Good morning! It is 11am Saturday here. Patrick, Emily and I just got back from breakfast while everyone else slept in. Breakfast to us is walking about 10 minutes, stopping at the bakery for a chocolate croissant, then walking to an outdoor cafe for coffee. Both the lady at the bakery and the waiter at the cafe know our orders so they just automatically bring what we want without us having to say anything. Love that!
It's time I updated you on the status of our work here. As you know, the work that we trained for was to have discussion groups with local teens to help them practice their English while discussing selections from the book of Luke. The week we are here happens to be the week of final exams for local teens. The grades on these exams affect their future educational opportunities in a way that we can't understand in the US. So as we were visiting outside local high schools to invite kids to our discussion groups, we heard over and over that they were too busy with their studies to meet with us this week. Another hurdle is that it is the qualifying rounds for the World Cup. Croatia keeps winning and will have their 3rd game this week at 6 pm tonight. Mladen says this would be like the Super Bowl happening for an entire month in the US. For each game, thousands of people meet in the main square and stand to watch the game on a huge screen with a concert to follow. In the rest of the city, the streets are completely empty while people are glued to a tv somewhere.
We have had a 16 year old girl come for reading sessions with Callie and Madeline the last 2 days. We have also obviously had to find other ways to be of service here. On Thursday, our group spent several hours at a nearby orphanage where preschool age kids live after 1)their parents have died, 2)being removed from their homes due to abuse, 3)their parents can't afford to care 
for them. This was a state-run facility and I was prepared to be very emotional. It was a surprisingly well-run and happy place. The ladies working with the kids were fantastic with them and it appeared to us to be like a good preschool where the kids spent the night as well as the day. We have lots of time to play and sing with t
for them. This was a state-run facility and I was prepared to be very emotional. It was a surprisingly well-run and happy place. The ladies working with the kids were fantastic with them and it appeared to us to be like a good preschool where the kids spent the night as well as the day. We have lots of time to play and sing with the children and watch them enjoy their lunch.
We had bought outside toys to use at one of our parties. Since this event did not happen, we were able to give these toys to the kids at the orphange along with some candy.
Next blog: Friday and Saturday activities.
1 comment:
Give those cuties an extra hug from me! What a great way to channel your extra time. It must mean the world to them!
How come you always seem to have a bakery near by on all of your missions? I think I'm catching on to something ;)
Love ya!
KK
Post a Comment