Czech It Out!

Many of you know that I am a certified Emerency Medical Technician and my passion is emergency medicine. Well....last night I had the opportunity to see a Czech Ambulance! One of my students at Majak is married to a doctor who works for the ambulance services. I shared with my class my future plans for a career in medicine which led to an invitation to see how emergency medicine is done here in Czech. What a great experience it was!

Here in Vsetin, there is one ambulance station with 4 ambulances. There are 4 pairs of paramedics & EMTs (equivalents) and 2 doctors on at any given time. There are a couple of ambulances stationed at the hospital and in a nearby town, one more ambulance with a crew of two. The "Zlin Region" in which the emergency medical services respond to stretches over 40 km (all the way to the Slovokian border). Dan, (the doctor who showed me around) told me it can take over an hour to arrive at a call depending on the route they have to take, weather, and other factors.

They too, work 12 hour shifts. The inside of the ambulances look very similar to that of an American ambulance. They also have different numbers you call if you have an emergency. The number for the Medical Emergency service is 155. The number for the Fire Department is 150 and 158 for the Police Department. The dispatch center is in Zlin which is 35 km from Vsetin. Dispatch decides what crew goes on the call-- 2 or 3 man crew with a doctor.

When a call comes in, the dispatch comes over the intercom and says which crew will go (saying the ambulance #). The details of the call print from the computer and the map on the computer shows the crew where they must go.  The new ambulance has a GPS system inside it also. It is not common for the crew to use radios for communication. There are so many hills and valleys in this region that they are pretty much useless. The dispatch center can track the ambulance at any given time. Czech emergency services are similar to the that of the US. Their procedures may differ a bit but in general, the equipment and practices are the same.

One Month Left in Czech!

I have one month left in the Czech Republic. The feeling is bitter-sweet. I am really enjoying my time here but I definitely miss my family and friends back home. Each week continues to get busier and busier with teaching. I am teaching 4-5 days a week at the high school and once a week at the Basic school. I usually only teach 2-3 classes a day so it's not too difficult.

English through Majak is going great. Our "English Weekend" is in 2 weeks. The theme is "A Trip to the USA". I will be talking about places I have been in the US as well as Brad & Lucie and a few others who have traveled there. Kevin & Susan from my church in Ft. Collins will be coming to Czech next week to be a part of the English weekend. I will teach 5 classes and Saturday night (the main event night), I will be giving my testimony and sharing what brought me to Czech and so on. It will be quite out of my comfort zone to share with around 50 people but God will give me the strength and courage. :) I am really excited to see what God will do that weekend. 

Hotel in Malenovice where the celebration was held.

Last weekend, I spent a good amount of time with some students from the Seminary school in Prague. A group of 20 of them came to Vsetin for the weekend to attend the Majak Anniversary Celebration in Malenovice. I had a lot of fun getting to know them and they had the perfect opportunity to practice their English. The celebration was a blast! It was so great to have the entire church family together! A few people shared their testimony, Freddy gave an annual update, we had a wonderful lunch, and the rest of the afternoon we had free time. There was a ton of snow in Malenovice so we all stayed inside playing games, napping, or just talking.


I had the opportunity to spend a couple days with the Kaspar family. Adam, who is 13 months old, took his first steps and I was there to witness it! I almost started crying and screamed so loud in excitement that Adam almost started crying. We had a great time together. Brad & Lucie are my adopted parents while I am here in Czech. I have been truly blessed by them and their hospitality. I went swimming with Lucie and Adam Thursday afternoon. The pool in Vsetin is really nice and I enjoyed playing with Adam. Thursday night we had a group of people over and taught how to make Banana Bread. It turned out perfect!
Yesterday we had club/youth group at the field. We played baseball for a couple hours and Lucie shared the story about Cain and Abel. It was pretty cold but the kids had a blast. This morning, I taught the Hurta girls how to make Chocolate Chip cookies. Half of them didn't look very good but they tasted great! Tonight, I am playing volleyball like usual. Tomorrow, Brad is giving the sermon. I will attend the CB/Jasenka church service in the morning, have lunch at Mary & Pavel's place, and then go to the 5pm service at Majak.

Sun setting behind the hill across the valley

This coming week is filled with teaching. I also have the opportunity to see the inside of a Czech Ambulance, see the Vsetin hospital, and spend some time with a doctor looking at x-rays and such. Friday after club/youth group, the girls are having a Slumberparty at Majak. I am going to teach them a workout, we will talk about relationships, do eachother's hair, and watch a romance movie. I am really looking forward to some quality girl time! Saturday is a service day so we as a church, will be spending the morning picking up trash and serving the town of Vsetin as much as possible.

