CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA AND HUNGARY

A week ago last Friday we set off on a trip to visit three Welfare/Humanitarian couples: the Holts who are serving in the Czech Republic; the Van Dalens who are serving in Slovakia; and the Lunds who are serving in Hungary.  During the trip we put almost 2,500 kilometers on the car.  That’s over 1,500 miles or about similar to driving from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon and back.  While some of the journey was on freeways, a considerable portion was on two lane roads.  Almost the entire road from the Czech Republic to Slovakia was on smaller roads but it had the benefit of being very scenic.  Much of this area is mountainous with winding roads.  It reminded us of driving in the Alps, and of the drive from Salt Lake City to Mirror Lake but greener.  Since we needed to be back by this weekend our schedule was a tight one.  Therefore we passed by but did not stop to visit in Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Nuremberg (twice).  We accomplished the drive back to Frankfurt from the east end of Hungary in one day – leaving at 8 AM and arriving at 11 PM.  Most of our return trip was on freeways but we had a minor diversion in downtown Budapest when our GPS could not make up its mind of whether we should go right or left.  The voice on our GPS is a nice middle-aged English woman.  She can and did get confused a few times on our journey.  New construction and spaghetti type interchanges caused her to give wrong directions that fortunately with time we were able to see our way out of.  With the recent spat of terrorist activity, the police were at border crossings into Austria and Germany.  We waited over two hours to cross over from Hungary to Austria.  

TYPICAL ROAD WE DROVE-HARDLY FREEWAY

SLOVAKIA

SLOVAKIA

CASTLE ON A HILL OFF THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

TYPICAL VIEW FROM OUR CAR

WE HAD TO WAIT FOR THE COWS TO CROSS THE ROAD

First stop – Hdracec Kralove, Czech Republic

The city of Hdracec Kralove is a couple hours east of Prague.  Elder and Sister Holt are the LDS Church's humanitarian directors for the country. We attended church with them last Sunday. On July 24th, l929 Elder John A. Widtsoe, an apostle of our church, dedicated the country for the preaching of the gospel. Elder Uchdorft, an apostle of our church, formed the first stake in the Czech Republic just last May. A stake is a church unit with multiple congregations somewhat comparable in size to Catholic dioceses.  The ward in Hdracec Kralove was created at the same time.  Prior to that it was just a branch, which is a smaller congregation.  In May Elder and Sister Holt had the wonderful opportunity to go with Elder Uchdorft to visit a refugee camp and his childhood home  during his visit.. Elder Uchdorft was born in the Czech Republic and lived here during the first few years of his life, after which he moved with his family to Germany.

Church meetings are held in Hdracec Kralove on the third floor of a building right on the town square, which is shared with other shops and businesses.  Other than the two Catholic churches on the same square, all the other locations – restaurants, shops and businesses were closed for the Sabbath.  Even if the people are not religious they still take the day off and close. 

Every seat was taken in the "chapel" with about 70 people attending Sunday’s meeting.  There was a wonderful spirit that could be felt.  A young man who returned three weeks ago from a LDS mission to Scotland spoke along with two other speakers. It was a very friendly Ward.  I believe almost every person that was there shook our hands. After the meetings we enjoyed having lunch with the other missionaries and a few members of the ward. There are six young Elders, two young sisters and one senior couple that attend this Ward. One of the young men that visited with us is currently awaiting his mission call. His missionary papers have been in for three weeks so hopefully he will receive it very soon.

