Monday, August 8 – Wednesday, August 10

Monday, we started work on the building owned by the church - they call it the Mission House. It is separate from the church – a few blocks away from the church on the main street of downtown Szeged. The building was built in the 1830's as a very elegant and large single-family home. There are also two shops on the ground floor that face the main street, and one of the shops on the first floor was a “coffee shop” of sorts where famous writers and politicians spent time. In 1929, the building was donated to the church by the owners, who were members of the Reformed Church in Szeged. Unfortunately, the church only had possession of the building for a short time because in 1948 the building was seized by the Communists. The church was only allowed to use two rooms of the building for office space. The remainder of the space was divided up into very small flats for people to live in. Although Communism ended October 23^rd, 1989, the government retained ownership of the building. The Hungarian Reformed Church of Szeged worked very hard to get the building back, and finally in 2003 they were successful. They spent two more years finding places for the tenants to go, and finally took possession of it in 2005. While the building functioned as flats, they were not taken care of and as a result, the building fell into disrepair. The church has been working very hard to raise money and find grants to restore the building, but it is a very expensive venture. There are strict historic renovation laws in Hungary, so the church is required to restore the building with the exact historic replicas of the building... floors, walls, heating stoves, etc. This means that for anything that is no longer produced, they have to have it specially made, adding even more to the cost.

Brad at the end of the chute

We worked on at the Mission House from 9am – 3pm Monday through Wednesday. The biggest project was knocking the plaster off of the walls with sledgehammers and other various tools. The plaster was ornately decorated – painted with intricate patterns and stencils. Some people had the job of knocking the plaster off the walls, others shoveled the plaster into buckets and hauled them to the trash chute to the ground floor, and a few people shoveled the plaster from the end of the chute to another pile where it will be hauled away. Brad mentioned how this process is a bit more labor intensive than it would be in the states where the end of the trash chute would empty into a dumpster that would be hauled away. However, it's not that simple since the Mission House is situated on the main street, which includes restaurants, etc. We couldn't even have the windows open in rooms that faced the main street for fear that plaster dust would rain down on the restaurant patios below. The trash chute emptied out at the back of the building, which is a walled-in courtyard, with no opening big enough to get a dumpster through. Hence, the increase effort required to transport the materials out of the courtyard.
It was hard work, and VERY dirty work. We wore masks over our nose and mouth and most of us had goggles on, as well. We were quite a sight by the end of the day, covered in plaster dust and sweat!

Plaster dust on the camera lens!

We worked side-by-side with members of the church, and despite the language barrier with some, we had an amazing time working with and getting to know the Szeged folks. Everyday, we walked several blocks to the restaurant behind the church for lunch. We had great food, and they always prepared a special plate for me that was gluten-free!One f the high-school boys that was working on the building has a dairy allergy, so we formed the “special plate” club :-)

Delicious "special plate" lunch

Lunch at the cafe behind the church

Our days were full with working on the building, then tours of Szeged later in the day. Luckily, parts of the Mission House have already been remodeled, including an apartment and another section that has a bathroom with a wonderful shower. This allowed us to wash the plaster dust off, then leave from the Mission House for the tours. Kata, our host, acted as our tour guide around Szeged – she, of course, speaks English very well, and spent many years as a tour guide. We saw several churches and a synagogue, (the names of which I don't remember!), and many other sights around the city. Szeged is the third largest city in Hungary, after Budapest and Debrecen. I don't remember exact numbers, but Debrecen is only one-tenth the size of Budapest, and Szeged smaller than that, so Budapest is the largest city by quite a margin.

Szeged

Monday night, we ate dinner with a delightful couple, Andrew and Esther, and her mother. They are retired, and were very entertaining. She gardens on a plot of land outside the city that includes fruit trees, so they served us many fresh fruits and vegetables they grew in their garden. The food was delicious!

Tuesday night we had dinner at George and Eniko's house – they are hosting one of the members of our team, and Eniko visited Iowa with one of the Hungarian delegations a few years ago. They served us a very traditional Hungarian mean of Paprika chicken and dumplings. She also made a delicious cucumber salad – soaked the cucumbers in saltwater, dried them off in a towel and tossed them in salt and sugar. Simple but wonderful, just like much of the food we've eaten here. They also have a cat an a dog, and both were very nice. We were happy for even more animals to play with!

