Discovering Liberec

Group photo of all the IYF participants

Having discovered many cities in the Czech Republic during the last two weeks, the time has now come to get to know Liberec in our small groups. Of course, it took us some time to get off the campus we were staying at, but finally, every group was in the city.

Each small group got a set of tasks to complete by the end of the day. They were mostly concentrating on history, famous people, historical sites, and modern attractions city has to offer. Luckily, we had two Czech girls in our team, but completing the tasks was not easy even with them. At least the weather was a bit less hot than the previous days.

My small group discovering Liberec

My group completed the tasks in a few hours, and among them were: finding out which famous person went to a high school in Liberec (it was car constructor Ferdinand Porsche), finding out when the city hall was built, finding out original location of a certain tower on the town museum and so on. The woman at the museum was not at all happy when two or three small groups stormed in to ask about the tower. Probably because she didn't know the answer.

The Liberec discovery trip ended in a best possible way. We climbed up to Ještěd, the 1,012 meters high mountain peak near Liberec. Of course we didn't climb by foot the whole time, we used the cable car, which was a bigger challenge for some of us than walking.  But everyone survived and a few minutes of fear certainly paid off when we saw the view from the top. The Czech Republic then looked like a country from one of the Grimm brothers' fairytales.

Everyone put their Atlantic Bridge T-shirts on and John took a group photo of all the participants. We finished this amazing day off with dinner in the 94 meter-tall tower on top of the mountain.

View from the top of Ještěd mountain

Photos by Jirina Cancikova

Rain in Herrnhut

On Friday August 9 the festival moved to Herrnhut, just 45 minutes north of Liberec.  At 14.00 we left the festival site  in busses just as it started raining. For the next 6 hours we were going to discover a treasure hidden in a little German village  through a game called the Herrnhut Heritage Hunt.

Before we left,  the speaker of the day (Rob Demaggio) defined the word ‘mission’ and challenged us  to “make your life a mission”.    In the pouring  rain we tried to discover  the heart of Herrnhut. But some got lost, others found refuge in a café, and most of us were more concerned about what came from above than about what was under our feet. So, in retrospect, we only caught a small glimpse of the importance of this place during the HaHaHa game, as Erdmute Frank, pastor of Herrnhut, jokingly named it.

Later we heard that the special team who went to Herrnhut a week ago to prepare the game already realized it would never be possible to capture the treasure of Herrnhut in just three hours.   After the game we met at the central church for a BBQ and final meeting with Erdmute Frank and Jackie Kennedy (US coordinator of AB) who shared with us through a service of singing, a game, an evaluation and short messages.  

sculptures along the way tell the story of Herrnhut

What a tremendous learning experience it was  to even catch a glimpse of this place and what its impact has been   on the world. There is much to learn in Herrnhut and so much to be inspired by! We must come back!

Country presentations

The last two days at the Festival were packed with activities. The groups had their country presentations. Two groups from the Netherlands; the Beveland group and the Tholen group created two different presentations.

Let's start with the Beveland group. Each of  them (Laura, Elise, Jesse, Christian and Josephien) showed a picture of their homes, described where they live and told a little something about themselves. They then focused on some stereotypes people usually connect with people from the Netherlands. This was very funny and they even called some people on stage to help them with this part of the presentation.

The last part of the presentation was about Dutch celebrities and the Beveland group made a quiz out of it. For example, we had to guess who the Dutch prime minister is; Afrojack or Mark Rutte.

The Tholen group started with introducing themselves as well. They presented the island of Tholen and Bergen op Zoom since two of them are from this city. They spoke about traditional food and drinks, but also had to say something about the most common stereotypes. They mentioned people from their Bridgebuilders Club who couldn't be there with them.

One part of their presentation was also about the water service project the Tholen Bridgebuilders Club did on their island. I was actively involved in it so I wanted them to include even more of it in the presentation because we visited many water facilites and learned a lot about water management in the region. 

After the Dutch groups, we were introduced to something completely different - the Hungarian presentation.

They made it very professional and interactive. They covered each aspect of their nation; food, drinks, geography, history, famous people (they showed a video with all of thier country's greatest inventors).

And then, they decided to make it difficult for the rest of us. They invited two representatives of each country to join them onstage to try and say some of their tongue twisters. I don't know how familiar you are with Hungarian, but this language is nothing you have ever heard before, and you can only imagine how impossibly difficult their tongue twisters are.

The Czechs and Americans presented their countries the following evening. The team from our host country taught us a lot about the Czech Republic; they spoke about food, drinks and some very strange traditions. One of them happens every Easter when boys hit girls with sticks made of willow branches. For the end of their presentation we danced the traditional Czech dance mazurka. Our Czech EVSers already taught us this dance before but it's fun every time.

And then....show time.

The Americans really put their best into this presentation. It was a mix of history and tradition, music and drama. And, all of them can sing, dance and act!!! That was truly amazing.
First, they played a video they made about their home town in Pennsylvania, then presented important people in their history by quoting their famous speeches. After that they sang and ended their presentation with a Broadways style number.

