Thursday....coming to an end :( I'm really sad!

Today, again, was AMAZING!! For the morning workshop, we just went through the video that we would shoot later. That only took about 30 minutes, then the girls and I went to the beach!! We hung out there for a bit, then came to dinner (they call 'lunch' dinner). After that, we just hung out! Then at 3, Joanna, Ola, Voytek and I came to shoot the video. It took about 2 hours to shoot it, but it was worth it. It was a production that the Drama workshop made up. It was the Parable of the Good Samaritan! They did an amazing job. (We definatly have some up coming actresses!)

After the shoot, the girls wanted to go back to the beach, so we headed over there. I didn't get in the water this time, but just sat on the side watching them goof off in the water. Joe came down to the beach, but didn't want to get in the water either, so we just chatted. Jt ended up asking Ola to go with him to the big banquet. (It was his birthday yesterday by the way!)

After he asked, she and the girls headed up to get ready for it. They had an hour and a half, but they needed all the time they could get! I went up and changed, then went to their room and talked with them as they got ready! They all looked gorgeous, although they were just wearing a nice pair of jeans and a nice shirt. The banquet was enjoyable. It was outside, so we sat on blankets on the ground. After we ate, they had a time to worship outside. The worship leaders sang a variety of songs, english and polish! I was running the camera, but Joanna and a couple of other people came and stood by me and worshiped.

After all the kids (teens...whatever) went to bed, our group from America went to Gorskies! It is an amazing restaurant here. We had gone the first night we got here, but we couldn't stay away! They have amazing polish food there! Since it was JT's birthday, Tomak (the guy who has been helping us a lot here) got him 2 authentic birthday cakes. One had strawberries in jello on the top, and the other looked like a long tube and had chocolate in it! It was so good!

I was writing to someone back in the states last nigh, and I told them that I was going to cry when I say goodbye to my girls, and I started to tear up. It's going to be really hard, but I know has a reason why we came and has a plan for me and all of them in the future!

Wednesday!!!

Each day just gets better and better!! Today, we watched some short videos (5 minutes or so each). Then, during the afternoon workshop, the girls and Voytek and I had a meeting with the Drama group and talked about what we are recording for them.

Our group got to get out about 45 minutes early from our workshop cuz we didn't have anything to do. (We are just waiting on the drama team to finish up the script!) So, Ola, Marta, Aqnes and I went down to the beach and just layed in the sun chatting. All of a sudden, these guys came and picked up Aqnes and threw her in the water. They came and got Marta and did the same thing. Ola and I looked at each other with terror in our eyes and ran!!! hah We ran and ran, until I decided to take a different path than her, but it was a dead end, so I was caught and they threw me in the water!! Ola had ran back to her room and finally, after about 5 minutes or so, came back to the beach! It was so much fun just hanging out with a bunch of polish kids, although I didn't know what they were saying half the time.

Earlier today, those 3 girls had taught me a cartoon song that goes a little like this... "Pat i kot. Kot i pat. Pat i kot pchiachela ob at". :) we were singing it all day long!! It's cool :) They also have taught me a little polish, "Gene Dobre" means "good morning". Alex said that to them yesterday when he meant to say the word for thank you. lol so, we make fun of him for it! "Dobre" means "ok". So, when they are talking in polish, I just randomly say "Dobre". Another word for "ok" is "Dobre Gem". I know I'm not spelling these right, i'm just trying to put them in ways you can pronounce it...kinda! hah

I love the girls I work with and it will be sad when I leave.

Monday maddness

Monday was amazing...like usual :) We got in our groups and started talking 'video'. I ended up with 6 girls and one guy. Thankfully, they all speak english. However, some are not as good as others. So, sometimes they have to translate what I say, but it's not that often :) I love my group!! During the day, we had 2 workshops. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Worship service, of course, was great! :)

Amazing Song!

