We're Baaacck

Well, that was quick. We just got back from a 9 day mission trip to the Czech Republic. It was both long and short and a lot of fun and work. The following are a few examples of things we did, if you want to see or hear more, come over... I filled our new digi-cam with 450 pictures and videos...

A big part of our time there was playing hockey. Playing hockey used to be the good excuse to get a visa to enter the country, but now it's more of a good way to get people's attention. We've noticed that if we play better against a Czech team, they are more likely to listen to what we have to say and will likely respect us more for our game. It's strange playing hockey against them cause we've been taught the Canadian style of hockey, safe plays and crashing the net. They've learned that a long pass up the middle that will result in a breakaway 1 out of 15 times is the way to go and they really enjoy the drop pass inside the blue line. We found that the breakaways didn're really bother us playing against them, but I got the rare chance to play with a Czech team against a Czech team and boy, did I feel out of place. This photo was taken on Monday when we played the HC Skulls, featuring a bar-code instead of a name on the back of the jersey. We won 18-11, but found that there were a couple players on their team that I had met 4 years ago in the same town. They invited me to play for them on Wednesday, so I donned the HC Skulls jersey for a game. It was a lot of fun, but me being a Canadian, I crashed the net waiting for the puck to arrive and the rest of the players were still farting around inside the blue line. I felt a bit out of place, but I did score a goal, which made me feel better. We won 6-5. It was funny to me that some of the Czechs on the other team hit me a few times, spotting me as the outsider... I laughed because I never get hit in the non-contact league I play in so it's funny to me when I get rocked. This photo was taken with a guy who rocked me late in the game when I had my head down. I lifted my head only to see orange and then I was on my can... he's a good guy. On the week, we won 3 games and lost one in a shootout. After the game we won 18-11, we had a shootout for fun with everyone from both teams, so I scored my patent pending goal with my stick between my legs... it was priceless. Hockey was good.

Another really cool opportunity we had was to go into local public school classes and talk for a class. Some classes were English classes so we helped them practice, some were classes in Grography so we told them about Canada. The class in the picture was a lot of fun, we shared about Canada, they shared some of their culture and I made balloon animals for everyone. I'll never forget when the teacher (the one in the red turtle-neck with the whie poodle on his head) showed us the Czech version of the hokey pokey song and did the "put your bum in... put your bum out... shake it all about...." Very hot.... It was a lot of fun talking to kids, telling a bit about why we were there and entertaining. This was the first trip in Hlinsko that got to go into the schools and the Principal gave us an open invitation to come back anytime, a big door opened to the missionaries in the town. Very cool.

Prague was very cool, we had a day to experience the city, do the tourist thing and have fun. My feet still hurt from all the walking, but it was a good day. We saw the castle, ate lunch at the patio of the Lubkowicz Palace Cafe in the Castle. That was very cool, with a very nice view of Prague, and very good food. We saw a girl get her foot smashed by the Castle Guard's rifle because she got too close during a photo. Very funny, I mean, where's her head... you just don't get too close. One thing I found weird, especially during the olympics, was that I could not find a single good quality Czech Hockey Jersey for a reasonable price. There were lots of cheap cheap ones and there was only 1 place I found that had Nike Jerseys with no name or number for about $200 cdn... crazy.

Woke up at 4:30 am in Prague to catch our flight at 7am and ended up in Kitchener at 8:30 pm (2:30am Monday in Prague). Such a long day, with a 6 hour layover in the mostly forgettable Amsterdam. I mean, the red light district was gross, the uncooked big mac's were gross and all the nice buildings had construction blocking any good pictures... blech... We're home now, and I'm sick and tired of being jet-lagged, sick and tired... good trip though. Want to do it again.