Later that night we all met once again to hear Jesse from the Netherlands perform and the part of  the American team also did a song.

MEK

MEK

Hip Hop artist MEK has been part of the KARAVAAN from its start in Prague. As different groups were sent out to the different places, she travelled to each place and inspired the local youth and travelers with her music and presence. MEK is her nickname and stage name, her real name is Tameka. She grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents were drug addicts and were unable to take care of her so she was brought up by her grandmother in a strict Pentecostal setting. Her life story was different than any other one I ever heard and it’s probably the same with the other participants.

I’m not going to tell you her age because you probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. Her experience as a camp counselor in a YMCA camp and a few other experiences have made her a great fit for the KARAVAAN.  In just a few days she has captured the hearts of the KARAVAAN travelers. She’s had many great performances during the last week, but she saved the best for tonight. Her concert was more energetic than ever, everyone was dancing and singing along.

Everyone now knows MEK’s favorite hip hop song NUMBER ONE . Here is the text…

Number 1

Number one, number one

Never no more stressing cause I’m keeping my blessing,
Loving you came and made a change

For the world to overcome the realness so we feel it.  And our hearts beats like a drum

Tried to erase and face existence to be done Never felt so much better until I made him number one.

Stepped out from the darkness

Now I'm free at last they often wonder why those friends are a thing of my past

Nothing's gonna stop me now I got G.O.D

Holding on strong.Loving the brand new me. 

I first hesitated but I knew I wouldn't have made it

Gave my soul up to become something greater.Look to my help

Get strength in His name It only takes once and you will never be the same

Stay focused, keep your heart open

Give it all to him it won't seem hopeless.

In Liberec!

After seven days and many cities and towns, the journey came to its end. One by one, red-faced, sweaty and exhausted, the groups started arriving in Liberec for the International Youth Festival.

The program for today consisted of check-ins and registrations, the leaders’ meeting and finally, in the evening, the start of the Festival.

Everyone was welcomed by Carla, a very nice Dutch lady who organized everything with her husband Fred. Then, each Karavaan group presented what they’ve been doing during their journey so far.

The Herrnhut group decided to tell us what they’ve been doing there and shared their fascination with Herrnhut.

The Herrnhut group

The Tachov-Most group did a funny sketch that made everyone laugh, especially the musician MEK.

Every member of the Turnov group shared a little something about the passionate people they met.

The American group from Slaný made a PowerPoint presentation, taught us a lot about the town and showed us the photos they took.

The last group which was in Žatec and Frýdlant played some videos that show the unique experience they had at the Eco-farm in Frýdlant with no electricity, no running water, no phones or any other modern technology devices.

Žatec-Frydlant group

In the end we split into smaller groups in which we will stay till the end.

MOST: There’s two sides to every story

As I already wrote, we joined the Tachov group in Most. It’s interesting that the name of the town means bridge. I didn’t see a single bridge while staying there, but the town was surrounded by swamps in the past so the name must have made sense at some point of its history.

Most is the most notorious of all the Czech towns. It has the highest unemployment rate in the whole country, there are no jobs, not many opportunities for young people, omnipresent poverty and despair which lead to crime, and the shocking number of some 2000 homeless people (Most has population of some 60,000) just to name a few.

Our host pastor Marian knows about it better than anyone because he’s been working with people affected by poverty for years now. First he worked at the homeless shelter, and by the way, there are only 20 beds at the shelter; not even close to cater for the town’s needs. He told us about all the things that have been stolen from him; thieves climbing into his house through the windows, his car stolen… So, after hearing Marian’s story you could easily conclude that Most is a place you should avoid if possible.

However, there are people in Most who offer a different perspective. One of them is my host, a 28-year-old girl called Mirka who works for the city’s tourism office. Ten year ago she was part of a Bridgebuilders Club in Most. She thinks Most is a beautiful town that has many interesting things to offer. 

Whenever she talks to people from other parts of the country and tells them she lives in Most, they usually feel sorry for her. She doesn’t like her town’s reputation and tries her best to change it. After people visit Most for whatever reason, they’re usually positively surprised and lose their prejudice towards the town and people. At least that’s what Mirka told me.

There’s also a third Most citizen I met, Andy. Andy was part of the same Bridgebuilders club with Mirka and was also an EVS-er (European Volunteer) with Atlantic Bridge for a year. She is very young and one of the lucky people who have a job. Just like Mirka, she loves her town and wouldn’t change it for any other in the Czech Republic. But, she knows very well that Most has a lot of issues that aren’t being dealt with and that it would take a lot of time to fix them. She described the town as a dumping site for unemployed people from other parts of the country because when someone from any other city loses their job and can no longer afford to pay the rent, they just move to Most because the rent is cheaper here.

My experience of Most is very positive; the few people I met are really nice, the town is famous for a church that has been completely relocated and for a beautiful castle on the hill above the town. That’s even without the beautiful landscape that surrounds the town, the magnificent forests and hills.

