We have arrived in Hungary!!!!!!!!
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Hello friends, family and colleagues,
I hope this message finds you well. I am currently writing about my trip while traveling in Hungary with other volunteers with Habitat for Humanity. I am an advocate of Habitat’s mission and I am looking forward to doing what I can to serve this community and learn more about it while also having a personally meaningful experience.
Day 1
Today is
Wednesday July 17th. I have departed
Appleton, WI for an adventure of many new firsts in my life while I visit
Budapest, Hungary for a 10 day volunteer trip to build houses with Thrivent
Worldwide and Habitat for Humanity. This
opportunity will be my second Habitat project but the first out of the
country. I was warmly reminded as I
kissed and hugged my family before
leaving what exceptional gifts God has given me. I truly must thank them all for the support
they have shown in sharing me with families across the world. I have been working feverishly the past
several months at work so preparing for the trip had me in a bit of a mad
scramble last night. Natalie my oldest daughter was quick to help pack so she
could stay up late to help. The special
visits from all grandmas and grandpas has been a great distraction for
them. On the plane ride over I will be
making a quick stop in Paris before getting to Budapest.
The second
half of day 1 ended about 30+ plus hours after waking up at 5am central
time. Once we arrived in Hungay we took
the airport shuttle to the Csaszar Hotel (30 min). On arrived and checked with part of the
Habitat team we all quickly took to the pool which was a great relief after all
the travel. At about 5:30pm we headed
out to the city. First stop, ATM where
we began to quickly learn the exchange of Hungarian currency.
Next stop was the city tram where we purchased our tickets to downtown
for dinner at Menvez. The food was
excellent and I enjoyed the Hungarian beef stew with homemade noodles. We continued our journey for desert at a very
nice outdoor shop which served some heavenly deserts. The trip back to hotel resulted in a very
long walk and hitching a ride on a different tram which I am not sure we had
tickets for…
Day
2. Last night after the long return walk
and no sleep for 30 plus hours the bed felt great. Today the rest of the team that arrived early
is off to explorer more of the city and the baths. I
headed to Plexus via passport courier through Hungary and to
Romania. During the car ride I was able
to catch up on at least one additional hour of sleep. The country side reminded much of home
although instead of fields of corn the fields are filled with sunflowers. The farmers harvest the seeds for sale and or
for the oil I believe that is extracted.
Once I arrived at Plexus from the 3 plus hour drive I was greeted by the
site leadership team and had many great discussions. I was very impressed with new facility and
what the team accomplished given all the challenges at the end of the
construction project. After my meetings
finished I went to a great Italian restaurant in Oradea where I sampled shrimp
and an appetizer tray that was loaded with great cheeses and meats. A very special thank you to Radu from our
facility for showing me around town briefly and taking the time away from his
family on a Friday to share dinner. On
the return ride home I met another driver who was 36yrs old where we discussed
anything from movies, family, growing up, etc.
I don't think we ever stopped talking from the time we left. Listening to his experiences he has spent
much of his life working hard, trying to get ahead and afford gas, rent and
food. Housing from his perspective takes
an entire lifetime to afford for most of the population. The housing consists of 2-4 rooms or similar
to that of a studio apartment. His
favorite activities consisted of watching American movies and listening to
music, which as a driver he has plenty of time for. I also shared the main reason for my trip to
Hungary and he was very amazed. He
commented that "I didn't know normal people did this". When I returned back to my room at midnight
I was exhausted.
Day
3. Today, Saturday I woke up at 7am
ready to go for another day of site seeing.
At breakfast I met up with a few others that arrived in Hungary Friday. Saturday was the official day for all team
members to join us. While we awaited for
the others to arrive the team split up into multiple directions. I headed to the market with Terri, Chuck and
Laurie.
One thing I must say is the
public transportation system is well utilized and now simple to use after of
navigation. After visiting the market
today I am reminded of the conveniences we have in America. The food all looked wonderful, however their
are many more parts of the animals available for purchase which was a bit scary
looking. The handcrafted items were all
very nice and crafted with lots of care.
