Prague, continued

Well, we continue with our trip to Prague....


Sign with the different ways to spell Prague

In Hungarian, Prague is spelled Praha. To say, "I am going to Prague", I would say, "Prahaba megyek" or "Megyek Prahaba", depending on whether I wanted to put the emphasis on going to Prague or the fact that I'm going. Rather confusing to me since I can't remember whether the emphasis should go at the front or the end of the sentence!


Glenn speaking on marriage at Ebenezer

Our main responsibility at Ebenezer was as counselors but Glenn did lead one session on keeping your marriage strong on the field. He used a very creative idea correlating international driving signs with signs in your marriage, and how important it was to be able to read and understand those signs to avoid mishaps. It was good.



Fortunately, the week in Prague was not all work :) We got to eat out for lunch and dinner (paid by IMB with limits, of course) and Prague has some of the most amazing restaurants! We ate at a Columbian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, an Italian one, and Greek one, in addition to an American one called Buffalo Bill's!



They were ALL good but Buffalo Bill's was my favorite because it had something I haven't seen since arriving in Europe almost 9 months ago, and that is FREE REFILLS! At $3 for a bottle of Coke Light (Diet Coke)everywhere else, free refills was a real bargain! I think I drank 3 large glasses of Coke Light just because I could! This restaurant was also the first one I've ever gone to that advertises ICE for their drinks. Can you tell that Buffalo Bill's caters to Americans in Prague???

We didn't really do any sightseeing due to lack of time, but we did enjoy walking and catching public transportation to and from our hotel, restaurants, and the regional office where we had the conference. The weather was cold and misty, but it felt good since we were always in a hurry and walking FAST.

I loved being able to read some of the signs-about phones

Looks Greek to me!

Parking on the sidewalks

Christmas season begins in October in Europe too!

One block from our hotel was the Flora Mall. It looks just like any American mall, but some of the fashions were a little strange. The big thing is wearing long shorts with tights and pointed toed high-heeled boots. Not a look just anyone can carry off!

Glenn wants these shoes for Christmas

On our way to the train station to return to Budapest, we went to the Flora Mall food court to pick up a bucket of KFC for lunch on the way home! I'd been dreaming of KFC ever since our trip up to Prague a week earlier when a guy carried a bucket onto the train for his lunch! We got 9 pieces of chicken, 2 coleslaws, and 2 pieces of bread (they don't do biscuits here). It was really finger lickin' good!

We got back to Budapest on Thursday night, and hit the ground running. The time in Prague was a good. It was a mini-vacation, just what I needed, but it is good to be back "home".

This is the view outside our front yard and all up and down our street. One day a year in every neighborhood (on assigned days) everyone puts their broken appliances, furniture and other trash out on the sidewalk for the garbage company to pick up. It is fairly common to see people in their cars parked next to the large piles of discarded items, wanting to be the first one to see what others are throwing away so they can claim it. You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure!

Schatzie is Hungarian!

I also found out that Schatzie is Hungarian, and her name is spelled Saci. In Hungarian, the letter S is pronounced "sh", and the letter c is pronounced "tz". We are enjoying babysitting Saci, and she enjoys taking walks with Glenn and me. She is also a great jogging partner! She jogged non-stop for 55 minutes with me yesterday. (This is my subtle way of telling you I jogged non-stop for 55 minutes (!) and the fact that Saci was with me is secondary!)

One of our guests at the Eden House is an expectant mother who is due to give birth in a couple of weeks. Her husband and 5 children arrive tomorrow from their country to join her for the birth of this 6th child. This is our first baby to be born at the Eden House (well, not AT the Eden House) since our arrival in Budapest, and I am so excited!

If you recall, two couples in the recent past have been in the process to come as host/hostess of the Eden House but it was evidently not God's timing. Well, we should find out this week if another couple who has expressed an interest was approved to come manage the Eden House. If this is THE couple and everything continues as it should, they would arrive in April. Continue to pray for God's provision for this invaluable ministry, and for us to wait patiently for His timing.

