One month today!

Today marks one month since I landed in Hungary! So much has happened in the last 10 day's since my last blog, I don't even know where to start or how I can keep it short :) 

David's birthday was great fun. I love being at the Carlaws because we often end up coming up with random ways to entertain ourselves when there is spare time.  The evening somehow ended with an experiment which involved putting children on top a bed of balloons and trying not to pop them (the balloons, not the children). I'm pretty sure I recall this was Sondi's idea. And of course, it also ended up that we team members also ended up on top of the balloons. 

Camp reunion last Saturday was a wonderful success! This was by God's grace because it didn't really feel like we got to prepare much in the end. We had to wing it a little and were a little concerned about how the day would go, and yet it was a fantastic day. We prayed for sunshine because it had been very dreary all week. I faithlessly wore jeans and a sweater anyway, and ended up being roasting hot all day because the weather was gorgeous! Hot and sunny. We had 34 kids show up. It felt a little weird to be back at camp again. It was like we never left! It was so fun to re-live the good times we had this summer. The kids were asking when the next camp reunion was, and if we could have one before we leave the country. Haha, I guess we'll have to see...

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Monday night. Two women who attend our weekly English Bible study joined us, and one other woman from another village who is a friend of Shaun and Sondi's. We had a very nice evening and got an opportunity to Skype our friends David and Virginia Fairbrother who served here last January. They are the ones who really encouraged me to come to Hungary in the first place, and I'm so glad they did!

This last week was packed. Wednesday we were invited to another school to teach an English lesson. This was the first English lesson I have taught in a school. We had a lot of fun with it. Our topic was words of direction or placement, so I had students come up to the board and draw a picture, following my directions, for example "draw a bear on the right side of the tree". The picture I had them draw was an illustration of the scout song "A Bear in Tennis Shoes". Then the three of us sang the song with them on the guitar. 
In the second half of the lesson, we played a game which involved Paul and I being blindfolded. Then Matt placed two cups at different locations in the room. The students had to race to direct Paul and I to their team's cup using English words of direction. The three of us all took turns being blindfolded. Paul usually won. The kids seemed to really enjoy this...and it got pretty loud!
We taught this class twice. The first class was in grade six and the second was in grade eight. The sixth graders still knew how to have fun...but it took a little bit to get the eighth graders to lighten up. They are getting to be too cool by that age. But I think they still enjoyed it.

Yesterday we returned to Peter's school and I had prepared a little science talk. But I kept running out of time because it's hard to factor in the translation when preparing, and 15 minutes quickly becomes only 7 1/2 minutes. It was a bit of a crazy day. The classes were very rowdy, (though they listened ok to me) but I can tell that Peter has his work cut out for him, that's all I can say. We did get a chance to chat with some of Magdolna's English classes so they could practice English, and that was fun. But overall I came home a little disheartened and much behind schedule in preparing for the evening's adult English club. However, all things considered, last night's lesson went very well and so the day ended on a good note. 

So that catches us up to today!

I remain content very happy to be here. We have a great team and we work well together. There is even joy to found in the smaller blessings of life, like the fact that our washing machine is working fabulously now that we know how to use it. No more hand washing! Another blessing is that I found out I can have unlimited calling to Canadian phones for very cheap through Skype and so I am able to keep in touch with family and friends back home. So there's my little ad for Skype. I should get free calls for advertising for them :)

I'm learning a lot while I am here, not only about living life, but about myself, about relationships, and about God's faithfulness. I always find I have so much less to be worried about then I think I do. But everyday brings new challenges so I have to be continuously reminded!

Me, Paul and Matt on our hike on grape harvest day

David the birthday boy

David the timid experimentee

Camp reunion day. A great turnout!

Playing follow the leader

The team preforming the "Bean Soup" skit

Craft time! Glowing mobiles for the boys...

...and glowing fairy jars for the girls

Paul and I singing the Great Big Moose song.
How did it sound? Hmmm...why don't you ask Sondi over there.