THE MISSIONARIES AND A FEW MEMBERS IN HDRACEC KRALOVE

On Monday we visited a couple of locations where the Holts have current humanitarian projects.  The first was a home for abused women and their children.  This "home" can accommodate up to 140 individuals with a staff of 15, including three social workers and a teacher.  We met with the director. This facility is primarily funded by Catholic Charities although there are other donors including our church.  We toured the facility and met some of the families and also the workers.  There were brightly colored murals in the playroom that had been painted by one of the clients.  As we visited we met one of the mothers who was meeting with a volunteer from another NGO learning how to budget her money. This mother had two young boys and a baby, and has been in this facility for two months. The goal of this facility is to have the women learn skills that will help them learn to be independent.  We were told by the director, abused women many times leave the shelter and too often return to live with the abuser again.  And, if they do leave the abuser, they seem to seek out another abuser to marry or partner, up to six times! And, without these successful abuse centers to dampen this growth, abuse could quickly become a nation’s culture.  The really unfortunate thing is that young girls who see their mothers abused often end up getting into the same kind of relationship. Boys that see domestic abuse, often end up being abusers themselves.  What the children see take place they often grow to accept as normal behavior.  The hope is that if the women can learn to be self-reliant then perhaps they can break the cycle that is perpetuated with abuse.  In the year 2015, 80 percent of the women from this shelter, when leaving, were able to get established in an apartment on their own rather than returning to the abusive situation. Women can stay in this home for up to six months after which they then receive help to assimilate into society, hopefully with a better outlook on life.

THE DIRECTOR OF THE ABUSE SHELTER, SISTER HOLT WITH SOME OF THE ITEMS GIVEN TO FAMILIES WHICH LDSC HAS DONATED

CHILDREN AT THE ABUSE SHELTER

THIS WOMAN GAVE US PERMISSION TO USE HER PHOTO, SHE HAS BEEN AT THE SHELTER FOR 2 MONTHS WITH HER 3 CHILDREN

ELDER HOLT BEING THE FUN GRANDPA AT THE SHELTER

Another location we stopped at was at an integration camp where refugees from many parts of the world reside while waiting to get the appropriate papers to stay in the Czech Republic.  The Holts have done several refugee projects including in this location. We were invited into several apartments. We spent quite a bit of time visiting with a family from Iraq with a man from Iran translating for us.  

INTEGRATION CAMP WITH FAMILY FROM SYRIA-THE MAN IS SHOWING RUSSELL THE COUNTRIES THEY TRAVELED THROUGH BEFORE ARRIVING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Second stop – Kosice, Slovakia

Elder and Sister Van Dalen are serving as the humanitarian directors for Slovakia.  This couple is serving as live-at-home missionaries similar to us when we served in the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City.  Sister Van Dalen is native Slovakian and Elder Van Dalen is originally from the Netherlands but a long time resident of this area.  While we are physically a long way from our home in Centerville, it is interesting how sometimes the world can seem smaller.  Elder Van Dalen pointed out to us that they know a young missionary, Elder Bednar, who is currently serving in Slovakia who happens to be from our home stake.  We were even more surprised to learn that Elder Van Dalen was baptized in 2007 by Brandon Henrie.  The Henrie’s live just a few blocks south of us in Centerville.  We have known the Henrie family for over 20 years.  I (Russell) told Elder and Sister Van Dalen that when they next come to Utah that they can stay with us and then walk to both the Bednar’s and Henrie’s homes.

On Wednesday we accompanied the Van Dalens and four young missionaries to a closing ceremony for one of their recent humanitarian projects.  This facility provides non-residential care for physically handicapped children and young adults.  The NGO, Detsky Klub, was started in 1996 by Mr. and Mrs. Kozakova who’s son Marian is wheelchair bound.  Marian graduated from college and has a graduate degree. We enjoyed speaking English with him, he is obviously a bright young man. The facility has a staff of 16, including three physical therapists.  They serve anywhere from 30 to 50 individuals per day.  Over the past several years the LDS Church has contributed several pieces of equipment that are used in administering physical therapy.  There were about 30 people at the closing ceremony including a representative from Catholic charities.  During the get-together Elder Van Dalen and Catholic charities were talking about teaming up to make a contribution for the refugees in their area.  Much of the work our church does on refugee projects is in conjunction with other NGOs such as Caritas (Catholic charity), ADRA (Seventh-day Adventists), and the Red Cross.