Our group continued our journey looking for some much needed shade and a
Coca Cola for Chuck. We found a great
outdoor restaurant that was serving Hungarian pizza....deer meat and green
peppers( please note green peppers are similar to jalepenos). When we returned
to the hotel the rest of our team from America had arrived. Karin and Terri held a group meeting where we
did some great ice breakers that challenged our knowledge of international
flags. I was very impressed on the
number of matches (16) our group had (myself, Barb and Gerri) but quickly out
done by a more knowledgeable group of international travelers (Chuck, Terri,
Karin, Kati ). Chuck then led us through
a devotion followed with a few stories from others on previous trips. These stories are quick reminder about how
small the world is and what a difference one person can make. Terri shared some pretty amazing numbers that
over 6000 homes have been built and over 3million man hours of volunteers have
come forward. After that we set sail
for a wonderful dinner cruise on the Danu river.
Day 4
Today the
entire team of 16 took a tour of Budapest with a native Hungarian whose name
was Csaba. The tour began with a general
overview of the Budabest where we all learned that the population in Budapest
was about ~ 2M and the that 50% GDP is generated in Budapest. Budapest
has the largest parliament in the world.
At the time the Hungarians began to build the parliament it occupied an
area three times its current size. The
name of the city comes from the combination of the two areas that make up the
city. The Danu River splits the city and
the Buda side of the river would be considered by many as the residential
area. The Pest side is approximately
twice as big as Buda. Pest is considered more commercial with government
buildings and contains more of the cultural centers.
Heros
square pictured on the right. Pictures are of the seven Tribe leader who help to conquer the
land in 896. The parliament and basilica below in the city were constructed with the same maximum height of 96 to symbolize
the conquest. While on the tour we also visited one of the worlds largest
minernal spas in the world. The
Hungarians utilize the baths to provide cures for various ailments. The pools are spring fed and the largest
measure to be over 3000 meters deep. 
When we returned from the tour our guide dropped us off at one of his favorite restaurants Kheiron. The food was once again very good here in Hungary and many of tried the local favorites. More to come here..
Day 5 -
Jó Napot (good day)
Today was the first day of the build. We departed at 7:30am from Budapest with a destination of Szodliget. The hotel was called Liget Panzio and it was nestled nicely off the road with a huge garden out front. This hotel
has really great character and is setup like a bed and breakfast. The front
porch of the hotel servers as a nice dining area or gathering for just hanging
out. after check in we departed to the job site where we met the family. Both
fathers of each family took holiday from work to be with us. The children of
each family are in their teenage years and were working to bring in money for
the family. Our construction manager was Levi and he spoke very good English along
with being a pretty good comedian as he walked through all the safety
procedures. Once that was complete we all took a break for lunch... so far so
good. Our lunch was considered a traditional Hungarian with a soup, chicken and
rice.
After lunch we were all itching to work but Levi (in white on left)still need to complete
some additional hands on training. Juli, Emma, Madi and Karin took first shots
at the plastering however i think Juli and Emma might have tried to wrestle with
the plaster bucket. Maria, Laurie and Gerri we part of the ground crew owning
the 1/2 drill and plaster stirring. Chuck, Terri, Debi and I were on preparing
window sills for the next treatment of foam insulation by truing the perimeter
of the windows. Bella, Dan, Bill and Hunter were on sanding detail for the
ground level boards to level and prepare for plaster
tomorrow. The installation
of plaster is very similar to that in the US however this insulation was being
placed over existing brick surface which was very uneven thus requiring a
significant amount of sanding. At the end of the day the ground was covered
with white Styrofoam and ready for plaster.
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| Bill and Hunter |
Here is a shot of our team:
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| Hungary - Vukich Thrivent World Wide Builds Team
Dinner Photos
|
Day 6
Last night finished with a wonderful devotion led by Gerri. A few very touching verses about using the gifts (hands) God gave us to go out and do good works. This certainly started to hit home today as our team or team got our first full day of work in. The teams were mixed up a little from yesterday so everyone was able to try a few new jobs. We had a new member from another Habitat affiliate whose name was Daniel also join our team for the day. The front side of the house was finished with a rough coat and about 70% of a final coat. The gable end of the house also started to see a rough coat of plaster after the styrofoam was fasted on with 15cm plastic anchors. The anchors were a bit like long drywall anchors, however it was very difficult to find stable rock behind the wall to fasten them into. After the fasteners were installed patching and sanding began for the rough coat. The family continued to work with us throughout the day mostly working in a team of their own. They don't speak any English so I think that is mostly why. I can definitely say the family is very hard working and very appreciative of the work. I continue to shake the hand of the father as we arrive and depart each day a sign of welcome and thanks for letting us in to help.
