Seth turned 5 years old a couple weeks ago! It’s hard to believe it. He’ll be shaving soon. I have to say, he is the perfect big brother for Jacob and Nathan, and the three of them are becoming good friends. They usually operate like a train in the house, going here and there, room to room; Seth is the train-engine and Nathan the caboose.

This has been an amazing year for Seth, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. He moved to another country and into a new apartment, started preschool/kindergarten, made new friends, learned to ride a bike without training wheels, and started learning a new language. He’s been surprising us with an occasional Hungarian phrase like Segitség which means “help!”

Seeing Seth learn to write letters and numbers has been so amazingly cool. And lately, he’s really in to dinosaurs! Oooooh I’ve been eagerly waiting for dinosaurs to enter our world. Seth has 8 plastic dinosaurs and he’s given each of them names. The Stegasaurus’ name is “Maggie,” the Triceritops’ name is (use your bottom lip to say this) “Pfdbludd,” and the Megaraptor’s name is “Fluffy.” And then, of course, there is Treeman. He’s our resident superhero flying to save people, and he has an engine on his back with fire shooting out of it. Seth loves a good story, and he tells a good story too.

We took Seth’s name from the beginning of the Bible (Genesis chapter 4). When Adam and Eve gave birth to Seth, their society/community was destructive and hurting. There isn’t very much written about him, but when Seth was born, things changed, and people began to re-experience life and peace. So we have hopes and dreams for our Seth. It’s a dream everyone has really…to be life-givers and peace-makers. Humanity is part of a big story, a big messed-up story, and perhaps Seth can help write (or rewrite) peace and life back into the narrative. I think Treeman is a good start!

Kristof and I have had a couple good conversations lately about the homeless here in Budapest. Coincidentally, there was an insightful article in the newspaper yesterday on the topic, and Kristof offered to translate it. When he is finished, I’ll post the article here. I think it will catch your attention.

The Hungarian word for “Homeless Person” is hajléktalan. Literally, it means “without a lid.”

OOOOPS!! Correction: I got my terms mixed up. The word for “Homeless” is hajléktalan but it means “without refuge.” Many homeless people try to sell a small magazine on the streets in order to make some money. The name of this magazine is Fedél nélkül, “without a lid.” Thanks Kristof!

It was a cold morning, full of sun shine and the anticipation of a great Hungarian language class. Laura and I arrived at the Astoria Metro Station and climbed the stairs to get a hot cup of tea at a small Cűkráda. We only had five minutes to get to class, so we began walking down Muzeum Utca toward the zebra crossing.

As we walked, we noticed that the entire street was blocked with police tape. This went on for 100 meters or so. When we reached the zebra crossing, we noticed a dozen police across the street, with gates blocking off Brody Sándor utca. Our light turned green, and we crossed the street. As we approached Brody Sándor, the road which leads to our laguange school, 7 police officers surrounded us.

The police presence didn’t shake me. I pulled out some of my best Hungarian and said, “we’re going to the Hungarian language school.” I felt confident until he said, “which school and what address?” I said, “that one” and pointed. He said, “give me your passsports.” After studying them for a moment, he called someone on the radio and told them our names. A minute later, he said, “follow that officer.” So we did.

As we walked with the officer toward our school, I noticed 20 expensive black cars arriving in front of the National Muzeum, a few meters away from us. The officer said, “Russian President Putin is arriving now.”

We weren’t technically allowed to look out of our windows for security reasons, but we did, and we saw 6 or 7 guys that looked just like Putin standing next to black cars. After the cars and helicopters left, I learned that Putin is the fourth most well protected man in the world. Do you know who the top three are?