Did you know that my name means Purple in Hungarian?

Yes… the color purple in Hungarian.

The reason why my English class became the purple group.  The reason why so many people here ask my name several times when meeting me.  And the reason why my name is neato… (thanks mom!)  So that doesn’t have anything to do with what I’m writing about.  But I did want to inform you of the knowledge that is continually being shared with me anytime I meet someone new, who knows Hungarian.

So this week several things happened, one of which was my 21st birthday!  I woke up and ate breakfast and was sung to and offered a birthday breakfast beer.  As tempting as it sounded at 8am… I passed up the offer and ate my bread and jam.  The day continued and I was sang to, the first was a little less enthusiastic so they repeated it again with cheer and pep.  There was something so incredible about the second rendition and it made me forget that my real family wasn’t there for a moment… my slovak/american team family sufficed quite nicely during the song and for the rest of the day.  The birthday without the family wasn’t nearly as depressing as I was expecting.  At the end of the day I was given a huge slice of czech special “birthday” cake… it was certainly a tasty treat.  And thanks to everyone who sent emails and e-cards and all, those made my week!

Enough about that… let’s talk about camp!

Camp was amazing.  I taught a class.  Beginnermediate.  That’s the level where they know some basics, but still can’t hold conversation.  At the beginning, I thought they hated me.  They were a super shy bunch of kids, but by the end of the week, they were telling me they loved me and giving me bracelets and things.

Best Memory of class:  The 3 day of English has the theme of “Body and Soul”.. (at night they have a talk about certain things, so the English lesson tries to pair with the evening religious talks, this nights talk was about sin, so body and soul was an appropriate fit…)  So during the Body and Soul day, I taught them body parts, and Simon Says, and just for fun, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”  Well ever since my Mom was a girlscout leader, she’s always made songs more fun by changing the music genre each round.  Like first round normal, second round opera…  well I took a hint from Mom, and sang it for them normal, then Opera style, then boring/monotone style.  They loved it and insisted on doing it with me, and then teaching me the Slovak version.  After class, we were talking, and one of the girls disappeared.  She had gone down immediately to sign us up for the talent show at the end of the week with our rendition of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”  It was great success and we bonded so much over this.  God is so great.  Here’s the Purple Group!

Other fun things:  The first game that we played was called Bureaucracy.  It was a game run by Slovaks and even they didn’t understand.  So you can imagine how lost I was.  I ran behind my team and made the grass whistle thing, and learned a song about Slovak boys from one of my students.  I didn’t really help my team at all, but I was present at least…

The most aggressive game I’ve ever played: HUTUTU (whotootoo, for you americans, haha)  This game is all about getting your apposing team out.  One by one people cross over into the other teams “territory” while holding their breath saying HUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTU… If you touch someone while on their side, and then make it back to your side, you get them out.  But once you touch them, you’re fair game to get tackled.  This is a competitive and athletic country… so you can imagine the intimidation behind this game.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures… but I played, and didn’t get pulverized.  WOO!

I am really sad to leave Bratislava, and enter into the crazy busy last 3 weeks of my trip.  But I am excited to come home in 3 weeks.  We have one more camp.  Levice!  Pray for energy, we’re all feeling like we have colds, and are just plain tired.  Here’s a picture of the girls on my team.. (aka, all of us, except Robby the only guy.)

I probably won’t be able to post any new updates for 3 more weeks, when I’m back at home.  So look for those to come soon and I hope you are all having a great summer!  Thanks so much for your prayers and keep them coming!!!  Stayed tuned for more stories and incredible pictures!

Here’s our group picture with the camp director, Ester, and her 3 AMAZING children!!! Jakub, Jano, and Noemi…

Bratislava Kecy Facts

• We will be in Malenovice for camp. Which is a GLORIOUS fact because it is a really nice facility. I am almost positive that I won’t have internet at all for the next week and a half.  We leave tomorrow at 8am!
• We have 75 students coming! The most Bratislava has ever had for camp, and I’m pretty sure it’s the most we’ll have for all of the camps in Slovakia.. but that could be a false statement.
• We have 11 Americans. The team is from Shandon, my church in Columbia, so it’s really nice to see the familiar faces. But please pray for our team to given energy.. we’ll be stretched thin.
• I’ll be back on the 21st from camp! So get excited for the news that is to come from camp!

