Spirits and Spirituality

A view of the Gagy Unitarian Church (with the reformed church in the background) on the way into town. What you can't see in the picture are the green hills in every direction. If we were to paint them, a critic might say, "Really? Come on, it can't truly be like that!"

There was a brief reception for us in Zoltan's office in which we drank the first of many toasts of palinka (extremely potent home-made fruit brandy, the first of which was made from pears and had been aged for 15 years). People attending were the mayor of Gagy, the congregation president, the past president, Zoltan, and our host families (and us, of course).
We presented the quilts for Botond and Emese (and Zoltan and Magdika) and read the accompanying letter from the quilters.
Then it was on to the church and an introduction and question and answer session about the history of the church and its people. They also had questions for us about Unitarianism in America. (And Marta tried out another Transylvanian pulpit.)
Across the street from the church and in front of the Community House is the town sign (pictured above with one of the pilgrims). This sign also advertises the next game for the town futbol team.
Also nearby is the town playground, which was a joint project between the church and the mayor's office. As nice as it looks, there are plans for more improvements to the grounds.
We took a tour of the town during which Mary admired a neighborhood garden, whose owner invited us in for another round of palinka. He also gave a gift of a rose to Marta, Mary, Carol, Jo Anne, Denisa, and Eniko (Michael's host's daughter).
Shortly before sunset, the cows came home from the hills. The drover moved them along the streets with a cracking whip and they each knew exactly where to turn off from the convoy.
The church president, Mihai Pal, invited us to watch him milk his cows. A truck picks up the milk every day and takes it to the dairy plant.
But some of it didn't make it there.