In addition to hosting and conducting the closing ceremony, Mrs. Kozakova gave us a tour of the facility.  She apologized to us that her husband could not be there as he had been admitted into the hospital on Monday.  They had thought that his health condition was not critical but on Thursday he passed away unexpectedly.  Our thoughts and prayers are with this good woman and her family.  Eileen and I both feel a bit guilty that she was spending her time with us on Wednesday rather than with her husband.

DISABLED TWINS RECEIVING PHYSICAL THERAPY

EILEEN TRYING OUT THE EQUIPMENT DONATED BY OUR CHURCH TO HELP THE DISABLED STAND

MISSIONARIES, A CLIENT FROM AFGHANISTAN, MRS KOZAKOVA AND CATHOLIC CHARITY REPRESENTATIVES

MARIAN KOZAK IS THE MAN WITH THE GREY SHIRT -HE HAS RECEIVED HIS PHD

THE VAN DALENS PRESENTING MRS KOZAKOVA WITH A PAINTING OF THE SAVIOR

MISSIONARIES SERVING IN SLOVAKIA PERFORMED THE SONG I AM A CHILD OF GOD

SISTER VAN DALEN AND EILEEN WERE PRESENTED WITH ROSES, SINCE IT WAS OUR ANNIVERSARY I LET RUSSELL PRETEND HE HAD GIVEN THEM TO ME

Third stop – Miskolc, Hungary

Fortunately the distance between our second and third stop was less than a two-hour drive.  On Thursday we met with the Lunds who are the LDS Church’s humanitarian directors in Hungary.  Recently they have been busy working on refugee projects as they are on the main route for migrants from the Middle East to Germany. 

The Lunds have a large project working with Pro-Ratatouille (www.bffd.hu), an NGO which started in 2009. Melinda Kassai, the NGO’s chairperson, started the NGO after years of working on a EU sponsored European-wide study on poverty.  The NGO seeks to help those in poverty (the lowest five percent of the population), both Roma and non-Roma, by developing and maintaining organic vegetable production to provide both economic and social support for the poor.  The objective is to help the participants break the cycle of generational poverty by teaching self-reliance principles and social integration to both the poor and the communities in which they live.  The NGO won the 2010 Social Business Idea Contest launched by Nobel Prize winning economist Mohammed Yunus with their business model. 

On Thursday we, together with the Lunds and Ms. Kassai, were able to sit down with the mayor of a village where the project has been working for several years.  Eileen asked the mayor how having the project in her village has affected both the poor and the community as a whole.  The mayor told us that the individuals participating in the project have been able to both benefit economically by growing vegetables for their families’ consumption and for sale, and socially through gaining a measure of self-respect and initiative.  The mayor said that of those individuals participating, none are still on government welfare.  She also said that when any others come to her asking for money that she tells them they can go work in the communities’/project’s gardens.  We originally were told we would have only 15 minutes with the mayor.  It turned out that we spent almost an hour there with most of the time being filled by the mayor telling us how much she like the project’s effect on her community.

In Arokto, a village which LDS Charities has funded an agricultural program, we visited some gardens, and spoke with some of the workers.  We also were able to observe the English/self-reliance course that Elder and Sister Lund were teaching. There were several young people attending the class. It was fun to see them eager to learn.

GREENHOUSE FOR THE GARDENS

MELINDA, THE MAYOR, HEALYS, CATARENA, LUNDS

THATCHED ROOF IN HUNGARY, MUST BE OVER 100 YEARS OLD

WE WERE GIVEN SOME SQUASH AS A GIFT FROM THE PARICIPATING GARDNERS

THE WORKERS HAD JUST PULLED SOME ONIONS FROM THEIR GARDEN

THIS WOMAN WAS WORKING BAREFOOT, SHE DUG UP SOME FRESH POTATOS FOR US

ENGLISH, GAMES AND SELF RELIANCE CLASS TAUGHT BY ELDER AND SISTER LUND

SUNFLOWERS EXTENDED FOR MILES ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD