july 31

it is truely amazing here, i actully know people here now (who will speak to me), so it has become really fun lately. I planned a soccer game yesterday and we were able to play 6 on 6. my team composed of 3 american, including myself, and 3 polish people, the other team all polish. it was a very difficult game, these european people can really play. It was a close game, but we won. big suprise right? well i was also the only girl who played, an even bigger suprise. I ended up getting a charlie horse in both calves which went away after a minute, and then i continued play. everyone was impressed that i could play so well for being a girl, but these guys were so good. they would sometimes get too carried away and get it stolen, but for the most part, they could move any which way around me and i wouldn't have much of a chance to stop them.

the guitar workshop is going well, i'm starting to actually sound like i might know what i am doing. simple chords for now, but just practicing transitions. the kids here are great. there are some kids who haven't quite left that teenage "i'm too cool for this" stage yet, but for the most part they are just here to have a good time and praise god. i believe that last night was the largest number of kids to turn their lives over to christ. it was a pretty cool night.

all relationships between church members and staff are great, no arguements or bad feelings towards anyone, which i know of.

the other night we went to grorskis, don't think i spelled that right, but that is how it sounds. it is a truck stop, but more like a resturant and is owned by the polish mafia. they had some really good pork and fries, i don't know what they do with it, but since being here, it about doubled my normal meal size. speaking of food the snack shack here has some awesome juices and these ice cream bars called magnum. they are good.

everything is going well here in poland. only today and tomorrow left at camp and then we are visiting lozy i think that is how you spell it, only there is a slash through the l. there we will be shopping more, i guess there is a big mall there. but for today our schedule is a little different. we are not having our afternoon classes and are all going down to the "beach" or the river and swimming. then there is a banquet, which is usually friday, but it got moved to today. it is a picnic and you dress up and are supposed to have a date for it. pretty much you just eat dinner with someone and look nice. its not for sure all of this, it is just what i've heard. messages tend to miss you or not get translated right or at all or just very delayed.

sometimes i forget i'm in poland, the area is so green, and foresty that you forget you aren't in kansas. just another camp, other than the fact that people around you are speaking and you don't understand them. not understanding what people are talking about has become normal here, i just ask for a translation and then i understand. most counslors here can speak both polish and english, so it isn't too bad. i am going to miss it here when i leave. i wish i could stay longer, just another week or so. i dont know how that would go though. i would have no energy from little sleep and little food. those things i am ready to be back for, as well as to see all of you. as for homesickness, i'm doing great. the first few days here was a little hard, only because it was odd to be from home, but i am getting used to it. another week though and i would definitely be missing home. there are a bunch of little kids, who's parents work here, who i play with and they always remind me of daniel. the girls not so much of rachel, even in another country she is more mature than any girl her age i've met.

mom, dad, rachel, daniel, teddy and maggie i love you all. it will only be a few days until i'll be home, so rachel enjoy wearing my clothes and playing with my phone while you have that privellage. rachel please text jarrett and let her know my email : madeline.heeren@gmail.com. i would really like to be able to get in touch with her. I may be calling you later tonight. if i don't, because it sounds like a pretty crazy day, i will call tomorrow.

papa i will work on getting that polish newspaper when we go into the city.

that is all for now, hopefully i will be able to put up some more pictures here soon.

bye.

July 29 Day 6

Yesterday was the first full day of camp, and it should continue for the rest of the week until Friday, which is a little different because of the last day for campers. In the morning we wake up around 6:15 or so, shower and get ready to meet our Kansas City group for a devotion led by one of our members. After that we have a all church leaders group meeting, followed by breakfast. The breakfast here is very different from what we know in the states. Every meal there is bread, cheese, and meat. For breatfast there is also cereal, but they don't have cold drinks here, so the milk is room temperature. I had this the first morning, but not since then. Usually breakfast consists of two pieces of bread and some peanut butter which I packed. Next we have some free time while the campers eat breakfast. Which I either try to find a computer or pick up my stuff or something. After all of this we have a morning worship, with a small message and the band plays. It is really cool seeing all the kids sing in polish and english. I try to sing, more like lipsing in polish; its hard, but I am starting to be able to pronounce quite a few words right. Afterwards we have our workshops, which I choose to help with the guitar group and learn at the same time. I don't know how much I will learn by the end of the week, but I will have the basics down. I pretty much just keep the instructor on track, making sure he doesn't forget to print of papers and remind the kids to practice certain things.

