Happy Easter

We woke up this morning to sunny blue skies and clear mountain air in Lupeni. We're staying at the home of Zoli & Ildi and will soon accompany them to Easter services here in this mining town in the southern range of the Carpathian mountains, surrounded by snow-capped peaks. Naturally, Johnny B. Goode & Blessed Bill headed out at first light, accompanied by good hostess Ildi, to look for places to go uphill, as John & Bill do most days, with a promise to return in time for Ildiko's breakfast.

Yesterday morning each of the six of us awoke in a separate place, having spent the night in a home stay with members of the Deva congregation. We gathered at the templom at 10 AM and climbed the 500' Citadel Hill. At the top, we gathered inside the cell where David Ferenc was interred and died, and held a short but moving service. We held hands, stood around the commemorative marker, sang "Find a Stillness" in two languages, and people shared their personal reflections. Then we headed down to a feast at the templom.

I found myself walking with Bill and Arpad Tofalve, my 72-year-old host from the night before. Halfway down, we turned off the main path and set out to find the place where Roger had helped Bill do a vertical ascent some years before. Naturally we got lost and spent some time bushwahcking down a steep path, picking our way from rocks to roots. Arpad kept saying (in German) that there were better. less steep ways. But we came through fine and got down to a wonderful feast with lots of food, drink and laughs. Too soon we had to end the party to drive to Lupeni, but we'll return Monday morning for a second Easter service with out Deva friends.

men at work

Today a short but hard workday -- we hauled dirt. And hauled and hauled. Three guys with shovels filled buckets, a bucket brigade sent the buckets to the window to be dumped in a growing pile in the courtyard, and the empty buckets got sent back to the diggers. Once we got into a groove we moved, and cleared maybe 8 yards of dirt by lunchtime. In the afternoon we were sore and tired, so we took a break and headed to the Internet cafe. In the evening we visted the house Arpi is building in the country.

the sound of the men working on the chain gang

Had an extremely productive day working on the church. Got a large 20x40') parquet floor removed and managed to preserve most of the wood, with much care. Also got the sub-flooring and a course of beam pulled out, bringing it down to bare dirt, which we will excavate & level tomorrow for a new poured sub-floor. Had a bunch of men from the church working, few of them as long or hard as Danis Baci, the lay leader who is in his 70s. We had a few disagreements as to what to do and how to do it -- the floor removal being slightly controversial. But everybody pitched in and we got a lot done.

After supper we visited the home Erzebet, the church treasurer and her husaband Arpad. Arpad is 72 and speaks German, so he and Tony and I have been conversing in German. their son Arpi was there, and their grand-daughter Antonia. Antonia is the cause of some despair to Zoli, as she speaks mostly Romanian and probably will not attend Hungarian school. But we had a nice visit, gave them some money for their church, and then Arpi helped us find the Internet cafe.

Long & winding road

Tuesday morning, Bill & John were going to get out early to go up the Sleeping Giant, which rises 500 feet or so above Torozco. Though they got up at 5:00, Dean and I joined them, and after about a half mile following sheep-pellet strewn roads uphill in the dark, we were overtaken by Tony. The road kept getting steeper and turned into a trail, and after another mile, I was getting winded & it became clear that I was holding up the others, so I called it quits, probably a half-mile shy of where the climb was about to get much more vertical. I went on a little ways further after the group left, then turned back to the town. The sky began to lighten as I walked slowly downward, listening for the wild animals Tony had insisted he heard screaming on the mountain. But no werewolves attacked, and I was able to see the lights of Torozco & Torozco St. George, as the villages began to wake up.

Had a nice leisurely morning waiting for the other guys to return. It turned out Tony had gone almost to the top, Bill and Dean reached a saddle between two peaks and John had gone on to one of the peaks. We went on to another excellent meal, checked out of the pensiune and were off to Deva. We stopped for lunch in Alba Julia, a Roman town with the burial place of John Sigismund, the Unitarian king, who proclaimed religious freedom. Then finally to Deva and the pensiune/guesthouse Melite, run by Presbyterians across the street from the Unitarian templom. We had a 4:00 lunch (more palenka), then met the congregation in a reception (more palenka), took a tour of the new Hungarian language school. Managed to smash my camera in a story too long and sad to relate, but it's still partly usable. Then back to Melite for supper (3 hoiurs after lunch). Some of the guys went after supper to visit the home of Arpi, who has a three year old and a very pregnant wife, but John and I were wiped out and stayed at Melite.

