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…
