Today the whole nation remembers St. Stephen I. who created a strong country, called Hungary a thousand years ago. His vision was to unite Europe and he has brought Christianity to Hungary and fought against the pagans. Not only by the legend but by historical evidence we know that St. Stephen was a kind and truly Christian king, who always said the children of his pagan enemies are not responsible for their fathers sins and all the pagans` leaders decedents were kept alive and integrated into His kingdom.
This reminds me of King Moshoeshoe I. in Lesotho. I remember reading a history book at Likileng village when the cannibals captured and eat the King`s grandfather instead of attacking and killing them he offered peace and land to cultivate and grow crops under the condition of giving up cannibalism. I remember looking at a tourist leaflet at the Lesotho Embassy in London while I was waiting for my visa. The smiling lady at the desk was curiously looking at my 1cm hair asking me why I wanted to go to Lesotho, that little, far away country. I made a complement on her traditional dress and she said I was going to see a lot more of that in Lesotho. She was right. I also brought some back with me. And I remember the wonderful people near Butha Buthe telling our small research team `What good can come out Lesotho!?` They rather buy the same pair of jeans in South Africa for more than back home, because anything coming from SA should be better than from Lesotho. This reminded me of Hungary. As my country shrunk during the last century our belief in what good can come out of Hungary shrunk as well. I believe there is so much good to come out of this country more than we could imagine. We have our heritage and history. And, we have given many explorers and inventors to the world. We lived through the tragedy of losing 2/3 of our country during the last century. We went through communism and still trying to makes sense of transition economy. But we are still alive.
It was a lot easier to do research in Lesotho, than in Hungary. People were always happy to share their views and were happy to be photographed. In Hungary people are still very suspicious from the memory of secret police from the fallen communism and the New Big Brother, the Hungarian Inland Revenue (APEH).
Great leaders are wise leaders and by practising mercy as strengths they change the face of history for generations to come. I am waiting for great and wise leaders in Hungary to reduce the heavy entrepreneurial taxes to give artisans a better chance to generate income.
I went to church this morning and got a slice of the blessed bread. I took it to mum and dad and we shared it for lunch. We had apricot soup and `Lecso` with `Kovaszos uborka`. Lecso is a wonderful summer dish this time with a bit of home-made smoked bacon and courgettes. Kovaszos cucumber is matured on the sun with white bread and salt. It is just delicious!
I was going to watch the National Celebration on TV, but ironically the only channel that worked during the windy afternoon had a movie on about the American freedom fighting. At the end I decided to upload pictures for my Vondores page on Facebook. I really enjoyed that, going through all my work. I think I needed that.
In the evening village fete, karaoke and fireworks in the park.
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