I was in the hospital earlier this week...

I was in the hospital earlier this week, but fortunately I was just visiting someone. It was an interesting experience for me because the hospital has to be one of the oldest in Budapest and is quite different from any hospital I've ever been in before. It is, however, three stars above the one we had in Daloa, Ivory Coast!!!



St. Janos Hospital is a complex of buildings that takes up a whole block. The above building is just one of about 30 that make up the "hospital". Each building houses a specialty, such as a children's building, audiology, cancer, etc.




This is the building where I went to visit a friend. It was quite old; even the addition on the front of the main building was old!




This is the front entranceway, or the lobby of this particular "hospital". Quite different from the front lobby of Wellstar/Kennestone Hospital! No receptionist in sight. Good thing I knew which room she was in!




This is one of the hallways just inside the front door. I went to visit on Thursday, a little before noon. I saw very few people, all of which were medical personnel or patients. I didn't see any family members visiting sick patients.

Even though the hospital was old, it was clean. The doctors that work at this hospital are some of the very best in the country so we feel good about the medical care that is available to us. (You can relax, Dad!)




Hungary is buying into the western world of commercialism and materialism, full-steam ahead! I saw Halloween costumes for sale at Tesco for the first time, and that is definitely not a Hungarian custom. A friend of ours at church said the costumes for sale are nothing more than a way to make money for the stores. The kids don't do trick or treating-yet. Of course, when the stores start selling aisle after aisle of large bags of candy, we'll know trick or treating is on it's way!

Christmas decorations have been showing up in stores for the past few weeks but that is not a surprise to us since we are used to that in America. However, the one thing that is big here that we haven't seen in America (and hope we never do) is the large quantities of Santa's climbing down ladders (or is he climbing up?) We saw these last year too, but they are everywhere this year!

Saturday Glenn and I, along with Dan and Janet, went to hear Dr. Gary Collins speak on "coaching". Dr. Collins is a well-known Christian psychologist who has written many books through the years, and one of his latest is on the recent trend of life coaching. If you aren't familiar with coaching, it is similar to counseling, only you don't give advice and ask people how they feel. Instead, very generally speaking, you help a person go from where he is in his life to where he wants to be.



Anyway, I wanted to make sure to get a good seat so I asked if we could get there "early". There was no cost, no reservations, and no way to have any idea how many people would show up so we decided to get there 30 minutes early "just in case". Well, we were the first ones besides those who were setting up for it!

I would guess there were about 30-35 people there, which surprised me. I obviously expected a lot more than that with a big name like Dr. Collins (or I wouldn't have come so early!). Even though there are 2000 American missionaries in Budapest, only about 10 of them came!

After the seminar, we had dinner at the Perryman's house. Skipper is quite a cook and makes one of the best pizza's I've ever had (aside from Kari's, of course!)

After dinner, Sue and I took a drive out to the neighborhood cemetery because it was the eve of the Day of the Dead (if you translate it literally). This weekend everyone goes to the cemetery to clean up the plot of their loved one and they leave candles and flowers on the gravesite. The holiday originates from the Catholic Church. This is the day families remember the dead and pray for their souls as they are stuck in pergatory. For believers, it is a day of rememberance for their loved ones.

It was 8 pm when Sue and I arrived at the cemetery, and even though the candles were burning on each of the gravesites, it was too dark to see to walk through and admire the gorgeous arrangements. We were also run out by the security guards! Tonight, Glenn and I are going to go at dusk when the candles will be lit and there will be enough light to see where we are walking. It is quite beautiful. As we walk, I will be remembering my mother who is already in heaven with Jesus.

As I write this, my husband is taking care of the dishes. I am so blessed. I know it.

We're home for another week before we hit the road again. I've never been to Turkey before!