Family and hostee

Brad and Noel, the pug

Their beautiful grey cat

Wednesday after our work on the building, we had a free afternoon. We went with one of the other host families and 2 team members to a museum. They thought Brad should see an exhibit by an artist/architect - Hunderwasser. It wasn't a typical architect exhibit, so the rest of us enjoyed it, too!  (I'll get an eye-roll from Brad when he reads this!) After the museum, we went to a local market to get.... Hungarian Paprika from Szeged, of course! It was a wonderful afternoon.

Wednesday night was our final garden party at Sandor and Livia's with our host families (although Kata and Gulya werent able to come). Since I've already posted so many pictures, I'll save the garden party photos for the next post! Until then....

~E

Sunday, August 7

(Apologies for the time between posts - we should have more regular wifi connection from here on out. I'll try to play catch up over the next few days!)

The weather has been rather warm here, with highs in the 90's, but luckily it cooled off overnight and we slept well. Our host family, Kata and Gyula, have a cat and a dog. The dog lives outside and works as a guard dog. The cat comes and goes, and this morning, she came into our room through the open window. It was quite a sight because she came in through the skylight window on the roof! She is a very friendly and beautiful cat, and it's nice to have animals around since we are already missing our cats and dog back in Des Moines. (They probably don't miss us at all since they're being spoiled by Auntie Nicole!)

The cat has beautiful markings - she's some kind of royal cat

Even though she looks a little terrified, the cat really does like us!

Church started at 10am, which was nice because that gave us plenty of time to sleep in a bit and have breakfast. Breakfast was wonderful, an very European – hard boiled eggs (with beautiful dark orange yolks), meats, cheeses, kefir (yogurt), and fresh-picked tomatoes and paprika – Hungarian peppers – from the garden. Brad ate a spicier pepper, and I played it safe with the milder pepper.

After breakfast, we left for church. Kata and Gyula only live a few minutes away from church, so it is very convenient. Sandor and Livia are the co-senior pastors of the church, and they are married with 3 sons – 2 older sons who are, or soon will, attend the university, and one younger son who is grade-school aged. Sandor had invited us to say a few words during the service and to sing a song. Three of us in the group are singers, so we sang a two-part rendition of “Simple Gifts”. Julie not only sang harmony, but also played the piano for us... very impressive! Following the service, we had a time for us to talk to the church members, kind of an “All Things Considered” format for you Westminster folks. We had a translator, not Sandor, although he translates for us most of the time – our translator's name was Yanos, and he is an attorney who lives in Budapest, although he grew up in Szeged. Each of the Iowa team members talked a bit about themselves and then the members asked us questions. The members asked very good questions, and were interested in how someone becomes a member at our church and if the government provides monetary support to our church (and how our church is able to operate without government support).

A view of the cafe behind the church

We had lunch at the restaurant attached to the church. One of the church members rents the space from the church and runs a very nice restaurant/cafe. Most of the cafe is open-air with arbors and awnings providing shade. Many Hungarian meals begin with soup – usually a broth-based soup with vegetables and noodles, and possibly some kind of meat.

Hungarian Paprika drying outside

After lunch, we visited Opusztaszer, an open-air museum just outside of Szeged. The museum houses a panoramic painting depicting the 7 Hungarian tribes entering the Carpathian Basin. Our “tour guide” was Denes. Denes's family hosted two of our team members, and Denes visited Iowa in 2006 with a team from Szeged. Denes is an archaeologist, so he was a great guide, and shared a lot of Hungarian history with us. The museum also has a historic village that reminded us a bit of Living History Farms in Des Moines. Outside one a the buildings in the village, there was a women who was stitching traditional Hungarian embroidery and selling her goods. Sandor told us that this was the place to buy the authentic embroidered good, because if we waited until we were in Budapest, they would probably be made by a machine and would cost 10 times as much.

One of the village homes

A note about currency – although Hungary is a part of the European Union, they have not yet switched over to Euros. They use Hungarian forints, and about 190 forints equal 1 US dollar. We figured out to convert from forints to dollars, we move the decimal point two places to the left, and divide by two, we get close to the conversion.

Back to Sunday... after the museum, we went back to our host homes for a bit, then went to dinner at Peter and Erika's. They are members of the church, and my parents stayed with them when they were in Hungary in 2004 Peter and Erika have 3 kids – their oldest daughter is studying at the university, their middle son is finishing high school and their youngest daughter is grade-school aged. They also had a cousin in town visiting from Australia. His parents had moved to Australia during the Hungarian revolution in 1956, and haven't been back since. We had a blast with the family, and dinner was delicious! They had just returned from vacation in Tuscany, so they prepared a Tuscan-influenced meal with grilled meats and vegetables. We ate outside on their covered patio, and the temperature was great – not too hot or cold. Fruit trees are very common around Hungary, and dessert included an apricot pie that was apparently very good. I couldn't try the pie, since it obviously had gluten in it (I am gluten-intolerant), so I had some of Erika's homemade coconut ice cream – it was FANTASTIC! We have decided that we should collect recipes from everyone who hosted us for dinner, and when we get home, we can try to replicate the dishes.

