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 Okay, I missed a day so lets play catch up...Here are yesterday's events in a nutshell.

I found a Michael Jackson look alike on the tram stop wall! The grafiti here is awesome!

One very fun but somewhat stressful aspect of surviving here in Brno is navigating the tram stops.  It would be easy if not for the approximate 10 seconds the tram driver gives the people to get on and off the tram before slamming the doors and laying on the gas. It is so little time in fact, that I saw a woman get shut between the doors!  Ammygray and I have both seen people fall down on the tram because they did not grab hold of the handles or rails in time to steady themselves.  These trams wait for no one.

Somethings never change

One very nice part of this whole trip is that we are really not that far removed from American cuisine and shopping.  Its been difficult to souvenir shop because so many of the things they sell here are just like back in the states.  Unlike South America or Africa, Europe is very modern and the greatest differences are found in the customs and food.  Neither of which make decent souvenirs.

A typical Brno neighborhood

This  is my one of my interpreters (Camilla) neighborhood.  She lives about a 15 minutes tram ride outside of the city.  We would say her house is in a suburb.  I went to Camilla's family's house for lunch yesterday to go over lesson plans with her and Radim, my other interpreter.  We had a great lunch and a fun time hanging out and getting to know one another.  I will have pictures of all of us very soon.

The absolute best cake/bread combo I have ever had

  This is a poppy seed peach cake that Radim's mom made for us to have at lunch.  Something I have discovered that makes me love the Czech Republic all the more is that these folks make no delineation between dessert, and dinner.  Some entrees they serve for dinner at resturants are what we would consider dessert.  So when I was at Camilla's house, this cake was served as the appetizer.  Now that's the way to eat dinner!!

BBQ chicken thigh, Czech style

This dinner was not BBQ as the menu said, however, it was delicious.  That light red sauce was supposedly my barbecue sauce to dip my chicken in but alas, it tasted nothing like It seems that every "restaurant" here is actually a bar that happens to have a full menu rather than a restaurant with some alcohol.  But everywhere is very clean and the food has not been bad once since I've been here.


Now onto today:



The best thing happened today I finally FINALLY, found a water bottle big enough for me! While we were out shopping, I desperately needed some NON carbonated water and so we went to a little shop to buy a bottle.  Then Olga said I could get a bigger one than the little 16 oz ones and showed me this mammoth bottle. 1.5 liters!  Obviously I bought it with great excitement and it actually lasted me more than an hour.  The times of course are funny here because as I am typing this at 1:00pm the majority of you all are just not getting up at 7:00am but this morning was yet another shopping day and tonight we had a BBQ to attend.  I played guitar and another team member shared their testimony with several unsaved folks.

We went to Otmar and Zussca's home this evening for the barbeque and Otmar is a gardener by profession.  Here are just a few pictures I took this evening from his beautiful farm.

I cannot tell you what a wonderful time we had tonight, all the good fellowship, funny talk around the fire, and the awkward practicing of English among new friends.

  Tomorrow we leave Brno to head to camp about three hours from here in the mountains.  We will be driving in personal vehicles of some Czechs who will also be attending camp and helping there.  I look forward to another eventful, jet lag free, day!

Ciao Ciao! (as the Czechs would say)