"Too American"

This past week, we had the pleasure of a visitor from Institute for Christian Resources, in San Jose, California. ICR is the organization that receives all of our donations and sends receipts out for them, as well, as putting the money into our account so that we can continue living and working at the library here in Budapest. Our visitor, David Snell, had emailed us several weeks ago after being introduced to us via email by the staff at ICR. He came to Europe to visit the libraries here that ICR is associated with and to do some work regarding a doctoral program in which he is involved. None of us in the library had ever personally met David Snell.

With Merrill's very limited vision and Rusty and Beth still being very new to Budapest, I told David that I would meet him at the train station here in Budapest and escort him to the hotel, where I had made a reservation for him. I had the details of his train arrival and even his mobile phone number programmed into my mobile phone, in case I would need to call him. Our day last Tuesday was as unpredictable as most days have been around here, since about October 1. Merrill and I got home from the eye clinic at 5:15 pm and David's train was arriving at 6:30. There was plenty of time, but neither Merrill or I had had any lunch and we had a group coming into the library at 6:30. I quickly made Merrill and I a sandwich and then, left on my adventure for meeting David.

I told David via email that I would have a sign with his name on it, since neither of us had ever laid eyes on one another. I had made a sign while we waited at the eye clinic. It was in the back of the book that I had been reading at the eye clinic. I left it at the library, during the brief time I was there. I made another sign on a paper about 5 x 6 inches and thought I put it in my purse. I arrived at the train station by 6:15 and the arrival sign already noted that the train from Prague would be 20 minutes late, so I had time to go buy a metro pass for David and get a cup of coffee. In the meantime, I had to call back to the library, because the metro is under construction at this train station and I couldn't see the entrance to the metro. I knew Merrill would know where it was. Merrill told me where the metro entrance was and then Beth asked me if I left the sign for David at the library. Well, I was sure I had put it in my purse, but it wasn't there!! The next question was what to make one on and I had nothing in my purse except my little calendar and a regular ink pen.

The train had arrived, so where should I stand to try to meet this man I didn't know? Holding the smallest sign ever, I stood near some stairs and watched the people go by me. Soon, an older gentleman carrying a clipboard came and began looking at my sign. "Who is David?" I said, "I don't know... that's why I have a sign." The gentleman had rooms for rent and wanted to offer one to "David". I thanked him and said that accommodations were already made. I kept standing there, trying to decide if there was a better place to wait and wondering "who is David?" Another man came very near and was looking closely at the "world's tiniest sign" and I finally asked him if he was David. He showed me his uniform and said no. He was a train worker. Great, I thought. About this time, I called back to the library to see if perhaps David had called and said he couldn't find me. No, no calls, so back to waiting. I thought surely I would be able to pick an American man out as he walked in the train station, but no clue. Finally, a white haired, but youngish looking man walked towards me - there was no one else holding a sign of any size. He looked closely at my sign - because you couldn't see it from very far away and said he was David Snell. By now, I'm thinking I better ask for his ID and I did and he laughed!

Later, when we were recounting this meeting to others at the library, he said that he knew who I was right away because I looked "too American". I'm still not sure what that look is exactly. I have Hungarian speaking people approach me many times to ask for directions and when I tell them I don't speak Hungarian, they seem surprised and of course, disappointed. I deduced that I must not look too foreign if they will ask me for directions!