It was a bittersweet day today as it was our last day with our students. Randy and I took our class out for a nice lunch to a restaurant that featured traditional Slovakian food. The restaurant had many traditional Slovakian costumes hung on the walls and around the room. In the center of the room was an enclosed fireplace with the most massive copper hood I have ever seen. The students told us that in the winter the fireplace is used to heat the restaurant. The food was delicious, but the company and conversation was even better.
After returning to school, the closing program took place and the students from both the Washington Church EFL group and the California EFL group did such a great job showing off their new English language skills. Some classes sang, some did cheers, some did skits. Two of the more advanced classes from California performed skits based on Slovakian and/or American Fairy Tales. Charlotte and Ryan's class did an absolutely great version of Little Red Riding Cap (Little Red Riding Hood) with Charlotte being the grandmother and Ryan being the wolf. Ryan did a magnificent job of opening the skit as the narrator and speaking some Slovak. The students cheered! Way to go Ryan.
Our class did a "Remake" of the Slovakian Fairy Tale, The Farmer and the Sugar Beet. The gist of the story is that the farmer tries to pull out a big sugar beet and he can't it, so he calls his wife, and his son, daughter, the family dog, cat and finally a mouse and by all pulling together they manage to get the job done. Pastor Randy was a wonderful "son" to Lucash and Jana acting the parts as the Farmer and his wife, I was the "daughter", Nadia was the "Top Dog", Nadka was our "Hello Kitty", and last but not least Milan was our "Computer Mouse". What fun we had preparing our parts, costumes and props. Many laughs were shared in this process. At the end of the program all 10 of the California teachers sang two songs to the whole student body. We sang "We Are So Flexible", and "So Long, Farewell" which was so much fun. All of the students received their certificates of completion for the course as each class finished their part of the program.
As if that wasn't enough for one day, the staff hosted a farewell party for all of the teachers this evening. There was a great deal of food, music, singing and dancing. Each teacher received their certificate of appreciation and a beautiful gift from the staff. It was the perfect ending to two weeks that I will never forget. I think it is going to take a few weeks to absorb all of the sights, sounds, songs, people, foods, prayers, church services in two languages, and people sharing thoughts and ideas and values even though they didn't speak the same language. It has been a pleasure and privilege to be here, to be an accepted part of this team, and to share this experience with such a dedicated and kind group of people. Thanks for the memories!
Sincerely,
Sharron Jackman
Charlotte & Ryan's class
Jennifer & Breck's class
The band at the Farewell Dinner program tonight
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