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| The family and Maria |
Today we also learned that the project / remodel we are doing is costing the family about $5000 US dollars and without our help this could easily double/triple the amount. With about 50% of all the foam boards now installed on the house the family also has said the temperatures inside have cooled off considerably. Tomorrow we will likely place another 20%. Once the insulation is all in it will save the family up 30-40% on heating bill alone. It is very uncommon that air conditioners would also be used given the added expense to operate. With the temperatures expected to continue to rise into the low 30's by the end of the week this could not be better timing.
We had a small injury / scrape to Maria today and would ask that everyone keep praying the team to have a safe experience and return home. The entire team is also very thankful to the family for taking care of getting all the meals and cleaning up after lunch.
Tonight we are going out for a nice dinner with the local Habitat team. We are headed to the town of Voc. The Habitat team presented some very nice information on success and challenges within Hungary. I was very impressed with the general focus on teaching and learning about the history of some of the families in Hungary.
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| Stairway to town square |
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| Outdoor restaurant |
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| Team dinner photo |
Day 7
Getting back to work....
Our bus trip today took us further into Hungary for a visit to Nagymaros where we toured the ruins of the XI century land's stewards castle, took a ferry boat ride across the Danu, a visit to Estergom to view one the largest and oldest basilicas.
While in the castle I was king for a few minutes as well a prisoner...the history behind the castle is very fun to learn about and the views would not disappoint anyone...
The basilica took or 50yrs to build and from what I understand and the materials to build came
The views from the church are simply amazing, breath taking and an engineering feat. Words can not describe the sense of amazement for the structure and significance of this basilica for the Hungarian culture and anyone who visits.
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| Basilica from the bridge to Slovenska |
Day 8
The clouds rolled in today and provided some shade for almost 90% of the day.
This worked out perfectly given most of the team was involved in some sort of
plastering or installing the foam insulation. With the days work in we have
used up over 17 bags of plaster which if you look at the pictures has produced a
remarkable transformation from the day we first arrived.
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| Day One Photo |
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| Day 4 photo |
As the team finished placing the fiberglass mesh and foam insulation I installed about 100' of reinforced corner material. With the corners now complete, the final coat of plaster has begun on the ground level and will move along quickly tomorrow. The entire family was out working on the job site today and split up with many of our team members. I worked a little with Gylnn and he spoke little or no English and lets say my one word of Hungarian "yo" or good did not go very far. It still touch my heart and felt awesome to be helping a family in need and a family that is genuinely grateful. My favorite picture of today is Gerri AKA "mud master" as she and a few others were very busy making more mud than the first three days.
Over lunch, Levi continued to amuse all of us with his jokes about a dad, bear, a son and a gun with the best joke being a drawing about students working on one art project....That ended with a grandpa that could not find the soap. Once I get the photo from the others I might need to share as it was great to laugh. Not to be out done on the trip a special thanks to our other Habitat hosts Renata and Nora. Nora has spent a great deal of time with our team as we ventured throughout the country and answered every question we could possibly utter to think. She is an awesome addition to the team and trip and I would not believe we would have had such a great time learning about Hungary without her!.
The question of the day was " is being in a different culture easier or harder than you thought?"
1. It not really that hard as long as you can adjust easily and be flexible
2. Harder but reminds me of how much I blessed
3. What matters most about immersing yourself in another culture is being flexible and having an open mind. If you can do that it is very easy. Bella Köpf
4. Team shirt - front: Egèszsegèdre back: Getting plastered in Hungary!
5. Hungarians seem like patient and very kind people. I feel very safe in Hungary. Juli
6. SHMEE!!! A phrase the Madi and Emma have been using to describe just about anything that is new, not understood or something to confuse the older generation. One of the SHMEE originators...
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| SHMEE 1 - Emma |
The devotion for today was led by Debi and Laurie. I need to fill in the details of the paper clip. But again a very good lesson and reality check on what is important to keep together in our lives while we are here on earth.
Day 9
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| Levi, Juli, Karin installing insullation |
The sunshine was back today and temperatures reached 92ish. We arrived at
the job site at 8am like all
the days previous but today we will depart at 2:30pm to get ready to attend a Hungarian festival. Levi
started the day off with some jokes in his usually happy upbeat attitude. I
must say I have laughed harder than normal all week as there is an added element
with the translation and Hungarian accent. After the discussion the work
started off at a very quick pace again today given the team was now getting the
hang of plastering, fastening, cutting and measuring. The work today included
installation of the insulation on the back of the house by Barb, Bella and Debi,
insulation up to the peak of the house by Karin and Juli, the mud masters Geri
and Maria were up for the challenge of mixing mud and painting the facia
boards, Emma, Madi and I plastered the back of the house along with installation
of the reinforced corner savers and Chuck and Terri worked with the hammer
drill fastening all the insulation that was installed.
