Melanie’s visit to Hungary/Romania April, 2006

  I am privileged to have be given  the  opportunity to meet so many wonderful people and my visit to Hungary was no exception. This  was a follow up trip to take out supplies and money, and to do discuss strategies on how best we can support. And develop programmes.

 The trip to Hungary on April 3 this year was only made possible by the generosity of British Airways.  We were allowed to take 90kg, and that was a lot of luggage. We went to assess the needs of the orphanage in Romania, and the poor children of Bag, in Hungary.   I took a 15 year old girl with me, on a training mission. She was sponsored by her School in Middlewich.  It was the best education a teenager could have. She saw and experienced things that people only dream of.

  The trip to Budapest was wonderful. We flew from London had good seats and excellent service. We were met by Lajois Csiki, who looks after the children in Bag. The next day, we took the train up to Nyirbeltek, were all the children came meeting us with smiles and shouts of excitement. In the village a new baby was born. 2 new foals, and an abundance of chickens and pigs. The baby clothes were distributed by Kizzy, who was so delighted to nurse some of the babies. The older children were proud to show us their school work and their achievement.

  It was still quite cold. The Danube had burst its banks, and many villages and homes were flooded all over Hungary. Dani and Kati were happy to see us, and quickly showed us the improvements to the home. Work had to be stopped, because of the weather, it had been a very cold and wet winter. We have united some of the other poor villages, by having social evenings and sing songs. While we were there, we were able to join in on the traditional  Roma Dancing. I lasted 5minutes.its very much like Irish river dancing. Kizzy was proud of me for having a go, and I was happy when the locals laughed, well, wasn’t I there to make them happy.

Baby clothes are like gold dust in these remote villages, and we enjoyed it so much, distributing the baby clothes and toys. The eyes of the mothers were just as big as the little children who grabbed them, and tried hard to put them on, over their existing clothes.

In the little school,in Nyirvishvari, the children showed us their school work, and what they had achieved over the last year. Many of them had learnt a few English words, and were eagar to try them out on us. We took books, and pencils, rubbers, and English children’s books. Michlosh is trying out his new guitar, he is only 4, but in this country, music is the first language.

Our programmes are all about giving, teaching, and befriending, and networking. In one week we were able to make new friends and new contacts for our growing work. In Budapest, we found friends of Lajios running the Salvation Army, a whole family, of a husband, and his wife and his 3 daughters. We are now trying to do an exchange for Barbra to come and work with the street people of Manchester, while we send her English counterpart to Budapest to work with the many destitute people of that city.

We are comparing the education methods of the rural villages to that of the city, and good communication has been set up between the people of Nyirbeltek, and the peole of Budapest. We work with the poorest of children, in the most remotest of villages, but very quickly, the two are becoming closer.

The trip was also so beneficial to Kizzy, who has taken her experience back to her School in Middlewich, in a view to the School communicating with the children of Nyirbeltek........wooooosh.how much can one do in a week in Hungary, well, this is only a taster. So many friends were made, so much expressions of love was expressed, and many new ideas and projects have been suggested, and put forward for our Trustees to look at.

In a nut shell.we took out,

Medical supplies  Baby Clothes Educational Supplies Musical Instruments  Toys

We set up connections between the villages, 4 talks in 4 different areas, sung and danced with the local villagers, exchanging different methods of Roma dancing(.mine was very different, a lot slower).

We shared about how Hungary will be moving forward in the EU, and how we want to further our knowledge of their culture, and do some exchanges.

We will also be arranging for a group of 12 singers to come to England to sing in concert and organising  work exchanges, with the Salvation Army, and  street projects.