Well, some days you just have to stretch your legs, get out there among the people, and see what happens. Yesterday was such a day as Dawn and I decided to take advantage of a beautiful day here in Brno to test our “Google Map plotted” route to the complex at Majak. We have been there a couple of times but we have always gone by car with someone else. So, we took our instruction sheet and monthly tram / bus pass and headed out. Majak is a multi purpose facility right on the edge of town (across town from us) and it takes around 45 minutes to get there in this fashion. On Sunday evenings, the facility hosts an English speaking worship service which is comprised of several missionary families from the area. These folks are from various missions sending organizations. Some people who come are expats from different countries who just happen to be living and working in Brno.
Now, when you are new to an area, this is highly suggested anyway… to add to your cultural acquisition. Just getting out in the public and eating at new places, exploring new parts of town, trying to strike up conversations with people… you get the picture. Naturally, with our limited Czech language skills, at this point the conversations are usually very short! Yesterday, we had one such conversation with a Roma fellow in a restaurant. We tried to get somewhere with our words but other than the fact that he let me know he was a gypsy (in his words) and maybe that he wanted me to buy him a beer, we didn’t make much head-way. Of course… the Nicholas’ didn’t indulge him with another brewsky… he was already sipping one one that someone else must have provided.
As we journeyed on, we rode the tram to the Roma area of town where we bumped into the fellow who usually plays accordion at the Roma church. We had a quick little conversation of hello, isn’t it a beautiful day… this right as the next tram pulled up which we had to jump on to continue our travels for the day. We politely said by-bye and moved on. As you see in the few pictures below, we made it to our destination! There was also a bus ride in the mix of this and we learned a valuable lesson about traveling by bus in this area. The bus near Majak which brings you back toward town only stops every 20 minutes… so, now I understand why some folks run to the bus stops! If your timing is off, you will tack on 20 minutes to the travel time… oh my! Well, after we retraced our route back to our area of town, Stary Liskovec, we got off the tram and spotted a young man whom we had met at the English worship service at Majak just last week… cool how stuff ties together, right? He is from India and is living here because of his job. He just yesterday moved into the immediate area which we live in. I haven’t asked him directly yet but I am pretty sure he is Christian because of our conversation at church last weekend. Maybe we might have opportunity to visit and talk about life and ministry some day, now that he is my neighbor. We shall see.
