July 12: Back to School!

We started off the morning with breakfast in the hostel before checking out. We then went to the Metković Stjepan Radic Elementary School where our hosts were excited to finally meet us. They split us into four groups and we went into different classrooms for workshops. The workshop groups were art, literature, drama, and music, where singers worked with students from the school to make a presentation for the end showcase. I was in the music group, and we learned the Hokey Pokey in Croatian and then taught it in English.

The teachers of the school were great organizers

After working with our groups we went to lunch at a hotel near the river and sung a few songs as we walked over as advertisement for our concert in a nearby park on Sunday. We could pick from several kinds of risotto that were all very tasty.

The art group

Meredith, Cora, and Finn teaching songs

After lunch we went back to the school and had the showcase of what we had done in the workshop. The literature group had written introductions for all the other performances, and introduced the whole show in both English and Croatian. The art group had made paper cutouts of famous landmarks from both Boston and Metković, and talked about the significance of each site. The music group performed the first verse of the hokey pokey in English and then in Croatian, complete with dancing. The drama group presented a few skits which were all very clever. At the end, the music group went back up and everyone sang “We Are The World” together. After that, we were told who our hosts were and went back to their houses to rest before the concert.

Andrew and Sarah performing their skit

My hosts had prepared Croatian pancakes for us, which were similar to crepes and were very good with lots of different toppings. We then met at the church in Metković to perform our concert.

After rehearsing, we sat outside and watched the sun set over the beautiful valley while the church service went on. We then went inside and performed our sacred pieces. We sounded really good and I think the audience also enjoyed it. Afterwards, we had a pizza dinner at the back of the church and went back home to go to bed with our host families. Overall, it was a good day.

-Meredith