New start in Budapest

  Our arrival has been more of a "crash landing", since less than 24 hours after our arrival, Merrill became ill.  This time, we had arranged to rent an apartment from a kind Hungarian woman that we had met through the International Baptist Church.  Elizabeth has a lovely home in the Buda hills, which has an apartment in the upper floor.  We have been so blessed to be able to rent this apartment, especially in view of Merrill's illness.  She helped us at the Hungarian hospital and helped me during the days that Merrill was hospitalized.  I'm happy to report that Merrill is now post op 12 days and doing well.  He went to church with Elizabeth and I this morning and tolerated the outing very well.

Merrill had his gall bladder removed and so was given a special diet to follow upon discharge from the hospital.  The comfort foods of Hungary are different than the comfort foods that I would have chosen to prepare if we were in the US.  It has been a learning experience for me and once again, Elizabeth, has been very helpful in giving advice and even finding products at the grocery store.  Merrill has not complained about the "diet" except to say that he was eating white food, on a white plate on a white table cloth.  I think he means "blah"!

One of the projects that we are working on while we are here is to distribute 38 boxes of books that Andy Anderson had collected in Arkansas.  We had arranged to have those books stored here in Budapest and on Wednesday,  the books delivered to us at our apartment.  When the snow came on Thursday, we were really happy that it had worked out to have them delivered the day before.  We are in the process of making a list of the books that are in the boxes and then will be making contacts to distribute them.  These books are intended to be in smaller venues or reading rooms, where people would like to read English books.  Whoever receives these books will determine if they are to be given away or lent out.  

We thought we had escaped winter's hold by exiting Iowa on March 2.  The weather was very springlike here in Budapest.  March is known to be fickle and so it has been here.  We had a snow storm on Thursday that made us very happy to have a Hungarian holiday to just stay home on Friday.  It remains pretty chilly here, but is supposed to warm up by midweek.