WHAT: Ecumenical Week in Piliscsaba

This is the sanctuary where the Lutheran congregation

in Piliscsaba worships on Sundays.

Several congregations worshipped together last week as a community during Piliscsaba’s ecumenical week.  Three of the main churches sit less than half a mile away from each other along the rocky Pilis roads, and each holds separate services on Sundays.  However, last week we joined as a community, worshipping in different churches, sharing liturgies, and hearing from clergy of different denominations. 

In my community there is a large population of Catholics, a smaller number of Calvinists, and even a smaller number of Lutherans.  This breakdown is actually quite representative of Hungary as a country.  Over 50% of Hungarians claim Catholicism, with a heavy presence of the Roman Catholic population in the western part of the country.  Next, about one-fifth of the population of Hungary is Calvinist (also known as Reform) and their churches are easily recognized because of the star adorned on top of the steeple of their churches, rather than a cross that would often denote a Catholic place of worship.  And the Lutherans make up about three to five percent of the Hungarian population.  Though my congregation in Piliscsaba is small, it is filled with plenty of families with many children, and creates a wonderful network of friendship and support.

Last Sunday afternoon I joined in the final ecumenical service held at the Catholic church just a ten minute walk my home.  The order of worship was comprised of liturgies from each of the three denominations and different pastors served during different parts of worship.  Luckily, the liturgy was printed in the bulletin so it was easier for me to follow along and attempt to translate what was being said.  I’ve found that my reading skills in understanding Hungarian are a bit better than my listening comprehension. 

At one point during the service I noticed that I didn’t need to have my eyes glued to the bulletin because the words being recited sounded familiar.  We were saying the Creed, a statement of belief that we vocally recognize each week.  And, the incredible thing was that the entire church was reciting the Creed by heart, no matter what denomination or congregation the people claimed.  Together we stated our belief in one God, one Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of eternal life.  I am ever aware that the body of Christ is a diverse being with many members and many parts, and it was refreshing to be reminded that no matter our theological differences, we all are members of the grace and peace that makes up God's kingdom.

More later.
-Mere

WHAT: A video of the dance!

Just a super quick follow-up on my last post.  Last Friday night many gathered in one of the schools in Piliscsaba to enjoy a night of folk dance.  Good thing I learned all those moves at the dance house, click here to see our performance!   My host parents are in the back left corner and my partner and I are beside them.

I will later write more surrounding the history of this dance and the land that it comes from.  I hope you enjoy the video! I certainly enjoyed dancing with these fine folks, and think it's quite special to learn something so unique and important to Hungarian culture.  I'd like to give a special thanks to Réka and Atilla, our dance instructors.

My host parents are directly in front of this picture, and my partner and I are right behind them.  We've been practicing this dance every Wednesday night for the past several months.

More later

-Mere

WHERE: A Dance House

Imagine speed-dating.  Now replace the 90 second conversation at a table for two with a 90 second folk dance routine in a crowded ballroom.  That is just what I did for an hour and a half one Wednesday night in some dive of a place just outside of Budapest.

My host parents were going to a “dance house” to meet up with some high school friends of theirs and they invited me along.  Before going, I was familiar with the concept of a “dance house.”  Usually a live folk band plays music and friends sit at tables in conversation while partners occasionally join in the ancient, yet well known, dances from Transylvania.  So when my host parents invited me to go, I said, “Yeah sure, why not!”  I anticipated watching more than participating, and was along for the ride.

My initial nerves for the night were soothed, or rather shocked by a sip of pálinka- the famous Hungarian beverage that is often made in the back yards of Hungarian homes.  It’s the moonshine of Magyarország, and always offered as a sign of hospitality at social and family gatherings.  János Lacki defines it as a, “chemical cocktail” yet I find the pear or plum flavor combined with good people and laughter somewhat digestible.  Either way we arrived late, per usual, accepted the welcome drink and hurried into the ball room.

I walked through the door and observed a large circle of people practicing a rhythm the couple in the center was displaying.  There must have been 60 people gathered ranging from 20 to 60 years of age.  The room was stuffy and the sounds of heels tapping on the scuffed wooden floor filled the air, along with an aroma of perspiration.  I had no partner upon walking in, but precisely seven seconds later a man nearing 50 swooped in and sent me spinning. 

