So there's this American holiday...

And I'm going to be gone for a few days...

Thanksgiving in Budapest.

I recently got to spend five days in Budapest for the Thanksgiving holiday. The six YAGM volunteers who are in Slovakia and in Hungary, as well as the two Reformed Church volunteers all got together at Dick and Carolyn Otterness’ flat in Budapest to talk, eat, and enjoy speaking some regular English, share in good conversation, jokes, and of course we filled ourselves with some delicious traditional Thanksgiving fare. (Dick and Carolyn are representatives from the Reformed Church and have been living in Budapest for three years, establishing wonderful connections with many people in both Hungary and the Ukraine, working on many important projects with both Roma and Gadje, and have also become an important support to all of the volunteers thanks to their stories, sharing their experiences, their willingness to be there for us, and for opening up their home to us all. A BIG thank you to them for their hospitality!)


One of the main highlights of the time in Budapest was of course the Thanksgiving meal itself—delicious turkey (which at this time of the year is hard to purchase in whole, but Carolyn found one great big 26 lb bird!), stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, cranberries (also hard to come by in Hungary—the word for cranberry and blueberry is actually the same, neither of which I have seen in a regular grocery store), pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie (pecans also hard to come by), and cherry crisp. FINOM!  Good company was also shared as Arden Haug, Regional Coordinator for Europe for ELCA Global Mission (among many other things), John, the head of RGDtS, and a Kathy and Joe, a couple from PC USA who are also working in Hungary, were all able to join us for the meal.  Afterwards we also had a chance for some singing and great music as Matt played the violin, Arden the piano, Kristy a little guitar, and later on a former volunteer joined us with his guitar.  An excellent way to digest all that delicious food.

Carolyn working hard to make a delicious pie!

Lisa chopping squash (volunteer in Slovakia)

The HUGE turkey BEFORE...

And after! (Just a funny angle...it really was a normal bird, I promise!)

Cute little turkey candle...

And my oh my was the food good!!!!!

More on Budapest to come!

Village Life.

Is a lot different than living in Cambridge. Or even Old Saybrook.

The adjustment to village life has not been so difficult but I have found the quiet that exists in this small village to be both comforting and alarming. There are no sirens going by, no trains, and only the occasional car or bus or tractor that passes down the street in Magyarmecske. In many ways, a welcome calm. There are cocks crowing randomly throughout the day and if you walk around you will see chickens pecking in people’s yards, likely hear geese and ducks honking and quacking, the occasional pig snorting, sheep baaing, and dogs barking. All welcoming sounds of life.  But at many points during the day there seems to be an absolute quiet--in the house, in the garden, walking along the road, or near the fields.  Just Quiet.  Now this is the part that is sometimes alarming to me and makes me never want to go anywhere alone.  But I think it is something that I will just get used to. 

Magyarmecske

During the day there is usually some kind of group of people gathered in front of the small store talking, but other than the animals, the occasional group, bus, or car, there is not a whole lot going on. There is also not a whole lot to “do” in the village. In all the places I’ve lived there has always been something to “do” on the weekend, usually meaning going to a store, going to a restaurant, sporting event, ect., basically participating in some kind of commerce. If you think of these as the only things as something to “do,” then there is nothing to “do” here in Magyarmecske on the weekend. The store closes at noon on Saturday and isn’t open on Sunday (as is also the case with many things in Pecs), so get your shopping done early, and after that there is the library (which hasn’t provided me with too much happiness yet, other than being in the presence of so many books, since I can’t understand enough at this point), and the “bar,” which I am avoiding...

With some of the girls who live in Magyarmecske

Kitti (2nd grader) we made a jack-o-lantern

So if I am not on my way to Pecs on a Saturday morning, I have had to find new ways of “doing,” which has involved a variety of things from playing with children in the village to helping someone with English to just hanging out with Livia and Simon to reading or having a few friends come over. Whether I am with Livia and Simon, with children or families from the village, or even enjoying some quiet time alone, I have found the pace of life to be much slower and simpler, and have had to find more seemingly quiet ways to “do” things. This has been fine and in some ways has relieved a kind of pressure to always be doing something or going somewhere.

