Projects Presentation in Trutnov

It was 16:30 and the outside temperature was about 10 degrees when Michaela, Zuzinka and I were leaving a district of  Frydek Mistek to Trutnov. Trutnov is a city in the Hradec Kralove region of the Czech Republic.

We have project presentation in this city where Bez mamy volunteer Radka Hojna invited us. None of us has ever been to this city,so we needed map to reach our destination as the car GPS was broken. Michaela was driving and Zuzinka was the navigator

We drove for at least 4 hours to the City.  When approaching the city we figured out that the temperature was completely different from where we came from. Snowy rainfall and the temperature was absolute zero

No one in the car was well equipped with this kind of temperature, Michaela had summer clothes, I had winter boots but only one Jacket, Zuzinka had better jacket but summer shoes. We all need help

We reached Ratka´s house safely, thanks to the good driver and a navigator. Meeting Radka is another encounter after Lysa Hora.

On Monday 24th we woke up late as the presentation was supposed to be at 17:00. Before leaving the house for a sightseeing I had to call Marian, a Czech man who lived in Arusha,Tanzania for 5 years. This man is the organizer and translator of my presentation.

We all wanted to surprise him by Swahili language.

Radka dialed the number and handled a phone to me, Marian Picked up and he started speaking in Czech , I don’t know what he said exactly;    

„Habari yako Bwana Marian“ I said in Swahili
Nzuri, He replied surprisingly
Habari za kuamka“ I asked again
Salama, Chris? He replied and asked
Ndiyo bwana“
„Could we switch to English?
Yes of course.

We made an appointment of meeting later at 15:00. At the moment we had to go out for sightseeing after Radka equipped us with some warm gears.

We first visited World War II bunkers, very interesting but unfortunately the museum was closed so I didn’t get more stories about these interesting bunkers

From there we went to visit coalmine which was established in 1570 and closed in 1992. History and technology are always my favorite, I was interested much on old mining trains, bells and old dial phones communication, elevator operation and technology

After this interesting tour we went for lunch at the city square where we met Marian. It is the second time I’m speaking Swahili in Europe after the last encounter with Frank in Prague

The presentation started as planned with encouraging audiences and journalists of the regional magazine. As usual I talked about Tanzania, life differences, children lives, education, health care and moreover; our projects in Mbeya region, where we started, achievements and our future plans

Our African projects has been on the news ever since I arrived here, Czech National TV, Polar TV, Universities news,  Dobratice newsletter and now we will be in  a regional magazine in Trutnov. It is a good fate for orphans involved in our project in Tanzania