This Thursday is All Saints Day. In Hungary, families clean up around the gravesites of their loved ones and place flower arrangements and candles on them. It is evidently a big deal here because of the abundance of flowers and wreaths for sale everywhere (particularly at the entrance to cemeteries) AND we were encouraged by our language teacher to walk through the big cemetery in town just before dusk and admire all the beautiful flowers and candles. I'm sure it is beautiful, but since we don't have a loved one buried here, I would kind of feel like a tourist intruding in their grieving! Maybe I will just walk around the outside of the cemetery and peer in through the gate.

THANKSGIVING is right around the corner and then IT WILL BE CHRISTMAS!!

Where in the world am I?

I'm sorry I'm late this week posting our blog. Glenn and I were busy getting things squared away at the guesthouse for our trip to Prague, which is where we are right now. The IMB provides a wonderful "retreat" experience called Ebenezer for new missionaries at the end of their first year on the field to help them process what they have been through, get a realistic view of all that God has done in and through them, give them opportunities to worship in their own language, and to encourage them as they continue in their work. Glenn and I are actually here as counselors for them, and we will not atttend our own Ebenezer until the end of January. The name Ebenezer comes from 1 Samuel 7:12 ("Thus far has the Lord helped us.")



Glenn is leading a session on driving and surviving in your marriage, or something along those lines. He and I took a bunch of pictures of driving signs that we see all the time, some of which are decipherable, and some of which totally baffle us as to what they mean! He is going to relate them to navigating through our married life, and how much easier and better our marriage will be if we pay attention to and heed the signs! An impossible question to answer, but food for thought: How many signs do you have in your life that you fail to see and interpret correctly, that had you paid attention, might have helped you get where you wanted to go?



But before leaving for Prague, we took a day off and did a little more sightseeing with Dan and Janet. We wanted to climb to the highest point in Budapest and look out over the city so we



took the children's railroad partially up the hill and then hiked the rest of the way. The children's railroad previously was run by the Pioneers, which was the communist version of the Boy Scouts. The children and youth were trained on how to do the various jobs in running a railroad while being indoctrinated with communist ideals. Today, it is still "run" by children and teens, but is now a way for them to learn more about locomotives and transportation while learning good work ethics.


Spectacular view!


Glenn and me at the top of the Elizabeth Tower

On Thursday, we boarded a real train for Prague. It was about a 6 hour train trip so we got to relax, enjoy the scenery and fellowship with Dan and Janet who also had to go to Prague for their jobs.

We packed our own lunch since the trip was so long, and we didn't want to have to pay "train" prices for boxed lunches, and I was so looking forward to eating my homemade chicken salad sandwich until I saw this guy get on the train with a 20 piece Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket!!! Made my mouth water so badly that I slipped on my own drool and wasn't able to get a picture before he slipped away!

Glenn consoled me by rubbing my feet a good part of the way!

They still use human conductors to stamp tickets

We will be in Prague until Thursday morning, and our schedule is fairly free (we meet with the missionaries during meal times) so we have had some time to walk through the city, which is, to me, the most beautiful city I've ever seen. Having traveled as much as we have around the world, we've seen a lot of cities.) I won't bore you with a lot of pictures of castles, museums, ornate buildings, and churches, but I will show you some of the things that struck me as being different.

Mayonaise on French Fries!

Our first night out on the town we chose to eat at something akin to a "hot dog" stand, except they sold sausage dogs in a baguette that were almost a foot long. Evidently, in the Czech Republic they eat mayonaise on their hot dogs instead of ketchup, because they asked if we wanted ketchup (they could tell we were American-go figure!), and when they gave us our sausage doggies, they had ketchup and mayonaise! Other than knowing how fattening the French fries were, they tasted pretty good!

We also discovered in one of their grocery stores a package of cookies called Maryland Chocolote Chip cookies. I promise you, they could pass for Chips Ahoy except for their smaller size. Taste-wise, they were exactly the same. It was a nice taste of home.