Sometimes we play poker...

And Sirius wishes he could play too...

In the same way that slowing down has helped to relieve some pressures, living here for these first few months has also made me appreciate and think back even more fondly on when I was living in Cambridge and could just walk down to Porter, Harvard, or Davis Square, meet some friends at a café, sit for hours just talking, or head into Boston or some other neighborhood and just explore, always being in the midst of many people, cars, buses, and trains. But one thing about living in the city that I really missed was the stars. Some nights it would be somewhat clear, but many times there would be that city light ambiance, blocking the vibrancy that the stars have. One night as I was walking with some other people down the street in Gilvanfa I looked up and was struck by the stars. I realized how infrequently I actually look up at the night sky and was happy to be able to experience such a clear black sky with so many stars dotting the canvas.

Hanging out in Gilvanfa

Before I close my entry on village life I think something must also be said about village gossip.  Word spreads quickly.  Especially via teenagers.  I don't have much of a gauge on what people think about us, especially in Magyarmecske, but I know that the people in Gilvanfa (with whom we are closest to) are quick to find out about our every move.  For example one Saturday Livia and I bought boots in Pecs with one of our new friends from Gilvanfa and on Monday when we were at school and again in Gilvanfa after school all the girls knew that we had bought boots and wanted to see them.  People here are also very up front about asking how much something costs and it seems that anyone and everyone will ask you how much something you bought cost, as well as ask you how much money you make, ect.  This was kind of startling at first, coming from a place where people are usually private when it comes to money.  But such is the life here!

So the village ends up being both a blessing and a curse, but for the most part a good place to be, a new experience, and a new way of "being."

Simon!

Livia!

That's me!

My parents sent me a package with a great Halloween mask, little spider, and little turkey (the spider and turkey both make sounds!).  Simon, Livia, and I modeling the mask!

Friss.

So this is a little bit old...
But I am finding it hard to find the time to write what I want...
More to come in the next few days (I hope!).
And a Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone!  (More on that to come as well!)

50+ Days in Magyarmecske.

The language, village life, and dealing with new addictions.

So it is just after noon on Sunday, November 15, 2009, a beautiful sunny day in Mecske and actually quite warm. Google tells me that it is 15 in Pecs, so I’ll take that to be the same here (60 F). Not bad for what is already mid-November (can you believe it!). There is a new “friend” outside who is insistent with talking to us. A shrill honking/clucking sound is the form of speech. Livia and I looked out the window to investigate. Nothing but a lone female turkey standing outside our house. I tried chasing it away, but it just came back, so for now there is lots of chatter outside. Other than our turkey friend, it is a pretty quiet day in the village.

Sirius hanging out chomping on a stick in the backyard.

Friss Kenyér, Sárgabarack lekvár, Vajkrém, és Keksz.
[Friessh ken-yeer. Shaargo-bor-otz-k lekvaar. Vaij-krem. Eesh Keks.]

Before I get into anything too serious, I think it’s important to talk about what has happened to my palate. My addictions here in Hungary. When we arrived in Monoszlo I think all of us were overwhelmed with the amount of white bread that was served and overwhelmed at how much we ate. Every meal, baskets and baskets of white bread. At the beginning I was somewhat disgusted—why so much white bread? With not much nutritional or any kind of value other than being something to put in your mouth and fill you up for a short period of time, why, why, why? I started out limiting myself to just two pieces when it was served at breakfast and one at every other meal because in the beginning I practiced restraint with the new tastes and dishes of the Hungarian variety (not because I didn’t like the food, but because our servings in Monoszlo were absolutely enormous. Imagine going to an Italian restaurant and being served a huge plate of pasta. You can’t eat it all at the restaurant, but decide to bring half or a third of it home for lunch the next day. Well imagine that, but for lunch and dinner everyday for two weeks! By the way, the food was delicious, absolutely wonderful, so restraint was extremely difficult!) [See Matt’s Blog for food pictures, YAGM currently in Budapest]. But by then, the seeds of addiction had already been planted. Sometimes I would allow myself three pieces at breakfast. And after that it was just a slippery slope, down, down, down to pure white bread addiction (I think my record for a day is nine pieces—which I am quite aware is absolutely absurd).

