Life of A Writer: Hungary

In March this year I applied to go on a short term outreach with the well known Christian organisation 'Operation Mobilisation'. In April I was accepted onto the outreach team and from then prepared for what was going to be a very exciting step in my life.

The country which the outreach was based in, was as you have read from the title, Hungary. Not much is known about the country apart from it was once part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and two-thirds of their country cruelly taken away from them after World War I. The country was also affected by the harsh rule of communism until 1989. Despite that,Hungary today is very much a thriving country with areas of opportunity and prosperity.

The outreach was taking place at an English language camp in a town called Balatonfűzfő. It is one of the many towns which surround Lake Balaton, the largest lake in central Europe and also known as the "sea of Hungary".

On Friday 9th of August I arose at 5am and headed off to Aberdeen Airport with my parents. Once I had checked in and had breakfast it was time to say goodbye to my mum and dad as I went through the departures gate, through security and to the gate where my first plane would take me to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

I arrived at Schiphol airport at 11.30am, twenty minutes earlier than scheduled. I had over two hours to wait for my next flight, so time was spent wandering the duty free, giggling at the fact that they sold Scottish shortbread there.

At 2pm I then boarded the plane to Budapest. It was all very exciting, as soon I would be in Hungary. The day which I had been waiting for since the end of April was finally here. The plane landed at 4pm and by the time I picked up my suitcase it was about quarter past four. I knew that there would be a delay in getting picked up by OM, but I didn't know just HOW long the delay would be. It turned out I was waiting 2 hours and 35 minutes. For the first hour I was okay, as I knew that they would be a bit late, however after the first hour has passed I started to get a little bit worried. Texts were going back and forth to Jill Hitchcock, Personnel and Member care of OM Hungary to ensure that someone was picking me up and was just running late. Eventually at 6.45pm, István a worker with OM Hungary came and collected me from the terminal, much to my relief. It was there I met Jonathan, Susanna and Lena - two of whom were going to be at the other camp during the week and Lena who would be with me in Balatonfűzfő. The journey to the training centre took roughly 40 minutes from the airport and during that time, we all got to know each other in the van, Jonathan and Susanna had just finished studying at Oxford University. Jonathan, originally from Suffolk had finished studying music and after the mission trip was heading to Kent to teach music at a school there. Susanna, originally from Northern Ireland had finished studying Hebrew and Jewish studies and would be taking up a post as a student support worker at her church. Lena was from Winnipeg, Canada who ran her own health and well being business. To top it off Jonathan had been in Britain's Got Talent in 2011 with an Oxford University all-male acapella singing group called 'Out of the Blue'. So it was interesting to meet so many talented people!

At the training centre we met the rest of the group: Alexia, Jorgen, Carolyn, Andy, Meike, Hayden, Chandler, Ellen, Catriona, Kristi and Carolin. It was a real mix of different people from Germany, Mexico, Canada, the UK (Scottish, English and Northern Irish) and the USA. We all got to know each other at the dinner table and everyone was really friendly. In the dorm room, I shared with Susanna and also with Lena.

Soon after it was time to go to bed before a full day of orientation training.