Such a perfect day

Monday we had a great meeting with the Bishop -- a nice man with a lot of cares trying to shepherd all the concerns of Transylvanian Unitarians. We began to gain appreciation for how much Unitarian concerns are intertwined with Hungarian ethnic identity. After a long conversation about his hopes for the church for partner relationships and for our partnership with Deva in particular, we got a brief tour of the offices of the church HQ, where they are keeping alive traditions form the 1500s. We also got to meet the parents of Koppandi Zoltan ("He's a Zol man"), since his mom works for the Bishop.

We then had lunch at the Hubertus restaurant across the street, a new fairly upscale place specializing in wild game. Yes, the restaurants (and every place else) do have napkins. Had a great meal, and we were joined by Zoli's older brother Boti, also a Unitarian minister. After lunch -- Tony downing the Dracula special and others enjoying delicious boar and venison -- we headed out of town.

We stopped in Meszko, the "Alabaster Village" where Christine Wise Morgan lived 70 years ago when she was married to Balasz Ference, before she came to Appleton and helped found our UU Fellowship. We got into the church in Meszko, which still has the paintings on the walls & ceiling that Christine & Balasz put there. Then we went to the Torda Gorge, a great wilderness preserve in a narrow gorge with 300 foot cliffs. We walked a mile or two in and found a spot where "Polar Plunge" Dean, responding to many challenges, took a dip in the nearly icy mountain stream. The setting was unbelievably gorgeous as we walked out, voices of the river and many birds, mountain columbine in purple and white, blossoming trees and blooming shamrocks. The gorge was fairly narrow in spots, the river and path squeezed between vertical walls and we saw a few climbers. In one spot, someone had spray painted "red hot chili pampers." This was frightening to contemplate.

Then on to Torocko, even more mountainous, and a pensiune with nice warm rooms in the shadow of Sleeping Giant mountain. Had a superb supper in a little restaurant run by the woman who owns the pensiune and whose grand-daughter kept running in and out. We couldn't finish the dessert (spiral nut buns called "hornet's nests") and she promised to pack it up for us to take the next day.

After supper, a drive to the house of Boti, who is the minister in neighboring Torocko-St. George. More palinka (every place you go, you get palinka first thing), then we had to suffer though an evening of singing Leonard Cohen, Hungarian folk songs, and dancing the polka. Fortunately, Boti's wife Eva is an extremely good sport and gracious hostess. Boti is a lot of fun and a good guitar player. We talked about Tom Waits and watched videos of the Hungarian musician Hobo. Finally, late to bed, with plans for some of the group to climb the Sleeping Giant in the morning.

Kiskapus - Koloszvar

In a few minutes, we go to meet the Unitarian Bishop of Transylvania. This will be brief as its hard to get much 'net time.

Last night we stayed in the rural village of Kiskapus, and had a nice stay in a small pensiune which would have been perfect if it had had heat. We had great food and fellowship and took a long walk through the village and up into the hills. We crossed back and forther over the small river, single file on shaky footbridges. People were very friendly -- everyone said hello or waved.

There was one man who asked if we were Hollanders, and when we said "American" he came and shook all our hands. Then he told us a long story in Romanian. He had not a word of English, but with some questions, and some back and forth, we got the gist (or thought we did). He talked about things being hard in Romania -- he was still upset about the Russian domination and current economic problems with the energy pipelines from Russia. He was upset that Roosevelt & Churchill had sold them out to Stalin at Yalta. He went on at some length. He was maybe 80 years old and a Roma (gypsy). But he was glad to talk.

As we got about as far upriver into the gorge as we felt we could go while daylight was fading, we saw a group of people who were picnicing or camping in a meadow. As we watched from fifty yeards away, they began dancing around their fire, while some of them waved axes. A strange sight -- human, interesting, scary and funny.

We walked back downriver to the village and our (unheated) pensiune, walking past concrete telephone poles. Now as we passed the houses in this quiet and isolated rural town, we saw that some had satellite dishes. But there was only one restaurant and one cafe, and both were long since closed,boarded up and abandoned. Other than our pension and the tiny store which looked like an auto parts dealer, there were no businesses.

Be here now

After a day of travel, three flights, & a few moments of doubt, we arrived in Koloszvar, met the other three pilgrims (Tony, John & Dean) and went immediately to the Unitarian school, where we were interviewed for an Internet radio show. The host, Rev. Zsolt Solymosi, was gracious and friendly, but I was pretty dragged through the wringer and probably incoherent -- but all the guys had lots of good things to say. The show will be available at www.unitarianradio.ro at 5 PM central time on Monday. If there's time we might do another show next week before we leave. We're all doing well and will try to send along more news and maybe pictures when we can.