Wrapping up the year

There is something to say about teaching a small group of students; the relationships you can build with a small group of young people is priceless. It was wonderful to attend the graduation ceremony and hear the testimonies of how our teachers and staff have impacted the lives of our graduates.

School Family Picnic


Our school has a tradition; on the last day of the school week we do not have class, but rather the families meet together at a local park and enjoy an afternoon picnic together. It was a time for goodbyes, sharing memories and spending a fun filled afternoon together. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the school year.






One memorable activity this year was the result of the hard work of our elementary students. They had taken on the challenge in January of reading 1000 books with the promise from our principal, that if they succeeded he would dye his hair. The colour of choice was rainbow and so at the picnic the elementary teachers got to do the honours of dying Mr. Chumbly's hair rainbow.

Finishing Well

Every year when I get to June I look back and say finished already? It feels as though we have only just begun and yet the year end has arrived. However, this year, more than years before I have strong reminders of just how far we have come.
  What I love about first grade is getting to see the children grow in their reading skills and come from reading, "The cat sat on the mat" to full paragraphs in chapter books. Although this year was significantly different; I had the joy of seeing one of my students not only learn to read, but to go from only being able to speak a 6 word sentence, to being able to describe the story of Noah's ark and help write class stories!
   It has been amazing to watch my students grow not only in size and stature but in awareness of who God is and what an amazing life we can have with God in it. I have never been more aware of the power of words especially God's word than I have this year. The ability to share our thoughts and feeling with one another has been priceless; whether through simple sentences or wild hand gestures. (I think missionaries develop a special skill in charades their first few years in a foreign country.)
   What is exciting is that next year I will have opportunity to teach this class again! So far the numbers have us doing a 1/2 split class. So this year was not so much goodbye but I will see you next year! I really look forward to seeing their learning grow exponentially over the next year; reflecting back to those days when all  they could do was say "Hello, I am Wiktor, I am 7.

Adventures Continue

Discovering Narnia

Stepping through the wardrobe into the magical land of Narnia was a childhood dream I would play with my friends; imagining that there was truly a land behind the press-board wardrobe in our basement. Reading the books and seeing the films (BBC version for me at the time) always drummed up a world of adventure and wonder. So when Adventure Buddy suggested we go to Narnia I was excited. Quite a few film locations for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian (Disney Version) were filmed in the Czech Republic. One scene in particular the back drop was filmed in České Švýcarsko aka Bohemian Switzerland National Park. 

















 Pravčická brána is the larges sandstone bridge in Europe. Due to the fragile state of the sandstone walking on the bridge has been prohibited since 1982. The actors were actually filmed in a studio and pasted into the filmed scenery 

 

The park is a gorgeous place with many hiking trails to explore. One particular hike included two boat rides down a narrow river gorge. This location was also used in the filming of Prince Caspian when Trumpkin goes down the river with the Pevensies. Overall we hiked about 15km (if you can count the 3km in boat rides as hiking). 

To follow are just a few of the many shots I took while exploring this beautiful part of our world.

 

 

 

 

 

 More faces in the rocks

Looking forward to where our next adventure may take us!

So Fish in a Fountain

One of my favourite parts of the day is our morning devotion time where we start off singing praises to God. It is an excellent way of getting the kids to experience language and learn new vocabulary as well as learn scripture.
The other day I asked the kids what song we should sing and one of my girls enthusiastically asked "Can we sing "So fish in a fountain?" Rather puzzled by the unfamiliar song title I asked her to repeat her request. "So fish in a fountain" she repeated rather emphatically. Observing my puzzled expression she began to sing the words to one of our songs called, Trust in the Lord, that also contained the words "salvation is found" which had gotten a little lost in translation coming out as "So fish in a fountain." This opened the door for a great discussion on what is SALVATION. What did it mean to be saved and what we needed to be saved from. We talked about God's love for us and how Jesus has saved us from our sin. At the end of our conversation the same little girl stated I am glad I get to be with God. It is so neat to see how God can even use fish in fountains to direct us to his truth.

Verona

The next two days of our trip were spent in Verona. I would have to say that this was my favourite part of our trip. I don't know if it was because it was a smaller city, or that the sun was shining, but I found Verona to be so beautiful. It was easy to get around and we walked pretty much everywhere. They have a handy tourist card you can purchase called the Verona card - it gets you into a variety of tourist hot spots and pays for itself in seeing only two of its 15 exhibits. 

 

Juliet's House
Although clearly a tourist trap it was neat to see the collection of art inspired by Shakespeare's famous story.

 



  

 

 

 

 

 
 The Ponte Pietra (Italian for "Stone Bridge"), once known as the Pons Marmoreus, is a Roman arch bridge crossing the Adige River.. 

Teatro Romano di Verona)

The theatre was built in the late 1st century BC. Before its construction, two walls were built alongside the Adige River, between the Ponte di Pietra and the Ponte Postumio, to protect it against floods.

 

 

 









The Verona Arena (Arena di Verona) is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, which is internationally famous for the large-scale opera performances given there. The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. 

These guys were outside the arena and were available for fun photo ops, they got a little cozier than I would have liked but it made for a fun photo.

 

 After a long day we searched for a restaurant and ended up at this one. Wonderful service and although it looked pricey it was quite affordable. Highly recommended.

Castelvecchio (Italian: "Old Castle") is a castle in Verona. It is the most important military construction of the Scaliger dynasty that ruled the city in the Middle Ages.

 

Back to Milan

We spent our last day of Italy in Milan. The weather was much nicer and we enjoyed a day of shopping and wandering the streets.

 

 

Most memorable moments from this trip:

• We arrived in Milan close to one in the morning and this meant no accessible public transit and we had to find a cab. I was recovering from a head cold and the flight had given me some inner ear issues which affected balance so I was exceptionally clumsy and I fell off the curb and scared our cab driver.
• Day 1 of arriving in Milan I fell out of the bathroom at our hostel and twisted my ankle. Meant for a trip of hobbling everywhere but I did not allow it to slow me down. (Seemed to do a lot of falling on this trip)
• Discovering panzarotti - We have an Italian family in our school that gave us great tips of where to go and one was a little bakery off of the main square from the Duomo called Luinis. It is high on my list of must go places. We went twice (would have gone a third if it was open on Sundays). They serve this pizza pastry stuffed with all kinds of choice deliciousness. You can get them baked or deep-fried. Simply marvellous!
• Walking on top of the Duomo
• Exploring Roman theatre ruins and arenas
• Speaking broken French with tourists in order to get a photo taken. (Actually put what I learned in high school to good use.)
• Seeing Leonardo DaVinci's masterpieces up close. It is amazing when your realize how old things are.
• Hearing songs of praise to God on the streets in Milan on Easter Sunday

Overall it was a gorgeous trip and a wonderful adventure. So happy that Becca persuaded me to go.

Stay tuned for our next adventure when the adventure buddies go to Narnia :)