OLD post

So, long time no post. Check this out – there are some major updates! Yay!

First of all, I will be submitting to Emese a schedule at the end of the week – this will have the tentative days that I will be at the school, the days that I will be at the tanoda, the days that I will be at the mission and the days I work with the teens at St. Columba’s. I do believe that I am going to have time for all four. This is probably the greatest thing – because they are all different. The school has me usually teaching English and helping only the students in the English class. It’s a great starting point for overseas mission because a lot of projects begin as language lessons. The tanoda is an afterschool program for primarily Roma children. I am not only helping with English homework, but also math. It’s actually a lot like the DOCK, so I have Wayne O. and the K-ville kids to thank for training me in this placement. The kids are NAUGHTY like woah and it’s not a church organization, but it’s great and I enjoy being there. The mission is working with other people on the fringes – those without a home. The purpose there is for me to truly share God’s love. The teens at St. Columba’s isn’t technically a placement… then again, what really is? So, while that schedule doesn’t really matter to Emese, it matters to me and to this blog (I am totally posting my schedule here when I figure it out, too :D) These teens are some refugees and some Hungarians – led by two crazy Americans (Pastor Aaron and I). It has potential to be a great time. I’m pretty pumped. I’m worried because I wonder how on earth I’m going to ever meet these kids where they are… but then again, I’ve worked with kids from the ghetto before and I haven’t ever lived there… somehow God has a way of bringing us all together… to common ground, to Holy ground…

Second important bit of information: Health. I have had more migraines here in the last two months than I have ever had in a two month period (I blame the stress of constant translation). I have been sick twice (but not recently, thank God). I am either extremely fatigued or can’t sleep, but never in between. There’s the toothache, which hasn’t been taken care of yet, but is not an ‘ache’ anymore. I feel like I’m falling apart health-wise. That’s not good. Please continue to pray for health and strength.

Thirdly, and probably most exciting? We are getting internet in our flat. On Tuesday, we’ll be getting one line installed… then, hopefully soon after, we’ll be getting wireless. w00t! I am excited! :) Finally I can actually start scheduling Skype dates and actually respond to emails with more than just one sentence!! Hah!
Well, this probably won’t be the last update on borrowed internet, but until then – viszontlátásra.

*~*~*

On October 25th, 1956 …
(taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_events_of_the_Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956)
On October 25 a crowd of thousands at the Budapest city centre's Astoria juncture made friends with the crew of a Russian tank row and pinned Hungarian flags on the tanks. When the people saw Russian tanks approaching from another direction with Hungarian flags on them, the word spread in the crowd: “The revolution has won!” Hours later dozens of people died and hundreds were injured at the Parliament building when persons still not identified, and (in a subsequent onslaught) Soviet tanks opened fire on the people, part of whom had arrived from Astoria. At the nearby Communist Party national headquarters also wild shooting started among various Hungarian and Soviet units. Rounds by a Soviet tank hit the party meeting room where top party leaders were negotiating with Soviet comrades including Malenkov. The party officials fled into the cellar.
for more important events - check out the above link.

On that day this last month, Kristy, Matt, Silke and I just happened to be wandering around town. We came to the Parliament building and noticed that beneath the flame, there were soldiers standing guard and a large sign. The sign explained the events of this day, which was great because we had no idea. Then more soldiers started coming out – we were about to witness ‘the changing of the guards’. Score! And now, you get to witness it.

half-update and a castle...

Here’s a half-update on the placement situation.
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.

*~*~*

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…

today was a good day... thank You, Jezús!

I haven’t stopped smiling since 7a this morning. I kid you not. Thank you, Jesus, for a great day. Thank you, Jesus, for a place where I felt welcome from the first moment (complete with a cup of coffee!).