After Monoszlo I thought I would need a break from all that. But no, somehow I developed an appetite for fresh, soft, white bread and now I am pretty sure that a day without it would be incomplete. (Not that my love for fresh bread has ever been in doubt—for example, Olive Garden breadsticks, I could eat dozens; soft, warm, white rolls or bread as an appetizer with butter or olive oil, I would eat all night long.) However, I am not alone in my addiction. This is both comforting and horribly encouraging for the consumption of white bread. Livia also shares a love for the smell, texture, and taste of a beautiful loaf of fresh bread. We talk of trying to limit ourselves and practice decent restraint when the loaf is two or three days old. But that first day, when it is fresh and soft…it is basically impossible. So that has been phase one of my addiction.

The following addictions are not nearly so severe. Before arriving in Hungary I only ate raspberry and grape jelly, thinking that I didn’t like orange colored jellies. This had to do for the most part because many times I do not like orange flavored things (other than juice and oranges themselves) and for some reason the color kind of turned me off. But here in Hungary a popular jam is Sárgabarack lekvár (also known as apricot jam). (And yes the word for peach in Hungarian is none other than our president’s name. Barack. Unfortunately it is said quite differently. More like “Bor-otz-k.”) I tried it at the beginning and thought it to be fine, but nothing special. I was missing raspberry jam and crunching on the seeds. But slowly I realized that it was delicious. And now! It is the only jelly that I want coating my soft, white bread. (Now I wouldn’t say no to a nice raspberry or apple jelly or some other variety, but there is something great about the combination of apricot and white bread that just makes my taste buds happy.)

A few weeks into my time here in Magyarmecske I also discovered something called “Vajkrém,” which literally means “butter cream.” I am not quite sure what it is, but it is somewhat like a cream cheese, except softer and lighter, and not really like butter at all. In any case, it is another great accompaniment to white bread (and even to sargabarack lekvár!).

And finally, there are keksz. These delicious little cracker/biscuit things are great. And for 300-400 forints at TESCO you can get a whole kilo! (Translation, for about $2 you can get 2.2lbs of crackers at the huge Wal Mart like store.) So these little crackers make a great snack, a little bit sweet and a good thing to munch on. Unfortunately we don’t get to revel in the cheap prices at Tesco too often because it is in Pecs. In comparison a 200g bag of keksz in Magyarmecske runs at about 150 forints, which when you compare with Tesco is expensive—more than double the price.

So that is a little about my addictions here in Hungary, luckily they are not harmful (except to the waistline...). There is also the kakaos csiga, but I’ll get into that some other time (fortunately or unfortunately it is not a daily experience).

And now you have learned some of the most important Hungarian words!


Friss=Fresh
Kenyér=Bread
Sárgabarack=Apricot
Barack=Peach
Lekvár=Jam
Vaj=Butter
Krém=Cream
Vajkrém=Vajkrém
Keksz=Cracker/biscuit

More to come soon on the rest of the topics and more about life in Magyarmecske and Magyarorszag!

Looking out over Pest from the top of the Citadella in Buda.  I was in Budapest for an awesome Thanksgiving!

Falunap.

Saturday, October 10, 2009...


Was Falunap (“Village Day”). A celebration of the village, of the harvest, and of autumn. It was celebrated predominatly in Magyarmecske with people from the surrounding villages coming to eat, listen to music, and watch some dancing.


In Magyarmecske the morning was spent with some family games (families competing against each other in fun little games and races, eg. blind grape eating contest)...

In Magyartelek the wagons and horses got some colorful streamers as they prepared for the day.

There was an excellent lunch of meat (and some pasta and bread)...

Full of delicious meat (there were 2 of these) and one huge bowl of pasta

FINOM!