Yesterday at Church, a lady sung a song and it was called God of Justice. It was an amazing song! It talked about going out into the world and just loving on people! It such a great song! It's by Tim Hughes. It is such an encouraging song. Alex and I were trying to figure out a song to use for a promo video for The Andy Project, and we were just praying that God would show us a song. And, like God always does, He answered our prayers!! It's amazing how God works :)

Here are the lyrics:

God of Justice, Saviour to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give


Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

Saturday and Sunday

SATURDAY

We went to a town about an hour and a half away and we went to the longest shopping road in Poland! It's only for pedestrians and bikes. It was really long and we walked down most of it! We stopped for ice cream and shrimp at McDonalds and a little ice cream shop. Then we went to the 2nd largest mall in Europe! IT WAS HUMONGOUS!! Seriously, I've never seen anything like it! On the outside, it had a beach volleyball net set up and a bunch of open space! (I'll get pics up sometime!). Also, it had a race car place set up. It was the coolest thing ever!! I could have spent the whole day there and not get through everything...it was that big!


SUNDAY

This morning, the last of the groups from last week left the campus, Belarus and Ukraine. Which means Pasha left. It was cool talking to him while he was here. In the short time we talked, I could tell he has a real heart for God and I know that God is going to use him in so many different ways. I was sad cuz that means a whole new group of people would be here, but it will be cool having different people here.

We went to Church and just hung out the rest of the afternoon. Then, campers got here and we had our first Media Challenge meeting! Finally, we get to teach people how to use cameras, lights, sound and editing to make movies!! I'm really excited about it!! Can't wait for this week to get going :)

Mwah!!

Ayla

Pictures from the Rap video

I blogged the other day about the rap video we shoot.

Here are some pictures that I took! Alex has some up on his blog too!

Our Video

Here is a video we made today. We went down to watch the finals and decided to shoot a video! I shoot all of the footage and Alex edited it! We edited it all and translated it in less than 3 hours!! Pretty sweet, eh? :)

Friday // the last day of basketball camp!

Today was the last full day of basketball camp. They had their tournaments. We started off by doing 3 one minute long interviews. They were not the big set up interviews, just a camera, microphone and some headphones. It was easy. We did them outside, so we didn't have to worry about lighting or anything like that.

Since we haven't seen any of the games since we've been here, we went down and watched the finals after we did the interviews. It was a lot of fun!! But, being the techno weenies as we are, we decided to shoot a video! So, we got "The Best of PROeM Basketball Camp". I had the camera and got shoots of 17 different BEST's. ((Abs, hair, farmers tan, Vin Diseal look-alike, ladies shorts, most coordinated outfit, most vertically challenged, female head gear, best looking female ref, best individual supporter, laziest reff, "hottest" score keeper, sunglasses on the court, nails in the WMBA, fans, and tecnno weenie bball player aka. Alex!! haha)) I'll try to get it up online if I can! We are editing it and hopefully showing it at the last service tonight!! We have only 2 hours left, and we still need to eat dinner! aaahhh craziness!!

Mwah!!

Fun Times!!!

So, I blogged at 1am this morning talking about the rap video we were shooting! It went on for a while after that. Finally, by 1:45 we were all done and torn down and put the chairs back!! It was one of the coolest things ever! :)

After that, around 2am, JT, Archie (one of the workers here), and I went around to the cabins waking people up with flashlights! We would go into people's rooms and shine the light in their faces and wake them up!! I was in charge of the camera. We recorded everything that happened!! It was so much fun!! I got in my bed at 4:15am and got up at 7:45am.

I've already been stopeed by multipul people asking me if I was in their rooms last night. haha I play it off as no, but they have all seen right through me. haha One girl said to me, "You better watch your backs! haha

Can't wait to do it again next week :)

Belarus Rap

I'm in the middle of a Belarus Christian Rap video shoot. It's 1am here and we have been here for hours working on this!! It's soo cool!! I think this is the best part of my week so far!!! I'll get pics up later, maybe tomorrow or something. I am loving it!! Everyone is complaining about it being late, but since we are working on this, it doesn't seem that late to me. But, oh well :) I will try to get a copy of it on here!! They will get it up on youtube and maybe i'll link you to that!!