Before I go home, I will pick up a 2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper! We can't get those in Hungary so it will be a real treat.

The weather here is cold and overcast, but we are enjoying being with the other missionaries and getting a break from our usual duties in Budapest. I know I won't be able to convince you that we're NOT on vacation, because it sure feels like one! And it feels good!

As I close, I ask you to pray especially for those missionaries that are here with us as they are finishing out their first year. Some have had a really good year. Most are doing well with all the adjustments that have had to be made in their lives, and ALL will say that God has shown Himself FAITHFUL throughout the year, but it is still tough. Pray for them. Thanks!

Company's gone; back to work!

Pop and Emogene returned to the States on Thursday morning but I have a few remaining pictures of their visit. We enjoyed their visit so much and wanted them to stay another two weeks, but they had other things to do and other places to go, so....we hope they will come back!



As we were driving from the Eden House to our house late one afternoon, we spotted way off in the distance this familiar, yet strangely out of place, large yellow bus and decided to follow it to get a good view of it (so I could take a picture!!)



Glenn, having mastered the scarey Hungarian driving techniques in only 9 months, was able to catch up with it and get close enough for me to take this picture of it. We are so curious as to who is using it! We've actually seen it once before making it's way down the street infront of our house about 5:00 pm.



Pop wanted to take us out to our favorite restaurant one night as a special treat. The treat was having him and Emogene with us, but I think he wanted to eat too, so I picked this place in our neighborhood that I had heard about from several missionaries that used to live in Budapest. They fondly call it "The Cave" because it is located in the basement of a house that is built on the side of a hill, and it looks like a cave when you go in. Stone walls, rounded or arched ceilings, and kind of underground.



The food was delicious and the portions were huge!

This was kind of our good-bye event, as they left early the next morning. We got up at 3:30 am, left the house at 4:30 am to be at the airport by 5:00am for their 6:50am departure. When we got back to the house, we went back to bed for a couple of hours. I also encouraged Glenn to take a nap that day because we had company coming for dinner that night, and I didn't want him yawning at 8:00 pm!

Pop and Emogene got out of town just before the weather turned cold! This morning it was 25 degrees! Brrrr!

Glenn and I are babysitting some friends' dog while they are in the States for a month. Schatzie (not sure how to spell it in English or Hungarian!) is a beautiful Sheltie that reminds us a lot of Jake, our previous Collie-Sheltie mix that we had in Marietta.

Schatzie's "mother" is my walking partner 3 days a week, so while she is in the States, I will be walking Schatzie. Rather, Schatzie will be walking me!

With company and our work load lately, Glenn and I haven't been doing as much pleasure walking as we have in the past, so today we took Shatsy out for a walk and noticed several things in our neighborhood we haven't seen before...

such as this sign. It wasn't too hard to notice it since it is pretty big and right infront of our house. The cool thing is that we could figure out (we can read!) that it is an advertisement for water, gutter and stone work or repairs.

And we even noticed that the fireplug on the corner of our lot now has new endcaps. We hope that means that there is water in it! One morning several months ago I came outside and water was gushing out one end of it and flooding our yard and the street. We think some mischevious kids must have taken off the endcaps.

But this? THIS we have never noticed nor can we figure out! THIS is where someone has laid a fire by stacking the wood tee-pee stlye with a tall stick poking out the top, and a ceramic pot turned upside down on it! If we were in Africa, we could be pretty certain it is a fetish or a sacrifice to apease some god, but we're in Hungary! We'll let you know if we ever find out what this is about!

It is hard to believe we have been here for 9 months. We've had a great time, but it's because we have seen God work in our lives and the lives of our co-workers. He has provided for our needs, giving us strength and comfort when we needed it. He has answered our prayers for friends with whom we can fellowship and study the Bible. He led us to a church that has welcomed us and made us feel a part of them. When we've had our own bumps in the road or worked with others in difficult situations, just His Presence alone has made it so much easier to bear. We continue to covet your prayers! I know time and distance are tools that Satan uses to his advantage to break your prayer commitment that we so desperately count on. Please don't stop! To God be the glory!