For those who dangled
with the angles cutting all those pieces I know the next team will appreciate
not having to sand or cut tiny wedges... Oh wait and had to work in the direct
sun.
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| Chuck..not sure he was hammer drilling...maybe supervising |
As the day continued my hands could not work as fast as my mind knowing
that I wish we could have done more for the family by finishing the job. In
just a few short weeks another team will arrive and continue where we left off.
I know our entire team is interested in seeing the progress during and after
the next build. Our team was impressed by the first groups progress and we
became very good at sanding in some areas :) Just kidding the surface of the
house very challenging.
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| Clint applying some final plaster before we packed up... |
A few short hours after lunch we had An emotional good bye or in the
Hungarian tradition it is not good bye but see you later. This was especially
touching as I know for those who will continue to support Habitat, there are
many places / locations to chose to support. The impression left upon me by the
Habitat team in Hungary is their hearts are into this program and many if not
all don't really consider what they do a job. They have a inventive spirit and
ambitions to help all in need. They have their goals set high and are already
working towards executing a strategic plan to reach more people through how to
workshops and shared resource centers. For these reasons when I consider to
support another Habitat location this will make for a very difficult
decision.
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| A job well done .. --> |
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| --> and for a great cause! |
We arrived at the Hungarian festival around 4:30pm or so. We started at one of the churches where we were greeted by Nora our guide. (who by the way knows everyone). Nora then was able to arrange for a photo with the team conducting the opening ceremony. Very cool but very hot for them.
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| Our last team photo prior to the team starting to depart tomorrow on the footsteps of yet another beautiful basillica. |
Quotes/Questions/Observations:
If you could make one change in Hungary for the people what would it
be and why?
- Daniel - "Seems like the housing is what it is like for most families and the the projects seem doable but the money and time on your own along with the know how seems very difficult." Continue the construction projects through the use of help of others.
- Debi - Different than all builds given the training for the special construction techniques on the restoration or improvements to an existing home.
- Bill and Maria - Today Bill and Maria worked so hard they shared what looked like 3-4 entrees for supper and Maria walked around the table trying to share her dinner. The catch was we ordered from the bus with a menu...
Bill and Maria
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| Hungarian Parliament |
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| Wanna - be - tribe leader |
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| Barb and Gerri |
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| Hungarian music to celebrate and share culture |
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| Public area that in the winter they will freeze over for skating |
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| Hungarian Zoo and Circus |
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| St. Stephan |
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| Hungarian Parliament from the Fishermans Bastion |
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| Dan taking a few shots from down the steps to Fishermans Bastion |
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| Matthias Church |
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| Basilica |
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| Hungarian Parliament from atop the highest point in Budapest |
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| Closer view... |
Fun Facts about Hungary
1. Green Peppers are tiny jalapenos
2. Coca Colas are only 8oz
3. Most beverages don't come with ice unless you ask for it
4. Hungarian language is very unique which makes it difficult for Hungarians to communicate with the rest of the world. To graduate college you must know a second language
5.You have to pay for grocery bags. Maybe I don't realize it but this would be a great thing in America. The people of Hungary do a great job of conserving and recycling.
Disclaimer....these are the facts and details of the trip I remember and stand to be corrected by anyone who traveled with me. :)
2. Coca Colas are only 8oz
3. Most beverages don't come with ice unless you ask for it
4. Hungarian language is very unique which makes it difficult for Hungarians to communicate with the rest of the world. To graduate college you must know a second language
5.You have to pay for grocery bags. Maybe I don't realize it but this would be a great thing in America. The people of Hungary do a great job of conserving and recycling.
6.. According to Debi diet Pepsi does not taste like the real thing
7. Volunteering in Hungary is a new concept and not many people understand why it is done.
If meals for Breakspear and lunch not dinner
8. If you drive in Hungary it is not acceptable to even have one drink
9. It costs you on average about 150HUF to use a public restroom
8. If you drive in Hungary it is not acceptable to even have one drink
9. It costs you on average about 150HUF to use a public restroom
Disclaimer....these are the facts and details of the trip I remember and stand to be corrected by anyone who traveled with me. :)
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