The combination seemed familiar and was similar to something I had learned in the previous months.  Yet still, I was stumbling and muttering, “I’m sorry” and “I don’t know this” in my broken Hungarian.  Immediately upon learning I was not a native speaker the man began instructing me in German.  As soon as I caught my breath to mention that I speak English, a bell rang. The men stayed standing in place and the women moved one space to the right, it was on to the next one.

The next one must have barely been 30, his English was quite good, a common characteristic of Hungarians his age and his dancing moves were just as skilled.  He quickly went over the basic step of this particular dance and I had just enough time to become comfortable with it when the bell rang.  On to the next one.

The next one was twice as wide but the same height as me, or perhaps a bit shorter as I noticed the hairs poking out of his mostly bald head.  His chubby fingers spun me with great confidence and he never spoke a word, until the bell rang and he offered a word of thanks.

The next one was tall and lanky and my Hungarian skills were better than his dancing skills.  Through bumping and stepping on my feet, as well as the feet of the couple beside us, we somehow managed to establish some sort of rhythm.  And I was a bit relieved to hear the bell a few seconds later.

For the next hour the bell continued to ring every two minutes or so, with brief tutorials  from the couple in the middle on moves and steps to add.  And with every ring of the bell I continued moving to the right, on to the next one.  I was laughing constantly and learning to trust myself and the ability of the stranger right across from me.

Two years ago when I was in Europe studying abroad, I felt a bit like I was speed-dating the countries.  Every other weekend my friends and I would pick somewhere new to travel, and the next weekend it was on to the next one.  I got brief glimpses of each country's culture, personality, language, and food.  And occasionally I really clicked with one, but I never got to stay long enough to really know it.

It takes time to develop a rhythm and relationship with a person or with a place.  I'm happy to be past the small talk with Hungary.  I know now where the locals eat, where they like to vacation, and why they speak of "Greater Hungary" as if the current borders are not correct.  I've experienced a Hungarian prom, celebrated Christmas in a Hungarian home, and I eat paprika like it's my job.  I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to dance with this country and it's people for an entire year, and look forward to the new steps and routines that are sure to come.

WHAT: There grammar

Usually I'm a stickler for the correct use of your/you’re, there/their/they’re, two/too/to and the countless other grammatical mistakes that uneducated…and educated people make.  I used to see these mistakes on social media, e-mails, and assignments and absolutely cringe.  I was privileged to have an education first of all, and on top of that to have teachers that stressed the importance of communicating effectively and correctly.  They told me that if I make one grammatical mistake on my cover letter, I should consider my application at a significant disadvantage.  Because, the truth is people judge grammatical mistakes to some degree.  I myself have been guilty of looking negatively at these mistakes and the people who make them. 

But after living in Hungary for four months and using a language I knew nothing about four months ago, I have a new appreciation for grammar mistakes and just mistakes in general.  You see, in the Hungarian education system English teachers stress grammar like no other.  To teachers, it is more important to hear a student speak one sentence correctly than to hear mistakes in several sentences that fully express an idea.

Because of this, people are terrified to speak English.  I have found this in adults and children alike.  Whenever conversations begin people automatically say, “I can’t speak English, please correct me”.  When in fact, I’ve found that most times these people know English extremely well.  They comprehend almost everything and formulate sentences to respond, yet they get stuck behind which tense and conjugation to use.  People talk about past-perfect and past-participle and the accusative case and hell I don’t even know what half those things mean.  Sometimes I have to say, “Just talk!”

And when they do start talking, I hear ideas, opinions, sincere concerns, and words of thanks.  Through the Hungarian accent and occasional mistakes, I understand them.  I understand what they are conveying and always try to listen three times as much as I speak.  The mistakes still come and go, but they enjoy expressing themselves instead of hiding behind their thoughts.

