The first day has come and nearly finished. There are about 160 people total at the camp with 130 being participants. We have 16 students, 7 boys and 9 girls, in Ultimate. Our group of students that we are teaching is very fun and some speak really good english so that has been helpful and will be for the rest of the week. The students arrived late afternoon, so there was no instruction but just introductions and getting to know the students in our sport. We have 2 deaf girls in our group which will make the week interesting. We do have one fellow coach named Jitka who is pretty nice and good at frisbee who can translate most of what we say. Tomorrow, we will begin instruction tomorrow morning and hopefully start playing some games as well. We are also in charge of organizing and implementing a tournament on saturday for the whole camp... interesting seeing that we have never done a ultimate frisbee tournament before and there will be about 15 teams.
As for Chris and I, it is somewhat more challenging than we had thought adjusting to the language barrier. Coming to this multisport camp first before english camp without knowing anyone here is hard but we are adjusting. Everyone speaks czech and english but unlike Martin, people are not used to having to translate into english so that has been testing our patience on multiple levels. There are a few people who have stepped up and helped translate meetings and such so it has been fun building those relationships. Honestly, I don't know what God is going to reveal to us at this camp but I think this language barrier might be involved. This trip is very different from the mission trips and cultures we have engaged where spanish has been the main language and we are with people who can help translate for us. Something that has amazing to see though is God's love transcend this language through these people and their heartfelt worship and desire to follow Jesus. We are connected through our desire to serve the Lord which is always really amazing to experience when you travel abroad.
Pray for strength and energy for us as Ultimate and dealing with the language can be draining physically, mentally and emotionally.
Pray for the relationships that we are beginning to build with the students.
Openness to what God is trying to reveal to us.
Pics to come later, time to go.
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