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I woke up this morning at 5am local time, both Chris and I had finally passed out at around 6pm the night before, exhausted from the plane ride. I was the first one up and took the opportunity to go out on the balcony and look over our little garden. It finally hit me that we made it to our destination. This trip has been a long time coming, but even if we only had today, it was worth it.
We started out the day by finding the metro, which was the beginning of the arduous task of figuring out how to read the street signs. We finally found the metro, then it was figuring out how to buy tickets, and which station to get off on.
After a mini-adventure on the metro, we finally located the Hilton, where our team facilitator is staying. Walking into the Hilton after the morning we had was like coming back to America. We were able to get maps and arrange for a bus tour of the city. We also formulated an attack plan on the best way to recruit businesses.
After breakfast, we headed off in the city to find the municipal building, which is a beautiful baroque building with gold accents. This was the first part of the city that we saw that was beautiful and it only got better from there. On the bus tour we finally got our bearings and got an idea of what we want to see while we are here. Half way through the bus ride it started to rain. We were in for a wet walk home. As I dug for my umbrella, I managed to drop my camera on the tour bus, unbeknownst to me, of course, until after the bus had left. Once I realized I had "misplaced" my camera, I had to run back to the bus station. Of course, the tour company had closed for the day. There was a telephone number listed for after hours, but I had no idea how to use the local pay phones. In the end, I did figure out how to use the pay phones after about a 30 minute session that involved the process of elimination. Lucky for me the company found my camera and we are going on another adventure tomorrow morning to retrieve it.
After the wet walk back we sat down to eat dinner. The food is actually not bad here, and while it is true that you would not come to Prague just for the food, I am sad to say I wont be loosing as much weight as I hoped!
After dinner we called Martin, an agent for home sweet home, in hopes that Aarons luggage had finally turned up. Lucky it had, but we had 20 minutes to get to his office before it closed. We were still getting used to getting around Prague, and was worried that we would never make it in time. Aaron would then have to go naked until Monday, something no one on the team wanted.
Thanks to a couple of nice business owners, and one nasty cop, we were able to find the office and not only got Aarons luggage, but were also able to procure two cell phones.
Just having the cell phones made us feel connected again; we had started to go through cell phone/internet withdrawals. Not relishing the idea of carrying Aarons 50 lb bag though downtown Prague in the rain, we had Martin call us a taxi.
We couldn’t have been luckier with the driver we got. The driver was a Russian Orthodox from Yugoslavia. We noticed the cross he had hanging on his rear view mirror and Aaron asked if he went to church. With 50% of the population of Prague not believing in God, it was a welcome site. We then started to talk about why we had come the Czech Republic. The taxi driver said that the people of Prague were "cold" and the we couldn’t have picked a worse place to come minister to. He went on to say that here no one cared about God, that Prague would never ask for His favor, and that the people would not care to hear about our Lord. Well, as you can imagine, instead of having the intended effect, we were gladdened by the fact that there is room to witness. When we explained that we were looking forward to the challenge, the driver then understood that we were sent here to shine a light down the path of the Lord, whether or not the people wanted to travel it. The driver was such a blessing, he only charged us 100 Kr ($4.97) for the taxi ride that should have been double. We left him with our email address and a dream to come to America, where God was appreciated. I left him with a dollar to spend there, once he came, with the clear and definite motto: "In God We Trust." It has been a good day.