Shelley Potter plays catch up

I was in a small village in south eastern Hungary called Dusnok. It has a total of 2800 residents, 1 elementary school, and 1 pub. It's a pretty chill place where everyone seems to know each other and the families that live there now have been there for generations. The oldest people in the village speak a dialect of Croat...not sure when they migrated from Croatia, but they feel slightly superior in their ability to speak the language. I lived with a very large family, 1 mom, 1 dad, 1 brother, and 5 sisters! I felt like I was part of the Brady Bunch! Unfortunately the only person who spoke any English was the father, and that was minimal. Still I had fun with them. We had ping-pong tournaments in the basement most nights, hung out in the garden in the evenings while the father played the guitar and the family sang old folk songs, and all 9 of us would hop into an old rickety canoe and paddle around the village river. It was good times had by all. My classes changed both in size and number throughout the 3 weeks. First I had 4 classes, then 5, then back down to 4. I started out having 20 children 9 and under in my beginner class, then the second week the number jumped up to 33 (and I prayed for Jolene to come!), and then the number was back down to about 17 the last week. So in total I taught anywhere from 50-70 students during my stay there. Hatchi-patchi was my friend! In the evenings many of my adult students would invite me to their homes, stuff my belly, and pick my brain. I got pretty close to a few of my students. On the weekends different students would volunteer to take me to neighboring towns for sightseeing, and I was even able to attend the famous fish soup festival in Baja. I have never seen so many people in one place in my life! I could smell the smoke from the fires while I was still on the bus, and I swear every one from Hungary showed up with at least 2 cousins. The night was full of soup, beer, and dancing and then ended with an impressive show of fire works. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Dusnok...my students were very bright and enthusiastic which made the classes fun and I found the people very generous and welcoming. I'm sure the next volunteer will enjoy teaching here as much as I have.