Today, I went to the Golgotha Mission. I was greeted at the door by a boy who didn’t speak much English, but he asked if I wanted coffee then told me that Eve, the girl who speaks wonderful English, would be there in 10-20 minutes. I had to smile because I would have understood this in Hungarian, but he tried really hard to say it in English. So, I sat in the ‘staff’ room and waited for Eve.
Upon her arrival, I got put to work… like, actual work! I put some nut cream on pieces of bread and made sandwiches. Then, I got to do the same thing with zsír (fat). When all the bread had been used, they told me that I got to sit down and eat some breakfast. It was then that I noticed sandwiches were disappearing and people were pouring in. During breakfast, this small mission serves between 150 and 200 people! After finishing with my food, I went out and helped hand out sandwiches and tissues and yogurt to people. Even I can say “tessék” (please/take) and “egességedre” (for your health) and “szívessen” (you’re welcome/with pleasure). Eve showed me around the basic functions of the mission.
Before long, I was taken upstairs to the office, where I met Zsólt (the guy I’d spoken to before) and apparently there was a meeting at 1:30p with a guy who wants to give the mission 8,000,000HUF (about $45,000). This is a HUGE amount of money for this mission and a few people (Zsólt, Ellet? – the head cook, Eve and I) were meeting to pray about the meeting. It was great because they even involved me and asked me to pray along with them (in English, of course).
Then it was back downstairs to continue handing out food. At 10a, they stop serving breakfast and a few people stuck around to do laundry, take showers and just be warm while watching TV. Apparently during this time, they often have a small sermon or an English class or a skill class, which is where they’re hoping to use me.
At 11:30a, lunch is served. There are two lunch shifts with only 30 people each, with a waiting list as well. They don’t turn anyone away, but they can only offer a hot meal to about 70 people (30 x 2 shifts, plus workers, plus a few random extras thrown in). I was asked to bless the food (with translation by Eve) at each meal, and then got to hand out necessities (apples, tissues, multivitamins and bread) for the weekend.
At 1p, clean up begins. Even sweeping the floors was great. At 1:30p, we were finished.

The only bad part about today? Someone ran into me on the bus and I fell back against a seat. My camera was in my pocket and smashed against the metal part and even though it was in its case, I knew it wouldn’t be good because my leg hurt like woah… yup. Camera screen is dead. I mean, it still takes pictures, but you can’t really see what they look like until you upload them to the computer. Hmmm… thank goodness I got the cheapest camera, I guess.
But in all honesty, that didn’t even wreck my day. Now I can’t wait to meet with Emese to talk about how to do everything. She’s supposed to call me when she’s available this afternoon. So, of course, I couldn’t have hit the metal bar on the side with my cheap phone in my pocket! :P Go figure, eh?

*~*~*

I have four pictures of Sárszentlörinc, where Kristy lives. It’s interesting to note that in many European villages, the church is the focal point of the village. This holds true with this village as well.
Viszontlátásra! (Goodbye!)

oh, Happy Day!

***EDIT*** i promised myself that I would blog uncensored, and as much as I wanted to delete the first part of this post, I'm not going to. please just keep reading, because it reaches a rather delightful note at the end. thanks.

So, you wanna know what’s cool? We were actually told yesterday that “we have nothing for you tomorrow.” Um… okay… cool. WHY AM I HERE? I am becoming more and more frustrated as the weeks pass by. I mean, I dunno, if I were the headmaster of a school and I told people that I wanted volunteers, but then the volunteers’ coordinator told me that they were bored and wanted to be used… I think I would make sure they weren’t bored in the future, even if we didn’t speak the same language. LET ME CLEAN TOILETS if there’s nothing else. (okay, so I don’t mean that seriously, but yet… I do… if that’s where they needed help, I would do it… honestly…)
Yes, part of this could be me not saying to the headmaster that I need something to do, but there’s the problem of communication and the English teachers don’t really seem to know/care/worry about us filling our time.