Mwah!

Tursday-in town!

Today we went into Tomaszow, the town 10 minutes from the camp were at. We went to the TOMY Center (the place the church is at). We shot some footage of the kids there at the English Camp (a week long activity at the church where kids are helped with learning english). After that, we went to a pizza parlor. JT, Alex and I shared a huge pizza! It was so tasty!

After lunch, we went throughout the town shooting more footage of the town. We then went to their new church building, which is being renovated at the moment. It should be ready to open in 2 months! (Be praying for the Church as they start moving in!!)

We then came back to the camp and just hung out until dinner (which was only about an hour and a half). We climbed the rock wall, which was a lot of fun! Dinner tonight was out at the campfire, with sausages and sourcraut! It was really good!!

At the moment, we are just chillin' here in the office, myspace-ing, facebook-ing, blogging..etc!!

Hope you all are having an amazing summer!! Can't wait to see you all again :)

Andrew's Twin && Greg

I have 3 pictures to put up tonight :)


So, there is this kid here named Brandon. He is here with another group from America, actually from Colombus, Indiana (what a coincidence)! I think he is the same age of me. He is here working with the basketball camp!

Anyways, I have seen him around camp a lot and he reminds me of my friend, Andrew Wong :) He looks like him at a glance. But, once I look at him more, I realize it's not him and that he is back home, not here in Poland with me. But, the other night after worship, his group was hanging around the chapel and we were finishing up cleaning up the tech stuff. So, I went up to him and asked if I could get a picture with him. I explained that he reminded me of my friend back home. So, he graciously agreed to get a picture with me. (thanks buddy!)

Then, yesterday I was walking to the office to finish up the video that I was making, and he stopped me and we talked for a few minutes. It turns out that he is 50% chinese, which is why he reminds me of Andrew, who is 25% chinese!! (pretty sweet, eh??) haha




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Another person I'd like to tell you about is Greg (can't pronounce his full name!), a polish intern. I kinda mentioned him in my blog from Monday or Tuesday night! I haven't talked to him much, but he's a pretty cool kid! And, he is extremely tall!! he's like a whole 2 heads taller than me (you can tell in the picture!! :)


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Here's a picture of me as I was typing this blog! I'm having an amazing time here and I can't wait to see you all in 10 days!

Sour Cream anyone?

ok, funny story!! So, we got to Poland last saturday and we were hanging out around town. We went to dinner and I wanted sour cream for the Perogies (my favorite polish food!). Stephanie, one of the missionaries here, said that sour cream was really good with Perogies, so I tried it. We had to pay for it, and we had to pay for ketchup for french fries. haha So, we got it and she said that I probably wanted to mix salt in it cuz it wasn't like regular sour cream. so i was like, ok sure :) So, I took the bowl that was in front of me and put some of it in my sour cream and mixed it all up! I put some on my Perogies and tasted it!! I said "This is really sweet". And, she asked if I had put salt in it and I said "Yea!". I showed her the bowl that i had taken it out of and she said "Ayla, that's not salt!! That's sugar!!" HAHA I was like, "ooohhh" hahaha it was hilarious!! :)

:)

Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday

Sorry again. I didn't have time to do anymore yesterday!

All we did yesterday was edit. I shot a video for Jennie (as you see below). I edited that all day. It was a lot of fun doing that! Jennie, I'm glad that you loved it!! :) I spent hours and hours shooting and recording! By the way, the three girls near the beginning said "Happy Birthday". Then, I got the whole camp (150 kids from around the world) sing "Happy Birthday" in polish (but only the polish people knew how to sing it! haha).

