The main task for the final month of this year's project ,, Family Next Door,, was remaining ten meetings around a table. We wanted to continue successful November meetings, which were praised by the overwhelming majority of participants.
One third of the planned meetings had to be postponed to December, because the flu epidemic started to rage in the Czech Republic. Even in December, we were in mild tension as to whether all the meetings would be able to take place, because the flu epidemic not only did not abate, but gained strength. In the end, everything was great and in the month of December, the remaining twenty families joined the project - ten Czech and ten families of foreigners from third countries.
The meetings took place acording to plans.
One of the families decided whether or not to be the host. Registered families were matched based on specific criteria (age, profession, job, interests, number and age of children, etc.), which ensured common topics of conversation and a friendly atmosphere. After all, this is confirmed by the words of František Lomský, assistant at the meeting of the Jandečková and Meisarosh families:
"The Ukrainian family prepared a great, rich and beautifully lunch. It must have been a lot of work. All vegetarians (due to a Czech family who don’t eat meat) and from the Ukrainian Subcarpathian cuisine. Children were a big topic of the conversation, the Jandečeks family have a two-year-old girl and the Meisaroshes family have 3 boys from 3 to 10 years old. The atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed. Without talking about special topics, no one wanted to end the meetings- even for the sake of the children. A small Czech girl Jasmínka enjoyed the company of two younger Ukrainian boys and they were very spontaneous and communicative. When the moment came to return home, there was a hitch. Jasmínka told her parents to leave her there and go home alone. She wanted to stay with the Ukrainian family. So from now on there will be four siblings and the boys will have a new sister? Dad negotiated in vain... The toy helped and also the fact that in the end the Ukrainian family also went outside. The families agreed that they would meet again not only for the sake of the children."
We can therefore, with a clear conscience, evaluate this year as a big success. During the year, 218 people joined the project Family Next Door - 60 families, including foreigners from India, Georgia, Vietnam, Belarus, Armenia, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Ukraine, Russia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
New friendships were made and the realization that cultural differences can enrich you, there is no need to fear them. After all, we as a people have more in common and that is what the project ,,Family Next Door,, is primarily about.