So, here I sit at home. We’re going to go to the school to eat lunch and then I’m probably going to go talk to Aaron. I need to figure out what the dealio with Sunday lunch is (Matt and I volunteered to cook the ‘after church lunch’ for about 30 people this next Sunday) and how it works. Apparently there’s a budget for it (7000Huf = about $40), so that’s super nice, but figuring out all those logistics will be fun. Then I will head off to Calvary Chapel to meet Szillard, the dude who works at a homeless shelter in town.
Time spent at placement? 45 minutes to eat lunch. Score… not.

***UPDATE***
So, I met with Szilard and Zsolt about the mission run by Calvary Chapel here in Budapest. After a few minutes of meeting, some great things were revealed to me. First of all, they work 7 hour days... 7 x 5 = 35, the exact amount of hours I need at a placement. Second of all, they serve many meals and if I can't switch placements, there may be an opportunity to serve meals in the evenings as well. Thirdly, they used to have an English class for those wishing to improve their abilities, but the teacher went home, but they've been praying for another native speaker to join the ranks and do this again.
Then a personal story was brought up. A woman needs not only an English tutor because she needs to take an exam, but also has walked away from God. Perhaps this is an opportunity for me... it's a LOT to pray about, but I left that meeting EXCITED about the things that could come to be.
That evening, I met Eve, a girl that speaks English and works at the mission and I am joining her at 7a on Friday morning. YAY! Turns out, they are going to be short staffed that day and needed an extra hand... and I needed someone to show me the ropes and introduce me to the mission.
God is a'workin!

Oh my goodness, it was a great day afterall!

*~*~*

This is another set of pictures of random sights around my home city, Budapest. This is one of the bridges, which at night, looks pretty sweet. The moon was amazing this evening, too!


I wanna say that this was earlier the same night because the moon looks pretty sweet in this picture too. Can you find it? The bridge in the picture is the ol’ chain bridge. You can also see some cruises, some buildings on the Pest side and some great Hungarian graffiti.


I thought for about 10 seconds that there was a bus in the water and I panicked. Then I realized that it was indeed floating and causing a wake. Not a bus, but a bus-shaped boat! I think that’s pretty cool. The bridge in this picture is Margit Híd and you can also get a glimpse of the Buda Hills.


Hah. I used to work for Manpower back in the day. Apparently I can continue over here. Awesome.


This is another picture of Freedom Square. You can see a dome of Parliament in the background, but you can also see some of the beautiful architecture that is right down the street from where I live. I know you’re jealous :)

Great people and a GREATER God!

So, yesterday, as I sat here and typed out the blog post, I had no idea that at the same time, there were people all over the world trying to figure out to get me the best help they could as far as my tooth. This is what happened: I text messaged Dick and Carolyn Otterness, who have lived here for three years, so surely they know where to send me to get my tooth fixed. The thought of finances doesn’t even cross my mind because really, it needs to be taken care of and I don’t doubt that God’s got my back on this. Dick then emails Jay (from the RCA), Emese (from ÖDÉ) and Aaron (from St. Columba’s Church) asking for their advice. Dick and Emese are currently in the Czech Republic or Poland (I’m confused, really…), Jay is in Michigan and Aaron is in Budapest. Turns out, dental is not covered by my insurance, so this is going to be a financial issue. Emese recommends a dentist or two, but they will be expensive. Dick and Carolyn have a dentist that apparently loves the work that they are doing and so provides services at a seriously reduced cost, but they won’t be back in town until the end of the week. Aaron also lives in Budapest, and may be able to recommend a dentist, depending on the need and whether it’s an emergency or not. Anyway, I had no idea that this was all going on until I got to the boys’ flat last night to check the internet.

I know that God is capable of taking this frustration and completely wiping it away. He’s God and He’s capable of everything! It’s now a question of whether He is willing. So, here’s my plea. Will you please offer up prayers that this would, in fact, just go away? It will make my week and my weekend a little easier. In the beginning of the next week, I will be going to the dentist that Dick and Carolyn see and get on track to get it fixed.