We finished a few interview's and it was a long day! Some of us went to bed around midnight, but Alex, JT and I stayed up til after 1am. What fun times :)

I am loving the food they serve us here!! In the morning they have cold cut sandwiches and cereal. Then for the 2nd round, they bring us something else; eggs, sausage, or something like that. Then for lunch they have a traditional meal (it's their biggest meal of the day, like dinner for us). They have soup on the table when we get in and after a few minutes, they bring the main dish. We have had everything imaginable! Tuesday, for example, they served a pasta salad type of thing. It was amazing.

Today, I spent the day with Archie (one of the guys who works here). We went down to the courts and I shot some footage, then got everything on the computer and edited all day (again). I made a 2 minute long video. They showed it at worship tonight!

I'm having an amazing time here and I am so excited that I have a whole 10 more days here! That's amazing to say because we were planning on only being here for 10 days, but it's extended! I love it :)

Miss you all lots!!

Mwah~Ayla

Special Birthday Treat

Hey Jennie!! Happy Birthday dear!! I'm really sorry that I can't be in the Burg for your birthday. But, I hope your having an amazing day!! I can't wait to see you!! Only a week and a half left :) Mwah

Happy Birthday!

Hey Jennie!! Happy Birthday dear!! I'm really sorry that I can't be in the Burg for your birthday. But, I hope your having an amazing day!! I can't wait to see you!! Only a week and a half left :) Mwahh!!

Monday Activities/Tuesday morning so far

Sorry I didn't get to get any blog done yesterday. It was a crazy busy day!! We did a lot! I don't think that I have told you exactly what we are doing this week (if I did, i'll tell you again!). We are at an inernational camp here in Poland. Our group is doing video shoots and interviews for this camp, and at some point for the local church here.

We got up Monday and did the usual: Shower, Breakfast, Worship! As soon as worship was over, we got to shooting. We did 5 interviews throughout the day.

The first lady was from America. We had a lot of fun shooting with her and the whole set was beautiful! She told her story about she had to drop out of college because she got pregnant. She told us how she loved being here cuz she could be herself; take showers, wear makeup, and her nails were still gorgeous! haha We asked her how she played basketball without breaking them, and she said "I'm just careful!". She had such a sense of humor and it was great talking with her.

We interviewed 4 other people, including 2 polish men who work here and two other American counselors. It took up all of our day, but it was deffinatly worth it! I'll get a video up sometime this week of one of our productions!

We had time to relax for a little bit, so in that time we played some frisbee and cornhole. After dinner, Jt, Victoria and went to play some more frisbee and two interns came and played with us. One of them, David, is from the USA and has been here off and on for the past year. He is going back in December for a year, then moving back to Poland to live. Another guy is a Polish guy. His name is Gorgeschkie...or something like that! haha he sad to call him Greg! He had some pretty sweet frisbee moves!! :)

We got to bed early last night! It was really nice and we got to sleep in this morning about an hour!! After worship today, I went with Gordo and his wife to go do some B-roll (basically just extra footage) of the people we interviewed yesterday. They were on the basketball courts, so I got to see some basketball :)

I'll write more later tonight!!

Ayla

Sunday

Aloh!!

We got up this morning and got on a charter bus to get to Church. There were a bunch of english speaking groups on the bus with us. We got there and our group got to video taping. Joe, JT and I got shots of the worship service and during the sermon. While Alex and Katlyn went upstairs with the little kids and got some shots with them. We met them outside around the middle of the service and hung out with the little kids learning some Polish. They laughed at us as we used Katlyn's polish book to try and say things to them. They could all speak english, so they were helping us out! Alex and David (one of the little kids) became best buddies. It was really cool seeing the two of them talking, David laughing at Alex, and Alex being completely confused. haha It was a lot of fun!!!