Around 1 we have lunch, which consists of different foods, usually ending up with bread and a few other foods on my plate. After lunch we have some free time which I have found myself becoming obsessed with a game called carpet ball. It is a very simple game to learn and to create, but it is a lot of fun and all the polish kids love it. So far I am the champ here at camp. I think the kids are getting annoyed with me winning so much and say I am cheating. I just learned yesterday by the way. We have our workshops again at 2 and then have more free time followed by different activities which we can participate in. Dinner is at 6:30 followed by an evening meeting time for everyone. We have free time the rest of the night.

Have to go,

Miss you all,
Maddie

Day1-4

This will not be a very long post, we are waiting on our ride to the church in town.

We arrived on Friday around 6 pm after a plane ride to chicago and then to warsaw, poland. Everything went fairly smooth other than a few snags, but other than that we got through the long 9 hour plane ride to Warsaw, and once we were there we got to spend the rest of the day in old town warsaw, which is beautiful. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures on here one of these nights. We walked around and got some dinner, I don't remember what they are called, but I will figure out what they are and post it on here. We ended up getting home around 11 pm and were temporarily settled in a cabin with some girls.

Yesterday has been one of the most interesting days. We got little sleep waking up around 5 am to get on a bus with another group heading to aschwitz. It was a 3 hour bumpy bus ride. We got a little sleep, but it was restless and interupted sleep. Arriving, we entered the museum first which like everything you hear about the nazi concentration camps. Auschwitz is horrifically beautiful. It isn't what you expect or want to expect. The camp was originally created for polish soldiers so it was very pretty.

Have to go, continue later.

It is 9:30 pm here, its been another very long day; fun, but long.

To continue from eariler, it was quite an experience, we visited Auschwitz I and Birkena. Birkenea was what you would have expected of a concentraion camp, considered to be more of an extermination camp. We visited the all of Auschwitz I and briefly stopped at Brikena.

The more uplifting part of the day we spent in Krakow where we had a few hours to ourselves to eat, shop and do whatever else we wanted. The entertainment was amazing. Just a few different groups of guys on the streets break-dancing. Some of the moves they did I didn't know were even possible. They were doing flips off each other, one-handed hand stand push ups, and another move which you just have to see. I'll put up some pictures below of some of their moves. The city was very beautiful with the oldest buildings in Poland. A little history for you: Krakow was the only city not burned down by the Nazis in Poland, so it was interesting to see all the history in the city. After shopping for hours and eating dinner, we took the train to a town near the camp. I caught maybe an hour of sleep in a dark cabin. We arrived around 1:30 am and after trial and error and a lot of angry awakened campers, finally were settled into our second room of the trip.

Today I woke up around 6:30 am, getting a solid 4 hour of sleep, to shower and get ready for breakfast and church. Today has been a little frustrating with communication. The culture here doesn't walk up to people and introduce themselves. They have friends which they have come with and they are a little difficult to get them to communicate with them. After dinner I did meet two guys while exploring the camp more. They are from here and only one really spoke english, they other only half-understanding what I said. It was an experience, not to be able to communicate, and have to find other ways of trying to get them to understand. They would teach me a few words, which I was to receit and I think they enjoyed that too much. I thought I was saying these words right, I obviously wasn't every time they laughed.

All in all the trip is going very well, a few bumps along the way, but it is all apart of the experience. Tomorrow I am participating in a guitar workshop, so I'm looking forward to learning.

Hope all is well across the pond,

Maddie