Summer breezed

I have never fully known exhaustion until this summer, which was the busiest I've ever had. I don't regret it, but I'll never do it again!

I did 5 camps in 6 weeks - I met lots of people (so many that I don't remember everyone, which I hate). Here's a bit about each camp:


English Camp

English camp, always the highlight of my summer. I've been doing these camps since I was a teenager! Not only do I enjoy the week of being with my youth group and meeting new kids from Pardubice, but I also enjoy the week of being with the team from Arkansas. They are always good to me in many ways, and this year they brought me a lifetime supply of peanut butter :)

The atmosphere at camp this year was overwhelmingly like family - I don't know why or how, but this was such a good camp for relationships. Every year we have kids who say they want to be involved with our youth group in some way, and then they drop off the face of the planet. I don't think this will be the case this year. Unfortunately since that time I've been so busy that i haven't attended any youth group events, but I hope follow up is going well, and I'm glad to be a part of the long-term follow up.

Family English Camp

Straight after English camp, I headed to my church's first ever family English camp. We partnered with a church from Indiana, and the two groups connected really well. I'm excited for the future of this camp, and I hope and pray that more families from outside the church will come.

I had no responsibilities at this camp - none. I helped with the little kid English group (below), so I chased toddlers around in the mornings, and that was it. I loved having the extra time and lack of responsibility to connect with families, some that I already knew, and some that I didn't know so well.

Irish Team #1: Chrudim Home Visit

We had a team from Ireland here for two weeks, and because of a mixup in the second week, we had to do things a bit differently, but it worked out really well. We stayed in the nearby town of Chrudim and went to visit a juvenile detention center/orphanage every afternoon. We played games, sports, did crafts, and shared our stories. I got to connect really well with their English/gym teacher who also lives in Pardubice, and we've kept in touch since then. Pray for opportunities with Nela, and that we'd be able to build a relationship.

A week "off"

During my week "off," I got to visit my good friends, Svatia and Jeremy across the country. I was in their wedding a year-and-a-half ago, and they had a wedding celebration in Czech since it was their first time being there together. It was refreshing to reconnect and to help with another wedding!

 Irish Team #2: Camp with Mikulov & Senozaty Children Homes

Another first for our camps and visiting teams was that they stayed in Prague for the first couple days of their visit. I stayed with them and showed them the sites, and they were a really fun group, especially to show around Prague.

The camp itself was also really good as the team was well-organized, and the children had really good leaders from their homes. This was the week where my exhaustion started to fully set in, but thankfully my coworker, Patrick was leading that week, and I could even take a day off. 

Patrick is also planning to visit these homes regularly throughout the year, so I'm grateful that these kids will have long-term relationships built.

No team: Camp with Klanovice Children's Home

My last week of camp, which I was leading solo and without an international team, far exceeded my expectations. This home has a lot of older kids who in the past have participated very little. This year, we tailor-made the camp just for them, and the kids were great. I also had help from my Pardubice youth group which I'm so thankful for (Lydie and Petrunda above, and Petrunda and Andrea below).

I'll be visiting this home regularly throughout the year as it's only 45 minutes away. Their leaders and I connected well, and they're excited for me to come visit them. You can pray for this, since I'm not sure what my time there will look like.

I enjoyed the kids a lot more this year too, and they all seemed really happy to be there and get to know us too.

Since the last camp...

I very thankfully had a few days of straight rest, though problems with my visa ate into my time a bit.

Last week I went on "holiday" with my good friend Monika and her two kids. We had a great time staying active in the mountains, but I admit it was hard playing dad to two active kids!

I'm thankful for these weeks of rest. Keep praying for future ministry as I figure out what the fall will look like!

Ireland: the non-video

I randomly saw a friend on the train today, and I was telling her stories of Ireland, realizing I never shared my fun stories.

I don't like to travel or really do anything alone, so I chose to be in Ireland for only 2 days, since that's about my limit before I start hugging random people and feeling sorry for myself for being alone.

But I found a tool to fix my loneliness: bus tours are the way to go.

Yes, this is the best picture of the bus that I got.

Also, because I'm apparently so insecure, I was texting friends reminding them of how I was in Ireland ALONE. So my dear friend Jenny who understands my misery and also knows how my brain works, gave me a challenge. When your mind is fixed on a challenge, you can't focus on being alone. 

Her challenge? Find the greenest thing I could:

Success!

I arrived on Tuesday and chatted with my friendly cab driver the whole way to my cutesie tootsie BnB, where I then tried to make the owner's daughter hang out with me (she didn't, but she did let me pet her dog).