Constantly I’m reminded of my summers at camp, and this particular topic reminds me of the act and language of prayer.  Sometimes my campers would get intimidated about praying.  They were intimidated in trying to sound as eloquent as pastors and other leaders.  They were intimidated in knowing what to say, or not knowing how to say what they wanted to.  The great thing about prayer is that there are no grammatical rules, tenses, formulas, or vocab words.  And one of the things I loved about being a counselor was watching my campers gain confidence in praying, whether it was for an entire group or for their personal silent thoughts.  Words for prayer come freely, and sometimes not so freely, but whatever the case my suggestion is still the same, “Just Pray!”  God understands and hears our thoughts and words no matter how they are communicated. 

So to all foreign language learners—Just talk!  Make mistakes and don’t be afraid of them!  In trying new sentence structures or words, using hand gestures, and laughing when you have no clue what’s going on...progress is made.  And to all people looking to connect or communicate with God for any reason—Just pray!  Be confident in knowing that you are understood and listened to carefully.  Don’t ask me how to translate His response though…that’s a different story.

More later,

Mere

This post is dedicated to my first Hungarian teacher and friend-Teri.
Pictured in the middle surrounded by the YAGM Hungary volunteers.
Thank you for teaching us so much, and giving us enough knowledge
to make mistakes in this crazy native language of yours!

WHAT: A Christmas Game

Take a look at these precious drawings.   During the Holidays it is common to play to family games around the table to join in fun and fellowship.  The pictures below are from a game that combines Pictionary and Charades.  Go ahead, take your guesses for the words they are describing!

Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Picture 3:

Now, I wish I could tell you that these drawings were done by my really cute Kindergartners, whose creativity and imagination are really unbelievable.  But unfortunately I have to claim these horrific, awful, and embarrassing drawings.  It’s safe to say I can speak Hungarian better than I can draw…  And that is saying A LOT. 

Regardless, Christmas Eve was absolutely wonderful. 

The day began with getting the Christmas Tree and decorating it as a family.  We mainly used our homemade gingerbread cookies as the ornaments, a project we completed the night before.  I'm happy to finally have a tree up to enjoy the lights and beauty! In Hungary, almost all families wait until the 24^th to get their tree.  It stays up until the start of Epiphany on January 6!)

The day ended with this lovely family game and an episode of The Big Bang Theory.  In between I visited several friends, attended a Christmas party, enjoyed the Christmas pageant and service at church, opened gifts with family, talked with my own family in the USA, and ate a ton of really delicious food.

Christmas Eve really is the huge day of celebration in Hungary, with Christmas Day reserved for traveling to nearby families and joining in meals.

Now, we are off to a neighboring town to visit the other set of grandparents and more aunts, uncles, and cousins.  I wish all of you a very blessed Christmas wherever  you are celebrating!

Boldog Karácsonyt!!

-Mere 

Answers:

Picture 1: Zipper (apparently only zippers in the USA say YKK...)

Picture 2: Lake (If you are from Louisiana you should have gotten this)

Picture 3: Tiger (I purposely don't pay that much attention to LSU.  Clearly I don't know what a tiger looks like)

WHAT: Thursdays

If you asked me what my favorite day of the week is, I'd answer Thursday.  I don't exactly know why, perhaps it's the fact that the excitement of the weekend is near, or that it is often my most productive work day, or that in college on Thursdays I got to stuff my face with cheese fries.  I don't know- Thursdays are usually always fun and fulfilling, there's just something about the day.

This Thursday I spent most of my time at Páduai Szent Antal Általános Iskola, a school in Piliscsaba that teaches elementary, middle, and high school students.  For two class periods I talked with English learners about Christmas traditions and answered questions about how the holidays are celebrated in the USA.  In turn, I learned a few interesting things about Christmas in Hungary as well...the subject of a future blog post. 

Later in the evening I attended the school's Christmas concert and witnessed extremely talented children perform traditional folk dance routines and absolutely incredible music pieces.  My host sister Réka played the recorder, danced, and sang.  And, as I watched her I felt an immense sense of pride.  During her last performance I had to hold back tears as sweet voices filled the school.  With a hint of the Hungarian accent, Réka  sang in a choir of middle school girls and boys the following words:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you,
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace.

Back in September Réka and I posed at a mountain side
on our hike.  Our sisterhood was just beginning!

