So I have been here working with IMT for about five weeks now, and I can finally give a little more insight into what a typical week looks like for me and what I am actually doing here. We have several different programs that we work with throughout the week. All of them are with kids, youth, and some college aged students, but mostly kids and youth. Ill give you a rundown of the week and then add some extras at the end. On Monday we have a free day. This is our day off to do whatever we want. The past few Mondays we have usually done at least one thing together as a team, such as going to the town center to shop or going out for lunch or something like that. Its also a good day for me to meet up with other people from the school or do laundry or whatever other errands I may need to run. Tuesdays we usually have breakfast with Katja, although we will meet with Barry, the pastor here, once he is back from his break. We use this time to just see how we are doing and they let us know about events or whatnot that we have coming up. In the afternoon we drive to the next town over called Floha, for K2. K2 is a program with the kids from the city there. We all meet in a kind of flat there and then usually have a short little Bible verse or story or something and then just play with the kids. Sometimes we have played insid eand sometimes outside, but it is getting cold here so Im not sure how much outside playing we will do from now on. This may or may not be a problem. The kids in K2 can sometimes be very rowdy so it was good to be able to go outside and let out their energy. We will see how it goes if were stuck inside. We will need some good games and things to keep them busy. They do have a foosball table so thats always fun. We also always have a little snack with the kids at the end. On Tuesday nights we drive back from Floha, eat dinner, and then have Hauskreis. This is kind of like a youth group meeting in our room in the hospital. There is a school for nurseshere and Im pretty sure most if not all of the students also live here with us. The Hauskreis is something we do to try and get them to come and join us and learn a little bit about God. We usually have a little message mixed in with some kind of creative activity or game and then afterwards we have tea and cookies and just hang out. On Wednesdays we have time in the morning to plan and work on ideas for our different programs. Wednesday afternoon we drive back to Floha for Jump and Kirchenclub. Kirchenclub is with the same kids from K2. This is a program run by another church here, so we just go and play with the kids or help with the cooking. At the same time this program is going on, two of us have to go to the church and run Jump. Jump is a program exactly like K2 except in the church. Apparently they use to be the same thing but some of the parents didnt want their kids to mingle with the kids from K2 so they had to create two different programs. It is really ridiculous. I can not understand how the parents in the church thought it was ok to not let thos children come to the church. Anyways, Wednesday nights we dont have anything, but for the past few weeks I have been meeting with Tobias to work on my German. I have really enjoyed my time with him and his family. He has a really nice wife and two young children. Its good for me to have time to just hang out with some other people than the girls I work with all the time, as much as I love them we all need a break sometimes. On Thursdays we have been meeting in the morning to plan different programs that are not weekly. The past few weeks we have been working on our Kinderwoche, which is a week at the end of October where we will meet with the same kids every day for the entire afternoon. Thursdays are also now a time to work on and plan a new project we are starting, and in the future will be where we work during the afternoons. The project is called CheckPoint. It is here in Chemnitz and one of the girls from last years IMT is in charge of it. They have an apartment where the kids can come every day of the week and participate in different activities. From what I have understood it sounds a lot like BigHouse, or rather our afternoon programs at BigHouse. They will have a few different activities such as English or dance lessons every afternoon, and then also just time to eat and play. I really wish I could understand more German, because I think I could really help with my experience form BigHouse. Friday mornings we have more time to plan and work on different things. In the afternoon we go to a gym here in Chemnitz and play different games with kids there. This program is called SSS- Sport, spiele, spas. which means sports, play, fun. After this we go to the youthgroup at the local church here. I have only been once to this so I am not sure how involved or how much we are in charge of that. Saturdays we have a few different programs that meet once a month. The only one I have been to so far is Wesley Scouts which is basically scouts for all the kids at the church. Sundays we have church in the morning and then free afternoons. We have also had two weekends where we went to big youth events for the conference here. They were like weekends North Alabama Conference would have at Camp Sumatanga.
We also do many things together as a team besides working. We eat all of our meals together unless one of us is meeting someone for German lessons or gone for a work related reason. We also sing and pray together just about every day after dinner usually. We make our breakfasts and dinners here and then for lunch we eat in the hospital cafeteria.
This past weekend we had a youth event for the conference again. It was a lot of fun. The highlight was going to a Planetarium. They said it was a kind of thank you for all the youth leaders there from the conference. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have always wanted to go to a planetarium, and I hope to go back to another one. We actually saw more of a show than just looking at the stars, which I think I would also like. Im not sure if what we saw is what typically people go there for or not. It was a kind of laser light show with Queen music and the dome was used as a screen for video and all sort of like an IMAX theatre. They used old Queen concert footage as well as what I think was the actual night sky all meshed together. It was really cool and in English so I could understand it. Which reminds me, I find it very interesting how many English songs they sing in the churches here. Also, how often I come across English in their phrases or just every day life. It sounds funny to me when the entire congregation sings with their accents and how they pronounce some words. Im sure I sound the same way to them, but its cool and makes me smile to hear them sing some of the same songs we sing and how differently it sounds. Sometimes the German people really struggle with the pace or getting all the words right. Its exactly what would happen if our churhc tried to sing a German hymn or song.
I also noticed this weekend a very interesting observation. When I cannot understand someone talking, such as a speaker for a large group, I am much more aware of their body language and actions. It reminded me of a show I had seen with Penn and Teller. They were doing magic tricks and showing how it was done, and they showed one where it was really quite easy to see what had happened... when they muted themselves. They knew that by talking and distracting you with a story or whatever, they could easily move something with their hands without you noticing. When they muted the volume it was obvious they were moving something around. Anyways I noticed the same phenomemon happens when you cant understand the other language as well.
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