From my window at the BnB

Wednesday was the big day of the tour. We were traveling to the Wicklow Cliffs, and we'd be stopping at the "PS I Love You" bridge! I was super excited. I ate my awesome cooked Irish breakfast,

Minus the toast and coffee

and then headed out to meet my bus, a brisk two minute walk from my new little home.

I was in Ireland! I was on my way to see the countryside, to see cattle and sheep grazing on the green hills while historic landmarks fill the scenery! The sun was kind of shining, the wind was really blowing (necessary for the perfect "my hair is blowing because I'm in Ireland" pictures), it wasn't raining (yet)! I was going to be on a bus full of people where my options of talking to people were endless! I was unstoppable!

And then the bus didn't come. 25 minutes. 35 minutes. 45 minutes. I didn't know what the acceptable amount of time was to wait for a bus before you accept the fact that you've been forgotten. So I tumbled on home, so disappointed, to call the tour company and tell them that the bus never came.

Operator: Yeah, there was a lot of traffic in the city, but it looks like they arrived at the bus stop about 5 minutes ago.
Me: WHAT? Are they still there? Stop the bus!
Hang up.

I ran the 2 minutes (turned 1 minute) to the bus stop, and there it was, shining bright red in all its glory. The bus driver was relieved to see me, and quite apologetic. He asked me where I was from, and was disappointed to hear it was the USA because he thought I was French with a last name like "Meloney." "It's Italian," I told him. He turned the microphone on and announced to the bus that here's Andrea Meloney, and she's not French as they all thought (implying they had been discussing me and my name as a group), but American with Italian roots, and has anyone been to Italy?

Then he received a phone call, and we could all hear his side of the conversation because he left his microphone on, and it was the man I had spoken with on the phone to inform him that the bus never came, and Ritchie the bus driver confirmed that yes, Andrea Meloney did make it to the bus, and we weren't sure if we had missed her, but she's on the bus now and we've got everybody, and we're just glad that she made it to the bus because we didn't want to leave her behind.

I was slouching as low in my seat as I could.

Turns out probably only half the bus could really understand everything that he was saying, because as he was giving the tour and asking questions and creating friendly banter, I was the only one responding. The only one who laughed out loud at his jokes, the only one who cried aloud, "YES!" when he asked us if we had watched "PS I Love You," the only one who shouted loudly, "15!" when he asked us to guess how many people he had for tomorrow's tour (I knew that answer because he told me at lunch).

Ritchie and I chatted at every stop, and when I told him my story, he asked if I was a nun. And he wasn't joking with that one either, which was a shame, because he was a good jokester. He had me laughing out loud most of the time.

At one of our stops (where I took these green pictures for Jenny),

Ritchie talked with another (slightly older) American woman, Ann. Ann had a great new phone, and she had no idea how it worked, because she had her wifi on, and location services, Ritchie told me. She only had 7% battery left, so Ritchie snapped a few quick pictures of her with her phone before it died. "Somebody help that poor woman with her phone!" he told me, to which I replied with a good chortle.

At one point on the bus when Ritchie was playing some Irish music for us, I smelled tuna fish. It was coming from the people next to me, and I noticed that they had rolls that they were dipping into their can of tuna. I told myself that they had to be Czech, because Czechs are the only ones who wouldn't be embarrassed to open up a can of tuna on a bus full of strangers and use rolls as spoons Not only were they Czech, they also happened to be from Pardubice, and from the same neighborhood as me. I felt quite accomplished as I translated the menu for them at the restaurant: they wanted to know what a tuna melt was. I wanted to ask if they didn't think they'd had enough tuna already that day.

After eating lunch with Ritchie and Ann (Ritchie got sauce all over his chin and never realized it until I kindly told him), we headed back to Dublin. It started raining unfortunately as I was dropped off, so I decided to go grab a cup of tea at a local coffee shop before heading home. I ducked into a cute place and sat myself down. I realized as I removed my huge, sopping wet coat, that all the waiters were staring at me. "Table for 2?" one asked me.

But I was too happy to let him get me down. "Just me," I shouted across the room to him. He asked if I'd move to the table on my left because the one I was at was reserved. It was then that my eyes were opened to how fancy that place was, and that I was in a fancy shmancy cafe which was not to be confused with a coffee shop. I got my cup of tea and got out of there, stopping at the corner store to buy several bags of salt and vinegar crisps and a big box of black tea, which I then ravished in my room.

Thursday showed its face, and after a second day of delicious breakfast (see above picture), I made my way to the embassy without getting lost. I rewarded myself for my new passport sticker with another cup of tea from a coffee shop, which I made sure was not a cafe. Then I chatted with my taxi driver all the way to the airport.

