#3 in the nation....... not bad for a team made up of 75% first year players.


although we had a disappointing day yesterday (with a loss of the first game) ,the boys were able to get things together and pull off a huge win today. after going down 8-1 in the third inning they were able to manage the improbable comeback in the last inning to tie the game. and then in the first extra inning were able to open things up to score 12 runs. we've decided they just enjoy watching us coaches go crazy while they cooly wait until just the opportune time to win the game. we had a great time with the boys spending the night bunking in little wood cabins, and enjoying a good swim together..... odd note i quit competitive swimming at 13 due to the fact that i refused to wear a speedo..... the team of boys on the other hand had no problem what so ever swimming and running through the campsite in their ginches, and no one in the campsite had a second thought about it.... cultural lesson number one.

this shot above is of the boys proudly chowing down on their hand picked watermelon. while us coaches ate Chinese food the boys disappeared and came back 10 minutes later displaying their find. with huge smiles on their faces, we on the other hand thought "great, watermelon, one problem we're staying at a campsite, no knife." where upon one of the boys pulled out a knife big enough to gut a moose with that was newly bought at tesco also. nothing would phase these boys on their endeavour.... cultural lesson number two, when i was 13 and given money to buy stuff for a weekend my bag would be filled with chocolate, chips and root beer and not a water melon ...let alone any fruit or vegetable. and if it did i would never have thought to get the knife also!

look what i won mom! for most of these kids it was the first championship of any kind and with a national anthem, announcer and posters all over the city nerves played a big part in our first loss. but in the end the boys were able to pull throw and end the season with a win for 3rd place .

on another note....we leave tomorrow afternoon for our outreach in Boly. please pray with us that it will go well and that our energy will be restored after spending the weekend with 12 boys! we will be leading some english conversation groups, baseball camp, selling some books, and hanging out with the local teens and kids there. we dont have too many details for this next week but we pray that we will be prepared for whatever comes our way!

why is it that when you are in hot weather you would rather it be cool and when it cool you are waiting for the hot weather to arrive?!? we are now enjoying +30C weather but here i sit wondering how it will be possible to sleep. i mean seriously for a vancouverite the only time you get this weather is when we head off to go on vacation to osysoos but then you don't think about it because you can always go for a swim in the lake. coaching baseball and packing boxes from the bazaar is not such a relaxing experience as you melt from the heat. anyways i won't complain about the weather anymore because i am actually enjoying it. but i'm also hoping for the evening thunderstorm to cool everything off.

mom and dad dyck flew off the morning and i guess they would probably be in the air somewhere over the Atlantic by now maybe greenland, maybe they have one of those UPS GPS tracking clips on them and i could find them? or maybe not. we had a great two weeks with them although one week was spent by me and dad watching our wives get sick, but we both tried our best to enjoy ourselves with many BBQ's (this meant for more food for us). and we even fit in a round of golf which was a first for me overseas. hungary only has 7 courses in the country so along with our south african teammate we headed out for a round, honestly it was quite strange for me since i felt like i could be walking the hole back in vancouver but it was a great time together although we got taught a lesson or two by Pranesh. we were also able to show mom and dad much of our lives here and enjoyed trips into the city and to vienna. but what we really enjoyed most were the evenings together sitting on our patio and chatting and laughing. it's really rare that we would be able to spend so much time like this with our parents and we really valued each day, hopefully we weren't too much for you guys!

in other news this weekend we head out for baseball finals, we have qualified for the top 4 in the country and even had a short article in the local newspaper. we play in the semi finals on saturday then either in the finals on sunday or for 3rd place. so we will stay in deberceen as a team all together for the night which should be a good time with the boys. the team we play on sat. is the best in the country but we were able to beat them last game so it should be a close one! the boys are pumped to say the least. Then on monday we will leave for our first outreach of the summer to Boly a town around 2hours away for a week of english lessons and working with the local teens, we will be working together along with some former missionaries who are now leading a church in this town so we are looking forward to working alongside this church to connect and build relationships with those in the community!

we will update on how the finals went on the weekend hopefully before we leave for our outreach!

family visiting....mom and dad dyck arrived on wednesday evening after a long flight...weighed down with lots of goodies from home! the last couple of days we have enjoyed showing them around here and budapest today...here is a little glimpse of what we have been up to...

had some morning "mate"....(paraguayan tea for those who wonder)visited some neighbours friend of ours....picked some yummy cherries there too!of course there has to be some bbq-ing ...enjoying dinner together on the patio....

market in budapest....dad captivated by the hungarian sausages!looking over budapest from our favorite spot!we are so happy that mom and dad are here to visit!!!

tomorrow we are off to another baseball game...if we win we go to the finals next weekend!

A 65-year-old railwayman who fell into a coma (from an accident) in communist Poland regained consciousness 19 years later to find democracy and a market economy.... Polish media reported on Saturday.
Wheelchair-bound Jan Grzebski, whom doctors had given only two or three years to live following his 1988 accident, credited his caring wife Gertruda with his revival.
"It was Gertruda that saved me, and I'll never forget it" Grzebski told news channel TVN24.
"For 19 years Mrs Grzebska did the job of an experienced intensive care team, changing her comatose husband's position every hour to prevent bed-sore infections," Super Express reported Dr Boguslaw Poniatowski as saying.
"When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," Grzebski told TVN24, describing his recollections of the communist system's economic collapse.
"Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."
Grzebski awoke to find his four children had all married and produced 11 grandchildren during his years in hospital.
He said he vaguely recalled the family gatherings he was taken to while in a coma and his wife and children trying to communicate with him.

I don't know if you caught this story but it really blew my mind reading it. Talk about a new world view. You want a accurate picture of the differences between communism and democracy this is the guy to go to. Being in eastern europe we hear all these stories about the first big box stores opening and people walking in turning around and walking back out because the option to choose is just too drastic, or how saturday was market day and everyone went to the main market and stood in lines all day just to get the essentials to get through the week. Times sure have changed and continue to change. Take Erd our city for example in the year that we have lived here we have gone from no large scale grocery stores to two huge mega big box retailers, is this a good thing well yes and no. Construction is booming, well ok sorta booming, highways and railways are being upgraded to meet the new EU regualtions but Erd continues to be a dirt road mega town and our new swimming complex which happenings to be right across the street from us well remains closed even though contruction is complete. Why? well there is no money, they spent millions building the thing but have realized they have been spending money they don't have and now can't pay for employees to run the place and this is kinda a picture of the country, money is being spent all over the place but at the same time the government has said they cooked the books and there is no money and so they tax the people, house gas prices alone have been raised 50-70% alone nevermind a slew of other things and schools/hospitals are being shut all over the country, so how is Hungary doing? thats a good question. Better than 15 years ago but the burden especially upon the poor in the country side is really over whelming and is driving many to wonder how they will survive if the country continues in it's path. So pray, that leaders would lead responsibly that they would look to take care of those that aren't making it and that people would see as we put our hope in man and government we will be let down and failed but rather people would see there is one who we can put hope in and we will never be let down.