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!