GMP Israel Trip October 2014

We just returned from a splendid 17 day trip to Israel.  Part was to visit with our friends, Climmy and Mollie, and work with them to get the right equipment and then return it.  Eight of those days was with a group of excellent musicians providing musical concerts and training in Israel.  This blog consists primarily of a pictorial travelogue.  All the photos are captioned.  There are two accompanying videos.  In the pictorial travelogue are photos of a Bar Mitzvah and a cruise on the Sea of Galilee.  One of the accompanying videos, found here, is of the Bar Mitzvah and the music that goes along with it, and the other is of some of our team dancing to Hebrew music on the Sea of Galilee boat ride. This video is found here.  Here is a link to a compilation of song excerpts at various venues of our orchestra that you can listen to as you view the pictorial travelogue.  The travelogue can be found here.

Uncle Walt's Hungary Traveblog

On 3 July I flew to Hungary for another Global Missions Project Orchestra (GMP) missions trip.  I returned on 12 July.  As far as flights go, it was perfect.  Landed 15 to 20 minutes early at 3 stops on the way out and 2 on the return.  Planes were full but the flights uneventful.  The purpose of this blog is to summarize the trip with photos.  I took over a thousand photos but only selected the most interested for this blog.  All the photos are captioned with information as a help to understand our time in Hungary.  The "traveblog" will be on a day-by-day basis.  The following is a map of the area of Hungary that we were in.  The cities we visited are in red and will be referred to in the blog.  All in all, Hungary is a very beautiful and interesting country.

First of all let me begin by explaining the "Uncle Walt".  As usual I made my presence known pretty quickly, I have a strange habit of doing that.  Allyson, who we have been with on other GMP trips, and our concert mistress, Ardis, soon asked if I minded being called Uncle Walt because of either my goofiness or my wisdom, as manifest by my white hair, or both or neither.  A few days into the trip Camp, our director, happened to join the lunch group that we were in and said, "Uncle Walt, since you are in the middle, why don't you say the blessing?"  So he had heard - thanks Ardis.   Then, when taking role call on the bus, when he came to strings he asked "violins - all present, violas - all present, celli - all present", and then, instead of the usual "string bass" he said, "I guess its official now, Uncle Walt, are you here?"  And so it became official and stuck.  

Since I was one of the first to get to Budapest, 10 am Friday morning, there was a waiting period as others came in with the largest group arriving at 4 pm.  This gave me a chance to meet some of the others that arrived at 12 and at 2 as well as our sponsors who were there to meet us.  When everyone arrived we drove to the hotel in Bicske and checked in.  Then we had our first Hungarian meal, spaetzle and pork.  After dinner we walked to the church and had our one and only real rehearsal.  This can be intimidating as most of the 45 members of the orchestra met for the first time and then ran through 16 songs.  Having been on a number of GMP trips before, this was my tenth, I have to say I was impressed with the professionalism of this group.  Actually, to begin rehearsal we all stated our name, where we are from and what church we go to.  Now to remember 45 names.  Fortunately I knew almost half of the orchestra members from the previous trips.  Photos of our first day can be seen here.

On Saturday morning we returned to the church and ran through some more of the songs.  We then went for lunch in a local shopping center.  We did have a little free time that afternoon so I walked to a village that had a stork's nest on top of the power line poles.  There was a mama, papa and two baby storks.  This is the first time I had seen something like this.  Later that afternoon we had a musicians call at the church in order to get ready for our first concert.  Then after the concert, we ate home made goulash.  Someone provided us all with the recipe.  It was delicious.  Photos for this day can be seen here.

On Sunday we drove back to Budapest to attend morning service at the International Church of Budapest.  The service was all in English but translation was still provided for any Hungarians that may have been in the audience.  After service we drove to downtown Budapest and walked around.  This was the first real closeup we had of the Danube River.  I didn't realize it was this wide.  The first thing I noticed was all the Viking River Cruise boats docked up.  One of these days we plan to do that.  Downtown Budapest looked like any large city with Gucci type stores all over the place.  What is impressive is the transformation that must have occurred in the last 25 years.  After spending time in Budapest we drove to Nagykanizsa.  The closest pronunciation is Nagee-kah-nidja.  Photos of this day are given here.

