a very long walk to the castle we stopped by a grocery store. Kofola is a very popular drink in the Czech Republic. It tastes like black licorice.

Andrew counted the step leading to the castle and up the tower, 396 each way.

The tower gave us an amazing view of the town and the surrounding countryside.

It was in the 90's that day and we did a lot of walking (Andrew looks like he has a combover).

After the castle we got back on the train and took another long walk to a pool. It was cold and felt so good. There are no pictures from the pool because we were all too focused on cooling down (plus you probably didn't want to see a bunch of dudes wearing speedos in the background). After the pool we took the train home. Everyone was pretty beat.

Andrew was totally out and one of the campers decided to play a little trick on him.

That night we played a few more games. In one of the games, a person in the middle of the circle spins a bottle.

Whoever the bottle end up pointing at has to roll a die twice.

Then you take the total of the two rolls and the person must shove that many vanilla wafer-like cookies (they were a little smaller) into their mouths.

Once the cookies where in their mouth, the person had to say two things about themselves that nobody knew. and we had to guess what that person was saying (Andrew rolled two 6's... so did Lauren, but she paid me not to post the picture).

Tuesday

Tuesday began with a bit of a surprise. One of the campers, Lenka, was celebrating a birthday. In Czech tradition, and much to Lenka's dismay, she was place on a chair and lifted into the air a number of times.

For the craft on Tuesday we brought notebooks for them to decoupage.

The weather on Tuesday was beautiful. We didn't know what the rest of the week held in store for us, so the Cold War (their camp water fight) was moved up a few days. As is my custom, I made sure I had the biggest water balloon.


The biggest balloon makes the biggest splash and gets the biggest laughs... especially when it pops in the arms of its owner.

Everyone had a good time during the Cold War.

And Rose saw to it that even Janice got wet.

That evening we had dinner and the evening program outside. We cooked sausages over a fire.

Lauren had fun relating with some of the other teenage girls.

And Andrew showed an interest in becoming a Czech pastor.

We had a great time worshiping God while enjoying his creation.

Czech Games

We are learning a lot of new games over here. One of them is called Kubb. It's actually a Swedish game, but I had never heard of it before. In the game, you can have up to six people on each team.



The two teams take turns throwing baton-like sticks trying to know over blocks on the other side.



At the end of the game you have to throw the stick between your legs to knock over the center block. There's obviously a little more to it than that, but I'm not going to take up all my time explaining it.

Another game we played involved a blindfolded person in the middle of a circle.

Everyone in the circle is given a number and the person in the middle calls out two numbers. Those two people have to switch seats without the blindfolded person touching them.

If the blindfolded person touched someone, that person in the middle.

Lauren wasn't very good at this game.

And Janice just hated being blindfolded.

The next game we played also involved blindfolds. Two people are blindfolded and get on their hands and knees in the center of the circle.

The two blindfolded people search for a towel that has been thrown into the circle. The object of the game is to be the first person to find the towel. After finding the towel, you must find the other person and hit them with it.

When Andrew and I played, things got a bit physical. But then again, that's how the game is played.

Andrew was the first one to the towel.

However, I had the last laugh

As you can see, the people here like very physical games. This is most clearly seen in my favorite game, potato. Potato is played with a volleyball. The people stand in a circle hitting the volleyball. The first person to allow the ball to hit the ground must kneel in the center of the circle.

Once there is a person sitting in the middle of the circle the game resumes with one addition, you can now spike the ball at the person/people in the middle. If you miss them, you must also kneel in the middle.

If you hit the person, another volley begins.

However, if they catch it, you are in the middle and everyone else is back out.

I don't think that all of these games will transfer over well into the US, but we can at least have fun with them while we are here.