Little Catholic service with blessing for new parents in the area

and afterwards the other villages began to arrive. There were horse drawn wagons of children singing songs and dressed in more traditional outfits, then the children did some dancing...

and then...a parade down the street of Magyarmecske, complete with a baton twirling dance team, marching band, and folk dancers (all imported…).

Getting ready for the parade (procession by village)

Folk dancing after the parade

and then...famous Hungarian singer Robert Gergely sang, but the highlight for many people (especially the younger ones) was pop artist LL Junior.

Junior!

A really fun day!

(And cigany (gypsy) band in Magyartelek, dancing until the early morning—we left at 2.30am, but the singing and dancing was still going strong!)

The School.

Iskolaban.

(in the school)

So far I’ve given only a small picture of life in Magyarmecske, now for a bit of the day to day routine during the week and a little update. The weather has changed quickly and now feels like winter (temperatures in the lower-mid 40s I would guess). I am resisting taking out my winter coat until November because October just seems too early. We’ll see how that goes… Winter seems to be the trend for now though. I hear that there was a snow delay for the World Series playoffs in Colorado, not too strange I suppose, but also snow in the Northeast! We turned on the heat at the beginning of the week and I am very glad for that. I have also found out how the wind can really whip across the flat land. In other news, I am excited for Obama to have won the Nobel Peace Prize (and hope that he will have earned it by the end of his four…or eight years in office and life thereafter)*; disappointed that the Sox lost and will not even make it to the ALCS; Simon is happy that Germany has qualified for the World Cup (by the way, so has the US); and a loaf of kenyer (bread) costs 210 forints at the kicsi bolt (little store) in Magyarmecske.

Daily Life.

Livia and I go to school Monday through Friday at 8am and are there until about 3:15pm. Livia alternates between helping in the 3rd and 4th grade classes and I “help” mostly in the 2nd grade class with the exception of Tuesdays when I am in the 4th grade class. I am now called Emilie-néni or tanarnéni (tanar is teacher). The néni suffix is for a woman older than you, kind of like “aunite,” but a term of respect and affection; the male equivalent is bacsi (eg. Laci is “Laci-bacsi”). A typical school day includes lessons of math, Hungarian (reading and writing), as well as dance two times a week, a little phys ed class a few times a week, a little bit of music, and for the 4th graders some German, Beas, and of course little breaks of recess during the day. Lunch is provided by the school for all of the children (and teachers) with a little breakfast in the morning and a snack in the afternoon. Luckily for us we haven’t had to do much (or any except the little treats we have made) cooking because we get leftovers from lunch which is a big meal, consisting of soup, bread, and a main course (usually involving potatoes, pasta, potatoes + pasta, some kind of sauce and meat). School food has been great! Much unlike the stigma that school food has in the US of being horrible…although I have great memories of school food…maybe I was just lucky…or just love food…

The school from the back.

To the left of the above picture, little playground, and the white building in the background is the cafeteria.

So far most of what I have been doing is just helping to keep kids on track, paying attention, in their seats, and on the right page. Luckily that can involve mostly action. I have been able to help with math and writing because I understand numbers and can write, the frustrating part is when it comes to explaining the math, which I have few words for other than add and subtract (I’m working on the whole multiply, divide, equals thing). I usually play with the kids at recess and they are forever asking me “Lesz a parom?!” (I think the spelling on that is wrong…but it means “Will you be my pair?” aka “will you hold my hand when we walk to the next destination?”)

4th grade classroom (taken by Livia)

For the most part school has been very good, the kids are always happy to see me, which washes away any frustration of not knowing the language / not knowing what they are saying to me / not being able to talk to the other teachers or people at school. As I said before I am primarily with the second graders, but one day at recess I played with some first graders and now everyday at lunch and/or snack there is a handful of them who yell “Emilie-néni! Emilie-néni!” I have also learned how to play tag in Hungarian and a few other recess type games that involve running (which is good because that is the only exercise I get). In tanc (dance) the other day they also played musical chairs, so I understood that too. So I have found that excited, happy children are some of the best bright lights to any situation and have found them to be great friends! (Especially because they will talk and talk and talk to me, even if I don’t understand—which is good for language learning and for morale—and they are definitely helping me on both accounts.)