Lighthouse Cup 2011

This past week, I was busy teaching as usual. I have continued to get more opportunities to teach at the high school here and I am enjoying every minute of it.

      Saturday was the Majak (Lighthouse) Volleyball Tournament.  We had 4 teams: Club/Youth group, Worship team, English studio team, and a team of a mixture of people. It was a lot of fun! My team won the first game but unfortunately lost the rest of them so we took last in the tournament. It was a great time to spend with people from church as well as some others I hadn't met before. All of the regular tournament games were rally scoring, played to 15 points. When the playoffs started, rally scoring continued but the games went to 25 points.
  



     It was the first volleyball tournament Majak has done and it was a big success. They plan to do it annually and hope that more people will attend next year. The tournament winners received a chocolate medal. Their team was great--they work well together and have a lot of talent.

Majak Volleyball Tourmament 2011

Czech Ball and All

This past week was the most eventful week so far. On Monday, I went to the Sycrov basic school and taught 3rd & 6th grade English. The 3rd graders were adorable and we had a fun time practicing colors and numbers. They asked when I was going to come back. :) Tuesday I spent most of the day, relaxing and in bed because I wasn't feeling well. The whole town of Vsetin has been sick for the past couple of weeks and I seemed to take part. Tuesday I taught English at Majak as I do every Tuesday.

Wednesday, I visited a young girl who is interested in private English lessons to get to know her a bit and figure out a time for lessons. I start teaching/helping her with English tomorrow at 4pm. Also on Wednesday, Jirka & Marcela invited me to dinner at a new restaurant in town called Rosmaryn. There were a total of 9 of us at dinner, all of which are students in Majak English Studio but most of them are Mary's students, not mine. It was a great couple of hours for them to practice their English and just enjoy each others company. The food was amazing. It took about an hour for our food to come out and we were beginning to get impatient until they delivered our food and it looked like this. Each plate was decorated differently with different vegetables and the food tasted just as great as it looked! The Kofola was definitely the "icing on the cake".

 Thursday I taught at the Gymnazium again. We discussed American Holidays and played Fish Bowl. I also taught at the Sychrov Basic school, like usual. Thursday afternoon I moved from Hanka's place in Rybniky over to the Hurta's place in Jasenka. I am living with a family of 6 now which is quite a bit change considering it was just Hanka and I for the first month I was here.
     Friday, I spent the morning at Brad and Lucie's place. Lucie and I made a huge omelet for lunch and we planned out activities for Club. Club this week had the theme of "Superheroes and Princesses". Each student had to dress up as either a Superhero or Princess. I showed a powerpoint on popular Superheroes and Princesses in America which included Superman, Spiderman, Ironman, Priness Ariel, Princess Aurora, and many more. We played a game of "speed dating" where you had 2 minutes with each person and had to ask a series of questions. At the end, we were quizzed on what each person said. It was a great game to get to know each other a bit more. Lucie talked about the characteristics of a superhero and what traits God has.

We had a Club meeting at 9 am Saturday morning at Majak. We talked about upcoming events and the significance of attending club on a regular basis. The team also discussed ideas for a fun weekend they could invite their non-believer friends to. The Czech ball was Saturday night. I got ready for the ball at the Kaspar's place. I borrowed a dress from Lucie and bought cheap shoes from a Vietnamese market here in town. The ball was fun. Honza taught me to dance only 2 days before so I wasn't very good at dancing. It would have been more enjoyable with a date but it was impossible to have my date come all the way from the states. There was live music, professional dancers, and some other short acts through the night. Our group was up in the balcony so we could watch everyone dancing. It was a great night of relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Balls here in the Czech Republic are very popular, especially during winter. They dance to all sorts of music, most of which was in English. The most common dance is the Vienna waltz but they also dance the Waltz, Polka, Jive, Cha-cha, and more.
    Last week was a great week and this week has been too. I had lunch at the Gymnazium high school today which was great. I was able to meet more students and their English is awesome! I am getting more opportunities to teach in the Gymnazium as well as one other high school in town so God is definitely answering prayers. Prayer Requests: That I would continue to be purposeful with my time here as I near the 1/2 point of my trip, more students would come to club, and my students from Majak would all come to the English Weekend in April.