Friday afternoon, I enjoyed a nice macchiato (NOT like Starbucks, but better – it’s a shot of espresso with foam on top, and yes, I knew that before I ordered it) with Emese, the director of Önkentes Diakóniai Év (ÖDÉ). I wrote down everything that I could think of as a plan. She took it and said it’s a possibility, and understands my frustration with the school. She said, however, that there is another project she’d like me to check out before I commit myself to the mission. It’s a tanoda, an afterschool program, for students. It sounds promising.
What would it be? Well, in Hungary, private tutors are really popular and most students have them (the kids at Vörösmarty don’t, which is why they offer afterschool hours). However, for the poorer students, this is just not an option. Thus, a tanoda program begins that offers cheap or free tutors. Matt, the other American volunteer in Budapest, works for a tanoda, tutoring English and French. It’s only afterschool, which means that it wouldn’t be starting until 2p-ish. (yay sleeping in! or not…) Actually, that means that I could still work at the mission in the mornings in my own time. It’d make for long days, but I would never EVER be bored.
For me, it’s possible to change my placement as long as I’m working with Roma (there are a few at the mission, too, but it’s not quite the vision that Emese has for me). For Silke, it is not possible to change her placement because she is here with European Voluntary Service (EVS), so she has to remain in Vörösmarty for at least the majority of her time. Which is sad, but that leads me to my other point of interest. We have meetings set up this week like woah… well, two meetings like woah.
Monday morning, we have a meeting at the tanoda to see what our involvement there might be like. Tuesday morning, we have a meeting at Vörösmarty Iskola to see what could be improved there.
As happy as I was at the mission, I understand Emese’s vision and that there are a lot of logistical things that come with changing a placement. So, please be continuing to pray for guidance and leading and open doors.
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These are pictures from a castle in the middle of Városliget (city park). Upon investigation (inquiry with Dick and Carolyn Otterness), I found out that is it not actually a real castle, but an art project of sorts. Fake or not, it’s pretty and cute and something that you might have actually seen back in the day in Europe.
In the one archway, you can see Jesus and his 12 disciples. The sanctuary behind the door was open and available to tour for 100HUF (about 55 cents) but we decided that that was expense we didn’t need to splurge on. Maybe later in the year when I need a cheap excursion by myself?
My favorite part was the real iron gate leading out to an actual bridge – makes you stop and wonder if it was actually fake or was it once a real iron gate on a castle somewhere… hmmm…
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