4th graders working hard on some coloring (taken by Livia)

This is not to say that the school day goes along smoothly or easily by any means. Everyday at least one child in class is crying because of some kind of violence inflicted upon them from another—a kick or a punch, ect. The kids are always fighting—sometimes in fun, sometimes for real and the teachers are constantly working to break them up. Listening doesn’t happen a lot of the time and sometimes a good chunk of time is spent just trying to get attention so things can get done. One good and bad thing about not knowing the language is not knowing when bad words are being said—but also a downside because I can’t tell a child to stop saying something if I don’t know what they’re saying. Also bad because I can’t understand why a child starts crying if only words were spoken. (Understanding body language and tone does go a long way, but I am generally helpless when it comes to stopping it and can only offer a few words of comfort afterwards. There are a lot of bad words spoken as far as I can tell and by now I have picked up on a decent amount of those words.) Comforting a hurt child has also been somewhat difficult and something that makes me feel like I wish I could do more. I can ask what hurts, but can’t find out the story behind why it might hurt (other than who might have hurt them), so most of my comforting just comes from holding them and/or getting the kid doing wrong to leave them alone.

More 4th graders working on some drawing (taken by Livia)

A few times I have been left alone in charge of the children—a frightening experience which has gone both ways. One time I successfully got the 2nd graders to lunch and recess afterwards without incidence; another time got them to snack with only one incidence (someone got kicked and was crying); and the other two times absolute chaos has broken loose and I felt helpless and voiceless. But thanks to the advice of Livia (or what I think she said) was that I might as well just talk to them in English. So that is my new weapon against the chaos of the Hungarian classroom (luckily I am also learning more and more commands as the days go by, such as Stop! And Sit down!)

I do my best to help where I can and also try to learn as much as I can. The kids get a kick out of my little notebook where I copy down their lessons and try to figure out what they are learning. I definitely am learning, which is great, and anytime I can understand what is going on (or think I understand) is a wonderful feeling. At this point I am feeling very hopeful about the school and very glad to be where I am. I enjoy the kids and look forward to getting to know the teachers (when I can speak with them)!

And that is the school day.


More to come on what happens after school.


*I was reading the NY Times online the other day and looked at an article, “The Real Peace Prize will be Elusive” by Peter Baker (from 11 October 2009), where he discusses the war in Afghanistan and the eight years he has covered it, being one of the first journalists, and the first American journalist to go to Afghanistan after the start of the war. In the article he talks about Afghanistan and the long drawn out war in a country that has been fighting for decades. At the end he says, And perhaps the biggest question of all: With the Nobel medal staring down at him in the White House for the next three years or perhaps seven, will the designated peacemaker eventually figure out just what peace means in a land without it? Will he earn the prize he has already received? I found this to be a good expression of how I have been feeling ever since I heard that Obama got the Prize and I hope that good will come from it for Obama, his work, legacy, as well as the work in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  (And this is me, trying to keep up with the news in the world...)

Eszunk. (we eat)

Főzok Liviaval.
(I cook with Livia)
Livia and I have tried some different recipes together and have enjoyed making and eating the food (despite the slow stove that we have). The first weekend I made apple crisp and the next week applesauce. Livia and I made French fries on the stove (fried in sunflower oil—a big Hungarian product) and the next weekend made “Olmos Almas” which is an apple bar type thing (layer of sweet dough, layer of shredded apples, layer of sweet dough) as well as “palacsinta” (pancakes). Everything was FINOM. PERSZE! (Finom=delicious; Persze=of course)

 

With Olmas Almas

Livia with palacsinta

Huge stack of palacsinta! (An hour's worth of work thanks to the stove, but well worth it!)

Livia and Simon (notice the great tablecloth made by Liz Swenson! Thanks Mama!)