For now, praise God that there are such great people over here and back home that truly care and are willing to help me figure things out, instead of just letting me figure it out by myself. I’m sure I could find a dentist over here, but not sure I could find one that speaks English and probably not one that would accept my financial situation.

…

Also, please be praying for me tomorrow. In order to help me find my niche, I am meeting with a director at a local homeless shelter after school. I am really pumped about the possibility of jumping into another project that will help to occupy my time and use my love of people to enhance the lives of those in need. Köszönöm (Thank you).

*~*~*

This is a beautiful picture of Keleti Pályaudvar (East Train Station) just as the sun is setting (at 4p, yes – the sun sets early here – it’s the joy of being on the far east of a time zone). There’s a lot of construction happening in front of it, so you can see plywood walls in the bottom of the picture, but still, it’s a beautiful sight! This was taken as we were dropping Emilie and Simon off to go back to Magyarmecske in southern Hungary.


Prior to traveling to visit Kristy’s village, she and I stopped into the local market and grabbed some ‘chocolate’. I say chocolate because it was more wax than chocolate. I guess that what we get when we try to find the cheapest chocolate. Upon further investigation of the wrapper, we discover the following phrase. I’m not sure what a ‘compound mass’ is, but it does NOT sound delicious at all. It’s all funny because ‘kedvenc’ means ‘favorite’. NOT my favorite :P


Mike Nowak, this picture is for you. It’s one of the most interesting buildings I’ve seen and I truly thought of you when I took this picture. It’s from the small city of Szekszard, where Kristy had to go to apply for her residential visa. Imagine walking through a city that was beautiful everywhere, eating freshly roasted chestnuts… and then you have one of my afternoons of Kristy. So dream-worthy!


Shawn, baby sister, this picture is for you. As Simon and Jeff and I were walking through Varosliget (the city park), we came across this piece of artwork and I thought this was amazing. What do you think?


Hehe – this guy is scary. This is one of the times when knowing Hungarian is unimportant. Now, it would be nice to know Latin. This scary looking statue holds a book in Latin. I wish I could tell you the meaning of the statue, but I haven’t a clue. I know my dad took Latin in school… I wonder if he remembers any. Anyway, this is one of the guys you can meet in Budapest :)

why have I been so sick? ugh...

So, I am home with a migraine – my medicine’s not working and laying down is just frustrating, so in silence and with as much darkness as possible (I even have a white shirt covering the screen to block some of the unnecessary light), I am chilling at home.
I am also quite certain that I should see a dentist soon. Hmmm… finding people to help me here is going to be interesting. I guess I’ll work on this as soon as I can get my brain to think a bit more.

The flats in Budapest have become, as we have jokingly put it, hotels. It’s great. In the girls’ flat within the last 2 weeks, there’s been Kristy, Isabel, Emilie and now Isabel is coming back for a night. In the boys’ flat within the last 2 weeks, there’s been 3 French girls (friends of Timothée), Kristin, Janos’ girlfriend, Jeff, Simon, and Romain. There were also 4 German girls in town this week visiting Silke and Budapest. It’s been a bit crazy, to say the least. It is nice, though, to come back to the calm ‘normal’ life. I am not a very good tour guide as far as coming up with things to do… but I can navigate the city like a pro! Regardless of Kevin’s lack of trust in my sense of direction, I am quite confident that I will not ever be lost in Budapest. w00t!

So, there’s been some emails about how the swine flu is affecting us. Here’s the thing: Aside from Facebook telling me who has swine flu, I would have no clue it’s even happening. I have yet to find a good way to stay up on the news here – it’s not like I can just sit, watch the news and understand what’s going on around me. I just took that for granted in the states! The only thing that has been affected by it is when one of our volunteers, Livia, went home to the Ukraine. She tried to get back to Hungary and couldn’t. Apparently they had closed the borders of the EU in hopes of stopping the spread of the H1N1 virus. Hmmm… However, that was Saturday. Not sure if that situation is still a problem or what even happened to create this issue. Anyway, my prayers are with my many friends back home that are dealing with this virus. May you soon be restored to health.

