Me in Wonderland: February 2009

I’ve been in Hungary for two and and half years, and even since I moved here I’ve been involved in what we call “The Deva Project”. Deva is a city in Romania, near the border with Hungary (it used to be part of Hungary, what is usually referred to as Transylvania). A great percent of the population there speak Hungarian as well as Romanian, and that’s the reason why we first came in contact with the children there. The orphanages are run and under the care of Father Csaba, of the Franciscan order. He was the pioneer of both placing unprivileged children in families, and opening a school for the same children.
Most of the kids there have families, but are either too poor or they come from broken families and thus they are placed with other families who take care of them—some only for the school months and others all year round.
We have organized English Camps for two consecutive summers, and will host another one this year as well. We not only teach English to the kids who attend but also take them on hikes, play sports with them, sit around the fire in the evenings and play music, and encourage the children to try out new things and provide them with fun activities.
Personally this project is very close to my heart—I have made friends with many of the kids there and I am looking forward to seeing them again this summer.
Here are some of the photos of the children from the Summer English Camp as well as the trip we made there last December.