Last days

Well, Pop and Emogene leave in a day and a half, which is about 2 weeks too soon. We've been talking about them extending until the end of October, and I think they would, except Dad has to get back to put the garbage out, send in his tax papers, and then do laundry to get some clean clothes before he heads to Virginia with a friend next week.



Glenn gets out the old dictionary to help him figure out how to talk to the landlord about letting us put in an electric gate for our driveway. I'm sure we'll have pictures soon of his handiwork!



I knew it was time for me to quit working so much while Pop and Emogene were here when I saw them riveted to the screen saver on my computer!!! They seem to have really enjoyed seeing all our photos of our family, our trips, our friends, special events, and our life here in Budapest. I leave the computer turned on during the day so we can receive phone calls from family and friends, and whenever the computer is still for more than a couple of minutes, our photos become a slide show. They are drawn to watching picture after picture after picture come up. It's been good for Glenn and me to see all our pictures too!



After they'd seen all the pictures on our computer, we drove out to a nearby town called Szentendre. It is a quaint little tourist town on the Danube River about 45 minutes from Budapest. We ate lunch on the sidewalk. It was a little chilly, but it is October. What do I expect?

We strolled down cobblestone streets in town, watched this lady embroider a Christmas design on a tablecloth, and bought a few gifts for friends and family.

Then we took a drive out in the countryside near Szentendre to visit an open air museum where they have 65 hectares of old buildings from the late 1800's and early 1900's that depicted the lifestyle of Hungarians.

We saw a barn with real goats, sheep, cows, horses, pigs, ducks, chickens, dogs and kittens. We saw a building where they dyed fabric, a regular house that was decorated for Christmas, a place where they tanned leather and a windmill. There were lots of buildings that we didn't get to see because we ran out of time. It was interesting, but it reminded me a lot of Williamsburg, Virginia. I guess if you've seen one plantation, you've seen them all.

However, there was one thing we saw that we couldn't figure out what it was for, and that was this hole in the wall! It goes down about 4 feet and then turns under the house. We have no idea what it was for. Any ideas or guesses?

We stopped in the bakery (yes, it was a real, live bakery, just like 100 years ago) and enjoyed some local goodies.

Looks like the sunflowers have seen better days.

This windmill was so huge that it was visible from the whole property. We saw it every time we turned around; we joked that there must be three or four windmills!

As the sun went down, we headed home.

Tomorrow is our last day together. It has been a great visit, and we hope they will come back again next year!

Tourists in the City

Well, I wanted to start off with a realization. Sometimes, it pays to pay more!



I decided to try another brand of toilet paper, which was a big mistake! The roll on the left is what it looks like straight from the package. The roll on the right is halfway into the roll. As you can tell, the ink on the paper has run and some of the sheets don't even have the design printed on it!



While we were in town, I saw this UPS truck and it made me appreciate the color brown even though it doesn't do anything for me.



This is another shot of Pop and Emogene with the MP3 player, only this time they were singing along with it! The song was by the Gatlin Brothers and the song was All the Gold in California. They are having so much fun together.



Today we "caught public" and went into town. We visited the Grand Market Hall.

One of the colorful booths selling paprika, a Hungarian favorite!

We ate at the Grand Market Hall for lunch and enjoyed sharing two bowls of Goulash Soup and two Big Fried Veal Chops (that's what the menu board said!). The veal chops were huge!!!

Pop and Emogene strolling down Vaci Street

In front of Hero's Square

Taking an ice cream break!

The flowers were beautiful along the road and in many ways, it looked like spring!

It looked like spring until we entered City Park and the huge trees were losing their leaves! It looked like fall, for sure!

We were all tuckered out on the ride home.

We had a great day in town and are relaxing in front of the tube tonight. We're watching a movie, and I wish I could show you a picture of Emogene as she laughs hilariously!!!!

Tomorrow is Sunday. Have a wonderful day of worship!