The plan for Monday was to begin with music classes for anyone who signed up.  We had one boy on trumpet, some recorders and a guitar.  This meant that only a small subset of our orchestra was required for the classes.  Camp brought out some arrangements and we had a flute ensemble play for a while, then woodwinds, then strings and finally brass.  So those of us not involved were treated to some good music and those involved had the fun of playing in ensembles.  We then went to lunch and toured Nagykanizsa.  It is a beautiful town and we enjoyed it immensely.  Then, after eating again at dinner, we held an outdoor concert in the park.  Photos for Monday can be found here.

On Tuesday, since the numbers of students was small, plans were made for small ensembles to visit an orphanage and a home for mentally disabled.  The rest of the orchestra not involved got to see more of Nagykanizsa and do some shopping.  After lunch we traveled to Zalaegerszeg for another outdoor concert in the evening.  The photos for Tuesday can be seen here.

Wednesday began for small ensembles to visit an old people's home.  Others had the opportunity to visit a museum in Nagykanizsa.  After lunch we drove towards Lenti for another outdoor concert.  On the way to Lenti we stopped by the Zalaerdo Arboretum.  It was very picturesque.  Some of us went to the top of a hill that had a large tower where we had a beautiful of the surrounding area.  Others went to a lake.  I chose the tower on the hill.  After the Arboretum we ended in Lenti for dinner and the evening concert.  During the day the sky was threatening rain and lightening.  Sure enough, about two songs short of the end of the concert we had to quickly pack up all the equipment and instruments to protect them from the rain.  However, a rather large crowd hung in there until we packed up.  Photos can be seen here.

We checked out of the hotel in Nagykanizsa on Thursday and departed to Velence to meet up with the missionaries in Budapest.  These are different from the ones that helped us throughout our stay in Nagykanizsa.  When we got to Velence and ate lunch I saw a sign for Langos.  Knowing how good that was, I had to have some and now wish I had seen more places that served this, it was that good.  After lunch and with our missionaries on board, we drove for a more extensive tour of Budapest.  The missionaries arrived in Hungary 24 years ago when there were still Soviet soldiers around.  I sat beside the missionary wife and she was able to tell me how much Hungary has changed in those years.  It is quite phenomenal.  We had an excellent tour of Budapest and is fascinating how a city that was essentially bombed out in World War 2 could be restored to its previous glory in only 70 years.  The Hungarians have done an incredible job, you really can't tell that there was any damage.  After our tour we checked into our hotel in Budapest and then went to the Kispest Baptist Church for dinner and our evening concert.  Pictures of Thursday can be seen here.  The folks at the church recorded the entire concert.  It is in two parts.  Part 1 can be found here and Part 2 here.  This will give you a taste of what the orchestra sounded like.  It is best to use good speakers or earphones.

The last song of the program was the Hungarian National Anthem.  When we began playing they would all stand up and sing with full voice.  This was always very moving, you don't see too much of that any more.  After ending the song they remained standing and it became totally silent to the point you could hear a pin drop.

After breakfast on Friday morning, we were suppose to go tour the Shoes on the Danube promenade.  However it was still raining pretty hard so we went to the very large Budapest market.  On our way there, we passed the square where the Soviets held there military parades.  Our pianist's mother, both of who are Hungarian, sat beside me and told me what she saw in this square during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.  The stories she told me of what she saw here and in other areas of Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution were mind boggling - very difficult to believe.  But, she was an eye witness.  At the Budapest market we were able to purchase all sorts of stuff.  After the market we went on a tour of the Dohany Street Synagogue, the second largest to one in New York City.  They had a holocaust museum on the side and going through that and realizing this was Hungary were Hungarians actually experienced it, I broke down.  It is difficult to imagine humans doing this to fellow humans.  But it reaffirmed in my mind that satan is alive and well.  We then went to Castle Hill and toured the Fisherman's Bastion, a very large castle.  Again, the reconstruction after World War 2 is amazing to behold.  After our tour of Castle Hill we went to Budarok Baptist Church for our final concert, of course, preceded by dinner.  The photos of our last day in Hungary can be seen here.  The interesting thing of this concert is after the program they would clap in unison, which meant they wanted encores.  We usually did the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms.  At this concert they asked for more so we played one more.  But then they asked for another encore.  At this point Camp said, "this has to be the last one, we have no more music".