He asked me if I was a nun.

Goodness. 2 times in 2 days. Being a missionary is a good avenue for sharing the gospel, but apparently not good for picking up the young single males. I actually began a conversation with a good-looking young Irishman with a red beard by proclaiming that I'm not a nun. Good pick-up line? Apparently not.


So, what do you think? Which picture is most green?

May

THIS JUST IN! My favorite ice cream shop is opened for the season!

Yum.

May started off slowly and worked its way up into awesomeness. Here are a few nuggets of goodness:

I got some good times of community, prayer, and friendship with these two: Petrunda and Terka

I saw Mumford and Sons in concert (really good, but tons of people):

I ran my first 5K in a color run:

We had a team from Azuza Pacific University come and do a weekend camp with kids, a few children's home visits, and English club:

Reenacting David and Goliath

We had a German girl stay with us. Nina will be living in Pardubice next year to work with the university Christian group:

I got to see one of my supporters and mom's good friend in Prague - she was on a European tour with her sister. We took a tour of the Prague library and astronomical towers - beautiful places!

And I got to enjoy beautiful views and sunny days with friends:

ConGRADulations!

How can you resist that pun?

May marks a special month for high school seniors, though not necessarily a good special. May is the month that sums up their entire high school experience: it's when they have to show that they know everything about everything they learned throughout their 4 years.

There's pressure from teachers and parents to get the best grades, there are hours upon hours of studying, there's stress, there's worrying about what outfit you're gonna wear....

Students choose 4 subjects that they'll receive their "maturita" (graduation exams) in. First they take a written test that they have to pass, and then they take an oral exam. They could be asked any specific question and have to answer specifically, because they have to talk for FIFTEEN MINUTES. 

I get stressed just thinking about it. 

I got to witness it all this year. I sat in on my friend, Terka's oral exams (all 4 in one day). She was such a pro. Not that I could understand everything she was saying, but still. She rocked it.

Terka's fan club

And my other Terka also took her exams and rocked them all, but she didn't want me to come watch (I get it!)

Eli and I celebrating with Terka after her exams

Way to beat the Czech school system, girls!

Ireland

I took a solo trip to Dublin to pick up my Czech visa, and I took a bus tour to see some of the countryside. I made a little video about my time which you can watch here:

I don't normally travel solo: there's always someone to meet me on the other side of the airplane doors. So this was a different trip for me, but I loved it! I made some new friends, had plenty of embarrassing moments, and was able to see myself without the influence of anyone else around me. And I got to enjoy some amazing Irish countryside!

March.

I had the greatest intentions of writing a more in-depth entry about how this month has looked, but my brain and fingers don't seem capable of achieving anything of substance at this point.

So to help me through it, I'm looking at pictures and my schedule on my phone to remember what it is I've been doing. 

I started the month with a retreat for our English camp team. It was a time for team-building, figuring out our strengths and roles within the team, and planning for the summer. 

Team time

Trust falls. It's all great until you drop someone (we did)

A neighbor was watching

Very quickly after the retreat, I started visiting schools to talk about English camp. Unfortunately I also managed to sick, and between that and a series of other misfortunes, I wasn't able to go to as many schools and classrooms as our team would have liked, and we haven't had fliers for each class. But, school visits are still in the works, and I still have two more days scheduled. I enjoy school visits for the most part, because I can connect with students in a way I wouldn't be able to otherwise. On the other hand, I meet hundreds of students and probably pass them by in the streets without recognizing them.

Sometimes classroom projectors don't work, so we make students gather around my laptop

There was a team from Texas here for a week who came to my first English club that I've been to in a year and a half, and I also joined them as they visited children's homes. It was the first time that I got to see any children in their own environment, and we also visited my favorite home (I know I shouldn't have favorites, but I can't help it). It got me excited for the next phase of orphan ministry: to build teams to visit the kids in their homes in order to build deeper relationships with them. I've been working with our team as we begin to plan camps and organizing visits. 

My favorite home, and my favorite Evicka in the pink

English club has still been going in my absence. My first time back was strange with lots and lots of Americans, but I'm excited to work with a team and planning different topics and activities. I'm also attempting to rally our youth group into getting more involved so they can be the ones to maintain these relationships.

Czech students surrounded by American at English club

I also got to participate as a judge in a speaking competition (post about that below), and I've been catching up with friends and trying to get used to Czech life again. The sun started shining for a few days in a row, intermixed with rain, but I'll take the sun shine, no doubt!

Judging the competition

Quick day in Prague

Randomly got to see some old friends!

Easter trip!