Well, I am going to go back to study my Hungarian and figure out how to say “toothache.” Sziasztok!

*~*~*

Some sights of Budapest:
These are just some cute benches near my flat in Freedom Square. We also think that the American Embassy is near here because there were guards out front and an American flag. We didn’t investigate due to confusing construction, but maybe someday, eh? For the meantime, I can’t wait until Spring, because I am totally going to people watch from these benches :)


This is the great chain bridge. It’s not a very good picture, but it shows you how beautiful it is.


This is an old run-down building that remains a great mystery to me. I wonder what it was back in the day. I wonder why no one uses it anymore. I wonder who those people are that are standing guard. At any rate, you can see quite a few buildings like this throughout the city. It’s sad because they must have been so beautiful!


This is Freedom Square, which is very close to my flat.


This is a morning view of Citadella. It was an ugly morning, but we hiked to the top even though the sunrise was not visible. Boo! The views were absolutely nothing like the night views I’ve already shown you. Hopefully some morning, though, we’ll see a sunrise.

Wall-E... in Hungarian? Rock on!

So, there are leftover sodas and pizza sitting on my table… and I added two new teenagers to my Facebook friends. What does this all mean? Youth group started! We had three students – Vera, Rita and Mohab – all of whom are pretty sweet and I look so forward to getting to know them. We watched Wall-E in Hungarian (with English subtitles for me). We ate nummy pizza and drank soda and just… chilled at the church. It was great. Thanks to Aaron, we had translation when we needed it, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We set up a bi-weekly meeting and next time, we are going BOWLING! WEEE!!!

Jeff, Emilie and Simon are all in town today. Last night we hung went for a walk across the bridge and then hung out at the “Peanut Pub” or “Che Guevarra Bar” for a while. It was great to catch up with old friends and just chat. It’s been fun to show people around town. I have felt like a tour guide, but I very much enjoy that job. I wish I could show all of you my city! I guess I’ll just keep posting pictures so that you can see my city with me.

PS – I seem to have a MILLION pictures to show you stockpiled up – but I would LOVE to put up some pictures that you want to see. My mom wants to see more of Hungary’s countryside (not an easy feat when you live in Budapest) and more pictures with me in them (they’re coming, I promise!). What do YOU want to see? It can be as random as “Trazy holding a pizza on her head while standing on one foot in front of the Parliament building with a pigeon.” Make them fun or make them interesting or make them of real things – then either email me (trazylyn@gmail.com) or leave a comment here.

*~*~*

For today, I leave you with a thought… what must it be like to take 400 students on a field trip through Budapest? I’ll give you a couple clues. First, there are no yellow school busses. Second, all the kids have monthly unlimited ride passes on public transportation. Third, I must remind you that these students are from grades 1-8.

The answer: freakin’ crazy!

This is the second field trip we’ve taken. We took the students to see a display of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in Blaha Lujza Tér. These are the 5th grade students that we got to accompany (ie make sure that they are all arrive to the destination and back at school afterwards). They are becoming my favorite class. :)


Here you can kinda see that there were quite a few people there besides our kids, so it was really, really fun! Here you can see the actors portraying the moments of the revolution through miming/silent acting while a man narrated.



The kids also got an education on the 4-5 cars that were there. They were period cars that really didn’t have much to do with the actual Revolution, but it was still interesting.


These are three of the 5th grade boys posing with the tank and an actor. I would introduce you to them, but I really don’t remember their names :P Note the flag with the hole in the middle. Prior to the Revolution, in the middle of the flag was the Communist symbol, so because the revolutionaries wanted freedom from Communism, they cut a hole in all their flags.