Once we got back, we ate another amazing polish meal. Lunch time is their big meal, like Dinner is our's. So, we had soup, meat, and potato's. It was really good, but the soup was really tomato-y...however you say that!! lol

After that, Alex, JT, Victoria, Joe, Katlyn and I toured the camp we are staying at (we haven't been here during the day the whole 2 days we've been here). It's a really nice campus. (by the way, Joe, Victoria and Katlyn are the other teens in our group..they are from Arizona. And JT is someone Alex and I met last summer at the St. Louis Media Challenge we went to!) We played some Volleyball, team Indiana verse team Arizona. Then we jumped in the river. It's the longest river in Poland. It was nice and warm, when the sun wasn't behind the clouds!!

Now, Alex, Jt and I are being Techno Weenies on the deck doing computer stuff...editing, blogging, facebooking..etc! Tonight is the first worship service at this camp. It will be fun seeing a bunch of European basketball Christians worshiping the One who made us!!

Hope you all are having a great day and week!!! I love and miss all of you!!

Mwah!!

Ayla

First Full Day In Poland!

Hello Friends!!
I am loving Poland! It is a beautiful country! Today I had a lot of mixed emotions!!

We got up and left by 6:45am to go to Auschwitz. It was a long 3 hour drive there anticipating what we would see. JT, Alex and I ended up falling asleep on the way over there. (They had missed their alarm, so we had to get them during breakfast). We got there and watched a 20 minute video on the history of Auschwitz. Then we had a tour guide take us around the camp. It was a 2 hour guide, and very emotional. There were times where I cried and there were times where I just looked at everything and prayed. It was hard to imagine that thousands of people were tortured there.

We saw rooms filled with human hair, glasses, luggage, shoes, and other valuable things. There was a prison in the camp where they would make 4 people go in a little room, a yard square. They had to stand there all night. People would die there because of lose of oxygen, but if you didn't die, you would have to work another 12 hour day shift the next day. They wouldn't be able to sleep cuz they had no room to be on the ground. It was emotional to see those little rooms. Then we went to Birkeneau, the one they use for the movie Schindlers List. It was emotional too.

After that, we went to Krakow and did some souvenir shopping. We saw some pretty interesting characters! There were about 20 men dressed up as Fred from The Flinstones, at an outside bar. Then they walked around the square in Krakow. It was really funny!!

Well, It's one in the morning here and we gotta get up for Church. So, enjoy back home in Indiana. And, don't forget to comment and let me know how your doing :)

Mwahh!!

Ayla

Traveling to Poland!

Hey Everyone!!!
I am in Poland!! It is 11:20pm Friday the 18th here, but 5:20pm in Indiana. It has been a long two days! We flew out at 6:30pm on Thursday the 17th and went through Chicago, where we met the rest of our group. We then flew 8 and a half hours over to Warsaw, Poland. As I sat between Alex and JT, I realized that it was going to be a long flight! haha Not saying that's bad, cuz they know I love them mucho :) I didn't sleep well at all. I was up all night, tossing and turning on the little thing they call a seat. (Oh, flying is fun!) I finaly got to sleep and slept for about an hour or two I would guess.
We arrived at 2pm our time, 8am Indiana time. We spent the day with our host, Thomas and his wife. We spent the day touring Warsaw, seeing sites, eatting amazing polish food and of course, being exhausted. We had so much fun getting to know the other people in our group and walking around like tourists :) The camp we are staying at is two hours away from Warsaw, so we had a long drive after touring all day.
Alex, Jt and I are now sitting in the cafeteria here at the camp on Wi-Fi. Thomas calls it Wee-Fee!
Well, there is probably more I could tell you about, but I'm exhausted and I think we might be getting back to our cabins soon.
Love and miss you all a lot!!
Ayla

Leaving Tomorrow

Hey Everyone!

I thought I would say a quick hello and let you all know that I'm leaving for Poland tomorrow! I'm really excited! I found out in the last 24 hours that I will be staying for an extra week. So, I'll be there until August 3rd! I'm so excited about it! 

Check out my blog everyday cuz I should have a blog or two each day :)

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