Tuesday # 6: "Danke säge" / balloons on steroids

We got back to Zürich from our Goa trip on Saturday afternoon, and got right back into the swing of things. Kids were back at school on Monday. With jet lag working in the right direction, they were getting up bright as buttons at 5am. This week’s Unti session was very sweet. The theme was “Danke sagen” (saying “Thank you”). We had a full schedule: we were to discuss what we are/should be thankful for, read a short story about a boy whose prayer sent by balloon gets answered, write “Thank You” letters to the parents that I would mail, and write a “Thank You” letter to God send via red helium balloon. The parish ordered the balloons and instructed us to pick them up the morning of our class at a local craft shop. At the shop, I asked for two balloons, as I had in mind that these were like birthday party balloons (a little bit bigger than an adult’s head), and perhaps that we might need two to get God’s letter aloft. The lady taking my order was gone for about ten minutes, and came back with two enormous balloons. (Balloons on steroids. Four of these would get Olive flying!) The kids seemed to have enjoyed the session. At some point, I told them that we would be reading a “sehr kurz” (very short) story. They started jumping up and down in excitement. “You like the shorter stories that much better than the others?” I ask. (Story-telling is my weak point, as I am not comfortable paraphrasing German and tend to read verbatim from the book. I know that they tend to get bored quickly with the stories.)  Zoe ignores that question and asks, “What kind of Zirkus (circus) are we doing?” Oh. Sehr kurz / Zirkus, I see where the confusion comes from. It is a bit of a let-down for them that there would be no circus, but they cheer up considerably when we go out to launch the balloon with the letter to God. I really wish I had my camera. Instead, I only have the picture in my mind’s eye, of them standing shoulder-to-shoulder cheering as the balloon shoots up into the unusually clear January afternoon sky.