First day in the village

Below are Monty's notes on our first day in the village, which was actually a few days ago.

Sziastok Friends and Members of FUCSJ,

We have had many, many experiences today in our village. Yesterday, Friday the 22nd, was our first full day. A mural was begun in the youth room/winter Sunday church service room. We removed a very large headstone from the graveyard. Only about 12 inches of the headstone was visible when we began. In the end the stone was about 4 1/2 feet in diameter and was a used stone from a mill. This stone dated as being placed in 1825. There are many headstones where only the last
few inches are visible. We will try to save those in the most danger of completely disappearing.

Our third project is the installation of a labyrinth. The site was far from level. One end of the labyrinth area was a meter higher than the other end. By lunch time we were able to level the area completely by hand since no machinery was available. Tomorrow we will install the borders of the labyrinth. All of these projects were performed with the help of many Unitarian villagers.

Dinner was a long walk beyond the outskirts of the village. A large fire was built under a pot in which dinner was cooked for 45 people. It was indeed a very large pot. Horse carts were used for bringing supplies to our dinner. I was impressed to see one of the carts driven by one of our youth, Aaron Smith. After cooling the horses in the creek, they were saddled and rides were offered to everyone. Impromptu soccer games and volleyball games were started throughout the evening.
We had an amazing time with our hosts in the warm summer air. The village cows (about 200 head plus a herd of goats) strolled by on their way to their homes. This was the signal for the end of dinner.

Later that evening, we attended a dance performance of the local village youth. The music was provided by a violist and a viola player. After the performance, we learned a four person dance. The musicians played on and I was very excited to do couple dances with the villagers of the Szekelyfold region.

As you can see, our first full day was indeed a full and exciting day.

Sziastok,

Monty