Tachov and Slany

What better way to get to know a country than to get lost on your way through it. I’m guessing this is John’s philosophy too because that’s exactly what we did some five times yesterday on our way to Tachov from Žatec.

The person in charge of Tachov Karavaan is Zuzana. Knowing she is a pastor of a Hussite church, I expected an old, grey-haired lady. But Zuzana surprised me; she is very young and very energetic.

Today morning we attended the service at Zuzana’s church. I was surprised when I walked inside – there were many statues of saints and other decorations that are not typical for Protestant churches. It was actually an Orthodox church, but Zuzana’s congregation is using it as well.

Photo from Zuzana's church (by Claudia Zbrankova)

Never in any kind of Protestant church in Europe have I seen so many young people. No grey heads here and that is very weird. Zuzana’s passion for mission and youth is undoubtedly the only reason why so many young people attend this church. I had to ask her how come she decided to do what she does because I simply don’t understand how a young smart woman who could be anything decides to be a pastor. She said she was not sure what to do, first she studied something else, but the calling for mission was just too strong.

We were in Tachov almost the whole day and in the afternoon we joined the American group and visited yet another church, this time in Slaný. Like many others, this Hussite church from the outside doesn’t look like a church at all; it’s just a regular apartment building. It’s run by the pastor and his family (wife and two daughters). The service was in Czech, but the daughters interpreted everything for us.

I spoke to pastor’s wife and she told me they were living in the States for a couple of years. What struck her most, as a church person, is the different approach towards religion in the US and Europe. She says that people in Europe are not interested in religion and church at all, whereas in the US, getting their attention is much, much easier just because they don’t have prejudices against church like here.

The pastor mentioned something similar in his sermon. He said that in the past the Europeans went to do America to do missionary work, but now, tables turned and Americans come to Europe to help the Europeans discover their religious heritage.

In the afternoon we again joined the group we already joined in Tachov, but this time we were in Most. They travelled here today while we were in Slaný. We’re staying here tonight, and I have to be honest, I have no idea where we go tomorrow.

The travelling team - John, the American musician MEK and I joined the Žatec Karavaan first. Our host Betty and her students greeted us in the most beautiful school I’ve even seen.

We spent some time talking about our goals in this journey, about the best ways to build bridges, reaching the goals of then Karavaan and so on. After a few get-to-know-each-other games, our host families came to get us and everyone spend the evening with their own host family. 

Betty, MEK and Betty's son

MEK and I were hosted by Betty, her son and her boyfriend. I realized that Czechs are very similar to Croatians, at least when it comes to how much meat they eat. And Betty is a lady of many talents; she teaches music and drama in the school we all got together, but also in a special music school. Her driving skills, I have to point out, are quite amazing as well. If her teaching carrier hasn’t worked out, Formula One could have been an option as well – she certainly already drives like an F1 driver.

Betty handing out tasks

Today was all about discovering Žatec. The city is famous for its beer brewery like so many other cities in the Czech Republic. Betty gave us tasks which included visiting different important places in the city and then learning by asking Czech people questions about them. We learned that Žatec was one of the three cities where Hussites were safe during the Hussite wars because the Catholic army failed to conquer the city.

After a traditional Czech lunch, we continued our journey. Next stop – Tachov!

Finally here!

After seventeen hours on the bus, we were finally in Prague where settled at a Hussite church in Moskevska street. The Hungarian group got here a bit later and we spent the evening getting to know each other.  Those of us who weren’t too tired had the opportunity to walk around Prague with my EVS colleague who’s been living here for 12 years and has a really unique insight into his city. 

Day 2

It was time for passionate people! First, we met Daniel Fajfr who is a bishop of Cirkev Bratrska church. He told us about his life, how he got involved in church life and how he decided to become a pastor at the age of 37 following the death of his friend. Even though initially turned down by the church to which he offered his ideas, after a few years he was offered a job as a pastor. Being a church person in a country with the highest percentage of non-religious people must be very challenging. But, Daniel Fajfr sees it as a great opportunity to spread his mission of sharing God.s love. The passion he feels for what he does was clearly visible and inspirational.

Prague discovery walk followed; we split into groups to visit different historic sights that shaped the city.

Ludmila, a little 86-year-old Czech lady visited us at Moskevska church in the evening to share her fascinating life story. Living in the Czech Republic during two totalitarian regimes was not easy, but she always somehow managed to stay true to herself, always advocating for the things she felt strongly about like the fight against antisemitism. The primary passion, however, was the same as Daniel Fajfr, a mission that first touched her life when Billy Graham first came to Europe. When asked what hope she has for this generation (the youngsters), she said they should live their lives to receive the Crown of Life, a crown she hopes to receive soon - and to stay strong and be the best in what they do. Wise words!

The Karavaan truly begins today with different groups following different routes through North Bohemia. More posts coming up!

Don't worry Diana, Elise is fine and having fun (but not too much fun) ;)