Pig's blood and picnic

Yesterday was such a great day!!!  We were invited by Zsofi to go out into the erdo (forest).  Basically we went to a campground area just outside of town in a nice village.  It is very Hungarian to assign people items to bring (kind of like a potluck).  So we got the tomatoes and peppers.  A couple of guys went to get some sticks.  They then sharpened the sticks to put on the bacon (that was from a pig slaughtered at Zoltan's family's village-there's a story behind this, too), onion and kolbasz (kind of like a shish-ka-bob).  We then put it over the campfire.  I was quickly corrected to put the food over the ash to cook and not over the flame, as we Americans like to do.  We like to have things done immediately, but not the Hungarians.  They stand there for 10-15 minutes cooking over ash.  Kind of symbolic because it takes years and years of discipleship before they make a decision for Christ.   So anyway, about the bacon...apparently it is a HUGE event for a family when they slaughter a pig.  Everyone gets together in the village to watch.  Then they actually drink the pig's blood!  Zoltan says it's so yummy with breakfast.  I think I dry heaved.  They save all the insides to cook such as the kidneys, lungs and of course the all-important, valuable spine cartilage-this is good on toast I hear- oh, and I can't forget the tongue-very expensive.  So anyway, I am roasting this "bacon"  which really just looks like a piece of pure fat off who knows where.  I like mine crunchy anyway, so I stand there a long time even after I'm told it is done.  The thing to do is catch the fat drippings onto your slice of bread-kind of like a sauce I guess.  So the time came to try it-and it was good!  Add a little sliced tomato and you've got dinner.  We spent the entire afternoon there until the sun went down.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  But there was a little problem going into it.  Nic had a twisted ankle-an injury he acquired on the playground- and he couldn't walk well, plus he hadn't gone #2 for two days.  So NATURALLY the urge to excrete would come as we are surrounded by trees.  After a few attempts and threatenings from his parents, he finally got rid of the monster from his belly.  This is about half-way through the day.  Then, amazingly, he felt fine enough to run and play and "search for animals" in the forest.  Nic is very social and, fortunately, the Hungarians really like to play and practice their English with him.  Nyle just chilled and was laid back-Zsofi loves to hold him.  We had a great time of fellowship and meeting new people.  We met a woman named Sue who teaches English and Hungarian.  We talked a lot about why we are here and about American culture contrasts- her twin brother lives in the States. She said that she would love for us to come to her class sometime to talk to her students. Adam and I like to meet people where they are.  We are very grateful that they included us.  Nic said he had fun at the picnic and kept saying "bye picnic" as we were leaving.