I'm not sure if any of the children knew the true meaning of the English words they were singing, and I am sure none of them know just how much they impacted me tonight.  This prayer has a special way of renewing my spirit and filling with me peace, and oh how glorious it was to hear on a Thursday evening.  You see, for many Thursdays I gathered in Upper Crafts at Lutheridge for Staff Worship.  Pastor Tim would always close with this very prayer, and somehow we would all be rejuvenated to finish the week strong with creativity and energy.  Tonight I am thankful to have received this prayer from children who had no clue how the spirit was working through them to give me energy and creativity to finish the work week before celebrating Chirst’s birth.  Here’s to Thursdays!

-Mere

A Note on Thanksgiving

The Holiday season is in full swing here in Hungary.  As we lit the third candle on the advent wreath this weekend, I realized how fast the time has passed since celebrating Thanksgiving.  And that I didn’t mention anything about it yet!

I took the opportunity in late November to teach my host community about American Thanksgiving.  At the Tanoda, the students and I googled pictures of Thanksgiving dinner and spoke about traditional American dishes.  Some foods were familiar, while others seemed completely foreign.  I also of course attempted to make a grammatical lesson out of the spirit of Thanksgiving. 

I imagined the kids holding up the signs I made and making perfect English statements about what they were personally thankful for.  I brought my camera to film them and envisioned creating a video to capture their thoughts and cute Hungarian accents.  The video would be paired with some sweet inspirational music and the production would be an emotional one, making people who read my blog posts cry, getting hundreds of facebook likes and shares and possibly even making it to Buzzworthy.com.  So here folks is what I got: 

The day we did this activity, the kids were not in the mood to listen or cooperate to what I had in mind.  They had already been in school since 8:00am that morning and it was now 4:00pm in the afternoon.  The last thing they wanted to do was work on their English and listen to me nag.  We ended up playing card games and listening to music.  And though my expectations were not academically or creatively met, it ended up being a great day and I was reminded that my agenda is not always the agenda that needs to be followed.

A few days later another YAGM volunteer, Chelsea, came to stay with me in Piliscsaba.  She serves in Szombathely, not too long of a train ride from me.  I had this great idea that together we would make my host family a huge Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate as a family.  (Side note: I do not regularly cook.  I do not regularly shop in a grocery store.  Cooking is not on my list  of top 10 favorite things to do.  On Thanksgiving Day I usually sit in the living room and watch football while other people are in the kitchen.)  Regardless of these facts, I took on the task of cooking a dinner with the expectation of filling the table with delicious food and giving my Hungarian host family a taste of American Thanksgiving.

Chelsea, YAGM volunteer in Szombathely, and incredible
pumpkin pie maker

Three groceries stores and one broken oven later, I was ready to order pizza.  I broke the oven, like I didn't even think that was possible.  I was over this dinner thing.  But my wonderful friend Chelsea took over and kept her spirits high, making homemade pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, chicken pesto, and a delicious candied walnut salad.  My contribution was peeling the potatoes and watching the pumpkin pie cook in a neighbors oven for 45 minutes.  While Chelsea labored at the stove in our house, I sat in a neighbor's kitchen and for 45 minutes conversed solely in Hungarian with a stranger.  My expectations of the night and dinner were completely off, but I gained so much from that conversation with a stranger that I now call a friend.  And Chelsea pulled off a WONDERFUL dinner...props to you girl.

Chelsea, Thad, Ole, Me, Mari, and Ursula (Central Europe YAGM Family)
enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers and lots of UNO playing!

Chelsea got to make those homemade pumpkin pies again later that weekend when all the Hungary YAGM volunteers traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia to celebrate Thanksgiving with our coordinators and other ELCA volunteers.  It was a wonderful weekend of food and fellowship.  On Saturday we gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner and I was absolutely blown away by how delicious everything was, it seriously tasted like home.  I guess most of my expectations surrounding Thanksgiving were turned upside down and it has reminded me to keep my expectations in line, or rather to not have any at all.

It's nice to experience things as they are, and not have to compare them to how I envisioned them to be.  I've taken this knowledge into the Advent season and am fully enjoying the Holiday season in a new culture.

More later on Advent and Christmas

-Mere