We had a bit of a late night, so we got scolded little for coming home so late ;-) But it was worth the lack of sleep to have such a great evening! So far, it has been a fantastic trip!

Safe in Szeged!

What a wonderful trip this has been! So wonderful that there has hardly been a free minute to make a blog post! This will be a short one because we are leaving for dinner soon - members of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Szeged are taking turns hosting us for dinner while we are here.

We arrived in Budapest around noon on Saturday, and Sandor and another member of the church picked us up in a van. We rode in the van about an hour and a half to Szeged, where we were greeted at the church by our host families. After heading back to our host family homes, we had a short rest, and prepared for dinner. Dinner was at a fantastic fish resturant on the river, and we dined on a traditional Hungarian dish - fish soup. It is made with Hungarian paprika and it was like nothing I have ever had before... wonderful! We were all very ready for sleep that night (becuase most of us did not sleep much, or at all, on the plane), and slept VERY well!

We hope to post pictures soon, but for now, the narrative will have to hold you :-) In the next post, I will share our experience in worship at the church on Sunday. Stay tuned, friends!

- E

En Route

We are on our way! Right now, we're sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting for our flight to Budapest. We had a mostly uneventful first leg of the trip. In Detroit, we walked through an interesting tunnel between gates. It played music and had lights that changed in time to the music. Here's a link to a somewhat blurry picture I took. Brad said it's a bit of a rip-off of Chicago... what do you think? http://twitpic.com/61f0y5/full
We had a bit of a tight timeline between flights, and we underestimated how early international flights board, We split up to grab snacks, and there were a few moments of panic that our whole team might not make it to the gate on time, but it all turned out fine. We had *several* minutes to spare ;-)

The Amsterdam airport is an interesting mix of styles. We've seen everything from pink 50's throw-back tile on the walls, to neon lights arched over the walkway. We're spending our layover in the "park". It's an area with couches, recliners, plants and it's complete with soothing bird and runner water noises. The whole area is decorated to look like a park:

Don't mind my shoulder in the shot - I snapped this with the webcam on my very tiny, mini laptop.

Now that we have caffeinated ourselves with Starbucks, we can hopefully stay awake for many more hours! Most of our team didn't sleep much on the plane, and of course with the overnight flights, just about the time you finish your movie and settle down to try and sleep, the breakfast cart makes the rounds! We have an exciting day ahead of us - I hear it involves the best fish restaurant in all of Szeged. Stay tuned for more about our trip!

~E

Is it time to leave?? How about now?

Well, so much for information ahead of our departure! Both Brad and I have been VERY busy preparing to be away from the office for more than two weeks, so we haven't had much downtime. We're also trying to get the house into an acceptable state of non-chaos to prepare for our friend to live at the house while we're gone. Our animals (two cats and one dog) are very excited to have their Auntie around for a couple weeks! She's a freelance graphic designer, so she'll be around during the day... which means the animals will be very spoiled by the time we get home. We're pretty sure they'll vote to get their Auntie back instead of us :) We are really looking forward to our trip, and it will be here before we know it!

Here are the only tidbits I have time to share today - as anyone who has been in Iowa lately knows, it's been CRAZY HOT. In fact, so hot that I've had a hard time packing because all I can think about is clothing for really hot weather.  Here's where the tidbit comes in... check out the 10-day weather forecast for Szeged, Hungary and Prague, Czech Republic. Highs in the 70's and maybe even 60's?? Yes, please!

We leave for our trip on Friday, and after landing in Budapest, we'll be off to Szeged - the town where our sister church is located. For the Wikipedia down-low on Szeged, click here.

That's all for now!

-E

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Brad and I hope to have many adventures in years to come, and this blog will be our way of sharing with family and friends, and will also serve as our travel journal. We will start things off by documenting our upcoming trip to Hungary and Prague with a team from Westminster Presbyterian Church. We hope to post regularly while overseas, and to share photos of our first overseas adventure together.

Stay tuned - we leave for Hungary on Friday, August 5th, but I may share a few tidbits in the days leading up to our trip.

Ciao for now!

~Erin