I learned an important lesson at this last concert.  A single string bass in an orchestra of this size, you might not think it can be heard and I could ask the question "why am I here?".  But after the concert a young guy in his thirties came up to me and thanked me profusely, in broken English, for coming to play.  He said he just loved to hear the string bass, his favorite instrument.  I asked if he could really hear it.  His comment, "Yes I could hear every note.  I just sat back, closed my eyes and enjoyed every note you played".  Lesson learned is that on a tour like this, you never know what kind of an impact you might have.   I was reminded of Hebrews 11:8 where it talks about Abraham "He went, not knowing where his was going".  The important thing is Abraham's responsibility was to obey and go, the rest was God's problem.  So not knowing where we were going, what we were doing or what impact we had - not our problem, that is God's because He simply called us and we are to obey - that is the lesson.

Finally on Saturday morning some of us got up at 3 am to go to the airport.  Some others decided to stay up.  I had long flights back to Guadalajara so I decided, and I think wisely so, to catch a few hours sleep prior to leaving.  The hotel gave us monster sack breakfasts and we left for the airport, said our goodbyes and returned to our homes.  Was it a successful trip?  God called us to it so the answer is a resounding "YES".

Thailand 2014

We took our yearly January trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand to visit our kids and grandkids there. All but the two youngest girls are in school now so the days are quite quiet around the house. The oldest, Pan, is in her third year of college and is doing well. We had lunch at her apartment the first Sunday we were there. Walt also had the privilege of playing bass at Adam and Cindy's church that Sunday so now he can add Thailand to the list of countries in which he has played his bass. Cindy is very busy teaching at the school that the kids attend, plus teaching a large number of dance classes. Next month she has her school's dance recital - we just wish we could be there to help out on that as well as see it. This blog will again be mostly photos with captions.

But before we went to Thailand we had Christmas with two of our boys, Andrew and Eric.  We didn't get up to see Jason, Caryn, Alexa and Cassandra but we did get to see Kirsty and Brian in October for the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.  We posted in our blog on that event and it can be found here.  The photos of our Christmas in Mexico with Andrew and Eric can be found here.

Now for our trip to Thailand, let us first of all introduce you to our family there. Photos of all of them, but one, plus some of their activities can be seen here. The "but one" is a teenage girl who doesn't like her pictures taken. Sounds familiar.

We had the privilege of attending Cindy's classes one morning.  It was an English class so we helped with group activities.  Because almost all of the students are Thai, the level of English understanding varies so her class is made up of students from first to sixth grade.  Not only does the level of English proficiency but of course the learning abilities and maturity levels vary.  Here are photos of her class that we helped out in. By the way, we had a blast working with these students.

One special item we wanted to share was our little miracle girl, Asia. Some of you may remember that she was born early and placed in oxygen which is believed to have damaged her brain as well as her eyesight. She is essentially legally blind but can tell light from dark objects. She will come and caress your cheek and, for example, say "Opa?". She came to Adam and Cindy four years ago this summer. At that point she was two but couldn't walk or talk and was very picky on what she ate and had to be fed. After three and a half years in a loving, caring and safe home her progress has been absolutely amazing. Here is a video showing her four years ago and some of her accomplishments now. 

While we were there a friend of ours began a photography class that included a tour of interesting places in Chiang Mai, as well as teaching how to use a camera properly and how to take quality photos. Walt had received a DSLR last year so wanted to take advantage of this opportunity so that he might add photography to his bag of tricks. Turns out Walt was the first paying student and for this class, was the only student. He had excellent one-on-one time and learned a lot. He learned a significant amount of composition and lighting plus getting to see more of Chiang Mai. He ended up taking close to 500 photos, a sampling of which is here. 

While we were with Adam and Cindy, someone began construction on a house right across the fence from where they live. Since living in Mexico we have been interested in the way construction takes place in different countries. So we took photos as the construction took place over the four week period that we were there. They do apply very interesting techniques and are not squelched by OSHA as you can see no hardhats and, in some cases, workers wearing flip flops. A glimpse of construction can be seen here. 

And as we say goodbye to Thailand we include a few absolutely gorgeous sunset shots. These can be seen here.