Thanksgiving Dinner :)

I can't believe it is three weeks today that I arrived in Hungary. In some ways it feels like I have been here much longer, and in other ways, it feels like I am still just getting settled in. In fact, there are a few things I have only just done for the first time since I got here. This last Friday was the first day I rode the bus alone, and Monday was the first day I actually baked something in my own house! And then there are other things I thought I would be doing every week that I haven't even done yet, like having people over outside of club. 

Life continues to be busy! Most of the time it feels that I am usually only minutes ahead of my schedule, and often behind. I thought today I would give a rough sketch of what my set schedule is each week.

Monday:

• Violin Lessons
• Adult English Bible Study

Tuesday:

• Kids/teen club

Wednesday:

• Monostorapati kids club (I'm probably not going to be so involved with this one, and will be helping Sondi out or using the time for catch up)
• Team prayer meeting

Thursday:

• Adult English Club
• Probably will be teaching or sharing in high schools on Thursdays as well.

Friday: 

• Team prayer walk around town
• Generally a free day to plan and catch up...unless we travel

The between times in this schedule are usually spent baking, lesson planning, cooking meals for our little household, cleaning, occasionally babysitting the boys, (Shaun and Sondi's boys that is, not Matt and Paul, or "my boys" as they are often referred to, mostly by Sondi), and if there is time I practice violin and study Hungarian. 

For those of you who know me, I can tend to be a bit of an overachiever in some aspects and a bit of a perfectionist, and so I am still trying to figure out my priorities. I am beginning to realize that if I am not careful, I'm going to pour all my time and energy into things that don't matter, and miss the things that do matter while I'm here, like making time for people and the relationships I have here. 

And speaking of friends, all of us traveled two hours to Budapest this weekend and had the opportunity to see Roxi, Benji and Annette, three friends we met while at summer camp. Together we spent Saturday doing some sightseeing, and the rest of the weekend I was shopping with Sondi. Sunday we also visited Shaun and Sondi's church.

It was also during my time in Budapest that I became more aware of the state of the economy here in Hungary. Things seem quite expensive. Most things cost about the same as in Canada. Food, transit, and housing seem a little cheaper. Clothing is probably close to the same or more, and gas is more expensive at over $2 per litre. But the minimum wage here is only equivalent to $2 an hour, and Shaun and Sondi said that's what many people live off of. I have no idea how people do it, nor how businesses keep going. I guess there are perhaps enough people making exceptionally good money to support the businesses, and perhaps the tourism keeps things going as well. 

I also got a chance to sort of experience up close how many people live. While in Budapest, Shaun and Sondi's family and I stayed in a small vacant apartment owned by a friend. This apartment was one and a half rooms, and probably 400 sq feet, 500 at best.  I've stayed in camping trailers that were more roomy. Their friends had been living in there as a family of six. With me and the Carlaws, we were a family of six, so we often tried to imagine what it was like trying to do normal life in that tiny apartment. This is not an uncommon living situation in Hungary. When I got back, my suite felt like a mansion, and my little kitchen was just the perfect size.

Today we will celebrate David Carlaw's eighth birthday. Then, this upcoming weekend we are going to have a summer camp reunion where we will try to recreate one day of camp for any kids who would like to come reminisce about the fun we had this summer.  It'll be a lot of work to pull off, but I am really looking forward to it! Following that, we will have a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday or Monday.

Here are a few pictures from my weekend in Budapest.

Sondi and I waiting at the tram in Budapest

Matt, myself, Roxi and Benji standing on the Danube River.
Paul was taking the picture, and Annette was still up the hill.

A glimpse down the street of Budapest

Annette, Roxi, Benji and Matt at Hero Square,
(I am behind the camera) 

Hello friends and family!

Fall has arrived! It was chilly this morning!

Today was perhaps the most interesting day in Hungary so far. I have to start with a little background details first.

