Largest to Smallest

We are continuing our series on the differences between Hungarian and American customs that affect our work and lives here in Hungary.

In Hungary, people's names seem backward to us.  Family names come first and then given names. Hungarians know that the rest of Europe state their names differently, so when they are introduced to foreigners, they turn their names around, but all official documents have their family name first. It did not take us long to get used to this little difference, but it took a while to adapt the INSTE computer program to it.  Until we were able to get it fixed, all the grade reports and certificates had the names backwards, not a good thing for official documents.

One of our first language teachers explained to us that in Hungary, people begin with a large group and work their way down to the individual.  That works with names and it works with addresses.  When addressing an envelope, the name comes first.  The next line is the zip code and the city.  The last line is the street name, house number and apartment number.  Large to small.  It works. 

Metric System

We are continuing our short series on differences in Hungarian and American culture that affect our work in Hungary.

Yesterday, a friend asked for the recipe for some cookies I gave her family.  She speaks English well enough to read it, but the measurements are different.  Most Hungarian recipes use teaspoons and tablespoons, but dry ingredients are usually measured in grams and wet ingredients in milliliters. I sent her the recipe anyway.  I'm sure she will figure it out.

Hungary is on the metric system and it affects our lives every day.  Temperatures are given in Celsius, gas and milk are bought by the liter, distances are in kilometers, and we buy meat and potatoes by the kilogram.  Now that we have been here a few years, we have pretty much figured out what is what, but if we need to tell someone in the US how far we travel to someplace, it takes a little math to convert kilometers to miles.  We are very thankful for the convertors on our phones and computers, too.  Telling someone the price of gasoline takes a little more work.  First we must convert forint to dollars and then liters to gallons. (Currently, gas is at $4.88 per gallon.)

Different sized office paper is used here in Hungary.  A-4 paper which is slightly longer and narrower than American letter-size paper is used for regular letters.  Everything we print here including INSTE books must be adjusted to the different-sized paper.  Many letters we receive, even official letters from government offices, are not folded into thirds as they are in the US, but into quarters. 

So, if we hesitate to answer your question about what the temperature is or how much a pound of hamburger costs here, it's because we're doing the math in our heads, not because we don't want to tell you!

Time Zones

We are taking a little detour from our short series on Hungarian and American culture differences that impact our work in Hungary to look at the impact of time zones.

The time difference between Hungary and the US often impacts our work here.  We are six hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone and nine hours ahead of the Pacific Time Zone.  That means when it is noon at the Open Bible Global Missions office in Des Moines, Iowa, (our sending organization) it is 7 p.m. here in Hungary.  This week we missed an important email because Nancy forgot to check her messages before she went to bed.  The problem was worked out in the long run, but what could have been handled in a couple of hours in the same time zone took more than a day to resolve from here. 

We are always figuring what time it is in America.  Each of our sons lives in a different time zone in the US, so we try to work out through email when is the best time to Skype with them.  And then, any time we travel to the US and back, we deal with jet lag.  It takes Nancy a full week to be fully awake at the right time after coming back to Hungary!

But these are small challenges compared to what missionary life was like only a few decades ago.  We thank God that we can stay in contact with friends and family in the US even if we are awake at different times. 

Respect

We are continuing our short series on differences between Hungarian and American culture that affect our work here in Hungary.

One aspect of Hungarian culture that we really enjoy is the attitude of respect.  Yesterday we were on the tram and could not find two seats together, so I sat in a single seat and Mike stood beside me.  A young man near us saw us and changed seats so that we could sit together.  Often when the tram has more passengers, a younger person will offer their seat to Nancy if she is standing.

Respect is shown in many other ways.  Children are taught from early age to greet elders with "Csókolom!" (I kiss your hand.)  Men use the same greeting with women.  Men hold the door open for women and carry packages for them. Young people always allow older people to go ahead of them.

We almost blush sometimes from the respect shown to us as directors of INSTE.  When we visit churches, even if we are not speaking, we are invited to sit in the front row and kind things are always said about us. 

We must be careful to show respect to others also, remembering to greet others properly and with kindness and to honor others.  What a practical way to show love to others, by treating them with honor and respect!

Please Remove Your Shoes

We are continuing our short series on cultural differences in Hungary and how that affects working here. 

Today we were invited to coffee at the home of some friends.  It reminded us of some of the customs surrounding being a guest in Hungary.  When we receive an invitation to someone's home, we always try to take a small gift with us.  Flowers are always a good gift as are chocolates or other treats.  The host or hostess greets us at the gate and when we enter the home, we always slip off our shoes.  Not wearing shoes inside keeps the houses cleaner.  Almost everyone wears slippers in their homes, not shoes.  We even take our shoes off when we go to our home group meeting or if we visit an INSTE group meeting in a home.  And then, when leaving, it is always polite to take one's time saying goodbyes.  If we are invited to dinner, it may take an hour from the time we start hinting that we need to go until we are on our way.  There is conversation and a goodbye at the table, at the door, at the gate, and sometimes even on the street.  Hungarians are very polite and hospitable and we are learning to slow down, enjoy the company and not be in a big hurry. 

Life in Hungary - Exchange Rate

We have lived in Hungary a little over seven years now.  There are some differences between Hungarian and American life that we have pretty much gotten used to, but still affect how we live and work here in Hungary.  So today we are starting a short series about those differences.

One item we pay close attention to is the US dollar/Hungarian forint exchange rate.  We pay for everything here in Hungary in forint, so we must exchange our US dollars into forint.  Exchanging money is not free.  We are charged about three percent of every dollar we exchange for forint. 

During our time here, the exchange rate has averaged about 220 forint for each dollar, going as low as 180 forint per dollar.  In the last couple of months, though, it has gone higher than we have ever seen it, to about 270.  That is good news for us, but not so good for Hungarians.  It means that American goods are more expensive for Hungarians.  But, it also means that our dollars go further here.  It is good news for INSTE because more translation work can be done for less cost.  It also means that more work can be done with the generous donations of Americans. 

No one knows how long the exchange rate will stay where it is.  One thing we know is that it can be quite unstable.  But that's life in Hungary!  Thanks for your generous donations and faithful prayers!

Proud of Our INSTE Students

INSTE class in action in Ibrány

We are so proud of our INSTE students.  These INSTE students led by Palkó Tóth are hard at work in in Ibrány.  INSTE is not your average Bible study.  First level is intensive discipleship in four courses.  It is actually four courses from the first year of Bible college. Second level is even more intense, the rest of a Bible college education for potential church leaders.  So when we say we are proud of our INSTE students, we know how difficult it can be and how dedicated they are to learning the Word of God and getting to know Jesus better.  May God bless all our INSTE students and leaders.