Week 25: the update

Greetings from Slovakia!
I have gotten back into the regular boring routine of things
Last Friday, after work I went with Rina to get my hair cut. I had been a bit apprehensive (OK, downright scared) about getting it cut to this point, not speaking the same language and all that, but Rina helped me, and 6 or 7 inches later, I am very happy!! I’m getting lots of compliments and people don’t recognize me from behind.
Saturday I went shopping for jeans. I was successful in figuring out my size...it’s a blow to your ego to go up over 20 pant sizes :) I was not successful in finding a pair of pants that fit. Oh well. Maybe I’ll try again some evening this week.
Sunday I tried something different in church. I did the morning service without a translator, I just wanted to see how much I could follow after 5 and a half months. The answer to my question was more words than I expected, but not enough to tell you anything about the sermon except that it was from Philemon.
I spent Monday working on the CampFest Hymn video, picking the best from each night to combine the three performances into one video. I’m currently in a waiting pattern for the music to be remixed before I do final sound video sync.
Tuesday morning, I started working on the Strateny V Tme music video. Specifically on taking a series of photos of the graffiti being created and merging them into one clip. This was very time consuming, but it was actually a lot of fun. Zuzka and I spent most of the afternoon trying to make the downstairs look like it is not a construction zone, cleaning tables, relocating stacks of things, rearanging furniture.
Wednesday was a debrief meeting from CampFest. Ad’a translated for me, and I actually understood a fair deal on my own. I find that I either understand the specifics or the big idea. Rarely both. My comprehension is still a little on the slow side. The focus of the meeting was mostly to figure out what should be done differently next year, and most of it had very little to do with me. It was a long day.
Thursday was more editing the graffiti clip, a great Slovak Lesson, and being reminded that no matter how much we clean up downstairs, we still work in a construction zone. I sat at an empty desk across the room because Erik was standing on my desk pounding holes in the ceiling with a hammer. Ander was also moving and banging things part of the day.
Friday was a day off for some sort of Catholic holiday. I hung out around the house played outside, and helped with some painting. The other achievement was learning the word rieditlo, “paint thinner.” I am adding it to my list of “really useful everyday words” along with “wire,” “glove,” 2 words for “shovel,” and “duck”.

There is not much going on in the office. We are still easing into the idea that summer is over and getting ready for Timothy School.

Please keep praying.