One of the public schools here is funded by a Baptist Church, so they allow a Bible class once a week. The teacher, Peter, a theology teacher from Veszprem, asked us if we could come share our faith stories (testimonies) with his Bible classes. I didn’t find the idea too intimidating. We've always had quite a warm welcome from people we meet in Tapolca, since foreigners are a bit of a novelty around here. He said we’d be speaking to kids in their mid-teens, so 15 year olds. That didn’t sound so bad.

Peter asked if we could bring something with us that we brought from Canada that is significant to us. A friend of mine sent her guitar with me to Hungary, so Shaun suggested I bring it and share a song. I thought “sure why not? It’s just a bunch of kids.”

We had four classes to speak to this morning. The first class was at 8:00 and there were probably 25-30 students. It went pretty well, but the students were still a bit groggy. I wasn’t nervous, but I was wondering what possessed me to not only speak, but also to agree to actually bring my guitar and sing a solo in a high school. I think part of it is that you can get away with more when you are a Canadian in a foreign country :)

Second class…hmm…let me set the scene. We are standing in the class as the students pour in and the first thing I notice is they are all guys. The second thing I realized is that 15 year olds aren't actually as young as I remember, so I it wasn't just a "bunch of kids" like I had imagined in my head. The third thing was that I could probably be grateful in this case that I don't understand Hungarian. 

I leaned over to Matt and Paul and commented that it feels like we are about to pour our hearts out to 20 guys in plumbing school.

They picked me to go first, and I could hardly hear myself talk because they were all talking to each other and not listening…which I pretty much expected.  I tried to “man up” my speech a little, including my tone. I think I sounded more like I was yelling at them. If my heartfelt speech wasn’t girly enough, I still had to play a solo on my guitar. Wow. On the outside I probably looked a little exasperated, but I can honestly say on the inside I was laughing pretty hard. I couldn’t imagine what these guys thought of all this. They ran out pretty quickly when it was all over, and, I confess, so did we.

After the class, I asked Peter which trade that class was taking.

“Plumbing” he replied.

*Grin*

The third class we spoke to was in the culinary arts. This was a much bigger class, maybe 30 – 35 students, and this time it was a mix of guys and girls again.

What a contrast! You could tell right away that the three of us felt much more comfortable in this crowd. They were very attentive, and the ones that weren't attentive kept getting shushed by one student who was apparently very serious about her classes.

They were the first class to actually ask me to hurry up and pull out my guitar when I was done my talk. And, after we were all done speaking, they begged Matt and Paul and I to sing another song together. The guys weren't into singing, so the students asked if I would just sing another one by myself, so I did. They actually all stayed even though class was supposed to be out. Some of them took videos too. They were so funny.

When that was all done, they all crowded around us and asked through a translator what we were doing in Tapolca. We told them about English clubs and some of them said they really wanted to come! We could tell they all wanted to talk to us…and this time I regretted that I couldn’t speak Hungarian.

Some of the students were playfully trying to block the door so we couldn’t leave.

The culinary arts students paved the way for our next class by telling the other students, and by the time we arrived in class the kids already knew everything about us. Some of the students from the previous class were trying to come in so they could sit through our class again. They kept leaning in the door and waving.

The fourth class was a little more serious, but definitely still attentive and welcoming. I don’t know what trade they were taking. This class also had a shusher who kept telling the others to be quiet, and one guy in the corner really got it when she saw he was wearing headphones.

Essentially in every class we got asked the same questions by the students. How old are you, are you single, and what words can you say in Hungarian?

Definitely one of the most entertaining days I've had in a long time!

One of the students from the first class showed up at adult English club tonight with his sister.

Tomorrow, I will be heading to Budapest with Shaun and Sondi, and Matt and Paul will also be coming by bus. We plan to visit some friends from summer camp, and also visit Shaun and Sondi's church.

I am really beginning to feel settled into my little suite and getting a handle on the weekly routine. I've posted a few pictures below of my place, just to give a bit of an idea of what it looks like.

Living Room

Bedroom

Bedroom Wardrobe

Kitchen

Dining room

View from my front gate

...and looking the other direction