Saturday - Some Work and Some Play

This blog message is co-written by John and Liz. Part of it is an email Liz has sent to a group of people and John will add and intersperse comments within her text. We have not blogged for two days because of a heavy workload trying to get the school building ready for the new school year. All the teachers have been madly working the last two days in particular to make things presentable and useable. One inherent problem with schools for MKs staffed by volunteers is a recurring lack of teachers available. Those teachers who are here often need to return to the USA or Canada to renew acquaintances and do fund raining so that they can live overseas another year.

John spent part of yesterday and then again last night and this Saturday morning yet, putting together the high school schedule and class room assignments. (The principal just got back yesterday and is a bit overwhelmed by all that she needs to do to get this year underway.)

The high school part of the building was reconfigured and the high school also uses an apartment one block away for some of its classes. This is a very strange situation. We are housed within an elementary Czech school which has grades one to six, but this year the Czech School reconstructed within the building and created four large "daycare" rooms which will have 20 three to five year olds each. This is an older neighborhood of apartments and we see many elderly people walking with canes and walkers. We remarked that they are probably not put into nursing homes like back in the states, and every day they get out and walk to grocery store for their food items. Then there is a turnover in population where now many young families live and both parents work, thus the need for the daycare. We were informed that a mother can be off her job for three years with the baby and still go back to the same job which is held open for her. Most women cannot afford infant daycare, so staying home until the child is three is common.

Liz’s job as first/second grade teacher took on a different perspective yesterday when I learned that on Tuesday/Thursday, I will have three additional students in my classroom. That is the "homeschoolers" who come in to the school for those two days. I was originally assigned to take on that Tues/Thur program as a separate entity, however since I am now in a regular classroom position, all the teachers just absorb the extra students for those two days. I am sure I will have some interesting stories to report once the mix of students arrive.

Our principal is making a trip to the states to recruit young teachers for the teaching positions over here. Do you know anyone with an adventurous spirit who would want to experience the joy of serving in such a school? There are a variety of mission organizations who send teachers abroad. All of the elementary teachers -- that is five of us are short term and leaving after this year. We are still short some teachers. John and another gentleman are taking on additional math classes. I do not know yet who is taking on the Soctial studies classes for the teacher who is still waiting on a visa.
We met Curt and Vicky Mobley at the school yesterday. They were touring with their E-Free church country representative whom we had dinner with last week. Vicky wants to take language classes and teach high school math at the school next year. John has been wanting the principal to ask her to teach at least one class this year to take some of the load. John has three math classes and one Physics class, but very few students taking these classes. He has from one to five students in his classes.

Awaiting our adventures of the weekend, we know we have a bit of school work to do today first, then we will probably just do more shopping and walking around in the "old town" today. Tomorrow the International Church of Prague is having a picnic in the park, so we plan to attend that.

After spending the morning helping out at school with various last minute tasks, we felt somewhat exhausted and went home to eat and refresh. Liz created lovely sandwiches using typical ingredients that one would use in the USA. We had deli meat, deli cheese, lettuce and mayo/mustard sandwiches along with a potato salad that we thought was some sort of sandwich spread when we bought it. Shopping is always fun and one must use his imagination when selecting unfamiliar items. We go by pictures and the few words we know. So far we have stuck to very basic commodity purchases at the grocery stores.

We had started a wash before going to school this morning, but we did not think it was done when we got back. The washer usually runs for about two hours. Our washing machine is nothing like an American washing machine. We can not really read the dials and do not have a user’s manual, so we do the best we can with setting it. I think we should be able to find something on the Internet on operating it, but my initial efforts to do so have failed. Anyway the cycles finally finished and we hung the clothes on our drying rack and the towels on a contrived line in the bathroom.

After lunch and taking care of the washing, John set out to find a shop that sells inkjet printer cartridges and Liz busied herself with a nap! John found the shop, but it was closed. Most small shops close on Saturday after and remain closed all day Sunday. Only the big western European stores are open Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

He returned without the printer cartridges, but stopped by a midsized grocery for some needed items. On return, he found Liz ready to set out on an afternoon adventure of sightseeing and shopping for school supplies. We hopped on the 9 tram and road to a large park area just across the river from us – maybe a fifteen minute ride. We had considered riding the funicular up the hill to what is called Prague Castle, an early settlement and seat of government and military affairs. However, at the last minute we decided that a walk up the hill would be more pleasant on such a glorious day weather wise and we set out on our peregrination to the top – wherever that was. We walked up gentle switchback like paths through the lovely large park we had entered. We crossed the funicular tracks a couple times and saw it moving up and down the hill. What was most amazing was the views while climbing. When we came to clearings, we could see far to the east over the city nestled by the river. We could easily see the magnificent TV tower that stands above our apartment building. Such great views – and we forgot our camera. But that gives us an excuse to repeat today’s adventure later in the year.

We arrived at the top to see the model of the Eifel Tower that has been erected above Prague Castle. The model is probably only half or less the size of the Parisian original. We continued on our walk and John thought he recognized the path from his visit last year and convinced Liz to follow him on his trek that should end in Mala Strana area of Prague. However after walking about a mile, it was becoming more evident that relying on John’s sense of direction was a mistake again. We could see Prague Castle in the distance, and not close at hand as it should have been were we on the correct path. But all we could do was keep on this road less traveled (or turn around and retrace our steps). After thirty or forty minutes of walking we started to see sights of the tourist area we had been in. We arrived back at Prague Castle which we had been five minutes from about an hour ago and got our bearings. We walked across the Charles Bridge and set our bearings to find the Tesco store at Narondi Trida. Another ten minutes of walking and we were there. Phyllis picked up several items for her elementary classroom. Then we checked out television sets. Our landlord will buy us a new TV as the one we have gives quite a distorted picture. However, he will allow us to buy only a non-HD set. We will probably try and find a used set in good condition from the ex-pat community to see if we can get a better set.

John had been keeping an idea in the back of his mind and suggested to Liz that we stop by an Irish Pub on the way home to eat and watch some English football. We arrived at O’Reilys’s and found that they now have a no smoking area. We were able to watch Wigan dominate Hull to John’s great joy. We enjoyed a lovely fish and chip dinner together and finished with a lemon cheese cake. Then we were off to Muzeum and the green line to take the metro home. We stopped off at our neighborhood fruit and vegetable market to pick up some items to take to the church picnic tomorrow.

At home we decided to make some phone calls or Skype video calls. We talked with friends in Topeka, our grandchildren, John’s brother and one of Liz’s brothers. The technology we are able to enjoy in this day and age is really a blessing. We had the TV on and while talking to Liz’s brother we realized that the American football game we were watching was really live. In fact, we were watching Liz’s brother’s favorite team lose in the last few minutes. It is about bedtime now, so we will sign off.