Our Czech Adventures, Pt 4

Hello and welcome to a rainy Saturday (in the Czech Republic) here at the Wannaskan Almanac (in Roseau County). Today is July 29th and the last Saturday of the month.

After last week's adventures in and around our home base village of Vizovice, kids had an awesome, new adventure in the neighboring village of Slušovice: dětský tábor (kid camp.)

Kid camps abound during the summer in Czechia. Bike camps, swim camps, scout camps, and "Indian" camps. Setting aside my concern about cultural appropriation, Czechs have an affinity for the North American Indians. This fascination is no doubt fueled by the stereotypes found in movies and books (both American and European - and here, Vinnetou, an Indian conceived by German author Karl May comes to mind). This romanticizing of Native Americans is well-intentioned and, I would say, that, as a result, the Czechs hold these people in high regard. But, I digress.

The bike camp and sports camps were filled in Vizovice, but "The Mystery Of The Indian Hunting Grounds" (Part 2!) was available in the village next door, just over the hill. The parent side of my brain wanted kids to attend a kids camp because it would give them more exposure to the Czech language, they would get to spend all day every day with kids (something Antonin was already yearning for), and it would be a nice change of pace on this 6-week summer stay.

The kids were NOT happy with me. Especially Lucie.

"But we won't know what they're saying!" "We won't KNOW anybody!"

Antonin went for a more analytical view: "Kids camp is just for adults who want a break from their kids."

Here's a quick summary of kids camp. (And then we're off to see Alfons Mucha's famous paintings of THE SLAVIC EPIC AT THE CASTLE IN MORAVSKÉ KRUMLOV. Babička just knocked and said we leave in 10 minutes.)

Monday: We made friends. We ate food. We made bracelets, played games, and did an "Indian war" which was throwing wet sponges at each other.

Tuesday: Lucie made a friend named Lucie. She asked me questions about America. It was really cool. I ate ice cream even though I was told not to. We had to solve a mystery. We had to send a person to see what the pictures meant and there would be a letter. When we were done, we had to piece every single word together to make a sentence. It had something to do with tomahawks. Then we made tomahawks. (Which had to dry for three days.)

Wednesday: Antonin got in trouble and had to get a punishment, which he said was actually fun because he got to run laps around a track. Antonin played with a boy named Adam who is Czech and lives in Florida. Adam prefers speaking English.

Thursday: We got to take the bus to Zlin and we spent half the day there. We went to the center to the shopping mall "Green Apple" and played with toys, Legos, and puzzles. Antonin bought tiny Pokemon cards and some regular ones that I think are fake because the HP was like 43,543 points! That's crazy!

Friday: Was the last day of tabor. We were supposed to go to the forest, but we didn't because it was raining. So we stayed inside. I played chess with the teacher. He was a really good chess player. He beat me like 4 times. We got to take home the shirts that we painted on Wednesday. I was really sad to say goodbye to my new friends, especially the other Lucie.