I think that’s it. I hope you all are having a splendid summer!

We have a scent…

So our first camp is finished. Yes!

This blog will probably contain several random thoughts and tidbits of information. So I hope you’ll be able to follow. Also I apologize for the lengthy Budapest story. But all of it was indeed factual and actually happened.

So here are the basic facts of the Roznava KECY English Camp:

• After we finished promoting in their schools, a rumor started that their church was a cult, because they called themselves Christians. Roznava is a small town, and most of them only recognize Catholics and Atheist and then other random “christian” religions that are actually cults. So they only had 13 students sign up for camp. And then 3 of those 13 wanted to drop out. The camp director wouldn’t allow them, and said that the deadline had passed.
• The American Team from Arkansas was the biggest American team to come over to Slovakia all summer with 17 team members. Their team leader was a visionary for Slovakia’s ministry, so their team was fully capable and amazing. Their teenagers were really encouraging, it was great.. If you add the last 2 post together, the amount of students vs. the amount of Americans (not including my intern team) meant for a lot of one on one time.
• The facility was about a mile from another camp with our fellow interns, so one of our afternoons was devoted to competitive sports against their camp. We won the Futbol and the Volley-ball tournaments. I will gladly inform you that I was not a part of either team. I have 2 more camps to go, and I would prefer to go through them without injury.
• One day of Kecy Camps are always devoted to a hike. Our camp was located near one of the prettiest hikes in all of Slovakia. It’s called Slovak Paradise. It’s a hike alongside a waterfall, fully equipped with metal ladders and wooden bridges. After the minor panic attack in the middle of a ladder, I realized the beauty and I made it to the top. It really was gorgeous, just not really what I would consider safe… haha!
• One of our games was endearingly named the Trabant Pull. A Trabant is a car. A tiny red car. Our camp leader has one, and one of his ideas for an activity at the end of the week was to have the teams push the car up the mountain beside our camp.. I say mountain, but it wasn’t that steep, mostly rocky, but still tough. So all of the teams did it, and then they made the interns do it last. We pushed that little red car up to “American Woman” by Lenny Kravitz. We didn’t win with the farthest push, we were actually last by several feet. But I would definitely say that we had the best form.
• At the beginning of camp, several of the students didn’t want to be there, and they definitely didn’t want to be initiated into our “cult.” But the best part about Kecy is the evangelism. We don’t throw the gospel at them until the middle of the week. We just get to smell like Christ. It was awesome and by the 3rd day you could see a definite transition in the students. My roommate, one of the girls who wanted to drop, by the end of the week was looking up words in her dictionary to communicate with me, and all I did was smile at her most of the time and eat with her sometimes. The interns got to see the questionnaires that the students filled out at the end of camp and one of the girls, who also didn’t want to be there and didn’t participate in any games, filled out the entire back of the questionnaire with an essay of how upset she was because she had to leave once she began to feel like she belonged somewhere. Its amazing to be able to help Jesus rock their faces off with new information on being loved and belonging and sin… so incredible.
• I completely fell in love with the camp director, Rudo, and his wife, Lenka, and their daughter, Ema. I definitely cried when they dropped us off at the train station. They were really incredible and they’re who you should pray for in Roznava (besides the students). They are in charge of the Roznava youth group we worked with and they are the ones who were attacked when all of the cult rumors began to circulate. They are amazing and stood firm… and I miss them already!!!

I think that’s all i have to say right now about KECY Roznava. There is so much more, but it is late. And if I told you everything in my blog, my arrival back home would be so much less exciting! Before I leave on the 13th I will give you so more information… so keep a look out in the next few days for more of this goodness. Later friends!